Reformation Sunday 2020

The Problem is Idolatry

Happy Reformation Sunday! Today we give thanks for the life and ministry of Martin Luther and other reformers of the church. The church needed and continues to need reformation because it has fallen into the trap of the worship of idols. In the time of Martin Luther the veneration and practical worship of relics was widespread and was eroding true Christian devotion from within the church. The thinking was that if you paid homage to holy artifacts, or relics, this would buy you time into heaven. Visiting a holy site, or praying to a piece of clothing that an apostle wore, it was thought would give you spiritual power. Some joked that there were enough pieces of Jesus’ wooden cross supposed to be relics that if you collected them all you could reconstruct an entire Roman Armada or Naval Fleet. 

Luther didn’t have a problem so much with the relics. While some reformers insisted on gutting out churches, Luther was considered conservative, because he preferred to retain as much tradition as possible. The real issue was having faith in your own works, your own ability to earn God’s approval. This is the worst kind of idolatry. This is worshipping yourself and your works over and above God.

Jesus was asked what is the most important commandment, which we read about in Matthew 23. He said that it is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind. This is the commandment number one in the 10 Commandments. Idolatry is worshipping something or anything other than God. Do you think idolatry is an issue still today?

Idolatry was an issue in the time of Paul the Apostle. We continue to study the First Letter to the Thesselonians today and we focus on chapter 2. Paul writes that his first trip to Thessalonica was not in vain. They were productive in calling people by the Holy Spirit to faith. Paul’s team, however, came to Thessalonica having just escaped mistreatment in Philippi. What happened in Philippi was that they had liberated a slave who was being exploited. A young woman was possessed by a demon. This demon gave her the ability to practice divination or fortune telling. Her owners charged people to interact with the girl they considered to be their slave. They offered a spiritual encounter with her as a “medium.” When the young woman saw Paul she would cry out declaring his allegiance and servitude to the most high God. After awhile Paul exorcised the demon out of the young woman, liberating her from this spiritual and physical enslavement. Her owners were very upset because Paul disrupted and destroyed their business model. So they stirred up a mob accusing Paul of being unfaithful to the Roman state religion of worshipping the emperor. Which was not a false accusation. Paul and his missionary team were arrested, beaten, put in jail, and after an earthquake they were released from jail and asked to leave the city. From there they went from Philippi to Thessalonica. 

Despite all of this suffering Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:2, “We had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition.” What is the Gospel of God? In greek, the word, “Gospel,” is read, “Euangelion.” This is a super-charged word. In the time of Paul a “Euangelion” had a very specific meaning. It was an official royal pronouncement from the Roman Emperor declaring an achievement by him, usually in the form of conquering a new territory or city. Once the emperor or his army or navy successfully brought a rebellion down, or expanded the territory of the empire they would send out an “Euangelion” throughout the empire. It was supposed to be “good news” from the emperor, and the ex