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Icon and Idol

Occasionally something just comes into my head and I know that I have to give it consideration.  Such was the theme, “icon and idol.”  I have no reason why it plopped into my brain.  I don’t know why I have it in that sequence.  It could just as easily have been reversed.  But I think I know why it is in the sequence I put it.

I think it is icon in the beginning.  At least, the Genesis text on creation says that God created human beings.  We were created in the “image and likeness” of God.  Perhaps, this does not connect.  It did not for me in the beginning.  But then, I began studying some foreign languages.  At one point in Greek class I became aware that the word, “icon,” is the Greek word for “image.”

So if Genesis says we are created in the image and likeness of God, then we are “icons” of the Divinity.  Somehow the word, icon, takes it to a whole new level for me.  Perhaps it is because the word, image, is such common place in our English common language.  It is not unusual to talk about Madison Avenue creating images for us.  We are concerned with our “image.”  That usually means we are concerned how people see us. 

In some cases, image seems somewhat superficial.  Image is what folks see; they may or may not know the real me.  Often our image is carefully crafted in order to convince people to see us in the light we want them to see us.  Image can be misleading; it does not always contain the whole truth about us.

But if I switch to the Greek-based word, icon, the whole affair shifts for me.  For me “icon” is a weighty word.  It is not superficial in any way.  Icon always links me to the Divine in a way that the word, image, does not.  No doubt, I have been influenced by the religious icons I have seen---particularly in Greek Orthodox Churches.  Usually the icons are of Jesus, of saints, of Mary the Mother of Jesus, etc.  The just seem palpably spiritual.

I know the function of an icon is to draw me into the image and, then, on beyond the image to that which is imaged.  What this means is simple.  If I am looking at an icon of Jesus Christ, I should not in any way see the piece of wood as Jesus.  Rather the icon draws me “into Jesus Christ” and through the icon takes me into the experience of the presence of Jesus.  Of course, it is difficult to explain.  I think of the icon as a transmitter.  It pulls me in and transmits me on to the thing imaged, i.e. Jesus, the Trinity, Mary, etc.

The power of the Genesis story, which affirms that you and I are created in the icon (image) of God, is that we, too, are to draw people into our reality and send them on to the Divine Presence “imaged” in us.  Of course, that is where trouble can start!

I may well have lost my “iconic ability.”  I may have become an idol.  Of course, that does not mean people are falling at my feel and worshipping me.  But it does mean that I no longer reflect the One who created me.  We understand this better if we again think of Madison Avenue.

Madison Avenue is not really creating “images.”  They are creating “idols.”  If I can be beautiful or famous, I will be idolized.  I will be the object of worship, if you will.  If I am iconic, I am not the object.  The real “object” is what I image, i.e. God and God’s Presence.

So what does this all mean?  For me it means to discover myself as God’s icon.  Do I image what it means to be in the “image and likeness” of God?  Or do I prefer being an idol?  Do I want the attention, the affirmation, and the adulation for my own?  To be an idol is to want to be god! 

To be an icon is to want to be God’s!  Lord…make me iconic…

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