The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 33: 14-16)
Today is Black Friday. Black Friday is a new phenomenon for me, and for most Canadian consumers, because, well, it coincides with the American Thanksgiving. Its supposed to be the day that launches the Christmas Shopping Season. (When you see “Christmas Shopping Season” you need to hear it spoken like a big announcement over the PA at the mall). (I just used PA and mall in the same sentence. That totally tells you how old I am!). ‘Black Friday’ came into popular use in the 1960s to describe the crowds of people that went looking for huge discounts on goods and services.
All week, online, I’ve seen ‘Black Friday Deals’ pop up unbidden on my social media. Even on my Canadian shopping sites. Some of the ‘discounts’ seem pretty attractive. I saw 60% discounts on some popular electronics. I also have seen 30-50% discounts on clothing and shoes. But I also noticed that none of the ‘deals’ were for things that I actually need – like groceries, or gas for my car, or even for OTC meds.
And then I read that 80% of the items purchased on Black Friday were discarded after a few uses, and that the discarded items end up in landfill or being sent to poorly managed recycling facilities (and ultimately landfill in a developing country) (www.populationmatters.org). So, the items that people thought were such a ‘good deal’ on Black Friday, actually turn out to be more costly in the long run.
But somehow the purchase of these items seems urgent. Necessary. And people are willing to line up, overnight in some instances, and push and shove others in order score the perfect deal. Black Friday sanctions rudeness and aggression because the ‘price is right’. Black Friday lifts up consumerism to the place of holiness, and like the story of Icarus flying too close to the sun, results in a fall that is costly to our environment, to our resources and even to our souls.
This Sunday is Advent 1, the Sunday in the church year that we talk about hope. I love that in Advent, all of the Old Testament readings from the Lectionary are voices of the Prophets that we in the Christian church have seen as prophecies foretelling the birth of Jesus, our Messiah. This week’s reading is no exception and it comes from the book of Jeremiah. We love these prophecies, don’t we. They seem hopeful, optimistic. The coming of Jesus foretold in neat bows of self righteousness and warm cups of apple cider. Jesus, the Messiah, as a feel-good yoga instructor complete with his own self-help book.
The one thing that we’ve forgotten about, that is really the theme of Jeremiah, is that the prophecy has much more to do about judgement than it has to do about feeling good or self-help. Jeremiah is constantly reminding people that they’ve taken the path of destruction rather than righteousness, and that its time that they turned around and followed God’s direction instead of their own. Jeremiah 33, the passage I quoted above, is just part of a tiny little section of the whole prophecy. A tiny kernel, pointing out hope surrounded by oracles of judgement. “You can’t do this” Jeremiah screams. “This is going to destroy you all”.
You can’t descend into consumerism even if the ‘deal’ is really good. You can just use stuff once and then throw it away – that’s causing even more destruction. You can’t jostle and harm your neighbours just because the ‘price is right’. And you really can’t let your neighbour go hungry because there’s a 60% deal on the latest electronics that will be obsolete before you even leave the store.
But really ,there is Hope, right? There is Advent 1 hope. Hope in the hushed waiting of our Messiah being born. Hope grounded in judgement that reminds us all of the time that we are called to a different way of being. That we are called to turn our lives away from the senseless acquisition of things that we will discard after a few uses. To turn away from trying to catch some excitement in competing for the ‘deals’. To turn to a place where we look first to being people of justice and righteousness.
Turn with me in this this Advent 1 Hope, friends. We are called to a different place.
Blessings today, and remember you are Loved.
~Rev. Lynne
