home > Pastor Chiles > Taking the Resurrection to Our Shpping List
Taking the Resurrection to Our Shopping List
Sunday, April 13, 2008
A Christ-centered life aims to love God by serving our neighbor. What can happen, then, if we ‘bring our neighbor’ with us as we shop?
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. A week ago I was with a group from MGLC handing these magnetized Cub food shopping lists out as a youth fundraiser at a Twins game. Some of us will go shopping this afternoon, for groceries, or to the sporting goods store to outfit our son or daughter for spring sports, or maybe you’ll stop at the home improvement store to pick up supplies for your spring project. (I didn’t mention the local gardening store…still too wintry.) What’s on your shopping list for the coming week? Could you explain how your faith influences your choices and shopping habits?
I am NOT the person to preach on smart shopping habits. I don’t take time to look for bargains. Two months ago I needed to replace a suit I’d worn out. On lunch break, I ran out of church over to the JC Penny store here in Maple Grove and came out with a 3 piece suit in 10 minutes. Except, after I’d worn it once or twice, the dry cleaners lost my suit! They were nice enough- I brought in my receipt and they gave me credit. This week I was over at Ridgedale Mall, and decided to just take a quick look in the JC Penny store. To my amazement, there was the same suit at 50% off. So I bought it- that only took 5 minutes. You know that expression “heaven help us!” A deal has to basically fall from heaven into my hands for me to save money. Today we want to look at how heaven CAN help us with our shopping list!
We all know people who are great shoppers and that’s a real talent. But whether or not it’s our talent, we all have money, and because God calls us to exercise stewardship over everything He has given us, we need to learn how our faith can inform our shopping.
I was thinking about how easy it is to walk into a store these days, with those automatic doors and pressurized entrances, I’m thinking in particular of the Target stores. The wind blows your hair around a bit, but they make it a “breeze” to walk in and spend some money. One trip I made to the Target store lasted 3 hours. It was a memorable shopping trip because of the guest came with me- Elma Mujagic - a fourteen year old girl from Bosnia-Hergovina. Elma, her mother, and a translator, Donna, were here thanks to Samaritan’s Purse, which arranged for and funded Elma’s trip to Minnesota so that she could receive life-saving neurosurgery at Abbot Northwestern. I was a host, and so, when Elma was feeling well enough a few weeks after her surgery, I arranged to take her out for a little shopping trip. Elma was already a wisp of a girl, with wispy blond hair, and she was pale and tired after her hospital visit. But the look in Elma’s eyes when we entered the Target store, was such a look of wonder. We wandered up and down most every aisle in the store. Elma and her mother and Donna the translator would talk and talk about everything they saw. The more Elma was amazed, the more uncomfortable I felt. I felt the excessiveness of what we as Americans have available to us. I imagined empty shelves in the stores of her homeland. I was heart-stricken by what I could see through Elma’s eyes: her poverty, my abundance.
When Jesus talked about abundant life, he was not speaking in material terms. Our concept of blessedness is rooted in sharing in the life of Christ, not material wealth. The Apostle Paul wrote from a prison cell to his friends in Philippi “I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” We are blessed, not by accumulating wealth and possessions for our comfort, security, happiness- but by the opposite. We are blessed using the resources at our hands for the sake of our neighbor. That is always where Jesus directs our focus, loving God by loving our neighbor. Even neighbors who live as far away as Bosnia-Herzgovina.
You know the adage “Money can’t buy happiness” but it turns out that money can make us happy if we spend it on others. The March issue of the journal , Science, reports the results from several studies demonstrating that pro-social spending- that is, spending money on others- boosts our happiness factor.
Look at what the disciples were doing: they were engaged in a pro-social spending pattern; making economic choices for the sake of their neighbor. Our reading from Acts of the Apostles says: “All who believed were together and had all things in common: they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” Here is a fledgling group of Christians, building a community that is close in fellowship, aware of the needs of its members, praying, teaching, sharing food – economic behavior is included.
This transformed community gave witness to the power of resurrected life in Christ. They lived so compassionately directed towards their neighbor, that news spread like wildfire and many others join them. Their community gave witness and glory to God. So that’s where I want to take us today. Here’s the challenge: take a look at our money and at our shopping lists with our neighbor in mind. Allow our faith to guide our shopping habits and choices about what we do with our money, by thinking about those choices as they affect our community and, our neighbor.
It is hard to focus on our neighbor or any healthy spending habits when we are inundated daily by advertising. Spending has reached a crisis point, and people are desperate for ways to deal with the debt they carry as a result. It’s fearsome for the coming generation:
The after-tax savings rate for young people 35 and under is negative 16% — Bureau of Labor Statistics
Children today spend FIVE times more money than their parents did at the same age (and that’s adjusted for inflation) – KGA Communications
I’d like to introduce a concept developed by Nathan Dungan, founder of Share, Save, Spend (www.sharesavespend.com.) Nathan Dungan, by the way, is our member Ardelle Temanson’s nephew! Nathan serves on the boards of the National Institute on Media and the Family, Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota,and is a graduate of St. Olaf and the Carlson School of Management.
I like that Nathan Dungan wants us to attach our values to our money. That shifts us away from the temptation of spending on ourselves, or overspending, and gets us to focus on saving and sharing our money. When he encourages us to seek a balance, Nathan is not only helping us find financial sanity, he’s moving us in the direction of using our financial resources for our neighbor’s sake.
The rest of this sermon is examples of sharing, saving, and spending with our neighbors in mind. I am going to lift up ideas to get us all thinking about making spending choices for the sake of our neighbor. And I want to begin with SHARING. Here we have the voices of God’s prophets to heed. The prophets call us to address inequalities between rich and poor, and to be especially attentive to the needs of the widows, orphans and children.
A United Nations Human Development Report offered a stark picture of global inequalities: Globally, the 20% of the world’s people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures — the poorest 20% a minuscule 1.3%. Human Development Report 1998 Overview
By setting limits on our own consumption, we are able to increase what we share. I was looking at the Dave Ramsay website, after a member of our congregation told me how their family is moving out of debt through his financial ministry. We aren’t in a position to be able to tithe if we are locked down in debt. I liked the point he makes about freeing our economic resources for Christian ministry and outreach.
Our Domican Republic partnership invites us to be part of a transforming community, sharing in the life of Christ, and making us neighbors with the people of Villa Esfuerza, and Light and Life Church and School. We can be good global neighbors.
Next category is Saving. Here I want to lift up how we can Save and help our neighbors at the same time. Here’s a way to be a double saver, to save twice with our money.
We ourselves can become lenders to others through micro-loan programs.
Through Opportunity International, we can make micro-loans to entrepreneurs in Villa Esfuerza, and enhance our partnership with our Dominican Republic global mission. Details are in this week’s Ministry Notes.
I also found this organization- KIVA, (www.Kiva.org) founded just a few years ago by Matthew and Jessica Flannery. They were in a pre-engagement class at their church, where they met each week to talk about different life issues. At one class they were asked about career goals and realized they could be headed for very divergent paths: Matthew wanted to work for a tech startup company in Silicon Valley and Jessica wanted to work in microfinance and live in Africa. But their goals came together when they founded KIVA, an online micro lending nonprofit that enables people to lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world, empowering people to lift themselves out of poverty. I looked at their website this week and saw a description of a woman in the Dominican Republic, Carmen, who is looking for her second loan to grow her moped taxi service. She charges a dollar per ride. And she hopes to eventually buy a second moped and even a care so that she can drive several people around at a time. This is so user friendly- it’s as easy as if you were going on Ebay to round out your Twins Bobblehead collection. Maybe I could wait a little on that purchase, and instead go to the KIVA website, choose an entrepreneur from the pictures and descriptions, and use pay pal to make an investment. So we can care for our neighbors even as we invest our money.
Then there’s our SPENDING. How do we align our purchases with concerns for our neighbor? Here we are challenged to think about a whole variety of issues: environmental conservation, avoiding pollution, preserving resources for future generations, increasing energy independence as a nation, fair labor practices, fair trade products, sustainable living, and so forth. When you start to think about it, there are all kinds of impacts the items on our shopping list can make for the sake of our neighbor.
I have to say it’s only in the past year that the idea of “Buying Local” has even risen on my radar screen. I started seeing “Locally Grown” tags on fresh produce at the grocery store. Here’s what I learned about why I should pay attention. The concept of buying local is simply to buy food (or any good or service) produced, grown, or raised as close to your home as possible. The average grocery store produce travels nearly 1500 miles from where it was grown to the grocery store: it’s trucked, freighted across oceans and flown to us. So, we can save energy costs involved in the food delivery system by buying local. We will also support local farms, strengthen our regional economy, support sustainable growing practices, and create a relationship among producers and consumers. This year Jim and I have joined a Community Supported Farm which for 20 weeks will provide us with fresh farm produce- but you can also shop regularly at a Farmer’s Market -Maple Groves’ begins June 12- it’s beginning its 5th year and it has a theme “Good food from Great People.”
We can change our purchasing habits to benefit our neighbors, for a whole variety of reasons.
Jim works for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and he reminds me Earth Day is coming up April 18. Taking care of the earth through environmentally friendly purchases is another way to care for our neighbor, or our neighbor’s neighborhood.
Avoid products with wasteful packaging; and purchase environmentally friendly household and yard care supplies. Bring a reusable bag on your shopping trip.
Practice the three R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle. Make a donation to a local food shelf, or nonprofit organizations, as a birthday gift or recognition to someone you love.
I’ve intentionally avoided more traditional ideas when we think about shopping, in favor of directing our attention towards our neighbor. But any way we can recognize our unhealthy habits: like impulse shopping, shopping to feel better, buying items just because they were on sale...purchases that aren’t within our budgets, these always deserve our attention and discipline because stewarding our money and our purchases enable us to work towards that more balanced approach of sharing, saving and spending.
I encourage us to read through the ELCA Social Statement on Economic Life. (www.elca/SocialStatements/) written to encourage us to seek a sufficient, sustainable livelihood for all. This document provides faithful guidance and is filled with scriptures references to inform and guide us in these matters so that we know what God’s word says, and how to translate this to the economics of our daily lives.
As we share in the new life given to us through Christ our Lord, we can take a second look at our shopping lists. Invite our neighbors into the conversation and reflection we bring to our relationship with money and our shopping choices.
On our next shopping trip, we might think about our neighbors in the Dominican Republic, or I can think about Elma, and through their eyes, evaluate our choices. That fledgling Christian community in Acts can inform us to consider the needs of our neighbors locally and globally, so that even through our shopping list, we can witness to the transformed life we are given through our Risen Lord Jesus.
Amen.