Last week, I defined an idol as something other than God that we are tempted to worship, emulate, or believe will save us.  I’m specifically interested over this next month in discerning what the most obvious American Idols are and how they have distorted our understanding of the gospel and what it means to follow Jesus.  For each idol, I plan on uncovering its temple so that we can unmask this idolatry in all of its phony glory.  So without further ado, here is Idol #1:

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Temple of the Mall:

Come let us worship and bow down…

Is there any doubt that one of the greatest American Idols that we are tempted to worship, emulate, or believe will save us is the idol of consumerism?  Unless you live under a rock, it is impossible to ignore the constant stream of advertisements crying out for your attention and your money every hour of the day.  And is it not true that the mall is the temple of this idol of consumerism, the place that promises to fulfill your every need and wants to sell you more than you could ever afford or find a place for? 

This is the false gospel of the idol of consumerism:  The more you have, the happier you will be.  This idol is calling to you that if you could only own all of the latest and coolest clothes, gadgets, music, and whatever else you could get your hands on, you would become the envy of all you meet and the happiest person around.  This is the message emanating from the temple known as the Mall.

When I was a child, I used to love calling in for contests on the radio.  I still remember that no prize captivated by attention like the shopping spree.  Just imagine – five minutes in Toys R Us with $1000 to spend on anything you like!  In my mind, that would have been the most thrilling time imaginable.  Even though I am older now, there is still something captivating about having money to spend on the latest fashions, or the cool new CD’s or gadgets.  There is something about walking out of the Temple of the Mall with the latest and greatest stuff that makes me come alive, builds up my confidence, and makes me walk with my head a little higher.

Until the next great thing comes along…

Have you ever reached the point with music, or gadgets, or clothes, where you recognized the futility of keeping up with the latest and greatest?  Where you realized that if you bought all the CD’s or downloaded all the songs you like, that you’d go bankrupt?  Or if you kept updating your computer and cell phone and mp3 player and everything else that you soon would have no money left for food?  Have you ever checked out the back to school fashions, only to groan as you realize that once again the manufacturers have decided to change what is “in” – from wide legs to tapered legs to skinny legged-jeans, from plaid to solids to stripes, and so on?  At what point did you throw your hands up in the air and decide that you’d rather commit the sin of being unfashionable and outdated than try to keep up with every new trend?

Because here is the real truth underneath the false gospel of the mall:  the more you have, the more of a slave you become.  You may experience the thrill that comes from having the latest and greatest, and you may indeed become the envy of everyone for a short time, but before long you will have lost your freedom and become a slave to the idol of consumerism.  Because when the latest and greatest becomes last year’s style, you have to run out and buy more or risk losing your favored status.  And the more you own, the more you have to take care of, and the more time you spend on all your stuff (amen, anyone?).  The more you own, the more things end up owning you; and the more you care about what others think of you, the more you become a slave to their opinions.

Remember that one of the problems the people of God had in the Old Testament was that they were continually trying to merge worship of the one true God with the worship of idols from the surrounding cultures.  So what happens when you try to merge the worship of the one true God with our consumer culture?  You get a God who wants to bless us with good things, material things, who wants us to have nice houses and cars and stuff.  You skip past all of those pesky Bible verses about selling all you have and giving it to the poor (Matthew 19:21), or all of Jesus’ warnings about money and greed (Matthew 6:24).  You turn the page quickly after reading how Ananias and Sapphira, two early Christians, fell down dead because they kept money for themselves instead of giving it for the care of other Christians (Acts 5:3-4).  You skip the Prophetical books entirely and all of their warnings about what would happen to those who neglected those in need.  You turn a blind eye to the poor and suffering and convince yourself that God wants you to relax and enjoy your stuff.

Beware of merging worship of God with the Idol of consumerism.  Before you know it you will be worshiping at the Temple of the Mall on Sundays instead of in the house of God.

Remember that in First and Second Chronicles, one of the first things all of the good kings did was to smash down the idols that had been erected by the previous kings.  So how do we smash down the Idol of consumerism in our lives?  Give away instead of hoarding more; as Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).  Jesus tells us to store up treasure in heaven instead of treasures on earth (Matthew 6:20), to give in such a secretive fashion that even your left hand does not know what your right hand is doing (Matthew 6:3), to trust in Him to provide all we need (Matthew 6:25). 

Jesus came to set us free from slavery to the idol of consumerism, to rescue us from the Temple of the Mall.  He came to set us free from the constant need for more so that instead we might be content with what we have.  He came to free us from the need to be worshiped and envied by others so that we might receive all of our self-worth from the God who loves us enough to die for us.  As Paul writes in Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” 

The gospel is about freedom.  Expose the idol of consumerism, the Temple of the Mall.  Resist the urge to see God as an American God who wants to bless us by giving us more and bigger and better.  That new pair of pants won’t save you, and that new computer won’t make your life complete.  Remember instead the words of Jonah:  “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs… Salvation comes from the LORD” (Jonah 2:8). 

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