Is it a temptation of Satan that I somehow always find myself with The Mary Statue on my property? In my effort to clear out the profusion of weeds in my backyard, I uncovered something behind all the weeds thrust right up against the fence bordering my property. This is the second time that I had to deal with the spiritual issues surrounding The Mary Statue. At times like these I think of two things: my Catholic upbringing and the biblical admonition against idols which lead me to a saving knowledge of the preeminence of Jesus for salvation.
But why does it cause me such angst now? Do I still harbor a vestige of the idol worship inculcated in me from my Catholic upbringing? The girls at my school all fought for the honor to crown The Mary Statue during catholic school events on the Marian holidays. The boys who carried the saints statues on so-called Saints Days were all envied like “homecoming kings.”
For those of you who do not know, I was handed the Roman Catholic card as a child. My parents both came from catholic majority nations where it was part of their cultural upbringing. I say cultural and not spiritual because both my parents treated their faith as if a cultural accoutrement. They brought it out during the Easter and Christmas holiday season. It was sprinkled in with the ethnic celebrations of their people. I loved the food, the history and the fun of all these events. Being a first generation American also meant a real immersion into the stories and traditions of the countries that my parents missed so much.
This was all fine and dandy until I was old enough to read the Bible. My family were not bible readers. I must say that I never saw them engaged in any personal biblical studies nor even picking up the Bible as they did the other books on their bookshelves.* They had two copies of the Bible in our home from as early as I can remember, and they let me know what the Bible was and what it represented. There did seem to be a respect for its’ presence on our bookshelf, even if it lived a lonely existence.
I was a voracious reader as a child. I was already able to read and write when I began school, thanks to my mother’s understanding of phonics and the excellent way that she taught me how to read. My mother read and spoke four languages mostly self-taught. I believe it was her grasp of phonics that helped her negotiate the English language when she came to this country as a “tween.” There was no English as second language classes when she arrived on the shores of New York harbor, only the determination and grit necessary for a family to forge a path in the new land, starting with grasping the new countries’ language.
I was proud of my families’ stories of coming to the United States and was proud of all the hard work that my family had done to make that happen. I knew that I was blessed to be the recipient of citizenship in a country that had offered safe haven to my family who endured war, violence and poverty on their journey of life. I also knew it gave my parents joy to feel that I would continue the traditions of countries that they had originated in. That was all fine and good, until I started to read the Bible on my own.
As I opened up the Bible, beginning my lifelong love of this precious gift from God, it wasn’t long before I came across concepts that lead me to question the Mariology that was taught in my Catholic school and reinforced in my families cultural traditions. It seemed to me the story of God as it unfolded in the Bible centered around the fallen nature of man, the redemptive power of God and other themes and stories that did not seem to cast Mary as the central figure that I had been lead to believe that she was. Furthermore, every time that I encountered a statue in the Bible it more likely than not had to do with some sort of ”idol worship” situation.
There was Achan, whose story is found in Joshua 7. This story is connected to the consequences of not following God’s commands. Achan lived during the time of Joshua’s battles for the Holy Land. God had lead the Israelites to a dramatic victory in the city of Jericho against the Canaanite’s. The odds were against this small tribe of people winning a battle against the stronger tribe that they faced. However, when God is on your side, and you are following Him in obedience, the victory is assured. Aye, but there is the rub!
The battle of Ai ensued and it was all but assumed that this would be an easy win. When this did not happen, Joshua was greatly troubled and went to God to discover the reason for this humiliation. God lead Joshua to the truth that was hidden from him, but of course, not from God. The truth was that God asked the Israelites to do something, i.e, take no trophies of the battle, and destroy everything. They may have questioned or not understood the reason for these admonitions, as we sometimes do, but if experience should have taught the Israelites and you and I anything, it is that God’s purposes and plans are always perfect. Also, when we do not obey God, there are bad consequences.
Then, there was Rachel. When Jacob and Rachel left her father’s home to go back to the Holy Land, Rachel clepped her father’s household idols. When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods.- Genesis 31:19. Did you catch that, she stole her father’s household idols. Stealing is wrong but so is idol worship, so that makes two sins as she moved out of dad’s encampment. Her dad was a wealthy man, she probably had a few choices of things to take, not to mention she could have asked him for it.
Did she know it was wrong and therefore wish to keep her sin a secret? That is a possibility especially since her husband Jacob was a godly man and did not share her father’s penchant for the sin of idolatry. When her father noticed that they were gone, he even accused her husband of the theft. What did Rachel do when this happened? Why she let her husband be falsely accused. The whole family had their personal belongings searched because of Rachel’s sin, yet she said nothing. She must have really wanted those idols, don’t you think? She wanted them so much that when her father came to speak to her before she left she even used her menstrual period as an excuse to allow her to evade detection. And she said to her father,”Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.- Genesis 31:35.
The sin of idolatry was so great that it lead to the Babylonian captivity of the Jewish people. Much is written in the Old Testament about idolatry. Suffice it to say, that I understand the lure of idolatry coming from the background that I do. But, is so clearly condemned in the Bible that it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to take some time to think over the issue.
In general, there is a secretive element to all sin. It is no different as we contemplate the sin of idolatry. Things are hidden under the tent, such as with Achan. Rachel hides her idol. However, when sin reaches its’ zenith in any culture, the sin is no longer hidden but flaunted openly. We are seeing this in our day and age when people celebrate their own sinful and insane lifestyles. They try to force others to condone it too. When it gets to that point, God’s judgement is usually just around the corner, as it was in the time of the Babylonian captivity.
Obedience, is also a factor. Although Achan did not commit the sin of idolatry, I learned a lot about obedience and faithfulness to God in his story. Rachel seems a little bit oppositionally defiant in her relationship to God at times. Remember, Jesus told us that we can not serve two gods. Could it be any clearer than that?
My journey towards giving up The Mary Statue, all began with studying these stories. Frankly, I was a little dumb-founded as to why idolatry was such a bad thing. Over and over I pondered this question. It was only God’s grace and the study of the full story of the Bible that lead me to the painful answers. Painful because I too would have to give up some things in order to follow Jesus. Things that I was accustomed to just like Rebecca was. Things that my family had for generations, things that calmed me and I thought protected me.
The sin of idolatry is great in God’s eyes. There are reasons for that. The reasons seem to point to an end-times scenario when idolatry will again become a factor. It is said that an image of the beast will be worshipped in place of God some day. Since we know the Word of God is true, isn’t that enough reason to trust in Him and get rid of our idols? Achan purposely disobeyed God’s directives.
The Bible tells us that we are to worship the Lord, in Spirit and in Truth. Here is the exact quote from John 4:24- God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.That leaves no place for statues. We do not need an image or statue to help us focus our attention on God. We do not need to crown any statues as if they are human kings and queens. They are not human so why are we treating them like they are by dressing them up, and carrying them in parades?
It even seems a little like witchcraft, i.e. trying to create power in an inanimate object. As I write this blog post, I am again forced to confront my cultural and religious roots. I have to go to the Bible and make a stand about my life and practices. I must get a sledge hammer and take this statue off my property. In doing so I am refocusing my attention to the fact that Jesus is the redeemer of the world and there is no other salvation except through him. There is no mediator between me and my God. Mary was a woman who chose to obey and follow her God, not to be part of the Godhead. Reading her story shows that she worshipped God and would never put herself in the position that she now takes in my new garden.
* the one exception to the “never pick-up rule” was when my mother would pick-up the Bible to show me the family history that was written in it.
