‘God said: ‘above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark, I will meet with you’ - Exodus 25:22
Brothers and sisters, we all have those words or phrases which we used as kids which—let’s say—are no longer cool. In fact, saying ‘cool’ is probably no longer cool! When I was a teenager one of the ways you’d criticise something was saying ‘That’s as useful as a chocolate teapot.’ This phrase is simple, straightforward, and doesn’t require much explanation. A chocolate teapot may look nice, it may smell nice, but put hot water in it, and well you’re gonna get hot water and probably melted chocolate all over you! Chocolate teapots are great except at being teapots! In fact, ‘useless’ is not the word, ‘dangerous’ is much closer to the truth! Don’t trust a chocolate teapot! Last week we pause our series in the Book of Exodus to focus on those newly confirmed but now we’re back with a bang! A quick recap: God’s people are still at God’s mountain. Moses goes up the mountain and meets with God and when he comes down Moses delivers God’s message to His people. After the escape from Egypt this is the next major step on the way to the Promised Land. God knows that while God’s people are not in Egypt Egypt is still in them, and so He has written His rules for flourishing on two tablets so the people should never forget. However, if patience is a virtue well it’s not one which all of God’s people have learnt! The last two weeks Amelie has been asking ‘Daddy is it holiday yet, is it nearly the end of school?’. Patience is not yet Amelie’s strength, and neither is it God’s people’s either:
‘When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered round Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him’.’
While Moses is away his brother Aaron has been left in charge; left to make sure nothing too important goes astray. Aaron might have to step in to stop some arguments, perhaps, maybe ensure the food and water—which God is still providing—is distributed fairly. Hopefully, Moses must have thought, the really important things should be fine. After all, the people have seen who rescued them from Egypt, the people have seen the pillar of fire and cloud, they’ve witnessed the plagues, the Red Sea parting, and the cloud covering the top of the mountain. Surely everything will be fine… but no! It takes just forty days before the people start complaining; start returning to the ways of the Egyptians. ‘Come, [Aaron] make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ Maybe the people are keen to be on their way. Maybe the God who Moses keeps talking about is a bit too different, a bit too challenging, surely a god a bit more like everyone else’s would be better, would be more comfortable? The Egyptians have golden gods, the people round about them have idols who go before them…‘Make our God’ the people say ‘like theirs!’: ’they said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, ‘Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.’ Don’t miss what they’re saying: the people are not asking for new gods, they know they have their own God they just want Him to be a bit more, well, normal, a bit more comfortable, a bit more like they are used to. They know God brought them out of Egypt, and the festival they will celebrate in front of the idol will be, so they say,: ‘to the Lord.’ They still want their God, they still want the Lord, but they want Him on their terms!
Christians do this all the time too! Don’t think we’re exempt! There is always the temptation to make our God just that bit more acceptable. We—like the Hebrew people—want to keep the God of the Bible, the God we find in Jesus… but make Him a bit more comfortable. Think of the common representation of Jesus meek and mild, forgetting all the times we’re told in the Scriptures of Jesus getting angry. Think of the times when Christians have denied hell forgetting Jesus talks about it more than any other person in the Bible. Think of the times—sometimes by bishops—of denying the resurrection! Oh that's just too odd, the world won’t like that, let’s just edit that out… forgetting that the resurrection is the foundation stone of the faith. How about the times when the Church has forgotten Jesus’ teaching: on relationships, on sex, on war, on protecting the unborn, or looking after—and not killing—those at the end of their life. Every time Christians change the faith, ignore the Scriptures, fudge what Jesus said, they say they’re not trying to replace God, not trying to pick someone else to follow, but just trying make what He says, a little more safe, a little bit more like what everyone else believes… and so they end up making a Golden Calf. That’s what the Hebrew people want:
‘Aaron answered them, ‘Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.’ […] He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf’.
This was the type of god that the Egyptians had, gods of gold who would go before them, and in front of whom they would bow down. The people may not be in Egypt… but Egypt is definitely still in them! The Hebrew people want their God to be just like the Egyptian gods, more like what they know, more like what they’re comfortable with. Still their God—they would say—still the Lord…just, well, nicer! How often do we do the same? Oh, we still want Jesus, we still want the Lord…just, well, nicer! But by doing that they, and we, are playing with fire; why? Because God will not be mocked: ‘the Lord said to Moses,‘Go down, because your people […] have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol’. When we tweak, when we change—deliberately or not—what God is like, we end up not with God but with an idol. If I paint a picture of King Charles but give him bleach blond hair, a fake tan, and a cheesy grin… well it’s not the king anymore, no I’ve painted Donald Trump! What the Hebrew people have done is not made God, no, they’ve made a false idol, a golden calf! They’ve looked to make God safe, and they’ve ended up with a chocolate teapot. The idol might look nice like a chocolate teapot. It might take craftsmanship and skill to fashion, like a chocolate teapot. But like a chocolate teapot it’s of no use, and they will get burned!! This lump of gold can do nothing: it can’t answer prayers; it can’t guide them to the Promised Land; it can’t feed them and keep them safe on the way. In the same way neither can our safe, PC, versions of God! Who do God’s people think they’re kidding? One day, sooner or later, they are going to stand before the true God. One day, sooner or later, they are going to be judged by His laws, not the people’s more comfortable versions. One day they’re going to—as it were—pour in boiling water and their fake teapot is going to melt all around them. Friends, we are in the same boat if we tweak the Faith, tweak God’s rules to fit with what we like and what the world says is acceptable. One day, sooner or later, we are going to stand before the true God and be judged by His rules. Surely, if that is the case we are better by far finding out now what He is like, finding out now how He wants us to live, so that later we’re not caught out. It’s no use standing before God one day and holding our Golden Calf, our portrait of Donald Trump, or our chocolate teapot and saying, ‘Sorry, I just wanted to be like everyone else!’ No, now is the time to make a proper brew, in a proper tea pot. Now is the time to look at a real picture of God—as found in His Bible—so that we can make sure that we’re ready whenever the Last Day comes. Friends, don’t trust a chocolate teapot! Amen (from Fr Mike).