black friday
my Christian Scriptures professor sent the class a little Thanksgiving/Black Friday email. i thought i would share it because he some explains some very important things more eloquently than i can. happy thanksgiving!
I wanted to share a little something with you yesterday before you left, but forgot to do so. Thanksgiving is a wonderful ritual of our culture, isn't it? A day set aside to give thanks, eat a wonderful meal and celebrate all the good things we have in our lives. Tomorrow, of course, confronts us with another powerful ritual of our culture: the mad-frenzy of consumerism to kick of the Christmas buying season. I'm sure you've seen and heard the ads: "Don't miss the biggest sale of the year! Stores open at 4am! Huge discounts in the first few hours! Run run run buy buy buy fast!!" It is really sad, isn't it? One day to give thanks for all that we have, followed by a month-long mad dash to spend money most of us don't have buying things most of us don't need.
It reminds me of a passage from Hosea: "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the Lord." What kind of houses are we building for ourselves? What kingdom do we serve? We pray that God's Kingdom will come, but when the marketers start ringing their bells most all of us go running to answer the call, investing in the things of this world.
So this year, I invite you all to do two things to demonstrate to yourselves and those around you that your primary allegiance is to a different kingdom. (1) Though tomorrow is mostly known as a day of consumer frenzy, it is also known as "Buy Nothing Day" (http://adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/). Take the day off. Resist the knee-jerk response to shop and spend. There is plenty of time to buy your Christmas gifts. (2) Consider buying alternative gifts this year that will spread our blessings across the world. Give Heifer Project gifts (www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.204586/k.9430/Gift_Catalog.htm?msource=kw1882), or pretend you're a mini-Bill Gates and make a microloan investment in someone's name (www.kiva.org/).
I assure you, many of your loved ones do not actually need the gift you're preparing to buy them. What we all need is a new vision of the world as a place where no one has too much and no one has too little, a place where people are empowered by the Spirit to return thanksgiving to God by sharing what they have with those who are underprivileged. Invest in the Kingdom and inspire people to realize that it is possible to live differently in the world.
Thanks for listening. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! God bless you and your loved ones this year.
Dave Nienhuis
I wanted to share a little something with you yesterday before you left, but forgot to do so. Thanksgiving is a wonderful ritual of our culture, isn't it? A day set aside to give thanks, eat a wonderful meal and celebrate all the good things we have in our lives. Tomorrow, of course, confronts us with another powerful ritual of our culture: the mad-frenzy of consumerism to kick of the Christmas buying season. I'm sure you've seen and heard the ads: "Don't miss the biggest sale of the year! Stores open at 4am! Huge discounts in the first few hours! Run run run buy buy buy fast!!" It is really sad, isn't it? One day to give thanks for all that we have, followed by a month-long mad dash to spend money most of us don't have buying things most of us don't need.
It reminds me of a passage from Hosea: "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the Lord." What kind of houses are we building for ourselves? What kingdom do we serve? We pray that God's Kingdom will come, but when the marketers start ringing their bells most all of us go running to answer the call, investing in the things of this world.
So this year, I invite you all to do two things to demonstrate to yourselves and those around you that your primary allegiance is to a different kingdom. (1) Though tomorrow is mostly known as a day of consumer frenzy, it is also known as "Buy Nothing Day" (http://adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/). Take the day off. Resist the knee-jerk response to shop and spend. There is plenty of time to buy your Christmas gifts. (2) Consider buying alternative gifts this year that will spread our blessings across the world. Give Heifer Project gifts (www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.204586/k.9430/Gift_Catalog.htm?msource=kw1882), or pretend you're a mini-Bill Gates and make a microloan investment in someone's name (www.kiva.org/).
I assure you, many of your loved ones do not actually need the gift you're preparing to buy them. What we all need is a new vision of the world as a place where no one has too much and no one has too little, a place where people are empowered by the Spirit to return thanksgiving to God by sharing what they have with those who are underprivileged. Invest in the Kingdom and inspire people to realize that it is possible to live differently in the world.
Thanks for listening. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! God bless you and your loved ones this year.
Dave Nienhuis
posted by thomas castle at
9:44 PM
1 Comments:
Sounds like a great professor. I like what he had to say. Thanks for posting this!
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