Silar Marner: 19th Century Example for 21st Century Living

“So year after year, Silas Marner had lived in this solitude, his guineas rising in the iron pot, and his life narrowing and hardening itself more and more into a mere pulsation of desire and satisfaction that had no relation to any other being. His life had reduced itself to the mere functions of weaving and hoarding, with any contemplation of an end towards which the functions tended. The same sort of process has perhaps been undergone by wiser men, when they have been cut off from faith and love – only, instead of a loom and a heap of guineas, they have had some erudite research, some ingenious project, or some well-knit theory. Strangely Marner’s face and figure shrank and bent themselves into a constant mechanical relation to the objects of his life, so that he produced the same sort of impression as a handle or a crooked tube, which has no meaning standing apart. The prominent eyes that used to look trusting and dreamy, now looked as if they had been made to see only one kind of thing that was very small, like tiny grain, for which they hunted everywhere:”

With this George Eliot describes what becomes of us when we allow something to hold our gaze that has no life in itself. She describes here the natural consequence of idolatry. For my definition, idolatry is anything which holds our gaze that isn't Jesus himself.

This time after Christmas is called Epiphany. It is believed that the Wise Men arrived after Jesus' birth. When they left their homeland, they were Magi, they were star-gazers, astrologers and astronomers. The ancient world didn't separate things out like we do. They watched the stars and were guided by them. They would have been viewed as idolaters by the Jewish people they went to visit. For them, the stars held their gaze, not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Jews would have seen them as a threat, not a positive witness to the birth of the Messiah.

The first point I want to make is - that which holds our gaze shapes us. Silas Marner was shaped by his hoard of gold. The Magi, their eyes fixed in the sky. Marner couldn't look up. The Magi lived unable to look down. This is my first point. That which holds our gaze shapes our living.

Next: God begins with human beings where they are - in their idolatry.

So on this New Year's Day, it is enough to consider where you are looking, what holds your attention - who holds your attention.