Scan Your Heart (and Your Office) for Ephods

What's meant to be a tool for worship can quickly become the thing that's worshiped. That's the rub, the razor's edge, the fence post we teeter on. How do we keep from worshiping the thing that represents the victory in place of the Lord who gave it? How do we keep from worshiping an ephod instead of the Eternal?

Speak the truth in love

Gideon said the right things: "The LORD shall rule over you." That's a great starting point. It's just a starting point.

I get it, as someone in my position. A lot of things get attributed to me that are God things. "You prayed for me and I got better." That had nothing to do with me. "I just love your church." This is not my church. I was just the first one to get here. I beat all y'all here, and you joined me along the way. This building is here because God gave it to us. We'd better not fall in love with this sanctuary. It's a tool God uses.

Now I'm going to step on some pre-chosen toes. We can worship the cross. I'm not against wearing a cross or the cross on the wall in the baptistry. I'm not against symbols of great victories. But the cross is a poor substitute for the Christ.

Scan your life for ephods

I like things as much as anybody. My office is full of rocks and pottery shards I've pulled off the beach that are probably from 200 years ago, but in my heart they're from 2,000 years ago. I collect shark teeth when I can find them. I collect arrowheads, and I have a first-century Roman arrowhead in my office. I hang deer on my wall. My wife loves dusting.

I even have a small collection of Bibles. One walked through the Civil War. The man who owned it signed his name in it, and when I looked him up, he had run a business right down the street from the White House. I found it on Etsy and had to buy it. I'd better not worship that copy of the Bible. It shouldn't be worshiped any more than the Bible on your phone. It's the Word of God, not the leather (goatskin, by the way), the paper, or the ink.

I'm not against trophies. In the Old Testament, God commanded Israel to stack stones as memorials. He's all about making memories. The problem is when the memento becomes the point instead of the event, when we worship the altar instead of the God of the altar, or the sanctuary instead of our salvation.

So what's yours? Maybe it's a place where you met God, like camp back in 1976. Every year you make a pilgrimage to the same lake and throw a stick on the same fire. Maybe it's a method of worship, and you're so married to your method that you forget its meaning. The whole point of the method was to help you meet God. Maybe it's a style of worship, an English version of the Bible, or a parent's faith that isn't your own.

Do some soul-searching

Look through your life, your home, and your heart for places where the symbol has replaced the substance. Celebrate and acknowledge the victories of the past. Then say, "God, I need a new song. I need a new victory. Help me go further in my faith."