When you have a child who is almost two years old, your life is very much their life. What do I mean by that? Well essentially what Theo does, we do. We are into the things he is into (currently that’s trains), we speak a language that sounds different than our normal “adult” talk, we even cater our diet to things that he may eat. Our lives are very much intertwined. So what happens when your almost two year old gets sick? Inevitably, we get sick. Parasites have this way about them. They are like water, they find cracks and enter in, forever changing the landscape they enter into.
Idols are parasites. They find their way into our lives through cracks large and small. And they are distortions of what is good. Idols take something good, let's say belonging, and distort how we see and experience that. Instead of fulfilling that longing with a deep relationship with God, we look to niche groups. These groups like everything we like, they talk the ways we talk, they experience the world the exact same way we do. Or we go destructive routes. Get involved in gangs or groupthink, enter into emotional or physical relationships that are unhealthy. Idols are parasites. Those parasites change the landscape of our lives.
In our Wednesday night class, Christianity Explored, we are looking at the world through the lens of Mark. Rico Tice, the host and narrator of the program, at one point says something pretty incredible, and pretty challenging. He states that “after hearing the Good News, if you don’t think it’s the best news you’ve ever heard, you can be absolutely certain, you’ve not understood it.” Understood what? Well, understood that the Gospel plugs the crack the water is trying to get through. It stops and kills the parasites in our lives. The idols we’ve constructed around us can’t stand up against the Gospel. The best news we’ve ever heard is the Gospel, and it fundamentally, and radically changes the way we engage with one another and the world.
We can take heart in the words of John the Baptist in Mark 1:7,8;
“After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
What John is saying is remarkable. Not only will Jesus come to forgive sins (remarkable in itself) but that for those of us who know that we aren’t the people we ought to be, Jesus will fill us with God’s Holy Spirit to bring about radical change. This is the best news in the world. It’s not up to us. God, the great initiator and great fulfiller brings this about.
When those parasites find their way into your life, may the Gospel be at the center of our lives, sucking the air right out from underneath them.
Addison Hawkins
Pastoral Resident for Outreach & Engagement
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