What are the Ungods in Our Lives?

Homily – Sunday the 15^th October 2023

Reading: Exodus 32:1-14

Do you believe in God? This is an often-asked question today. It is interesting to note that more and more in many affluent countries in the world tend to affirm in the negative. And a very interesting question is Why is there a decline in people of faith?

This is not a new phenomenon that people drift away from God and search for alternate ways of religious expression and sometimes no ways of religiosity.

Today’s Old Testament lesson is about one such drifting away.

The Context

Moses was up in the mountain in conversation with God. The tribes of Yahweh were walking into freedom and were on the verge of forming into a nation. The Moral and Ethical codes of the national living had to be set and Moses was in conversation with God regards the ten commandments and the code of conduct of life of people in the new dispensation. This conversation took more time than was expected and the people were becoming restless by the valley.

It is at this point that they decided to go the way of ungods.

Ungods in Our Lives

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

With what shall we make our gods?

Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron.

In What shape shall we make our gods?

He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

I grew up in a context where people worshipped not only images of the calf but the cow itself. The cow and the calf were religious symbols in several global traditions and it was true with the Egyptian traditions too. The Egyptian god Apis was symbolised by a sacred bull and Hathor a goddess was associated with cow and its horns. In the days of slavery religiosity of the oppressor was marked by the image of the calf and the inner consciousness urged them to identify with that image despite the fact that it was God who guided them into freedom.

What did they do with their new gods?

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.

We live in a context when the name of god is wrongly being used. The triggering point of the present crisis in the Middle East is claimed to be an Earth party where youngsters were engaged. They say it was a psytrance festival of October 7 (which some of the traditionalist elders disapprove of since it allegedly involved loud music, sometimes drugs and tatoos and like). Youngsters had gathered near Negev near the border- vehicles parked away and celebrating when attackers brutally rushed in and sadly shouting the name of “god”. Even a German youngster who went there as a tatoo artist was affected. Is it not sad even in very political wars and fighting the name of god (small g) is dragged in. That is the world we live in. In the brutality that is being unleashed  isn’t it sad that name of god is being used from every corner. This surely cannot be the God of love we worship. Can it? Humanity replacing God with ungods!!

Therefore when we read the story today there is a very pertinent question.

What are the ungods that take the place of God in our lives today?

For some it is Atheism- I do not want to have anything to do with God.

For some it is Agnosticism- claiming insufficient evidence to prove or disprove God

For some it is Secular humanism- where they say reason, ethics or justice are non-reliant on religion or God

For some it is Science and Rationalism which they try to understand apart from God

For some it is Materialism and Consumerism- material possessions and wealth replacing the God thought. The gold taking the form and shape of the god is very symbolic here.

For some it is Self Reliance and Individualism which prompts to claim that they are people of no religious affinity

For some it is Idolisation of people, concepts, philosophies or images which almost replaces God for them

The fact is ungods claim the space of God in the lives of people. They even make god (small g) a potent political weapon.

This could therefore be a very pertinent question,

What are our ungods?

The Pain of God

The next pertinent question is What pains God the Most?

The story of Paradise lost cites one of the earliest instances where God was pained and it was when Human beings were Hiding from God.

What pains God include

Separating from God, Walking a different path than what God wanted them to, Rejection of Love and Salvation or Turning to False Worship.

The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once!

Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;

they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it,

and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”

Now Let Me Alone

The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone,

The Psalmist puts it this way in 106:19-22

Israel made a bull-calf at Horeb
and worshiped a molten image;

And so they exchanged their Glory
for the image of an ox that feeds on grass.

They forgot God their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt,

Wonderful deeds in the land of Ham,
and fearful things at the Red Sea.

Yes what pained God most was that THEY FORGOT GOD.

Leading a life totally forgetting God is possible and that is what pains God the most- perhaps even today.

Standing on the Breach

The story that we read from the Bible today then proceeds to tell us how Moses stood on the breach and interceded for the people

In the context of fortification of cities if there is a breach, that becomes the point of vulnerability. A good leader takes position in those points and tries to rectify the breach.

In Psalm 106: 23 we read,

Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach,

But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, “Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to destroy them from the face of the earth’?

Please Change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’”

And the Lord changed his mind. That is the beauty of the God we believe in. Moses tells God we are not going to proceed in this journey unless you travel with us because it is your presence with us that makes us a special people.

The Church today is called to stand on the breach.

When people turn away from God, When we think people live a life that is against the way God wants them to live- our call is to stand on the breach and intercede for the mercy of God and not be critics.

In contexts of war, violence, pain and victimisation. In a world several people seemingly live against the will of God, we are called to stand on the breach and intercede.

Conclusion

Three simple questions for today

What are our ungods?

What pains God most today?

How do we stand on the breach today?

Our prayer shall be

Have thine own way Lord

Have thine own way

Thou art the potter and I am the clay

Vinod Victor

October 15, 2023