Second Presbyterian Church

"Graven Images: From Metal to Mental"
February 23, 2003

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Sermons Homepage » Sermons for 2003 » Sermons for February 2003

#3 in the Series on The Decalogue
The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.

• Exodus 20: 4-6
• Acts 19: 23-32

You shall not make for yourself a graven image…; you shall not bow down to them or serve them…

Does this commandment really have any relevance for people today? Do people really have images of gods and goddesses to which they pray and worship? It just seems like an ancient "thing;" something you would read about somewhere in Ancient History. When Jacob fled from the house of Uncle Laban and took his two wives (Leah and Rachel) with him, Rachel stole some of the household idols. Laban pursued Jacob and tried to recover his idols, but was unsuccessful, because Rachel sat on them while in her tent and pleaded that "the way women" was upon her. In this story, Genesis refers to the idols as the "household gods." We don't do that anymore; the idea of household gods, or graven images, seems foreign to us.

You may remember that Aaron (Moses' brother) and the Israelites made a golden calf when they believed that Moses had died upon Mount Sinai. We know how both the LORD and Moses were very angry about this act of disobedience and idolatry.

Again, in our New Testament reading we read how the craftsmen of graven images helped incite a public riot against Paul and the Christians for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and instructing people to discard their household idols. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was adversely affecting their business of crafting silver or gold images of Artemis.

But what about today, is this commandment still telling us something very, very important? Or has it become dated, obsolete?

For both Jews and Christians it is stating: do not attempt to construct out of materials an image of the LORD, whom you worship, the One who delivered Israel from Egypt and sent Jesus to Save us from sin.

Even in those "ancient days" of graven images, the people who used idols and images did not believe that the pieces of metal, or wood, or clay were actually the gods and goddesses themselves.

If Demetrius, from our scripture lesson in Acts, were here this morning, he would explain it this way.

This is an image of Artemis, the fertility goddess. Of course this is only an image, made of gold. But, being made in the image of Artemis, her spirit resides in her graven images. Therefore, one can pray to this image and Artemis can hear his prayer and grant that his crops will be bountiful.

The LORD, whose name is too sacred to pronounce, would not tolerate any human attempts to carve an image of "Him." The Spirit of the LORD is not bound to an image that can be created from material or even human imagination. The Spirit of the LORD is not bound to the limits of anything!

And yet, nearly 500 years ago, during the Reformation Era, the problem about graven images was an important part of the Reformation. It was so important that it still affects churches and denominations today. And the controversy made for some really strange allies during the Reformation itself. Andreas B. von Carlstadt was at Wittenberg before Martin Luther. He had strongly encouraged the removal of statues and images of the saints, Mary, and Jesus from the churches. When Luther came to Wittenberg, he opposed Carlstadt's position and stated, that the ban in this commandment was not on images per se, but upon the improper use of images. He cited, among other reasons, how the Ark of the Covenant itself had two cherubim placed upon it. So, Carlstadt, who was in the Lutheran camp, was siding with Zwingli and John Calvin who were in the Reformed Camp. And the Roman Catholics who had strongly opposed Martin Luther in a previous writing, found themselves allied with their enemy, Martin Luther, on this matter. Eck agreed with Luther on the latter's attack upon Carlstadt's iconoclasm.

The result can still be seen today. You can go to any Roman Catholic or Episcopal Church and see statues, or images. You can go to many, but not necessarily all, Lutheran Churches and see statues, or images. But you rarely, if ever, find a crucifix, or statue in a Presbyterian Church. Some Presbyterian churches will have stained glass windows; that is as close as we will come to having images in the congregation. Presbyterian/Reformed followers have taken the second Commandment to mean there are to be no statues or images that have to do with God.

So history is important. Because what happened 500 years ago directly affects how we worship this morning in Second Presbyterian Church.

"You shall not make for yourself a graven image…"

Again, what about you and me? How many graven images do we have in our lives today? The relevance of this commandment for us may be more that what we first realize! The intent of the second commandment is to acknowledge that the God we worship is without limits and is only comprehensible as revealed to us in scripture! God is infinitely beyond the limits of human comprehension. We cannot know God except as He reveals Himself to us! Where you and I run into danger of breaking the second commandment is when our mental images of God are substituted for God Himself!

We tend to believe that how we personally conceive the LORD is a complete comprehension of whom God is and all that He is like! And when we do that we have crossed that faint, fuzzy line between worshiping the One True God and our mental graven images of Him.

So when the LORD stated that we are to have no other gods before Him; and the LORD explained that this includes images that are attempts to be in the likeness of the LORD; then we can be assured that God also meant our mental, graven images are also not to be worshiped.

What contemporary, mental graven images do we have about God are we actually worshiping in the place of God? Let me give some of the more common examples of mental images of God that sometimes are worshiped as if these images are God in His eternity.

One image of God that we have often used is the image of a bearded Grandfather. There are variations of this mental graven image. Some of them have a stern face with an appearance of anger. It is as if the image is just waiting for an excuse to come down hard upon the person. Usually this image expresses more of how we grew up than anything having to do with Who God really is like. Some of the grandfather icons have kindly faces that are reminiscent of a kind, loving Grandfather.

In reaction to all the apparent masculine imagery and language in Christianity, some people have begun creating new mental graven images. These are helpful in that they loose the binds of the previous graven images to a degree and expand ones mental capacity to think about God beyond the limits they are used to thinking. But then these newer, perhaps feminine mental graven images become the new household gods. To picture God as a woman, grandmother, mother, runs the same risk as a masculine mental image of God, it can become a graven image to which some one clings even when it cannot do justice to God.

So any picture of God as either a man or woman runs the risk of becoming a mental graven image when we use it in the place of God, rather than a way to focus our prayer. We must always remember that our mental images, especially our favorite ones, do not even come close to sufficiently describing God! Nor do our mental images manipulate God to respond to our requests the way we want Him to.

I personally like to refer to God as "he" because: 1. I grew up referring to God as "He," 2. The Scriptures refer to God as He. 3. And because there is no gender-neutral personal pronoun in the English language. To refer to God as "It" just does not cut it.

The danger that my mental image causes is to lure me into believing that God is a human male. God, first of all, is not a member of the male gender of the human species. God is Spirit. God is neither male nor female. Our likeness to God comes more in the experience of love and community, not in physical resemblance.

I can thank the feminist theologians for the insight I now have, to not get too caught up in always perceiving God in the image of human masculinity. And I caution feminist Christians not to err in the other direction, toward God as human femininity, which runs the risk of bringing up all sorts of distortions to whom God is and what God is like. It runs the risk of looking like the goddess of fertility, Artemis.

What are we to do? If we take our Christianity seriously we do realize that we must use images in our thinking about God and in our praying to God. We cannot just clear our minds of them; they won't just disappear! Being human beings, we cannot move beyond using human images in our thinking about God.

Are we doomed to worshiping mental graven images and idols? I hope not. But it is very important to become aware of what our favorite mental graven images of God are. It is very important that we become aware of how easy it is to worship our mental graven images. It is very important to appreciate that our images are at best, worship aids, to help us to focus upon worship and praise for God. It is very important to guard ourselves from hoping these are ways that we can control and manipulate God. These cautions are important steps in the right direction.

Finally, the Scriptures are our source for obtaining some understanding about who God is. It is clear that God is The Creator. It is clear that God became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth and redeemed God's people. We can rely upon some of these images since these are specific revelations about who God is, and these revelations are from God. And we can note that as we comprehend what God has revealed to us, we can still feel the ultimate mystery of God. Although we have been assured of God's love and presence, we can still experience just how incomprehensible God is. Amen.