Dionysus on a Bike

Acts 7:35-43 – 6/12/2026

A god is what you trust. Idolatry, at the must fundamental level, is trusting in and “reveling” in one’s own work, one’s own ability, one’s own creation. Idolatry in its literal sense is the worship of gods that are represented by figures fashioned by human creativity out of physical material. The commandments against idol worship have a twofold significance, one theological and one ethical. First, it implies that the God of Israel, the God who created the heavens and the earth and by extension God the Father of the Holy Trinity cannot be represented or replaced by a physical representation. God cannot be contained by the limits of human artistry and craftsmanship. The second implication is that human artistry, while good and beautiful, cannot create something that can save us or free us.

Today’s passage in Acts is a part of the first martyr Stephen’s speech before he is stoned during which he recounts the narrative of God’s covenant with Israel and how Jesus completes and fulfills that story. A significant part of that story is Israel’s unwillingness and inability to abide by their side of the covenant and remain faithful to the one who freed them from slavery in Egypt. These failures at faithfulness are used by Stephen to point toward Jesus whose faithfulness never fails and who redeems God’s people despite their unfaithfulness.

The unfaithfulness of Israel amounted to trusting their own work to free them. Idols miss the mark when referring to a transcendent order because they remain an affirmation of one thing, the ability, skill, and power of the ones who made the idols. Such power is an illusion and cannot liberate us. The successful slave rebellion or daring escape out of bondage, however they occur are not secured by our skill, cunning, bravery, or power. The freedom won even by out best efforts is not something we can take credit for. The unfolding of the chain of becoming is not up to us.

Does this observation about idolatry undermine human free will since none of our actions is ever sufficient on its own to accomplish their goal? Is there room for the idea that human choice matters? In denying that human choice is ultimately efficacious and prohibiting the worship and trust in human effort and creativity does not mean that human will does not matter. Simply because we cannot find what we are looking for and achieve freedom on our won does not mean that we should cease acting.

Though our actions are not sufficient to bring about their ends and human willing is not in control of the unfolding of being, our actions are a part of that unfolding. Idolatry is failing to see the fullness and completeness of that unfolding. Idolatry is to see our contribution, our part, of that unfolding and to ignore the rest of it, the parts that were not up to us, the parts that were never under our control. Rejecting idolatry does not mean giving up on trying to make our lives and the world better. Rejecting idolatry simply means that we place our activity in its proper perspective so that we are stand in reverence to that which exceeds our understanding and power, the things that are not under control and so we say are up to God.

Reflections of a Dionysian Lutheran, comments on the daily readings of the Revised Common Lectionary by Justin Marquis