The Religion of Consumerism

If you care to consider this, kindly read the whole thing and think about it before commenting.  The context is the question of what do we see as the Kingdom of God which we are to desire upon this earth and, particularly, how does our consumerist model match up.  The entire section in the book is worth considering.

   In particular, they don't want us to ask, "Where does all this stuff come from?" Instead, they encourage us to accept a certain magic, the myth that the garments and equipment that circulate from the mall through our homes and into the landfill simply emerged in shops as if dropped by aliens. The processes of production and transport remain hidden and invisible, like the entrances and exits for the characters at Disney World. This invisibility is not accidental; it is necessary in order for us not to see that this way of life is unsustainable and selfishly lives off of the backs of the majority of the world. What the liturgy of the mall trains us to desire as the good life and "the American way" requires such massive consumption of natural resources and cheap (exploitive) labor that there is no possible way for this way of life to be universalized. (Though the United States comprises only 5 percent of the world's population, we consume somewhere between 23 and 26 percent of the world's energy.) The liturgy of consumption births in us a desire for a way of life that is destructive of creation itself; moreover, it births in us a desire for a way of life that we can't feasibly extend to others, creating a system of privilege and exploitation.

- James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom, pg 101. (emphasis mine)

The Prince of India - Lewis Wallace

I have recently been reading (or listening to, on my Kindle) Lewis Wallace's The Prince of India: Or Why Constantinople Fell (1893).  As it is far beyond it's copyright date, I got it free sometime back.  It attracted me since it talks of both India and Constantinople, both topics of interest to me.  It has far exceeded my expectations of an old novel!

  

I rarely read classic works, particularly those that are unknown to me: they tend towards the tedious too often; and if they have not achieved recognition already, why would they now?  Still, with many hours of driving time in which to listen to it, I figured I would at least start it, and now I am thoroughly hooked.  It is masterfully told.  Some may have recognized the author as he who wrote the perennial best-seller, Ben-Hur.  To my mind, this work easily overshadows the other, thought doubtless my lack of having read that in the author's original makes my comparison unjust.

While in most classic works, the flowing and descriptive works may begin to wear on one's patience, here it enhances the subject.  The East and its ascendant warriors encounter the royalty of the Byzantines in their courts. The effect is to build a plot more slowly than the modern novel is often built, but the very weightiness of the topic, even in a novel, allows for this care in detail.  Doubtless, I am biased towards the author's weaving in numerous places that I have grown to love and expect to see again.  Still, I would gladly recommend the book to anyone who loves to have characters, cultures and history unfolded for them in graceful fiction.  

Not to minimize an ancient urging, Tolle Lege!

the Great Feast

We were made for feasting at a Great Feast!

Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

And [Jesus] said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

This mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.

And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.

~ Rev 19:9b; Isa 55:1-2; Lk 22:15-16; Isa 25:6-8; Lk 13:29

PS I am quite aware of the hermeneutical difficulties of stringing these passages together; consider the theme, not the hermeneutics... or, just watch for another blog post. :)

The next world instead of this one?

Theologies, churches, and preaching seem more concerned with helping people feel good about being in this world with all its hedonistic tendencies than with calling individuals and nations to a true conversion to the way of Jesus of Nazareth.  There seemed to be much more concern with the Christ of Glory who could justify the glories of our United States way of life than with Jesus of Nazareth who lived and died as a scandal to all the respectable, religious, and fine people of this world!  

~ foreward, Manana by Justo Gonzalez

The Prophetic Nature of the Lord's Communion Supper

Here are a few more thoughts to accompany my last post on The Last Supper and First Communion Celebration.

And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.  (Luke 22:14-20 ESV)

I have regularly heard of the MEMORIAL aspect of the Christ-ordained ritual we have recorded above (vs. 19; also, 1 Cor 11:24, 25).  In the last couple years, I have become familiar also with the PROCLAIMING aspect of the Supper mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11:26, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."  But, it was not until considering this passage this weekend that I became aware of the PROPHETIC aspect of the supper.  

Notice the highlighted section from verse 16.  Jesus is saying that the Supper will one day be fulfilled in His Kingdom.  One somewhat loose translation amplifies the statement as follows, "For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God." (NLT).  This amplification seems to be in line with what the passage is saying.  

Here are some thoughts, and I would be glad of critique or comment.  I believe Jesus, the great Lamb, is saying that the meaning of the Supper is in His death for the people of God, His Bride, bought from every kindred, tongue, people, and nation.  He is going to be broken and poured out for them as a sacrifice.  They are to remember and to proclaim this sacrifice through this Supper, but they must also look forward.  There is coming a Day... a Great Day when the Lamb will have gathered all whom He bought to Himself, when every blood-washed sinner is drawn near to the face of GOD... and, on that Day, the Lamb will celebrate the Supper with all of His people.  It will be the biggest party, the greatest celebration, the most lavish banquet of all time (and maybe of eternity), as the fulfillment of the greatest event and message is fulfilled in the matchless splendor which its Author and Perfecter intended.  

Oh! THAT will be Glory!

Meditations on the Last Passover and First Communion Celebration

As I've been drawn to meditate on the final Passover which Jesus the Lamb had with those who were closest to him, these reflections from MacLaren's Exposition of St. Luke has been helpful.

[Jesus] discloses His earnest desire for that last hour of calm before He went out to face the storm, and reveals His vision of the future feast in the perfect kingdom. That desire touchingly shows His brotherhood in all our shrinking from parting with dear ones, and in our treasuring of the last sweet, sad moments of being together. That was a true human heart, 'fashioned alike' with ours, which longed and planned for one quiet hour before the end, and found some bracing for Gethsemane and Calvary in the sanctities of the Upper Room.

...

"It is sufficient to note that in [the elements] He gives what He does not taste, and that, in giving, His thoughts travel beyond all the sorrow and death to reunion and perfected festal joys. These anticipations solaced His heart in that supreme hour. 'For the joy that was set before Him' He 'endured the Cross,' and this was the crown of His joy, that all His friends should share it with Him, and sit at His table in His kingdom."

Maclaren, Alexander (2005-05-01). Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Luke (Kindle Locations 7119-7123, 7127-7130). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Purposeful discipleship

This was shared in a session last night from Mark's gospel. About purposeful discipleship...

  "And then Jesus walks up to them in the middle of their work day and says, Follow Me. He promises to make them into man-fishers. They may have had little idea of what it was to be a man-fisher, but they trust him, and he helps them to have a goal in mind. If they follow Jesus, he is going to make them into something. He is going to take their mundane lives and make something amazing out of them."

A Wife's Submission

The most thought-provoking (and probably, controversy-stirring) posts I have seen recently on marriage are those two related posts: 'Must a Wife Always Follow Her Husband's Leadership?' and 'Wives, Submission, and Foolish Husbands'.  They are both useful for their different emphases, and while the passage mentioned by Naselli may not be a teaching passage, it may well be instructive... in fact, it is definitely useful for instruction (2 Tim 3:16), the question is what sort of instruction is meant. :) ...ponder, ponder, ponder...

The origins of repentance

Hence it is evident, that never a good thought, never a penitent thought would have come into our hearts, had not some thoughts of peace and good-will come into God's heart. When he remembers his covenant of mercy for us, so as not to remember our sins against us, then we remember our sins against ourselves with shame. 

- Gospel Humiliation, Ralph Erskine (referring to Eze 16:60-61)

the Holiness of God

Until we have seen ourselves as God sees us, we are not likely to be much disturbed over conditions around us.  We have learned to live with unholiness and have come to look upon it as the natural and expected thing.  We are not disappointed that we do not find all truth in our teachers, or faithfulness in our politicians or complete honesty in our merchants, or full trustworthiness in our friends.

We are not qualified to appreciate the holiness of God.  A new channel must be cut through the desert of our minds to let the sweet waters of truth that will heal our sickness flow in. 

We know nothing like Divine holiness.  It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable.   Only the Holy Spirit can impart to the human spirit the knowledge of the holy. 
...

When God rises to put down iniquity and save the world from irreparable moral collapse, He is said to be angry.  Every wrathful judgment in the history of the world has been a holy act of preservation.  The holiness of God and the preservation of the universe are inseparably linked.  God's wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys.

- by GDC, my grandpa