I went downtown to help a friend get a collared clergy shirt. He spoke a little English even though his first language is French. He had come from Rome for a Holy Convocation. I was overwhelmed by the number of icons, so many little plastic Jesuses and Him still hanging on the cross. “Iconoclast……….the battle is real.” I doubt that he knew what I said. I started to weep wondering what Jesus would have thought of the things I was seeing in the shop. Would He have taken a whip out?
I felt like Paul in Ephesus when he rebuked the god Artemis and the idol makers set the people against him. I told my friend I felt like Paul in Ephesus but I doubt that he understood what I was saying. I hardly knew myself. I walked around the shop while my friend tried on the clergy shirt. What I was seeing was big business all over the world. On the shelf was a single crown of thorns and I questioned if this is what Jesus died for.
More than a savior
Jesus wants to be your LORD
And His will be done
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dVerse prompt to write in haibun form
wordshophop 
So much is done in the name of Jesus that strays afar from who He was and what He taught!
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So true.
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Some people use icons to remind themselves to pay attention when they see it. It is what one does with the icons that matters more, at least, as I would see it. Best wishes.
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Yes, argument in 725AD. between Leo III and Popes Gregory II and III whether icons were being worshipped or veneration.
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“Images in the church create idols in the mind”- Martin Luther
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I’m puzzled that if your friend was searching for a collared clergy shirt, that he would not have understood your reference to Paul in Ephesus. But we are human – we need touchstones and icons to remind us to be mindful. People are going to make money off anything. I feel what the person does with their purchase is the difference. Interesting haibun and poem at the end of it.
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He knows very little English and I know very little French so without a translator it would be difficult to have a conversation about why I felt this way. I am sure he could have taught me but there existed a language barrier.
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Ah I understand now.
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Imagine the language situation of the early church – Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin!
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