Faith and Shopping
Faith and Shopping
Sermon St Mary's, Comberton 26th Sept 2008
Matt 6:25-33; James 5:1-6
<<Godly shopping puts value on communities rather than commodities>>
INTRO - METROCENTRE
The Metrocentre in Gateshead is the 2nd largest shopping centre in Europe. When we lived in Durham we would sometimes drive up to the metrocentre to watch a film. I learnt v quickly that it really mattered which of the 4 colour coded car parks you left your car in. If you parked in the red car park and were visiting the cinema in the blue mall you could face a 15 min walk! 300 shops are such a pull that people fly over from Norway to do their Christmas shopping there. Construction financed by Cof E. Until 1995 the Metro Centre was owned by the Church.
Sermon series on the connections between Christian faith and the 167 hours we don't spend in church each week. Waking/ sleeping, family life, work.
Only shopping centre to have a full time chaplain – Revd Lyn Jamieson job caring for the 7000 people who work there (3x population of our village). In preparation for this sermon I spoke to her.
Lyn is someone who knows that God is interested in life outside of church buildings – including shopping centres.
“So are you going to take God to the metrocentre then?”
“No I believe he's already there, I just want to find out where he is at work.”
“How can you work in that temple of Mammon?”
Is shopping totally opposed to God's purposes?
Should the church even contemplate owning a shopping centre?
Metrocentre done enormous good by bringing regeneration and employment to one of the poorest areas of Britain. Demise coal steel and shipbuilding industries.
Lyn answered the question:
Buying and selling – as old as civilization itself
The Prophet Kahlil Gibran:-
“And a merchant said, 'Speak to us of Buying and Selling.'
And he answered and said:
To you the earth yields her fruit, and you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands.
It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied.
Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger.”
Buying and selling part of sharing the earth's resources with one another. Coffee / grain.
BUT – scales not balanced fairly.
The way we shop ought to have a lot to do with our faith.
THE MAIN POINT
Our society... puts value on commodities and not communities
products and not people
objects rather than others.
Illustration 3rd world labourer
God's way opposite
Places value on communities rather than commodities
people rather than products
others rather than objects.
THE BIBLE READINGS
Matt 6:25-33
Don't worry about things food or clothes!
“Strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.”
Better than 'righteousness' nebulous 'Justice' – measurable. How much do we pay the people who grow the food we eat? What access to medical care do the people who make our clothes have?
James 5:1-6
Art exhibition – captivating video art. Bowl of fruit photographed every hour / period of weeks.
Watch in fast forward. bananas brown -> black; skin apples crinkled; pears lost shape slumped. Rotting mess.
This passage. With what we place value on in the western world – fast forward to day of reckoning.
v2 “your riches have rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted”
what remains are people, their witness is not flattering:
v4 “Listen! The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud cry out, and the cries of the harvesters will have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”
Assumption modern world “We eat food from nowhere and wear clothes made by nobody”
NOT TRUE. Part of following Jesus to reveal the relationships between what we buy and the people who sell it to us.
THE MAIN POINT APPLIED
If we do choose God's way...
value communities more than commodities
people more than products
others more than objects.
...how does that affect how we act when we're out shopping?
* Choose products that value people. fair trade. Good Shopping Guide
- Ask shop managers where products come from, who makes them.
- Kindly words for shop attendants – Lyn's experience often treated badly (esp at Christmas)
often not their fault – end of supply chain
- waiting in checkout queue – pray for those around you. Instead of getting irritated by the children misbehaving.
- [something i'm bad at] How often do we buy things for people outside our immediate family? Not lavish gifts. Sandwich – homeless; birthday cake – someone at work; new tin opener – elderly neighbour
THE MAIN POINT APPLIED TO OURSELVES
Finally – ourselves
if we value people more than products - how does that affect how we value ourselves?
An Advert on the TV tells us – you're worth it – buy yourself a treat.
We know that no amount of possessions can ever feed our deep hunger to be loved completely.
Jesus says – you are worth it – worth far more than you can imagine. So much so that I have paid the ultimate price for you.
So when we're next tempted to buy something we don't need. Let's remember that Jesus bought our freedom with his life.