Idol Worship

Idols are falling before us right and left, particularly in the grotesquely skewed reality which governs the world of sports. Sadly they are too many to number, but those most celebrated in these ranks include O.J. Simpson, Pete Rose, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Joe Paterno, Oscar Pistorius, and stars in the pantheon of professional soccer who have yet to be named.

Focusing on the Pistorius, the excitable British press has one of the better stories on the phenomenon, whose title reads in part "another fallen idol mocks our hunger for demi-gods."

"To an extent," that story in the Independent reads, "we elevate every sporting idol above real life no less artificially than do the blades of Pistorius. It is pointless, plainly, to ask whether this same catastrophe might have been avoided by its protagonists if they instead began Valentine's Day, say, frying eggs and washing up in a diner. But other lives have certainly unravelled -- if not in quite so shocking and bloody a way -- when those we should celebrate only in one, limited dimension have been seduced into believing our own publicity."

Seduced is a good word in this context, for it is we who are seduced time and again by the idol of achievement that we deem to be superhuman and, in a very real sense, the idols themselves who are victimized by our seduction. Faster, higher, stronger -- we idolize those very abilities that we ourselves can never hope to possess. We worship everything that we are not.

The theological problem here has two facets. 

First, we have misplaced our trust. Trust has to do not simply with that which we believe or consider to be true, nor with that for which we hope (in the sense of wishing it were true), but instead is a matter of absolute confidence in something. Only God is worthy of such absolute confidence. One of the most powerful examples of trust in scripture is in Genesis 22 where Abraham willingly places his bound son, Isaac, on the altar to be sacrificed because God has commanded him to do so. This act surely came not out of blind obedience but in deep trust that God had a purpose in asking Abraham to commit such a deed. 

Second, in our idol worship we have placed our trust in people, which are by their very nature imperfect and subject to flaw. Among those who have walked on earth, only Christ was perfect. Paradoxically, in our glorification of human beings we end up reviling, in those who fall, the very qualities which define us all. How many of us are tempted, or give into temptation, to cheat in various ways that make us look better than we really are? How many of us have been overcome by rage, jealousy and envy that we have done things, even heinous things, by which we are later horrified? So, who appointed us judge that we dare to condemn others for their transgressions? 

Sin is real and we must all learn to acknowledge it and to pray that God will use our admission as an agent of reconciliation. This prayer lies at the heart of our Lenten discipline: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). In the meantime we may cling to the words of Colossians 3:2 (NIV): "Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things."