“And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.
And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to Jesus, “do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”
We are all products of the consumer driven world. We like getting and or receiving products. We like gifts. We like services that tend to make life convenient or simplistic. We love our computers. Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you lost your laptop? Mine got stolen a few months back and I was shocked at how paralyzed my life felt. We love people making us food and cleaning up after us. We love that we can go to a gas staion and pay without going inside.
We love our little media devices. If we don’t want to be social all we have to do is put in our little ear buds which are plugged into our ipods. We don’t have go to stores to buy music, we can just download it. We even don’t have to go home to watch TV or movies, thank you internet. We don’t have to read books anymore because we just listen to them. In fact, we don’t have to think anymore either because the tv and media do it for us. All we have to do is watch tv and phony counselors on the tube can diagnose us with all our ailments and we believe them because they are on tv. When things go ill in our lives, we medicate ourselves with consumer products. Some like to buy clothing to feel better. Some eat while others drink. The best part of it, is that we don’t have to go anywhere to buy them, we can do it at home!
We are consumers gone wild! In this sedation of our lives, we have become a lazy and selfish people. Human kind has always struggled with the notion that life is all about what they could get out of it. All we have done has enabled this motiff to continue. This consumer mindset has created all sorts of character traits taht are not admirable. The craving for power. The spiteful attitude if someone wrongs you. Greed. Envy. The desire for wealth for all the wrong reasons. Communication and relational breakdown. Quality time in relationships…decreased or redefined. Individuality instead of community. Neglect of other people’s needs. We are all in this vicious circle. Some of us realize it and want to change it, some of us endorse it, while others don’t even realize it.
This consumer mindset has infiltrated the precious love of God. We love what God has to offer (at least in evangelical circles…mainstream maybe). We love to sing about His love towards us and how He is going to take us to heaven where there will be no more pain for us. We love to talk about how God approves of us and not others. We love to talk about how God has forgiven us, how He is merciful to us, how He loves us unconditionally. Me, me, me. It’s all about what God can do for me. But without realizing it, our character traits mirror the one created by consumerism. Greed, power, wealth, revenge, spite, judgemental attitudes, envy, laziness, neglect, relational breakdown, individuality, etc. etc. We even start to think taht somehow we deserve such love and that God owes us because we have done good deeds or things.
We love the church’s version of the drive through God. Express lane theology. Right? If I am in need of forgiveness, I’ll just make the call and “voila” I’m forgiven. If I just need some sort of affirmation in my life or encouragement,…voila! I’m affirmed! We have books that guarantee that after 5 steps, or 10 principles, or 3 prayers, or even just one, all things go well for us, we can get what we want, we can live life to the fullest, etc. Ideas around what Christianity can offer you, and how you can get fixed, and so on and so forth. These are proofs that consumerism has gained rank in the family of God.
But God’s love as never meant to be experienced in this light. God’s love does not change, nor does He, and all of those examples above are correct and incorrect. It feels like a contradiction doesn’t it. But there is a lot of contradiction with God [For example, God is transcendant and yet came as a human being that can be seen and touched and be held. Apparent contradiction. Without going into it to much, it is that contradiction that makes it truth and risky]. We can just call on God for forgiveness and He offers it. We can ask God for affirmation and He gives it. But, they cease, or lose its potency, or become ineffective when we fail to do the implications that God calls of us.
Jesus said, “to the measure you use, it will be used to you.” Further, He says in Matt. 6:14, “For if you forgive others their wrongs/debts/sins, your heavenly father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their wrongs/debts/sins, neither will your Father forgive your wrongs/debts/sins.” What are we to make of that? Does this endorse consumerism? We like to consume, but not so much to provide.
Our consumer mindset has paralyzed us into a self seeking people. Jesus came to form a society of people who will become providers of God’s blessings, rather than consumers. It is almost as if God is the wholesaler and we are the retailers. We receive blessings from God, such as love, peace, forgiveness, mercy, grace, provision, etc., to enjoy and to embrace, but we are to extend those blessings and provide others around us with them.
I love the scene in when Jesus overthrows the commercial enterprises in the temple. It is a beautiful picture of what could be and should be. We can see how passionate Jesus is about this particular issue. He overthrows their tables! Seriously, you gotta get your head around this. This was a one man show. He went crazy. But I want to point out what happens when Jesus clears out the temple. The lame and the sick come. The weak come. God is praised and worshipped again. It becomes a house of prayer again. And then further notice, who gets pissed. The religious leaders who reap benefits from the commerical enterprises that are allowed to function in the temple courtyard. They get indignant. What a word to use. Children are praising God, and they get pissed.Why is this important? Did you know that this story is one of the elite stories that is shared among all 4 gospels? It has great significance. What is it? As products of our consumer world, we tend to view the Kingdom of God as what we can get out of it only. The Kingdom of God was always meant to be a blessing, a hope of restoration, an avenue for a new way of life. It inspires people who receive blessings from the King to become providers of these blessings rather than selfish consumers of these blessings. We forgive, because we have been forgiven. We extend mercy, because it was extended to us, etc.
When will the church realize the trap that it is in (speaking generally)? The consumerism of the West has so blinded us that we don’t realize how we have redefined what the Kingdom of God is. We need to overturn the tables so to speak and watch the beauty of the Kingdom return to its proper place.
More on social ethic in the near future…
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