Skip to main content

Tesco Ergo Sum - I shop therefore I am...

In response to my little rant about the Guide promise last week, one friend, and former Guide leader suggested that the quote at the top of my blog sums it up... I was just about to change that quote, and now have, so for those who (like me) had forgotten it was there, is was
"You become like what you worship."
Tom Wright: "Simply Christian"

It chimes well with something else I read today by Kate Muir, in the late Dennis Lennon's book "Fuelling the Fire" (which was also the source of the new quote at the head of the blog - good book, worth reading). I don't often reproduce huge chunks of text on this blog, but this struck a chord with me... It describes her experience in an Argos store... They have changed a bit since this was written, but I am sure anyone who has experienced the joys of shopping in such a store will know what she is saying:

"I was there again last week, on another errand in the hellish glare of the store, its Soviet-shortage emptiness belied by the fullness of its catalogue. It contains 13,000 articles... As I watched the concentration on the faces of those contemplating the laminated catalogue before annotating their purchase slips,, I had a fresh inspiration. The shoppers reminded me of monks standing at lecterns in a mediaeval library, reading an illuminated Bible, glossing in the margins."
Lennon himself continues:
"Argos isn't the danger; things of themselves are not a threat; but faith in the phantom ability of possessions to satisfy, and the almost religious power and function of consumerism feeds into the atmosphere in which we live and move and have our being."
Today, a mere 8 years after this book was written we might substitute Amazon for Argos... And indeed the title of this post is out of date... Tesco is not the peerless temple to the consumerist Gods that it once was, although I see that the larger stores have their own TescoDirect catalogue shopping section. But the principle remains the same no matter which conglomerate is the commercial flavour of the month... A consumerist, capitalist, materialist, mentality is corrosive to healthy Christian spirituality.
It is interesting what registers with people in the course of a period of ministry... in the past weeks some have noted my emphasis on "community" (some would say less generously "hobby-horse"), but others remember me going off on a rant about "Nike..." and ethical consumerism...
I still argue for ethical consumerism... But even more for less consumption full stop... 
Our governments may want us to shop ourselves out of recession, but the conscious decision of government to slow down the recirculation of debt through cutbacks in the public sector will mean, particularly in Northern Ireland, that there will be less disposable income out there for a while... But that may not be a bad thing. It may nudge us in the direction of long forgotten virtues of thrift, mutual-support and (dare I say it) community. 
And in spiritual terms, perhaps we will look beyond the material to the maker...

Selah

Comments

Andrew Kenny said…
Your post has several quotes. Forgive me if I add another from Augustine, which touches on desire as well consumerism: 'Love God and do what you want'.
Pertinent, but a much misinterpreted, abused and maligned quote

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-