Generous Living in a Consumer Age

In his book Dark Age, Pierce Brown continues the trans galactic story of Darrow and his reshaping of the world. The plot is this: the people in the universe are stratified into colors, with the Golds being the ruling and privileged class. They all have Greek names, of course. At the bottom are the Reds, who work as miners on Mars and live at the bottom of the food chain. Darrow, a lowly Red, somehow is secretly crafted into a Gold and leads a revolution that remakes the world in a more democratic manner, in hopes that there will be human flourishing for all different kinds of people. Well, it sort of works, but then everything falls apart.The Obsidians in the story are huge, superstitious, Viking-like folk, feared but in thrall for centuries to their Gold overlords. Where I am in the story is that the Obsidians have known freedom for over ten years now, but old habits are hard to break. In the scene that is germane to our purposes, Ephraim, a Gray who is a smuggler, has been hired by the queen. He is an astute judge of character and makes this comment about one of the Obsidians as he watches him, “He has been free now for years, but he still acts like a slave.”As we talk about Suburban gODS, this is about where we are. We are radically free in Jesus. We have been adopted into a new family with God as Father and Jesus as our Elder Brother. We have an inheritance that will never fade away, a name that is royalty, and we belong to a new family full of misfits that are hilarious. What could be better! And yet, with all this — new name, identity, and glory — why do we still act like orphans and slaves? Old habits are hard to break. It is hard to detach from what is “normal” in the consumer setting of the suburbs long enough to even ponder Jesus' call to generous living.And yet, the Power that spoke worlds into existence is in us — in clay jars, as Paul said. We have the resources within us to remake our attachment to the material resources that often rule us. But it is hard. I told someone that I was preaching on consumerism in suburbia, and he said, “Uh, I think I will skip that one!” We laughed, but we both sensed this might, as my grandfather would say, “plow a little too close to the corn.” Anyway, I can’t wait to bring you into the conversation.Also, this Sunday, Gaines and Courtney Conaway are bringing one of their three greatest treasures to give to Jesus this Sunday. Mac, their infant son, will receive the sign of the covenant. Maybe, as we ponder our real “riches” in flesh and blood, God will help us see our own idols more clearly.Blessings,Jim