Carcasses of Idolatry

This season of Lent has us reading through the book of Jeremiah. Two weeks in and ringing in my ears are the warnings of superficially claiming "peace!" when the deeper brokenness is left unaddressed. The dire cost of forgetting, not listening, and abandoning God and His instruction. The end result of turning away from God to anything else--death and evil. Punishment as mercy. Refining out the dross.

This morning a line from Jeremiah 16:18 stood out to me:

I will first repay them double for their iniquity and sin because they have polluted my land. They have filled my inheritance with the carcasses of their abhorrent and detestable idols.

Sure, here in the modern West we may not have literal bones and flesh scattered on the closest hill around the neighborhood clubhouse. Or intricately carved figurines in our family shrine. But this verse made me wonder what residue do our current idols leave behind? In case you're wondering, "I thought we were too enlightened to worship idols in the post-modern world," let me share with you a definition of idolatry that I am fond of and challenged by regularly:

It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give…An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, “If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I'll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.” There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship. -Timothy Keller-

With that definition in mind, what impurities are left behind when we sacrifice our love, affection, loyalty, security, trust, and more to our cultural deity of choice?

What is left when we put our faith in a politician?

Division. Dissension. Anger. Self-righteousness.

What is left when we find security in money/resources?

Greed. Poverty. Slavery. Human trafficking.

What is left when Youtube absorbs our imagination?

Numbness. Distraction. Foolishness. Addiction.

What is left when social media gives us value?

Insecurity rollercoaster. Peer pressure. Depression.

What is left when we pay homage to convenience?

Impatience. Disposables. Pollution. Cheap labor.

Obviously not an all-inclusive list, but I hope it gets us all thinking about the carcasses of the idols we personally find ourselves drifting towards when life gets tough. As Psalm 115 implies--what we worship, we become. And we're all worshiping something. What direction that is taking us is to be evaluated with regularity.

A Christian's spiritual land should be the cleanest around the longer we let the Spirit clean up the place. Burning the weeds, removing the skeletons in the closet, and pumping out of the pollution. May we not fear the Gardener's pruning shears. May we follow the footsteps of the faithful that have gone before.

This is what the LORD says: Stand by the roadways and look. Ask about the ancient paths, "Which is the way to what is good?" Then take it and find rest for yourselves.

Jeremiah 6:16