Concerning cultural idolatry

I have been enjoying a recent conversation with a friend on his blog about how much our Christianity has been shaped by our American culture, particularly our materialism. I was reminded of this conversation while reading about the kings of Israel in the Old Testament. After Solomon died, two tribes followed his son, Rehoboam, but the other 10 tribes split off to follow Jeroboam. Now Jeroboam was no moron and began to realize that if all his people kept going down to worship at the temple in Jerusalem then their allegiance would return to Rehoboam. So he made two golden calves so the people could stay in Israel and worship. Well, after Jeroboam died and other kings came along, they kept the calves around so people wouldn't have to return to Jerusalem. Some of them tried hard to follow God, they tore down Asherah poles and altars to Baal. They killed prophets to other gods. But none of them got rid of the golden calves. It says each of them "followed in the idolatry that their father, Jeroboam son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit." They allowed their culture to shape their behavior. Rather than follow what God told them to do, they filtered what God told them through what their culture told them. In other words, they followed their culture first and God second. Unfortunately, that sounds real familiar. How often do we follow our culture before we follow God. God's commands and character is very important to us, quite a high priority, but only to the extent that our culture allows. For example, from my previous conversation about materialism, in response to the question of how to receive eternal life, Jesus tells a rich man to sell all his possessions and give them to the poor, then come follow Him. We tend to focus more on saying a prayer to be "born again" rather than actually following Christ. We've allowed people to continue in their cultural idolatry by simply adding God to a list of gods to be worshiped. Like Jeroboam and the kings of Israel, we follow the commands that fit our culture, but we don't have courage enough to follow God first no matter what culture would say. Imagine what would happen if we did.

Row 11 Seat C

Yesterday I found myself sitting in the airport waiting for my flight on Southwest. Now Southwest doesn't assign seats so the trick is to get in seating order 'A' and get there early so you can get a good seat. So I got there plenty early, in fact, there were only a few others in the waiting area when I arrived. After about a half hour or more, still before the plane even arrived, I saw this couple walk up and plop themselves down in front of the gate so as to be the first in line. Now I thought to myself, "How arrogant of them to think they can pass by all these people who've been waiting here ahead of them to get a seat on the plane." As soon as that couple sat down as if "in line", it started an onslaught of others rushing for a spot in line lest they get left with a middle seat, like the first drop of water that breaks through the dam. As the lines continued to get longer I kept thinking, "The nerve of these people to think they have any more right to get a better seat then me cause they stood up in line. I've been waiting here longer than all of them", which naturally gives me more of a right than them to get a better seat. "It's not like they're going to run out of seats before you get there. It's a huge plane, just get over yourselves and wait like all of us have had to." Fortunately, from where I was sitting close to the gate, the line extended backward pretty far, so my mind concieved a plan where I would just stand up and make my way to the gate as if there was no line and these presumptuous people were simply standing there for no particular reason. But the longer I sat there I began to actually listen to what I was thinking, that it really is just a seat on the plane and it's awful selfish to think that I should force my rights on them who actually think they have more rights because they've been standing and I sitting. I began to think of Paul talking about yielding his rights and that it's better to be wronged than to make a big deal about it and take someone to court like the world. So I decided it would probably be better of me and more Christlike to make my way back to the end of "the line" and allow the presumptuous people on the plane ahead of me. Afterall I would still get a pretty good seat because I was in the 'A' line. Eventually the plane arrived and people began shuttling off and my mind was fighting with itself over where to get in line. Then the little red 'A' light came on and we were called to board. I watched myself stand up, collect my things and make my way straight to the gate.

Why is it that our selfish desires carry so much more weight than our desire to love? Why is it that my heart tells me it's not that big a deal but my mind is so much more concerned with my comfortable seating preference? Why do I cling so tightly to what I consider to be my earthly rights? This whole process of becoming less and less earthly minded is a tough battle, especially when what I want is in such contradiction to what I know. And since it's my mind that chooses my behavior I'm pretty much screwed, huh. Oh how I long to just 'get over myself' and love people with selfless abandon.

I ended up with a phenomenal seat, an aisle seat in the exit row, couldn't ask for more. But as the guilt poured on and the eyes of those behind me bored holes in the back of my head I kept wishing I could take it back. I pulled out my book, Seizing Your Divine Moment by Erwin McManus, and read about how the choices we make define the moments in which we live. He writes, "If a moment is the gate through which your divine journey begins, then choice is the key that unlocks the adventure." Figures.