To Whom Do You Pay Homage?

In ancient Greek and Roman cities, as you entered the Agora or marketplace to do business, you passed an altar. You were expected to take incense and pay homage to the god of that city, whether Athena or Zeus or whomever. And the manager of the marketplace greeted people, probably paying attention to who came to do business in his market. Failing to pay homage to the god was considered a serious offense and would probably get you thrown out, unable to sell whatever it was you came to sell. So imagine the dilemma for early Christians. If they made the decision to follow Christ, they couldn't pay tribute to another god. They really stood out as different, and in many cases, it meant that they could no longer buy and sell goods in the market. For these Christians, the decision to follow Christ meant a fundamental change in the way they worked.

This raises an important question for us in our workplaces. To whom do we pay homage as we go to work? I don't know of anyone who burns incense to Zeus, but I wonder if there are not things that we do to honor the "gods" of our age. Perhaps you throw incense on the altar of careerism. Or maybe it's the altar of your self-worth being measured by accomplishments or status or gossip/sarcasm/course language around a water cooler. As a Christian, you have the opportunity to really stand out for Christ by not paying homage to these gods. It won't be easy. People may make fun of you, they may criticize you. You may lose business, lose promotions, or lose your job completely. But being a Christian means being different than others in the workplace.