Who is Your God?

It may seem silly to ask, but for many, the question of who is God is more about who created the universe than it is who rules over it. In ancient times people believed in ‘all sorts’ of gods, some physical and some metaphysical. They looked to their gods with admiration and fear, and begged for protection from the worldly struggles. Time after time, their gods disappeared not for lack of followers, but for lack of substance. Eventually all idols decay since they were made with hands.

Today’s reading from Isaiah (below) is a dialogue about the question of who God is. No matter who excellent the craftsman, an idol can not endure the corruption of the world, figuratively and literally. If it were not for museums taking painstaking care, what ancient idols would still be around? Even those in museums are missing parts and corrupt. As for the idols of personality, just google any televangelist or megachurch preacher from the 1980’s and 90’s and you will find congregation after congregation that has collapsed, either after the moral failure of their leader or change in leadership. Take a moment and read today’s reading.

Thus says the LORD: To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? The idol! a workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains. He who is impoverished chooses for an offering wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skilful craftsman to set up an image that will not move. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nought, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? Says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hid from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. – Isaiah 40.18-31

Now ask yourself, “Who is my god?” Before you answer, consider where you place your hope on a daily basis. Our contemporary world is filled with modern idols, much like the ancient world, manufactured by human hands. We turn to them for solutions to our struggles and comfort in our pain. Money, power, prestige are just a few examples of idols that get our attention, but none of these last. None of these idols “sits above the circle of the earth,” or “stretches out the heavens.” Only One God fits this description.

The Great Fast is given to us each year to reflect on who OUR god is. He never abandons us. He never decays. He never is corrupted. He never fails. He never ends. He is the One Who Is, and He loves us so much that He invites us to be united to Him. No idol ever offers union. Wouldn’t you rather follow the One God Who never fails?

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