By April Terry (http://faithwarming.blogspot.com)

Several years ago, a friend of mine gave me a Jesus pencil topper.  She guessed that I would find it humorous and she was right about that.  In our senior ministry, we try to bring the seniors a gift every Christmas and Easter.  Admittedly, we have gotten some silly gifts, such as the stuffed frogs that said, “Leap of Faith” or the Lambs wearing a T-shirt that said, “Lamb of God.”  My personal favorite were the plush flowers that had notes attached that said, “Flowers are smiles from God.”   These days, it isn’t unusual to find T-shirts, jewelry, and just about anything with the Jesus label on it.  I was particularly struck a few years ago when I found out that there was even a Jesus amusement park.  Merchandising Jesus has never been more popular.

I don’t mind all that, really, but if I have to be honest, I know that it kind of smacks of the whole clubhouse mentality.  After all, you aren’t going to find an atheist wearing a “Jesus Saves” T-shirt, unless it’s the one with a piggy bank on the front.  The truth is, I would never expect anyone to be saved because of a stuffed frog or a T-shirt.  It’s more of a way to send a message in a tangible way, I suppose.  In our senior ministry, the seniors love it.  They ask for extra to give to their grandchildren.  We give them extras.   It doesn’t replace a good message, good music, or a warm hug, by any means.

Even though I am one of the top consumers of these types of goods, I still flinch a little when I think about commercializing Jesus in that way.  I think He would, too.  Still, we can’t really ignore the fact that Americans are incredibly consumer-oriented.  We sit around and think about the next big item that we are going to buy.  It is as ingrained in our culture as expecting the lights to come on when we flip a switch.  I sometimes wish that we could step outside of our own consumer-oriented culture so that we could find out what exactly it is like to place our value in people rather than objects.

For me, it started at a young age.  We lived in a small town where a cool car driven up and down main street was what defined one as a person of interest.  For most of my teenage years, I lived on that main street, but I didn’t have a cool enough car to be considered of interest, I suppose.  It wasn’t until I started to work directly with those in need, though, that I really started to get it.  Suddenly, I knew that I couldn’t continue to live as if I weren’t responsible for those in need. 

I recently heard a story about a father and daughter driving down the road.  Suddenly, their daughter mentions the disparity between the mercedes to her right and the homeless man to their left.    “If that man could be happy with a less expensive car, that man over there could have a place to live,” she tells her father.   There was the gauntlet.  Suddenly thrown out into plain view for her and her family.  They eventually sold their house and downsized, giving half to charitable ventures. 

I wish I had half the courage that that family had.  I wish that I could take a moment and say, “Do I really need that china set and hutch that I never use?”   But I am already a card carrying member of the American dream club.  So, I do what I can and I tell myself that I am doing more than most.  Still, I won’t pretend that it doesn’t bother me.  It’s not something I’m proud of.

We Americans have a real problem on our hands.  We like to buy.  We go out on the weekends and we walk around the shops in our towns and buy more things and those things don’t do anything to further our faith.  They don’t do anything to bring us closer to having a genuine and real faith–not even when we’re buying a Jesus pencil topper.   Buying things won’t ever get us where we need to go because Jesus isn’t for sale.  He made that pretty clear, but we still keep trying.  

Most of us are that young rich man who came forward to Jesus professing to have kept all of the commandments, but unable to give away his worldly goods to really follow Jesus.  I keep hoping that Jesus doesn’t really expect me to do that, and I know that most of the U.S. feels the same way.  A friend of mine, raised in Bogota, Colombia, once told me, “You Americans always want things.”  She once had a big home in Colombia, but it was destroyed in the blink of an eye by the bomb blast from a car bomb parked near their home.  No housing insurance.  No emergency assistance.  Everything gone in a moment.  Still, no one was injured and they were thankful for that.  They rented a tiny flat in Bogota for the rest of her years growing up.  I remember the tears rolling down my face as she told me her story that late night as we talked deep into the night waiting for sleep to overtake us.  I felt sad for all of us who put too much emphasis on things and far too little emphasis on people. 

I hope that we haven’t given up our souls for a security that doesn’t exist.