ArBishop William Temple: ‘your religion is what you do with your solitude.’
Good quote around p168: ‘in other words the true god...
On what an idol is:
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.’On our modern idolatry:
We may not actually burn incense to Artemis, but when money and career are raised cosmic proportions, we perform a kind of child sacrifice, neglecting family and community to achieve a higher place in business and gain more wealth and prestige.
On the result of the economic crash:
In 2008 after global ec crisis began string of suicides. One man found hung in his basement, another shot himself behind the wheel of his jaguar, still another (a HSBC Sr. Officer) hung himself in the wardrobe of his £500-a-night suite in Knightsbridge, London.
On the need to be and feel significant that drives us to idols (who promise to deliver such things)
Madonna said in an interview in Vogue magazine: My drive in life comes from a fear of being mediocre. That is always pushing me. I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being but then I feel I am still mediocre and uninteresting unless I do something else. Because even though I have become somebody, I still have to prove that I am somebody. My struggle has never ended and I guess it never will.
From Lily Allen (not from Cf gods but same idea):
Lily Allen (expressing discontent - I think on Twitter): I’d give everything I own, if someone else could take my place. Will someone else please take my place?
Keller is fond of quoting from French Sociologist from 19th C Alexis deToqueville who visited the States and wrote about it:
Alexis DeToqueville: a strange melancholy that haunts its inhabitants in the midst of abundance. ‘the incomplete joys of this world will never satisfy the human heart.’Miscellaneous Keller quotes on idolatry (not from Cf gods)
‘your idol is the one thing you can’t control in your monthly budget, always wanting to spend more on.’
Chapter 1: All You've Ever Wanted
To idolise your son is to smother the child and strangle the relationship.
The firstborn belongs to God.
Ancient cultures were not as individualistic as ours. People thought in terms of the community's or family's success. An individual didn't gain wealth and fame without it being a family gain as well.
Ex 22:29, 34:20 & Num. 3:40-41, 46-48 point out the instruction from God that the firstborn belong to him.
Notice God was not asking him to walk over to Isaac's tent and just murder him. He asked him to make him a burnt offering. He was calling in Abraham's debt. His son was going to die for the sins of the family.
In Psalm 130:4 we see that the 'fear of God' is increased by an experience of God's grace and forgiveness. 'Now I know that you love me more than anything in the world.' That's what 'the fear of God' means.
We may not realise how idolatrous our career has become to us, until we are faced with a situation in which telling the truth or acting with integrity would mean a serious blow to our professional advancement. If we are not willing to hurt our career in order to do God's will, our job will become a counterfeit god.
Abraham received Isaac back and many more besides:
Over half the people in the human race consider him their spiritual father. That would never have happened unless God had dealt with the idol of Abraham's heart.Paul intentionally references this story in Romans 8:32
God said to Abraham, 'now I know you love me...' and now, how much more can we look at Jesus and say to God: 'now we know that you love us. For you did not withhold your own son whom you love, from us.'Here God was turning Abraham into a great man - but on the outside it looked like God was being cruel.
Chapter 3: Money Changes Everything
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that with the absence of God growing in Western culture, we would replace God with money. He foretold that money in Western culture would become perhaps its main counterfeit god.
Innumerable writers and thinkers have been pointing out the 'culture of greed' that has been eating away at our souls and has brought about economic collapse. Yet no one thinks that change is around the corner. Why? It's because greed and appetite for riches are especially hard to see in ourselves.
Keller illustrates by saying: some years ago I did a men's breakfast series on the Seven Deadly Sins. His wife told him that the week on greed would have the lowest attendance. She was right. People packed out the hall for talks on lust and wrath and even pride but nobody thinks that they are greedy. He says:
As a pastor I've had people come to me to confess that they struggle with almost every kind of sin. Almost. I cannot recall anyone ever coming to me and saying 'I spend too much money on myself. I think my greedy lust for money is harming my family, my soul, and people around me.' Greed hides itself from the victim.Everyone lives in a particular socioeconomic bracket. You don't compare yourself with the rest of the world but with the people in your particular bracket. The human heart always wants to justify itself and this is one of the easiest ways. You say 'I don't live as well as him or her or them. My means are modest compared to theirs.
Most Americans think of themselves as middle class and only 2 percent call themselves 'upper class'. But the rest of the world is not fooled.
Jesus warns people far more often about greed than about sex, yet almost no one thinks they are guilty of it.
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