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Shopping with God in Mind Luke 3: 7 - 18 |
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Summary Five questions help us when shopping to also glorify God. Shopping with God in Mind Note: For this sermon, we suggest that you bring two of your own coats into the pulpit to show as an object lesson. We have suggested a monolog about the coats, but you should adapt it according to your own “coat story.” Our reading for today tells of John the Baptist preaching in the region around the Jordan River, preparing the way for Jesus. His words were harsh and filled with warning, and lots of people took him seriously. Many asked him what they should do in the way of reordering their lives, and one thing he said them to them was, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none.” I have heard tell of a man that those words stand in judgment of, because he had more than one coat. In fact, if we are talking about winter coats, he had four of them. One was a dress coat he wore over a suit. One was a short jacket that he wore most of the rest of the time in winter, and then he had two parkas. He had purchased one coat for about $30 back in the 1980s. It is very warm, but not one he would pull on every day. Frankly, it was too bulky to wear when he was just hopping in the car to run to the store. For those kinds of errands, he just wore his winter jacket. His coat was more for when he was going to be outdoors for extended periods. It’s the sort of coat you wear when sitting in the bleachers on cold autumn nights watching the football game, or when you are working outdoors in January or taking a walk on a bitterly cold winter’s evening. Although this coat is more than 20 years old, it is still in good condition and still keeps him warm. There’s nothing wrong with it. But three years ago, he bought a new parka. This one cost him about $100, and frankly, though it is constructed with newer fabrics that weren’t available when the old one was made, it doesn’t do the job of keeping him warm any better than the old one did. When it comes to functionality, either one will do the job. But here’s the thing: He can’t really give you a good reason why he purchased the new parka. Obviously he didn’t need it. The old one was doing the job just fine. And unlike his dress coat, this wasn’t for a different activity from the other parka. All he can tell you is that he was in a store where the parka was displayed, and he decided to buy it. And afterward, he wondered why he had. I suspect he was simply in a shopping mode and, on impulse, he made the purchase. Now here’s where John’s statement about having two coats really bites me: There are local agencies that have boxes where they are collecting used winter coats in good condition to donate to people in need. So he went through his closets, and rounded up some other winter coats that are not being worn. He ended up taking six coats to the collection, but he did not include his old parka. He realized that he actually liked it and will possibly still wear it sometimes. He even thought about sending his new parka, but he didn’t do that either. Yet John says, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none.” We realize that John lived in a different era. In his day, there was not much of a middle class. There were some who were very well off, and most of the rest were relatively poor. Among that group, anyone who had two coats was fortunate indeed, and John urged them to share. What’s more, there were no social-welfare programs in that time. In acknowledging the differences between our times and John’s, I can also point out that in buying the new coat, this man was supporting the economy, not an insignificant act in a capitalist society. If all of us purchased a new coat only when our existing one was fully worn out, we’d put the coat industry out of business. What’s more, the money that he spent on the new coat was not money that he would have otherwise given to charity. He already gives to several charities and to the church, so this was so-called disposable income. But you know what? None of that rationalization helps very much. The purchase feels unwarranted, shopping for shopping’s sake. Christian faith and Christmas shopping This is a good time of year to at least think about how our Christian faith ought to intersect with our shopping habits. Shopping is part of our way of life. It is both a process of acquiring goods and a leisure activity, and it is not likely to go away, not even now when we are officially in a recession. Some of us will charge items to our credit cards this season, even though we are still paying off last Christmas’ credit card debt. We will shop, even though the risk of losing our jobs is higher now than it has been for a long time. It’s part of what we do. (One department store even brags about its wares giving us the chance to be “shamelessly shoppertunistic.” They give us “shoppertunities.”) In any case, my remarks today are not meant as a condemnation of shopping. We live in an economy that is different from the one John lived in, and people’s jobs are dependent on our economy working. Nonetheless, John’s statement implies that we should not shop mindlessly. And we should be careful that our sense of self-worth does not become tied to what we own or what we can purchase. As Christians, we should remember that our identity comes from being beloved children of God. Five questions We are going to shop, but we need to do so as Christians. So what I want to do is offer five questions to ask ourselves each time we make a purchase. These come from Marti Zimmerman. She is a writer in Colorado, and she says that these questions can help us “shop for the glory of God.” First, Do I need this item? And when shopping for gifts, ask, Does my loved one need this? Obviously, had our friend asked himself that one, he would not have purchased the new parka. He didn’t need it. The ancient philosopher Socrates, well known as a frugal man, was often found in the marketplace, examining the most luxurious wares on display. A friend asked why he came to the market when he never bought anything. “‘I am always amazed to see,” Socrates replied, “just how many things there are that I don’t need.” But we have to be thoughtful with this question because advertising often promotes wants as if they were needs. Many things we might say are needs are really wants. Of course, it’s possible to live without many of the items we purchase, and the question about need is too limiting. A version of it I think is more helpful is Will this item make me happier or healthier. Six months from now, will I be glad I purchased it? Second, Can I afford it? That’s an important consideration. On average, we Americans now spend 1 percent more than we make. And if that doesn’t sound like much, translate it to calories. If, each day, you eat 1 percent more calories than you burn, it won’t be long before you need to shop — for clothes in larger sizes. Even holiday gifts should be budgeted. We don’t prove we love others by going into debt to give them gifts we can’t afford. If you buy a gift in December on credit with no plan to pay it off in full in January or February at the latest, you can’t afford it Third, Under what conditions was this item produced? We live in a global economy, but in some places items are produced in sweatshop conditions. It’s true that we cannot always know which items come from such labor, but where we can ascertain it, we should not purchase items where people were cheated, deprived, endangered or badly used to create them. It is not necessarily a matter of paying foreign workers less than Western wages, for the cost of living in other countries can be lower. But some products are made under conditions that we wouldn’t accept for ourselves — long hours of labor for not enough money for workers to feed their families, send their children to school and keep a roof over their heads. We shouldn’t encourage such ill-treatment by always demanding the lowest prices. Fourth, Where will this product end up? Is this an item that will have some useful life or will it be abandoned and soon end up in a landfill. Will it become household clutter, a “regifted” item or even toxic waste? One woman tells of going shopping very early on Black Friday and seeing customers trampling all over one another and even getting into fights. She wrote about her experience on an Internet blog, and concluded by saying, “All this madness for a toy that in two months will be sitting in a toy box and never played with again. Normal everyday people acting like staving dogs fighting over a bone? Also don’t forget, this is about toys for Christmas. Remember — peace and joy? Next year I think I will skip the insanity and just order online.” Finally, Is there something special for the Birthday Boy under the tree? Is some of our spending this season practicing the principle Jesus promoted of loving our neighbor? Will something we spend on this month please Jesus? In recent years, there was a significant movement in the shopping world to replace the greeting “Merry Christmas” with the more politically correct “Happy Holidays.” One result of moving Christmas away from the celebration of Christ’s birth is that it encourages shopping without reference to what Jesus taught. We who follow Jesus need to honor him by using some of our Christmas money to help someone in need. For in so doing, Jesus said, we are caring for him. Most of us are going to shop during this season, but we should do it in ways that show we have God in mind. |
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