Friday of the Third Week of Lent 2023
"There shall be no strange god among you
nor shall you worship any alien god.
I, the LORD, am your God
who led you forth from the land of Egypt."
-Psalm 81:10-11ab
It’s no secret that we spend our days being bombarded by a universe of images and sounds. In their constant quest to win our attention, advertisers, news agencies, and social media influencers are always offering new and innovative content that we are often more than happy to dedicate hours each day scrolling through our feeds, spending money on what they are trying to sell us. (For me, it’s most often books!) As a nation, we spend billions of dollars each year on sporting events and celebrity culture has an unequaled impact on society. All of this external noise doesn’t include the responsibilities of family, friends, jobs, ministries, or community commitments that already fill our days.
The idea of idolatry might seem like something unique to our spiritual ancestors.
Think about how often the Prophets of the Old Testament (including Hosea in today’s First Reading) railed against the worship of other gods and called the Chosen People back to the worship of the true God. In the New Testament, we also find certain cautions about how Christians should engage the broader culture of the Roman Empire, in which civic and religious practices were often seamlessly woven together. And yet, the construction of idols isn’t something limited to the past. For us, today, idolatry can take other forms. Thinking of the demands and distractions mentioned above, we can see that these things—which can often be good in and of themselves—can become so consuming that we can begin to lose sight of certain essentials, including our spiritual health and opportunities for growth. To say it another way, the “stuff” that can fill up our time and that claims our attention might, if we aren’t paying attention, become idols.
The Prophet Hosea from the Klosterneuburger Evangelienwerk (ca. 1340)
The liturgy for this Friday of the Third Week of Lent calls us back to the essentials of love of God and love of neighbor. As we consider these basic teachings in light of the work of Lent, we can see that what we are being invited to today is to look at how we spend out time, money, and energy and to ask ourselves if we have allowed ourselves to become distracted from what is most important.
What do you love?
To what or to whom do you give your attention?
Where do you go for escape, affirmation, or to be fed?
As we answer these questions, we might come to recognize that the reality of idols in our lives that need to be torn down. If this is the case, consdier how these Lenten days can help you focus on what we know to have true value, recalling the words of the Prophet Hosea:
“Let him who is wise understand these things;
let him who is prudent know them.
Straight are the paths of the LORD,
in them the just walk,
but sinners stumble in them.” (14:10)
Pour your grace into our hearts, we pray, O Lord,
that we may be constantly drawn away from unruly desires
and obey by your own gift the heavenly teaching you give us.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for Friday of the Third Week of Lent
