You shall have no other gods before me.
There’s an old expression for a narrative device that rescues a plot out of nowhere. Deus ex machina, or “god from a machine,” comes from an old Greco-Roman theatrical device where a pulley physically lowered a god character to resolve some plot issue.
As an American, I wonder if we ignore the first commandment by conceiving of God from our machines. We do not worship God as truly God because we reduce Him down to something we can manipulate in and through machines.
God from a Machine
Today, we have high budget experiences called movies and video games to transmit mythology to us. Old gods fight next to super mutants against technologically advanced aliens. The son of a god messes with several other gods before an impending apocalypse from a really angry god. These gods live inside of machines, boxes packaged in engaging ways to draw in our attention. We can turn off these stories at any time with our greater power over these machines. If we are so moved, we can destroy the machines themselves. Such gods never have any power.
What other machine-gods can we think of? What about Uber-Eatus, the patron god of food delivery, who requests monetary offerings in return for his favor in the form of room temperature burritos? Amazonia, the goddess of consumption, can accept similar offerings to make any of your desires appear at your doorstep. Who is our intermediary, our messenger to beseech these and other modern conveniences? Oracle-priests that we call our phones.
Worship of God Alone
I’m having a little fun with dressing up technology as gods, but the point is to say that we have access to great power nowadays to sate our many interests. What place is left for a God that we can’t see and who lives, at least in our experience, in a book, through sometimes meaningful weekly monologues, amidst karaoke sessions, and in our minds while we pray? If we have not faith to see God’s hand all around us, upholding every electron that makes our modern life function, then we miss the most living God of all: the Three-in-One who always was and forever will be. He gives and sustains life to everything. He elevates our souls, minds, and affections to the highest of heights. He saves His beloved in times of great need, especially on the cross at Calvary to save us of our rebellion.
How does your modern life distract you from God’s handiwork? What are your gods-from-machines? What do you offer to those that you withhold from God Himself? How can you give to God the honor He is truly due?