Like GREEEEEED are not so small!

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Isn’t It Time, To Recognize Reality,

Sins and All!

Jeremiah 16:20

… mortals make for themselves gods? Such are no gods!

Colossians 3:5

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).

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Words of Grace For Today

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Greed is certainly a long-lived godlet, an idol that we embrace so hungrily. This godlet like all idols eats at our hearts from the inside out, starting with fake insecurities and fears that we then try to buy our way free from. Stupid, but very seductive, widespread, and destructive.

Jesus addressed these insecurities. The people are enthralled and filled with exuberant hope as Jesus enters Jerusalem to put an end to the corruption, the tyrannies, the wild insecurities and fears that rob all the people of life.

But with God everything is not as it seems.

Insecurities, Real and Faked

We may not fully grasp the insecurities the people suffered in Jesus’ time. It may even be difficult to fully understand the insecurities we suffer today.

What author Astra Taylor had to say may help. She wrote about the dangerous insecurities of our times which threaten our future, even as a species. In particular she points to false and manufactured insecurities planted in us, and nurtured among us every day by our consumer society.

Guarantees of safety from great dangers pour over us, like use this shampoo to save yourself from dandruff, use this antiperspirant to save yourself from career and relationship ending stink and stains, buy this car to save yourself from the dangers on the roads. It’s not just one message. Together the accumulation of them all, our collective responses, and the unspoken expectation that we will “keep up with the Jones’s” subvert our ability to see where real dangers actually threaten us.

Yes. It’s a paradox – we live in the most prosperous era in human history, and the greatest disparity ever between the rich and the poor keeps growing. Because the wealthy people buy into it with gusto, guaranteeing their ability to make mega-luxury purchases of fake security at the cost of the basics of life for the rest of us, millions of people struggle to survive until the next day.

With the burning of our energy inheritance of fossil fuels, nature’s timekeeping becomes increasingly confused causing plants and animals to fall out of sync. In a world so out of joint insecurities multiply exponentially, as does self-righteous anger.

Taylor says to counter that destructive anger “We need to … acknowledge and embrace our [real] insecurities, while resisting manufactured ones. [By facing reality, especially our real fears, we can foster] a wisdom that can guide … our personal lives [and] our collective endeavours.”

CBC Ideas Newsletter for 18 March 2024, Astra Taylor’s Massey Lectures of 2023, rebroadcast this past week on CBC radio’s Ideas. Adapted 2024

By Faith

That maybe a lot to take in. Yet we know by faith that we cannot escape all insecurities. Every generation has heard scriptures teaching us to put aside false insecurities and fears, maybe not in those exact words. We practice the confession of sins as the beginning of worship and prayer. Confession includes recognizing and letting go of our false and manufactured insecurities and fears.

Our faith has also taught us that things are not always what they seem!