Commercial culture wants us to align with company brands and define ourselves by what we buy. Companies want us to strive for a standard of beauty that does not reflect the depth and breadth of God’s handiwork in skin tones, body shapes, and physical abilities. They sell a lifestyle that is the exact opposite of “Give us our daily bread” and “Do not covet your neighbor’s property.” With the help of the Spirit, we say no to them.
Commercial culture has us striving for a goal that we cannot reach. We are alone in this work except for what we are able to buy. What we can purchase creates a gap between us and other people. Instead of grace, there is disapproval and frustration.
In that comparison, we can more easily see the kind of rest that Jesus promises. It is a rest in which our identity as a child of God is secured, not by our own work, but by God’s work and desires. Jesus says, “Come, you who are weary. You are enough because I am enough, and I have claimed you as my own.”
This message is excerpted from “Consumerism and our identity” by Julia Seymour in the August 2018 Café online magazine. Today we commemorate Justus Falckner, 1723; Jehu Jones, 1852 and William Passavant, 1894, all pastors in North America.
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