Reversing the Tide of Consumer Christianity

Radical Gratitude Mary Jo Leddy“Gratitude will not come easily here and now, not, or at least primarily, because we are morally or psychologically weak but because the predominant values of our culture are so subtle and all-pervasive. However, I suspect that most of us remain largely unconscious of the extent to which consumerism reaches deep within us and operates as a psychological and even spiritual dynamic.”

Why The Devil Takes Visa Rodney Clapp

“It is not just consumerism in its most undisguised, hackneyed manifestations that should concern us, but consumerism as an ethos, a character-cultivating way of life that seduces and insinuates and acclimates.

Why The Devil Takes Visa Rodney Clapp

This, too often, is consumption that militates against the Christian virtues of patience, contentedness, self-denial, and generosity-almost always with a velvet glove rather than an iron fist. It speaks in sweet and sexy rather than dictatorial tones, and it conquers by promises rather than by threats.”

Perpetual DissatisfactionAs an economic modelBenjamin Barber – “Consumed”

“Today, consumerist capitalism profits only when it can address those whose essential needs have already been satisfied but who have the means to assuage ‘new’ and invented needs.”

Perpetual DissatisfactionRuns deeper

I don’t have enough, becomesI am not enough, which becomes

I am not good enough.

Radical Gratitude Mary Jo Leddy“In a consumer culture, it is not easy to

believe in more enduring forms of love. It is almost beyond our imagining that God could love us not only for free but also forever. Such are the fundamental spiritual distortions of the culture of money.”

Perpetual DissatisfactionRuns wider

other peoplewith one’s workwith the world,with one’s church and faith, and with God

Radical Gratitude Mary Jo LeddyIt is the ingratitude that blinds us.Our failure to see what we have

on the way to getting moreOur disregard for what we stop over

on the way to somewhere elseOur lack of attention to the person by our side

on the way to someone elseOur dismissal of the good that we do

on the way to something greater.

Radical Gratitude Mary Jo LeddyAll that we take for granted

falls through our handsand disappears from sight.

And we too fall awayfrom ourselves and from You.

We walk by ourselvesby the waysideand do not recognize Youon the way to something better.

The Marshmallow TestStanford University – Dr. Walter MischelStudy of delayed gratification and self

control

Dr. Mischel“Kids start off unable to wait for

anything—whatever they want they need. But then, as I watched my own kids, I marveled at how they gradually learned how to delay and how that made so many other things possible.”

Strategic Allocation of AttentionSkill set can be learned to help resist

impulses, delay gratification and develop self-control

Philippians 4:11-13Phil. 4:11 I am not saying this because I am in

need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

Phil. 4:12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Phil. 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:8Phil. 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is

true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Romans 12:2Rom. 12:2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to

your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Fasting and FeastingFasting

depriving ourselves of things in order to get closer to God.

Feastingtaking that very thing that feels like a

barrier and transforming it into the very thing that transports you to God.

DeprivationFasting is the deprivation of foodSilence is the deprivation of sound and speechSolitude is the deprivation of relationshipCelibacy is the deprivation of sexServing others involves the deprivation of timeSimplicity is the deprivation of luxuryGenerosity is the deprivation of moneyStewardship is the deprivation of ownership

DeprivationDeprivation is not about pretending that

you don’t want what you want – it’s about recognizing that you want it, but then taking that under discipline and choosing not to indulge.

Reversing the TideDeprivation can be a powerful means to

understanding our dependency and our role

Deprivation can be a powerful means of bringing freedom to our lives.

Celebration of Discipline Richard Foster

“Simplicity is freedom. Duplicity is bondage. Simplicity brings joy and balance. Duplicity brings anxiety and fear. Because - and to the degree that - we lack a divine Centre our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things. Conformity to a sick society is to be sick.

Celebration of Discipline Richard Foster

However, asceticism and simplicity are not the same: asceticism renounces possessions; simplicity sets possessions in proper perspective. Then there is the discipline of sharing. Martin Luther said somewhere, 'If our goods are not available to the community they are stolen goods.”

Reversing the TideDeprivation can be a powerful means to

contentment.

Ecclesiastes 5:10-12Eccl. 5:10 Whoever loves money never has

money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.

Eccl. 5:11 As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?

Eccl. 5:12 The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep.

Reversing the TideDeprivation can be a powerful means to

contentment.Deprivation can be a powerful means to

loving and serving others

Radical Gratitude Mary Jo Leddy

“Gratitude is the foundation of faith in God as the Creator of all beginnings, great and small. It awakens the imagination to another way of being, to another kind of economy, the great economy of grace in which each person is of infinite value and worth.”

Isaiah 58:6-12Is. 58:6 “This is the kind of fast day I’m after:

to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace,free the oppressed, cancel debts.

Is. 58:7 What I’m interested in seeing you do is:sharing your food with the hungry,inviting the homeless poor into your

homes,putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,being available to your own families.

Isaiah 58:6-12Is. 58:8 Do this and the lights will turn on,

and your lives will turn around at once.Your righteousness will pave your way.The GOD of glory will secure your passage.

Is. 58:9 Then when you pray, GOD will answer.You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

“If you get rid of unfair practices,quit blaming victims,quit gossiping about other people’s sins,

Isaiah 58:6-12Is. 58:10 If you are generous with the hungry and

start giving yourselves to the down and-out,

Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

Isaiah 58:6-12Is. 58:11 I will always show you where to go.

I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—firm muscles, strong bones.You’ll be like a well-watered garden,a gurgling spring that never runs dry.

Isaiah 58:6-12Is. 58:12 You’ll use the old rubble of past lives

to build anew,rebuild the foundations from out of your past.You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,make the community livable again.