“Unlike Any Other!”

Scripture: Jeremiah 10:1-16

American Idol has nearly become a standard for our country’s TV viewing audience. If you don’t watch the show, you are out of touch! People at work talk about it, they review and rate the performances with great enthusiasm, and folks talk about the contestants as though they were important members of their family.

Reality shows are another standard of American life, and the people on those shows have gained the status of folk heroes. Of course, there is little that is “real” about these shows, and yet people flock to them in droves. Fans faithfully follow the antics of their favorites as though they are actually seeing life rolled out in front of them. One day at lunch, I half jokingly described these shows as voyeurism, and one of the women at our table wasn’t too happy about the comparison.

We have sacrificed our own life’s joy in order to live a better life through these “TV Heroes”. Even in their imperfections and foibles, they have become the standard bearers for “the better way”. After all, it’s easier to live their fantasy life than trying to make our own true way.

Remember the comic strip “Broom Hilda”? She’s that ugly, yet lovable little witch, and she has a troll for a “sidekick” by the name of Irwin.
In one strip, Broom Hilda asks, Irwin, “What would be the best way to make the world better?”
Irwin thinks for a moment and replies, “Start with yourself! Give up your bad habits and evil pleasures. Then when you're good, when you're perfect, you'll stand as a shining example to others!”
Broom Hilda swiftly responds, “What's the second best way?”
- Homeletics OnLine

What? Make a change in my own life? There has to be a better way than that!

Read Jeremiah 10:1-5

“Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless;”

The “ways of the nations” and the “customs of the peoples” are simply feeble human attempts to find a new, more acceptable meaning for life, but they always turn out to be inadequate and dangerous. Think about the drive to gain more in business careers. We put the desire for greater authority, power and money ahead of the truly important things of life. We put all of our energy and time into “getting ahead”, and where do we actually wind up? Further behind!

And what are these things that we place all our hopes and dreams in? They become nothing less than burdens. They consume our time through long hours at the office, and then even more time with the reports and projects that we take home with us. We rise in the chain of command and receive more compensation and prestige, but to what gain? So we can buy a bigger house, along with the bigger mortgage and higher taxes, and what do we wind up with in the long run? Earthly baggage that has no heavenly good.

Oh, the neighbors may be impressed, our college buddies may envy us, our family can brag to their friends – at least for a while. The problem is that we have less and less time for any of those who had brought us such joy during our “less than impressive” days.
“All that glitters is not gold” – a slightly misquoted line from Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” – reminds us that the things that seem to be the most mundane in the world’s view are usually not.
- The child who jumps in your lap while you are trying to read the paper, and gives you a great big hug – and when you ask why, you are told “I thought you needed it!”
- The friend who drives for 3 hours to visit you in the hospital, and you fall asleep after 15 minutes of conversation, and your friend considers it time well spent.
- Fixing dinner for your wife, or mother, or sister, when you know she’s had a particularly difficult day.
These are the “glitters” that bring real joy into our lives.

Read Jeremiah 10:6-10

And then there is our Lord! His gifts are not the glories of earth – they are the simple daily blessings that we remember for years to come.
I remember a particular gift from years ago when we lived in Western NY. I had gone out to mow the lawn, and very soon, I realized that our oldest son Chris, who was probably 5-6 at the time, was following a few steps behind. I wondered just how long he would keep up, as we had a fairly large lot, but as I continued to mow, first the front yard, then the side, and finally the large back yard, Chris never missed a step. Once when I was mowing around a bush, I met him on the back side before he had caught up to me. He was surprised and jumped back as he was obviously thinking about something else, but he never stopped following. When we were nearly finished, which was about 2 hours of mowing, Diane came out of the house with some cold drinks for both of us. She took a picture of us standing, holding our glasses of water and leaning on a fence post, with Chris standing with the same pose as I had. I have to look that picture up in the albums, and scan it for my computer screen saver. It’s a keeper.
I’ve never forgotten that day – that memory of mowing the lawn with my son, for they – the memory and my son - are two of the greatest “glitters” that God has given me. There is no one like our God!

How can people put so much store in the things that they have made, and yet fail to show any appreciation whatsoever for all that the Lord has given them? As Jeremiah wrote, the idols of the world are useless, and are only one more load that we have to carry. What good is that? But our God is a different story. He is of infinite value to us – He gives us gifts that go on without end, and when our life’s burdens begin to grow, he helps us to carry them.
“he is the living God, the eternal King.” "There is no one like you.” Where is our faith?

Stephen Carter, in his book “The Culture of Disbelief”, writes “A religion is, at its heart, a way of denying the authority of the rest of the world; it's a way of saying to fellow human beings and to the state those fellow humans have erected, ‘No, I will not accede to your will.’”
--Stephen Carter, The Culture of Disbelief (New York: Basic Books, 1993), 41

This is not intended to deny Christ’s admonition to “give to Caesar the things of Caesar, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21) It means that we will not worship the things of this world, even though we see God’s beauty in them. Carter’s point is this - the things that are temporary are never worthy of our praise - the eternal God alone is worthy.

Read Jeremiah 10:11-16

And he is our portion, too – not just of Jacob, but of all who believe. The idols that come from the world are false and fruitless, but our God is glorious and vigorous and infinitely gracious. The gods made by human hands are silent and dead, but our great God Jehovah lives, and he speaks to us, and walks with us, and guides us, and gives us incredible and blessed gifts.
He created all that there is, and we are to worship the Creator, not the created.

The things of earth are plentiful, but in the long run, they will be worthless and all are going to pass away. But the Lord God is eternal – before all time and beyond all time. He is unlike any other. Praise be to our One and Only and Living God.