The idols of our age?

Jason Clark did a superb talk yesterday which really helped me connect a number of thoughts I've been blogging about this year.

Jason was talking about different realities affecting our life.  He contrasted a world where Paris Hilton (picutered with assorted paparrazi) makes more front page headlines for being in/out of prison than the G8 summit as it reflects a reality that for most people in the UK being famous and having money is more important than world poverty or climate change.

The idols of our age...

Jason made the point that none of us are in a neutral space, all of the decisions we make are based on our view of reality and the means in whichwe access that reality, whether we are conscious of that or not - he read out a very powerful quote from the the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, of his views on the idols of our age:

... ‘Self esteem without effort, fame without achievement, sex without consequences, wealth without responsibility, pleasure without struggle and experience without commitment’.

I found the contrast of that way of reality and accessing it in contrast to Jesus.  As Jason pointed out, Jesus talked about not just believing in him but about following him - and the path that we follow him leads to and through the cross, it is the way of cruciformity.  Not only do we experience the glory of Christ but his suffering too, the mediation and the immediacy of Jesus.

Ordinary time...

I thought it was poignant as we enter the period of the church calandar known as "ordinary time," that Jason's talk was on Romans 12: 1-2, beautifully paraphrased in The Message as:

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. "

What does it mean - taking our ordinary life:

...where we live: our undream house in our undream location

...where we work:  in our tiring busy underappreciated, underpaid jobs

...in all the mundaness of life: eating, sleeping, walking around etc

and placing it all before God as an offering, a sacrifice, an invitation to be present in the now, whether that now is difficult or fun, troubled or peaceful, a reality we want or one we'd rather not be  aware of...

It also makes me realise how often i need to take my life and do this and why i need God's help to do so - often i find that I hankering after the gods of the age that Jonathan named rather than the tri-une other centred God, who invites me to discover and recover my full humanity by and through the cross...

What do you think?

• what reality do you recognise and how do you enter it?
• what do you feel abot Jonathan's list of idols - any you'd change/add?
• how do these idols impact you and your ordinary life?  If there is a kingdom of God reality, does that mean letting go of our dream of our life? Must that be by the way of the cross?

Comments

[fernando]

Sacks' list is a good one. I would add, athenticity without discomfort, travel without difference, ethics without sacrfice and commerce without trade.

I also think the line you are suggesting about "ordinary time" is solid. Our culture screams "dream and fantasise" at every opportunity. It doesn't just drive the celebrity machine, but also the make-over/renovation machine, the poerty machine and the trade your partner in for a better one/trophy-wife machine.

Maybe I've been reading WAY TOO MUCH Zizek, but I think on this issue we Christians need to get back into our heads and recolonise the imaginary and the virtual. Plenty of us live outwardly Christian lives but carry fiarly unreconstructed dreams of materialism and comfort.

It seems to me Jesus had some pretty strong things to say about living one ethic and carrying a different one around in our heads.

[Paul]

Thanks Fernando, I like your additions too - they seem to spotlight some more of the idols. I'd like to hear a little more please about your take on 'commerce without trade' - are you referencing our commodification of life here or something else?

The trouble i find is that all too often i live out precisely my religion and am busy sacrificing myself all these other idol's alters. I'm usually not very aware of it when I am though.

The thing i find hardest is how to practise ordinary life with an ordinary faith - being present in my ordinary life is something i do pretty much everything to avoid facing up to/thinking about/engaging in... ah denial!

Any thoughts/advice as to how to engage in and live out a different reality - i keep coming back to the ordinary practices of the faith of prayer, worship, christian community and bible reading - although they also give me plenty of day dreaming alternatives! :)

[fernando]

Commerce without trade, or maybe shopping without gift? It's an idea I've had for a while but not articulated clearly.

In a barter economy, every transaction is personal and directly involves a giving away of our time, space and work. Even in conventional markets with barter and the like we have to be present to the reality of the trade and our role in the "chain of supply."

But every new level of technology divroces us from being present to the commerce, exchanging ourselves on a personal level and being attentive to the origins of the goods.

It's something I had to think about a lot living in India - buying meat meant seeing (and smelling) slaughter and the process of butchery up close, everytime. In fact one has to exchange convenience for the assurance your food is safe, fresh and healthy.

[Paul]

Thanks Fernando, that's helpful to undertstand more what you meant. Much appreciated.

We are divorced from the means of production - i often wonder if clothes should have a label in them saying how much the person making them was paid, what their employment conditions are like etc so we can be more in touch with who makes what we buy...

I see there has been a move in the UK with some people like Waitrose putting pictures up of the farmer who they source their eggs from etc to try and make that link with certain foods.

[fernando]

When we lived in London, our produce was bought through Abel & Cole and they used to include bios on the farmers who grew some of the produce and information on their farms and conditions. Our butcher also could tell us about the farms in Wales, England, Scotland and France where his produce came from - heck our Kelly Turkeys even came with an ID tag and description of the land they roamed on!

Of course the problem at this stage is that all this is only available to the higher end of the market. How many people can afford hand packed organic fruit and veg, shopping at an exclusive butcher or even going to waitrose on a regular basis?

The only time I've seen a farmers face near meat here in HK, it was for some Japanese Wagyu steaks selling for just under £350 a kilo!

BTW, on this point Wendell Berry has some great things to say in "What Are People For?"

[Paul]

thanks fernando.

yes, and for me the danger is taht it can become about status, being able to afford to source our food and to therefore boast about its origins, almost as if we grew it ourselves...

maybe justice is when everyone has access to that sort of information at a price they can afford and that is also fair for those who produce our food, clothing and consumer goods?