IDOLS OF MISDIRECTION

A SERMON FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

“They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it.” - Exodus 32:8

INTRODUCTION

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Peace be with you all, and welcome, both faithful and newly gathered, to the Cathedral of Sts. Mitrophan and Alopen, the living heart of our Western Orthodox witness here in the Far East. Here, in this sacred space, we seek to live the fullness of the Apostolic Faith (ancient, undivided, and ever-renewing) proclaiming the Gospel of Christ in the great tradition of the Ancient Church, planted afresh in our day for the healing of the nations.

Today we mark the Fourth Sunday After Trinity, part of the long and fruitful season that follows Pentecost. The Sundays after Trinity are not an aimless stretch of green time, but rather a rich unfolding of the life of the Church under the indwelling guidance of the Holy Spirit. As Trinitytide progresses, we are drawn deeper into the mystery of Christ in us, the hope of glory, ad how the divine life is made manifest in daily obedience, in mercy, in humility, and in love that does not boast.

Providentially, this Sunday also lies near the Feast of St. Benedict of Nursia, one of the great patriarchs of the Western Church, whose life and Rule continue to shape the very foundations of Christian civilization. Born around A.D. 480 in the crumbling remnants of the Roman world, Benedict fled the decadence of Rome to live as a hermit in the caves of Subiaco. From solitude sprang order, from contemplation sprang community. His Rule, which is a simple yet profound guide to prayer, labor, obedience, and hospitality, became the blueprint of Western monasticism, and through it, the preservation of learning, the cultivation of virtue, and the rebuilding of culture after the fall of empire.

St. Benedict's vision, Ora et Labora (prayer and work) became the heartbeat of the West. His monasteries became libraries, hospitals, farms, and sanctuaries. They preserved not only the Scriptures, but the classics of antiquity, and became beacons of Christian charity and order across a darkened Europe. The Rule of Benedict offered a school of the Lord’s service, shaping generations of saints, scholars, and servants.

In our own time, his example has inspired many to speak again of a Benedict Option, which is a return to intentional Christian community, rooted in liturgy, daily repentance, and countercultural fidelity in the midst of a chaotic world. Writers like Rod Dreher and many others have reminded us that St. Benedict’s gift was not retreat but resistance: not withdrawal for its own sake, but the cultivation of holiness so enduring that it could rebuild the world from ruins. This is a calling that we are trying to fulfill as a jurisdiction, creating a "way of escape" and a place of restoration for our holy Patrimony, in the midst of the civilizational collapse, secularization and perversion that our generation is experiencing. 

So today, as we prepare to hear the appointed Scriptures, let us listen with the ears of the heart. From the mountain of Sinai, we shall hear the tragedy of idolatry, which is when the people of God, losing patience, make gods of their own desire to answer prayers for which God has already clearly commanded against. From the Apostle, we hear of the foolishness of the cross, which is wiser than the wisdom of men. And from the Gospel of St. Luke, our Lord speaks of mercy, judgment, and the blindness that comes when we elevate ourselves above others.

In these readings, we shall find not only warnings and woes, but also hope and wisdom. They call us, like the Blessed Benedict, to cast down the idols, to take up the plough of discipline, and to follow Christ who alone can clear our vision and transform our hearts.

Let us now open our ears and our hearts to the voice of the Lord in Holy Scripture.

SCRIPTURE

Exodus 31:18; 32:1–8, 15–20

And the LORD gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, they gathered themselves unto Aaron, and said, Make us gods, which shall go before us. And Aaron said, Break off the golden earrings, and bring them unto me. And he made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of Egypt. And they rose up early, and offered burnt offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. And Moses turned, and went down with the two tables of the testimony in his hand. And it came to pass, as soon as he saw the calf and the dancing, that Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder.

EPISTLE

Romans 8:18–23

I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

GOSPEL

St. Luke 6:36–42

Jesus said to his disciples: Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.

SERMON

Dearly beloved in Christ, we come today to one of the most sorrowful and revealing episodes in all of Scripture. Not the abandonment of religion, but the misdirection of worship. Israel did not become secular; rather, they became idolatrous. They desired not no god, but a god of their own fashioning, which is a god they could see, manage, and carry with them. This is not atheism; this is spiritual convenience.

This is the very essence of sin: to turn from the invisible to the manageable, from the transcendent to the tame. In Greek, hamartia, which is the ancient word for sin, means to miss the mark. As St. Paul said, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And the glory missed here is not abstract: it is the very face of God, revealed in covenant, hidden in cloud, yet drawing His people into mystery.

The Golden Calf and the Human Heart

The people of Israel grew restless as Moses lingered on the mountain. God was too slow, too silent, too hidden. They exchanged the fire of Sinai for the fire of the forge. And from their own ornaments, they fashioned a god. This glittering image wa shaped not by divine revelation but by popular demand.

As St. Augustine observed, “They did not cease to worship, but they ceased to worship rightly.” They invoked the Holy Name: “Behold thy god, O Israel, that brought thee out of Egypt”… but they clothed that Name in a lie. This is the greatest danger: not forgetting God, but remaking Him.

St. Gregory of Nyssa called this “a theology of regression.” It is not progress, but decline disguised as relevance. And he adds: “They wished not to be without a god, but to fashion God as they wished Him to be.” That is the original error of Eden, and it reappears in every age.

Parallel Scriptures: Blindness and Misjudgment

And so our Lord’s words in the Gospel cut to the marrow: “Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?” (Luke 6:39). Like Aaron, we too often capitulate to the mob, make peace with culture, or blind ourselves with the glitter of compromise. The golden calf is not just an idol of antiquity—it reappears wherever the Church seeks the approval of the world over the truth of God.

Jesus continues: “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38). The measure of the people in Exodus was impatience, fear, and need for control. The result was judgment. The measure of Christ is mercy, truth, and obedience. The result is freedom.

The Ring of Power: A Modern Parable

In our own time, the golden calf reappears in subtler forms—media, celebrity, political idolatry, theological compromise, and the ever-growing cult of the self. We live in an age that fashions gods out of screens, movements, ideologies, and platforms. The god we prefer today is one who protects our freedom to sin while offering the benefits of moral superiority.

J.R.R. Tolkien, a devout Catholic and profound student of Scripture, gave us a modern parable of this temptation in The One Ring. It is not merely an object of evil, but is a sacrament of self. It offers power, prestige, invisibility, success, and vengeance, which are all the cravings of the unredeemed heart. And it is seductive not only to the wicked but even to the righteous. Boromir, Frodo, Gollum, and they are all drawn into its spell.

The Ring, like the golden calf, is forged by men, in the shadow of fear and ambition. It promises victory, but it brings only bondage. It is the idol of control, and what the Fathers would call idolatry of the will. It is the same temptation that Eve faced in Eden: “Ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5).

St. Maximus the Confessor writes, “When the mind ceases to contemplate God, it inevitably contemplates itself.” And from there comes the Ring, the calf, the false prophet. The human heart becomes a factory of idols.

Voices from the Fathers and the English Divines

St. Justin Martyr says that “Idols begin in the imagination but end in the soul.” Origen, commenting on Exodus 32, warned that the golden calf is “the shadow of all theology which departs from mystery and leans on custom, fear, or power.”

Likewise, the Caroline Divine Jeremy Taylor warned, “The idol of the age is not always carved in gold, but it is always cast in desire.” Bishop Andrewes' Private Devotions contain this piercing line: “From the idols of comfort, of certainty, of my own understanding… deliver me, O God.”

The Scottish Nonjurors knew this danger well. Bishop Rattray preached that “When the Church seeks to defend herself with golden calves, whether in politics, wealth, or popularity, she ceases to be the Bride and becomes instead the Harlot.” Such severe words were born not of judgment, but of deep love for the Church's purity.

True Worship and the Way Forward

What then is true worship? It is not the absence of form, but the submission of form to truth. It is not the casting down of liturgy or structure, but their sanctification in Christ, who is the truth, the way, and the life. We must come to the mount as Moses did: empty, waiting, humble, receiving.

Let us cast down our Rings of False Power. Let us shatter the golden calves of our own expectations. Let us cease saying, “Make us gods who will go before us,” and instead cry out, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth” (1 Samuel 3:9). For it is not the gods who go before us, but the Lord Himself: crucified, risen, and enthroned.

Poetic Reflection

Let us meditate on the message of this sermon in a poetic reflection from the blessed Caroline Father, the Reverend George Herbert, in The Elixir:

Teach me, my God and King,

In all things thee to see,

And what I do in anything

To do it as for thee.

This is the famous stone

That turneth all to gold;

For that which God doth touch and own

Cannot for less be told.

COLLECT PRAYER

Let us pray…

O MOST holy and gracious Lord, who didst lead thy servant Moses to cast down the false image of gold, and who didst shine forth in the face of thy Son to give us the knowledge of thy glory: cleanse us, we pray thee, from every hidden idolatry, both of mind and heart; that with pure devotion, unfeigned love, and spiritual discernment, we may follow thee in the way of holiness, and behold thee in thy everlasting truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.