The Shadow World: A False Image

"Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eye, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them." - Psalm 115:4-8

In ancient religious temples, idol statues were created in the image and likeness of the deity to which the temple was dedicated. These idols were placed within the temple as a stand-in representative of that deity. When someone bowed before the idol, it was as if they bowed before the deity itself. The idol, for all intents and purposes, was believed to manifest the actual presence of the deity it represented.

According to Genesis 1, humanity is created in the image and likeness of God. The Hebrew word for "image" literally means "idol". Humanity itself becomes the visible representative of the invisible creator in the cosmic temple of creation. In Genesis 2, God's image-bearing humans are placed in the figurative center of that cosmic temple, Eden. The Ten Commandments given to Moses prohibit anything created by humans from taking that role. In biblical terms, when humans construct something else to replace their role as divine representatives, it is called idolatry.

Idolatry is when we pass off our responsibility to manifest God's love, mercy, and restorative justice on earth to something else. It's passing the buck to something that has no true power on its own. We lower ourselves before human constructs like money, governments, and religious institutions rather than recognizing that God is being made manifest in the world collectively through all of us. If we cut off any part of creation and bow only to it, we have created an idol. To worship God is to affirm reality itself - to embrace this life for what it is and to be exactly what humanity is intended to be. To worship an idol is to deny reality and wish for something other than what is. This isn't about calling God by a particular name, but instead acknowledging the divine mystery who is ever-present among us.

While many religious folks today have engaged in culture wars against other religious and secular establishments, we have often failed to see our own idolatry. We have failed to recognize the image of God in all of humanity. We have exchanged the divine for exclusive belief systems and militant nationalism. Our money, monuments, religious institutions, and political structures have become our temples and we've sacrificed the poor and the outcast on the altars of success and power. In doing so we have become as lifeless as the statues and false powers we worship. We have exchanged reality for an illusion. He have hidden our faces and refused to see who we are created to be. If we can learn to see the image of God in every person, perhaps we will finally see it in ourselves.

"And we all, with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." 2 Corinthians 3:18