Following on from my previous post on materialism, these excerpts are a further extension of my reflections on the wanton futility of materialism
From the chapter, "Good News to the Rich" taken from the book, "Good News to the Poor" by Tim Chester.
Shopping is the religion of our age. Just look at shopping centres. Just as the medieval architects built cathedrals to glorify God, so we build wonderful shopping centres to glorify what we believe is important: shopping. Alan Storkey warns that consumerism 'is the chief rival to God in our culture'. He recognises that may seem an odd claim: 'it is, after all, just shopping'. 'But the servants of the Lord God are dwarfed in number and working hours by the servants of consumption. Its ability to recruit seems unlimited'.
Today's culture advocates the notion that consumer goods are what give meaning and satisfaction. 'I shop, therefore I am.' Consumerism tell us that the secret of life and happiness is to get more: more goods, more holidays, a better car. But this message is an illusion because it does not give the full picture. It does not tell of the dark side of our consumerist culture: the pollution, the unemployment, the alienation and social breakdown. It does not tell us of the condition of the workers who made the products. But it is an illusion, too, because consumer goods do not bring fulfilment and satisfaction. In the USA people now consume twice as much as they did in the 1950s, yet research shows that people are not any happier than they were then. The endemic consumerism of the age feeds our greed, and even defines our humanity: we are not primarily worshippers, or thinkers, or God's image-bearers, or lovers, but consumers.
Tony Campolo says our society is like a shop that has been broken into. But the intruders have not stolen anything. They have simply switched all the price tags round. The things that do not really matter have large price tags while the things of true value are regarded as worthless. While God rules through his word, Satan rules through his lies. God's rule brings freedom. Satan's rule brings slavery. We "need" a lot of our consumer gimmickry to hold onto a sense of identity. In 1 Tim 6:6-19: Contentment, says Paul, is 'great gain' and urges us to be content with our food and clothing. Not only is contentment great gain, but discontent is a sin.
John Piper highlights the similarity between the first and last of the ten commandments: 'You shall have no other gods before me' and 'You shall not covet' (Exod 20:3,17). Piper explains: 'Coveting is desiring anything other than God in a way that betrays a loss of contentment and satisfaction in him.'It is bad enough when rich Christians show little concern for the poor, but when they moan about their lot, they not only show contempt for the poor, but also the generosity of God'.
True life is found in our relationships with people but ultimately with God himself. It is Jesus, not material possessions, that offers life to the full (John 10:10). But do we truly count the job, the car, the fashionable clothes and designer labels, the technology, all worthless compared to the greatness of knowing Christ?
The fight of faith is the fight to keep your heart contented in Christ - to really believe, and keep on believing, that he will meet every need and satisfy every longing.
The tragic irony of consumerism is that the preoccupation with getting more spoils our enjoyment of what we have or what is free. Contentment is about enjoying what you have without wanting more all the time. In other words, contentment is found not by getting more, but by wanting less. There are two ways to get enough: one is to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.
Godly contentment is not about austerity or asceticism. It is about enjoyment. In practice this might mean cutting back on our working hours so we can spend more time hanging out with family and friends. It might mean spending less time shopping so we can enjoy the local countryside. It might mean spending less time thinking about the latest technology or new clothes or cute shoes and more time celebrating the love and beauty of God.
Tony Sine talks about our Christian walk as a three-legged stool. Christians have been good at two of the legs: spiritual (eg reading the Bible & prayer) and moral transformation (moral integrity). But we have neglected the third leg of cultural transformation (having biblical values instead of worldly values). Don Carson talks about Christians who formally espouse their faith but whose heartbeat is for more and more of this world's goods, whose dreams are not for heaven and for the glory of God, but for success, financial independence, a bigger house, finer clothes, a finer car.
There is a sense in which instead of a thousand dilemmas about how we should use our money, we have to make one fundamental choice: do we live for God or for money? It is because we waver about this decision that we replicate it day by day. 'No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money' (Matt 6:24). Many people live according to the lie of consumerism - that we can find fulfilment and identity through consumer goods. But the gospel liberates us from this lie to find joy in knowing and serving God.
Comments
Post a Comment