Exodus 32:1-34; Luke 18:18-27
Our gospel lesson is the story known as the rich young ruler. This young man has wealth and power, and thinks that he is faithful. He’s followed all the commandments, or at least the ones that Jesus has listed here. Did you note the ones that Jesus listed? He listed adultery, murder, stealing, honoring parents, and lying. That’s important because it makes us ask why did Jesus leave out the others? Can you remember them? According to the Jewish understanding, it would be no other gods, no images, honor the name, and the Sabbath. So the commandments that the Rich Young Ruler was good at was the relational ones, but not the ones about his relationship with God.
But what does Jesus ask him to give up? Jesus asks him to give up all he owns, and the security and power that go along with wealth.
The sin of the rich young ruler is idolatry, putting something in front of his relationship with God.
Idolatry is a sin we don’t talk much about. What is it exactly? The dictionary says that it is extreme adoration, love or reverence for something. Maimonides, the great Jewish physician, scientist and philosopher, who lived from 1135-1204, holds that idolatry is the worst sin, partly because it is the first in the 10 Commandments (You shall have no gods other than me), and that idolatry is another name for ignorance. And ignorance is the prime source of evil.
Let’s look at our Hebrew text a little more deeply.
The Jews are in the wilderness, eating manna everyday. They hate the austerity measures under which they are living. Moses is on the mountain, ostensibly receiving the 10 Commandments, and the people are grumbling. Moses is late returning home. Talmudic response says that Moses had told them he would be away for 40 days, but they counted the day he left. The idea is that he may only be one day late. But their assumption is that they have lost their leader. So they go to Aaron. And they ask him to lead.
One thing that Jewish scholars believe is that there were only about 1,000 people who gather their gold, who worship the golden calf, and who move from there to the partying afterwards.
They beg Aaron, make a god for them. And as soon as he fashions one out of their gold, they exclaim, “It’s this god who has lead us out of Israel.”
Talk about revisionist historians! They don’t even remember that just a few months prior to this, their God was Jehovah, God above all Gods!
I’d like for you to note something about this 1% of the population—they have wealth, and they are easily swayed into idolatry. Perhaps we can even make the argument that they were worshipers of the Egyptian gods back in Egypt, which may have helped them accrue their wealth.
So these Hebrew people have traded in the God in a whirlwind, the column behind them, that split the Red Sea, set them free, gave them manna, and has promised a promised land for a golden calf. A golden calf. According to scholars, though, this may not be a “trading in” of their god, at all. It may be a summoning of God. The Egyptian gods always had an animal to sit upon, and perhaps these few people are building an animal for God where God can sit.
Ultimately, though, the Hebrew people were looking for a quick fix. They were scared, tired of eating manna, worried about their leadership, and crying out for God to fix everything. Or for Aaron to fix everything. So they made for themselves an idol.
And where are the 99%?
When Moses returns, this is what the text tells us:
When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
“Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, ‘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.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.
Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
So Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
And the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.
The 99% suffered because of the 1%.
I think that the 99% suffered because they really wanted a share of the idol. Even though they didn’t have gold to help make the calf, or get to join in the bacchanalian revelries, I think they wanted to. Because it’s fun to be part of the 1%. Now the Hebrew people are not nearly as sophisticated as we are. So when they reach for an idol, they’re happy with a little golden calf and a party. What about us?
We want a computer screen that’s tiny, a million songs in our pocket, a new car, a brand-spanking new house. And we’re not happy with manna either. We want boutique foods, boutique brands, boutique entertainment.
Here’s the deal, folks. I’m going to put it as clearly as I think I can.
We, as a nation, have become the rich young ruler, unwilling to give up our creature comforts, our greed and our desire for things. We have become the Hebrew people, seeking a quick fix to a much larger problem. If we build an idol, God will come and save us. If we have a new computer, we won’t feel so bad.
Stuff is our new idol.
All week I’ve been thinking about this. All week I’ve been thinking about myself as POOR. And trust me, I’m poor. At least cash poor. But really? I live in a very nice home. I drive a very nice car (if it has a bit of mileage on it). I have new clothes. I eat very well, perhaps even too well. And I, too, am looking to Aaron, my government, to help me deal with this little bit of discomfort.
What am I willing to give up? What am I willing to do without?
As I sifted through this tale of two idols, what do they have in common? The rich young ruler? First, is to quiet the insecurity and fear that they both feel. The rich young ruler fears that he won’t have a relationship with God, The Hebrew people fear, too, that their God has gone away. They both are missing their security.
Going back to the the Jewish scholar Maimonades, who explains that idolatry is, at its heart, ignorance, and out of ignorance comes evil. The rich young ruler was ignorant of his relationship with God, and so therefore enthralled with his money. We have seen what happens with people who are enthralled with money. The Hebrew people were ignorant of who their God was, so they abandon God, and worship a golden calf—with no power and no strength, what would a golden calf do? And out of that golden calf, the people start to “eat and drink and revel,” meaning they turn from their work and their centeredness to party instead.
And we? We turn to government to fix all our problems, to help us avoid austerity, and instead to keep our fancy things. We look to corporations to make us happy, to help us avoid suffering.
What I would tell the rich young ruler and the Hebrew people? That suffering is part of life, and avoiding suffering always causes more pain. That although things are not what they were before, they may still be good, in a different way, again.
Trust the process. The Hebrew people face a much leaner life for 40 years after the golden calf incident. And while we don’t know what happened to the rich young ruler, we can bet that he felt more loneliness and worry about his life. But the process eventually wins out. Things may be bad for a while, but they will get better.
And mostly, to trust God, even when it seems as if God isn’t there. God was still with the Hebrew people. They just didn’t notice, because there weren’t any big lights, miracles or loud crashes. God was still with the rich young ruler. He just couldn’t see it for the objects of desire around him. And God is still with us.
May it ever be.
I went running in New Orleans on December 17, along the riverfront right at the French Quarter. It was 5:00 on a Friday afternoon, and I was only blocks away from Bourbon Street. Maybe I should have known better. As I ran down this beautiful brick boardwalk, people starting heckling me. Yes! Heckling!