These days we tend not to think about idolatry as a concept – we would never point to a situation and say, ‘That’s a case of idolatry’. But we do frequently use the words ‘idol’ and we might say that someone ‘idolizes’ something. Having idols is normal. It’s as if idolatry is not something we need to bother about or challenge because devoting our time and energy to our idols is perfectly innocent and acceptable.
We might idolize our favourite football team, or a particular singer, or a film star, or a heroic figure from history. We become gripped by an enthusiasm for our subject which, most of the time, is harmless. We might start to get concerned for someone who idolizes something to the point where it becomes an obsession. We might even intervene quite forcefully when a friend becomes so wrapped up in their subject that their everyday life – and the lives of their loved ones – are being significantly affected.
Perhaps, in our minds, it only becomes idolatry when our fascination with a subject starts to affect our spiritual balance and our relationship with Jesus. And yet the message from today’s reading is that many apparently harmless choices in favour of our own particular idols can amount to not choosing the way of Jesus.
The two churches on which John’s vision focuses in today’s reading faced a particular challenge: – how much could they afford to accept, and adapt to, the prevailing local culture without undermining their devotion to their Christian principles? To what extent, and on which issues, could they be part of their local communities, and when should they step back and remain apart from the day-to-day influences of the world beyond the Christian community? In both Pergamum and Thyatira, John’s letter warns the churches that they risk putting the requirements of the world before the requirements of Jesus – and that is our simple definition of idolatry: putting the world’s claims on our lives before God’s claim on our lives.
In the case of Pergamum, John praises the church for its devotion to the name and teachings of Jesus, even to the point where one of their number, Antipas, had been martyred for the faith. John recognises that the survival of the church is difficult in Pergamum because the town is the seat of the Roman governor for that region; the reading refers to this as ‘Satan’s throne’. So, the Pergamum church is under particular pressure and constant scrutiny to observe Roman cultural practices and be obedient to Roman regulations. If Satan stands for the power of Rome, then the church in Pergamum is very truly living under Satan’s rule in the shadow of his seat of power.
And much of what this satanic rule requires of its citizens is not acceptable to the Christian community – but, over time, they have compromised in some areas, and this is what John challenges them about.
Pergamum contained a number of temples to various gods. There was a temple to the Emperor Augustus, and there was a large temple to Aesculapius, the god of healing and medicine, and there would have been various shrines to other localised deities.
Now the local Christian community had to tread a very narrow line in order to survive. Their Hebrew background teaching would have taught them that there was only one God, the worship of statues and images was wrong, and the whole cult of emperor worship was blasphemy. But if they remained too aloof from normal life, they would attract the attention of the authorities, and they could be accused of atheism which was seen as anti-social behaviour which challenged the peace and harmony of society. It could even be argued than any group which incurred the wrath of the gods could result in the gods visiting natural disasters on the city – and this would be the fault of the so-called ‘atheists’.
Also, it was the practice at the large temples for food which had been brought as sacrifices to the gods to be re-sold in the public markets. If the Christian community were determined to stick to their beliefs, they had to steer clear of any food which had been tainted by the rituals of the city’s pagan cults – but this was not always easy to do and could give rise to awkward questions which drew attention to the ‘atheism’ and ‘anti-social’ attitudes of the Christians. We can almost hear the arguments taking place among the Christian leaders in the community:
“We can’t alienate ourselves from our neighbours. What’s the real harm in eating meat offered in sacrifice to Aesculapius? It doesn’t mean we believe in these deities. We have to mix and have some social life: we know the parties end up with some rather indecent dancing and can get a bit debauched, but these are people we have to do business with. We can’t offend the hospitality of our colleagues or the friendliness of our neighbours. We have to pretend to enjoy ourselves as they do. After all, we have to live here!”
But John challenges this in his letter. He puts it to them as a weakness in their otherwise excellent observance of the Christian life. His warning seems to focus on the risks of becoming acclimatised to, and tainted by, the ways of the world around them. In that sense he was challenging what he saw as idolatry because he believed they were putting the claims of the world on their lives before the claims of Jesus.
In the nearby town of Thyatira, the church was being drawn into similar thinking, but here John’s letter focuses on a particular member of the church who is sowing the seeds of idolatry from within its leadership.
Thyatira was more of a commercial centre than Pergamum and was particularly famous for the influence and prestige associated with its trade guilds. Membership of these guilds involved pagan religious ceremonies which Christians would have been strictly expected to avoid – the nearest modern parallel is freemasonry.
However, we know from the letter that there was a church member who was promoting the cause of closer co-operation with these business interests. John calls this member ‘Jezebel’ in a clear reference to what he regards as the prostitution of the faith for the sake of worldly interests. In a sense, John sees the Christian community giving itself over to a kind of fornication in the Asian cities in the same way that ancient Israel had prostituted herself in commerce with the Phoenician cities.
The arguments about this ‘Jezebel’ among the Christian leadership at Thyatira might have sounded something like this:
“She controls important business interests, so it’s wise not to oppose her openly. We can’t afford to go round alienating people openly – she is very generous to the church and influential in the community. It will greatly harm the church if she becomes hostile through being criticised or opposed. She has some very plausible arguments: she claims we can gain converts for Jesus if we don’t put the locals’ backs up by telling them their gods are mere idols and that their religion is superstition. And, she says, it doesn’t do any harm to join in the occasional pagan ritual. How are we going to draw them on to higher things if we don’t meet them at their own level?
But, again, John’s message is that this is idolatry because it is putting the attractions of a trade-off with the surrounding culture before obedience to Jesus’s teaching. It is putting the claims of the world on our lives before the claims of Jesus.
Now, those are demanding challenges to any disciple of Jesus, and I think they make us squirm today, just as they were intended to make the churches of Asia squirm when John put their shortcomings in the spotlight for all to see. The challenges given to Pergamum and Thyatira prompt us to ask ourselves how much we guard against putting the claims of the world on our lives before the claims of Jesus. Where are we perhaps a little too willing to compromise on the principles which underpin our discipleship? When might we be tempted to put self first and God second – or even last?
Now, of course, we all give way to the temptations of idolatry on a regular basis. We have no reason to believe that the churches of Asia suddenly gave up all their dubious practices and became perfect examples of Christian communities in every respect. But these letters from John do ask them to face some truths about themselves; and they do the same for us. It can be – it probably should be – a sobering experience, but it will probably not turn us into perfect Christians. Perhaps, at best, it holds up a mirror to our discipleship and encourages us to take stock of how far we’ve come along the way of Jesus, and how far we still have to go.
We can see from the examples of Pergamum and Thyatira that idolatry can be a very subtle and plausible alternative which is offered to us. We have all used those arguments of Jezebel in our approach to worldly matters, and we can probably justify that approach with examples which worked well for us. Our modern world is so sophisticated and full of so many options for our time and energy that it is easy to find many alternatives to the way of the disciple.
So, in the end we come down to what our discipleship means to each one of us. In Pergamum we would have to pick our way through the minefield of Roman law and local pagan religion to remain true to our faith in Jesus without having to face the martyr’s death for our beliefs. In Thyatira, we might have to abandon commercial opportunities for prosperity for our families because we cannot share in the rituals of the trade guilds or pay reverence to graven images of pagan deities.
But, in fact, we are in 21st century Manchester and we are still challenged by John’s letters to the churches to decide how we will live faithfully as disciples of Jesus in our time and place.
Or, to
put it another way: how much idolatry should we allow ourselves before our
discipleship suffers? How many idols shall we devote our time and energy to
before Jesus gets displaced from the centre of our lives:
* how often shall
we allow social and entertainment events on Sundays to displace worship with our
community and fellowship with Jesus?
* how tempting is it for us to let our
worldly tasks pile up during the week so that time with Jesus gets squeezed out
of our schedule?
* how difficult do we find it to ‘come out’ as Christian and
share our discipleship with others?
* do we sometimes deny, or choose to
ignore, the gifts which Jesus calls out of us, because they don’t easily fit
with what the world expects from us?
The answers to those questions are unique and personal to each one of us and Jesus does not expect perfection. But he does challenge us; and this challenge about the Christian being ‘in’ the world but not ‘of’ the world is something we will face time and time again.
So, if we answer yes to any of those - or similar – questions about our priorities, then John the Prophet, in the midst of his vision on Patmos 2000 years ago, is sending us a wake-up call. We can expect a letter from Jesus:
‘To The Angel of the Metropolitan Community Church in Manchester: I know your works – your faithfulness to my message of love and acceptance when others seek to exclude you. You have saved lives and changed lives. You have fought to protect the hurting and the marginalised.
But I have this against you:...’
I leave you to fill in the rest, and to decide whether ‘idolatry’ needs to be somewhere on the list.
Amen.
(Philip Jones)
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.