Journal prompts
1. The word worship comes from the old Anglo-Saxon word worth-ship, which means to ascribe worth to something. As human beings, we are worshiping creatureswe cant help but ascribe worth to all kinds of things. The danger, of course, is that we will ascribe too much worth to the wrong things, which is what scripture calls idolatry. The familiar passage from Exodus listed above reminds us of the ever-present danger of idolatry. Similarly, the passage from Isaiah reminds us that we are not the first people to worship the work of our hands. As you look around at the society of which we all are a part, what do you think are the primary candidates for idols? In other words, to what (or whom) do you think we have a temptation to ascribe too much worth? To what (or whom) do we give too little worth?
2. Its easy to assure ourselves that were dont engage in idolatry because we dont regularly bow down to golden statues. But if were honest, its always probably easier to see someone elses idolatry than it is to see our own. In addition to the helpful questions asked in the Couch and Snyder articlea above, here are a few more questions to ask yourself that might help uncover some of those things in your life that might be potential idols:
If an outsider were to look at my life, what would he or she say is the center of it, that around which everything else is ordered?
For what in my life do I make regular sacrifices? (Sacrifices of time, money, energy, etc.)
What or who in my life can I not imagine living without?
What or whom am I willing to die for? To kill for?
In what ways might the churchs gathered times of worship shape us to live differently in our everyday lives when it comes to such fundamental issues as what we give worth to? In short, what is the relationship between the worth-ship that happens in our churches on Sunday mornings and the worth-ship that is embodied in our lives the rest of the week?
Recent Comments