WEEKLY ARTICLE

I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God...

(Exodus 20:5)

by the Rev. Matt Kennedy

Weekly Article

October November 1st, 2006

At some point during Anne's first trimester with Rowan we decided that, at least for the duration of her pregnancy, I should do as much work from home as possible. Anne was not feeling well at all (if you've not had a baby yet, wait till the first trimester hits your wife or you and you'll probably see what I mean) and it was proving almost insurmountable to be mom, get the housework done, and serve as part-time church-secretary. So I moved what work I could to the rectory.

It just so happens that my home-office is directly outside the play-room.

My mom and dad delight in buying and express-mailing their impoverished grandchildren toy after toy. Beginning with Emma, our first, the toy deluge has continued unabated. Four years later the play room is piled to the top with primary colored plastic kitchen sets, doll houses, strollers, dump-trucks, fire-engines, castles etc...

There is also a television. It is an old TV hooked up to a DVD player and a VCR. We moved it into the play room so that on rare occasion we might let the children watch selected pre-approved videos. At least that was the plan.

As I started to spend more time at home to help Anne with the kids, I also realized that the kids started coming to me more than before to tell me stories, ask for milk, food, etc. This was great, but I was supposed to be working.

So, at first for only short periods, and then hours at a time, I turned on the TV and let the kids sit in front of cartoons. I just assumed they (the cartoons) were okay and besides, just a few hours a day couldn't do any harm.

Some weeks into Anne's second trimester (I think) I wandered into the play-room on a work-break. The kids were huddled on the floor about two feet from the screen staring blankly, but wide-eyed into the tube.

They were watching a sloth-like animated creature-puppet. He had long hair, a smooth sing-song voice, and was sitting cross-legged on a computer generated tree-branch speaking softly and pleasantly to my children.

They were being urged to listen with him to “the spirit of the tree.” The tree, the sloth said, is wise. The tree knows all things. The tree is the world.

The show as I later discovered is called, It's a Big Big World, and the sloth is called Snook. The concept, as close as I can tell, seems to be that the world, the earth to be exact, is like the big tree and the path to wisdom, happiness, fulfillment etc…is to get tuned in and turned on to it. If you “listen to the tree” you will know what to do.

Of course the whole thing appears harmless, cuddly, and can be somewhat amusing but the basic message is that the earth is your mother.

The earth is, of course, wonderful, good, and beautiful. But its wonder, goodness, and beauty are derivative, not innate. The earth is good because God made it. It is wonderful because God is wonderful and beautiful because it was designed, crafted, and formed by the source and origin of all beauty. We ought to conserve and preserve the earth over which we have been given stewardship and authority. But the earth is not our mother.

The problem with much of what you hear in environmentalist circles is the implicit suggestion that all things hinge on the upkeep of the planet. That “nature” is our origin and our destiny.

In fact, God created the heavens and the earth and every creature that lives and breaths therein. He is our origin and our destiny. Our future does not depend on the planet. It depends on God. We must care for the environment because God has placed it in our care. But we must not fool ourselves into thinking that caring for the environment, or becoming one with it, is an end in itself. God is the end and the means and the purpose for which we were born.

So I turned off the television.

Horror and panic ensued. My once catatonic children erupted in screams generally reserved for the loss of body parts.

I realized I had been quite wrong in allowing the cartoon habit to develop and I also realized an interesting thing about children.

They know what they need. Kids need parental attention. They hunger for interaction with mommy and daddy. This is, of course, no startlingly brilliant insight.

Every parent knows that kids need attention. But it is interesting that, at least at a young age, children seem to know it too and they seek what they know they need. The incessant questions, stories, requests etc are attempts to slake a recognized thirst.

When this thirst was not satisfied my kids (unfortunately at my behest) turned to the tube. The talking tree sloth became a substitute parent.

When I came to my senses, I took the substitute away. It was a truly painful experience for them. No doubt, they had developed some sort of relationship with the sloth and with various other talking puppets and I had taken that relationship away.

But, as I noted above, the relationship they had developed in the absence of the relationship they really wanted and needed (with their parents) had the potential to do harm. They might have been led to false conclusions about life and the world around them.

As I was thinking about all of this I was reminded that this is what often takes place in my relationship with Christ. I often look for God in all the wrong places. I often become attached to people and things that God knows will ultimately draw me away from him. I am drawn to substitute gods.

And, because he loves me, if I don't relinquish them or set them in order, God takes them away.

Our “gods” are not always destructive. It could be a career, a relationship, a habit or a hobby. But it becomes a god when it takes God's seat, when you seek it first and Jesus Christ second or third. When good things take God's place in your life, the good they could bring you is ruined. They become bad for you. You were made first for a relationship with Jesus Christ. Nothing else will do. 

Unlike children, we are often not aware of what we need. We feel a hunger but do not know what we hunger for. God does.

This explains many experiences of loss in the Christian life. If you are a believer and consistently seek other thing and put other things in your life higher than Jesus Christ on your list of priorities, then you can expect God to take action.

God will take away anything that turns your heart from him.

"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God… “ (Exodus 20:5)

God is a jealous God. He must be first. Not because he needs to be first but because we need him to be first even if we do not recognize this need.

Is there a relationship, a possession, a habit, an activity that has drawn your attention away from Christ?

If so, it is time to rearrange your priorities. Whatever it is, it cannot satisfy for long.

You were created to relate to and glorify your Creator forever. Nothing else will do.

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