Exodus 32: 1-14
Pick and Mix Christianity
One of the great mantras of current politics is the word ‘choice’. It seems that we must have choice in everything whether it’s the schools our children go to, or the hospitals we are treated in. Disappointingly, this idea of choice is strictly limited – it doesn’t seem to include a choice about paying tax.
This idea of choice is something that is very significant in our society. We have the ability to make so many choices. We have the freedom to make so many choices. We have the financial wherewithal to make so many choices. Henry Ford once said that you could have any colour of car you like as long as it’s black. Well for us, the choices we have when we buy a car are enormous. Choices surround us.
In many ways, choice can be good. But it can also engender a ‘pick and mix’ mindset, a butterfly mentality. The kind of situation where a person flits from one activity to another. The kind of situation where a person moves on to something else the minute the latest experience fails to excite. The notion of consumer mentality where the customer is king, right or wrong.
On one level it really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter whether you choose to use a different washing powder this week. But in some things it really does matter. It really does matter when it comes to relationships. We live in a world now where people can have a pick and mix approach to marriage, and move on the minute they’re bored with their current wife. The consequences if this are far more serious than the choice of your washing powder. So sometimes this pick and mix approach to life really does matter. It really does matter when it comes to relationships. …. to spirituality. … relationships with God. And in our society, we can see clear evidence of this pick and mix approach to spirituality, to a relationship with the divine. And we find that this pick and mix approach to spirituality is nothing new, and the problems that go with it our nothing new.
Because that’s just what happening in our reading from Exodus.
First thing we can see about this pick and mix mentality from our reading is in
THE PEOPLES IMPATIENCE.
Right at the very beginning of our reading, we see that Moses was delayed. And it was that delay that caused the people to be impatient. It was that delay that caused people to want to move on to another experience. It was that delay which caused people to look for another God. It’s a bit like a credit card. Take the waiting out of wanting, say the adverts. The people couldn’t wait for God. They wanted God right now. They wanted an instant experience of God. The people were impatient.
And I guess people are no different now. They want God to act when they want him to act. They want instant experiences of God. But God isn’t like that. Gods timing is often different from ours. For a start, it’s perfect. God acts when he will act. God gives us experiences of him when he chooses to. And sometimes we have to be patient. Sometimes we have to wait. And a pick and mix mentality when it comes to a relationship with God simply does not work.
But not only were the people impatient with God, we see that the consequence of this was
THE PEOPLE’S INFIDELITY.
The result of their impatience was that they were unfaithful. We see this very clearly in verses 7 and 8. Gods tells Moses that the people ‘have corrupted themselves’, and ‘turned aside’. And you’ll see that they had turned away ‘quickly’. The people’s infidelity came about rapidly. It is helpful to look at the timescale. All this took place very shortly after people of Israel had left Egypt. It began about three months after leaving Egypt’s and crossing the red Sea. And in chapter 19 we see that God said to the people ’look what I have done for you. Will you enter a covenant relationship with me?’. And the whole of the people of Israel agreed that they would enter into this relationship with God and be his holy nation. They had had some really amazing experiences of God in action, and God’s presence with them. They had been delivered from Egypt. They had experienced God’s presence on the mountain where Moses met with God. And at this point God gave them the Ten Commandments, and some further instructions for living. And then God met with Moses, Aaron and seventy of the elders. Ch 24. And then Moses himself had a meeting alone with God, which lasted for forty days. So at most, it seems that the events of chapter 32, our reading this evening, took place about six months after their miraculous delivery from Egypt, and three months after entering a covenant relationship with God. And yet they corrupted themselves. And yet they turned aside quickly. We see so clearly the people’s infidelity.
And this is no different for us and for our generation. We have a marvellous heritage of faith. We may have had really amazing experiences of God in action in our lives and in the lives of those around us. But all too quickly we turn away. All too quickly we corrupt ourselves. All too quickly our infidelity is apparent.
And to compound it all, we see
THE PEOPLE’S IMPERTINENCE.
Not content with turning away from God, they have the gross impertinence and arrogance to ask Aaron to make gods for them. V1. They wanted a God that they could control. They wanted a God would not challenge them perhaps. Maybe they wanted a God who would give them the kind of experiences that they wanted. A golden calf is a visible God. The people could see what they were worshipping. It was made of gold, and must have appeared glorious. So in the people’s impertinence, they have made God. In the peoples impertinence they have usurped God. In the peoples impertinence they have decided that they want to control God. In their peoples impertinence they have decided to control their spiritual experiences.
But the golden calf was just that. It was just made of gold. It was nothing. It was not God. It had no power to bring them to the Promised Land. It had no power to transform their lives.
And nothing has changed. In our own nation we have our own golden calves. In our own contemporary spirituality we want a God that we can control. In our own postmodern culture we want a God that does not challenge us. In contemporary spirituality we want to pick and mix the kind of God that we worship. In our own society and culture, we see this tremendous impertinence as people try to make pick and mix gods of their own. We pick the bits we like. We omit the bits we don’t like. And we try to make a God who does not really challenge us. But like the golden calf, it simply does not work.
So we’ve seen that the people were impatient, the see the infidelity of the people and their gross impertinence. But the question has to be asked ’why?’. Why did the people behave in this way?
It seems to me that there may be two reasons for the people’s behaviour. In the first place, we can see
THE PEOPLE’S IGNORANCE.
They said ‘we do not know’ what has become of Moses. They were simply ignorant. But not only were they ignorant to the immediate facts about Moses, which was understandable, but they were also ignorant about God. For it seems to me that, although they had experienced God’s tremendous loving power at work in the nation’s life, perhaps in some way they were ignorant about his continuing love in action. They were perhaps ignorant about the real nature of God. And there are a number of reasons why they might have been ignorant. They may never have been truly taught about God. Or they may have never truly been listening. Whatever reason, there is clearly a sense that the people were ignorant about God.
And this is true today isn’t it. Our nation is ignorant about God. But even worse, the people of God are ignorant about God. As a Reader, I am frequently staggered by the lack of understanding and knowledge that I come across among God’s people. And there may be two reasons for this. It may be that God’s people in church and in Sunday school and in our church schools have never been taught about God. And that’s a great tragedy. But it may also that people have never been truly listening. It may be that people have not wanted to know. It may be that people have complained when the sermons have been challenging. So there is a great ignorance about God.
But as well as ignorance, the whole of this passage speaks of THE PEOPLE’S IMMATURITY.
Yes, of course, they did not know what has happened to Moses. But their reaction was immature. Their reaction was to abandon the God with whom they had only just made a covenant. Their reaction was to move on to a new God. In their immaturity, they did not reflect on Gods dealings with them up until now. In their immaturity, they did not consider that God, having brought them this far, would not abandon them. In their immaturity, they did not know how to trust God. In their immaturity, they chose the pick and mix reaction. And moved on to a new God, a new experience.
And we can be the same. People may not be ignorant about God, but their knowledge and understanding of him in the reality of everyday life can be extremely limited and immature.
And this can be seen at each end of the spectrum. At one extreme, the immature believer gives up on God because God does not act in the way that we want. He does not answer our prayers when we would wish him to. But he does things in his own perfect timing. At the other extreme, the immature believer gives up on God because he has never even bothered to try to trust him. Yes, we may believe in God, but actually trusting him for everyday is an altogether bigger step.
But it is only in trusting God, in growing in a relationship with God that we become mature. It is only as we get to know God better, as we grow in our knowledge of God, that we become mature. It is only as we feed on him, and his word, that we grow up. It is only as we live every day in a developing relationship with God in Jesus Christ that we become mature that we grow up.
It is very easy in today’s world, with today’s values and spirituality, to develop a pick and mix approach to the things of God. And it is very easy for Christians and the church to go along with that. It’s very easy for us to follow that pattern. It’s very easy for us to try and pick out the comfortable and exciting bits of Christianity, and leave out the difficult and the challenging.
But ultimately, the pick and mix approach simply doesn’t work. As the children of Israel found out, it doesn’t build a working relationship with God. Indeed, it does the complete opposite and puts us at risk of judgement. It puts a relationship with God on the wire.
You see relationships are not a pick and mix choice.
Relationships require time, not impatience.
Relationships require the faithfulness, not infidelity.
Relationships require respect, not impertinence
Relationships require that we grow in knowledge of each other, not ignorance.
Relationships require that we grow in trust of each other. Relationships require that we grow in maturity.
And a relationship with God cannot be a pick and mix choice. A relationship with God requires all these things. Time. Faithfulness. Respect . Growth. Maturity.
Let us pray that our relationship with God will not be a pick and mix choice of our own creation, but become the perfect choice that God desires for all his people.
