Consumerism

We live in a consumer society: A culture defined by the never-ending pursuit of shopping and consuming goods. We consume fast fashion, fast food, and fast 'breaking news' cycles.

The saying goes, ‘You are what you eat’ and there is truth in it. We become what we consume; what we consume affects us on the inside and out.

We absorb the things we see on social media, TV and radio. They all have an impact on our hearts, minds and soul. What we hear and see becomes a part of us, guiding our words, beliefs and actions in our lives.

Just as a poor diet of ultra processed foods, lacking in vitamins and nutrients and full of sugar and artificial additives, will show in our appearance and poor health outcomes; a news diet lacking in balance, honest reporting and reliant on clickbait headlines and sensationalism will also have a negative impact on the opinions, perspectives and political leanings of the people consuming it.

We saw this just a couple of weeks ago in the so-called “Farage Riots” that broke out across the country following social media disinformation about the murderous attacker at the school holiday club in Stockport. Lies surrounding the identity of the attacker were spread by influential individuals, including MP Nigel Farage and former EDL leader Tommy Robinson, and resulted in widespread unrest and attacks against asylum seekers, Muslims, police officers and people of colour.

We see from the sentences currently being handed down to those who got caught up in the rioting, looting and social media extremism, that there can be negative consequences from consuming the wrong information and acting on it.

What we consume can start to consume us. If we’re not careful, what we intend to be a quick glance at social media can end up with hours of scrolling in an environment where the algorithms deliberately skew what appears on our news feeds so that we consume more negative content than positive.

Bad news sells and content designed to stoke up anger and rage gets more engagement - One of the men imprisoned for how he used social media to incite riots, admitted in police interview that he earned £1,400 a month because of the number of people reacting to the racist and angry tweets he posted daily.

And, because we are what we eat, some of the negativity and anger that is ever-present in the online world is digested by us. We end up feeling as though the world is angrier and more divided than it is in reality. We can become angry and our opinions can become hard and inflexible.

Our Bible readings today show us another way to navigate the consumer culture and online worlds we live in.

Our readings urge us to stop being immature – to be wise about what we choose to consume our time and minds with.

In Proverbs a feast is laid out and Wisdom invites the simple and those without sense to join her table. She urges them to eat bread and wine. “Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” And in our Gospel passage, Jesus declares Himself to be “the living bread that came down from heaven”, stating that “those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life…”

God offers eternal life to everyone who believes and accepts the invitation to consume Christ, the Wisdom of God.

We are invited to develop a healthy daily diet, cutting out the things that are no good for us: the drunkenness and debauchery that Paul warns the Ephesian church against.

God wants to give us insight – the capacity and power of seeing into situations and people.

As we walk through our daily lives, as we deal with family conflict, racial conflict, community conflict, God wants to give us a deeper understanding of what is truly happening beneath the surface.

He wants us to realise who is manipulating and processing information for their own nefarious interests.

When we deal with difficult people in our lives, with those who do or say hurtful things behind our backs, God wants us to pause before we react. God wants us to seek His wisdom so that we understand what is motivating the person who has hurt us. He wants to open our eyes to what they are going through themselves, and give us insight into the best way we should respond.

We, who receive and consume Jesus, are invited to share His way of life, to navigate our lives with the insight offered to everyone in God’s Kingdom.

So, how can we make wiser decisions about what we consume?

Paul encourages the Ephesian church to live wisely by keeping their tongue from speaking evil, keeping their lips from telling lies, turning from evil and doing good. He tells the church that wise people make the most of their time – they don’t get sucked into time-consuming and unhealthy activities. Paul reminds us that it is important to make the most of our time because the days are evil.

As Christians, as people called to grow into the likeness of God, we are called to consume God’s word so that His Holy Spirit grows stronger within us. When the days are evil, Christians are called to be light in the darkness, to be wise and mature when others are acting unwisely and immaturely – whether virtually or in the flesh.

We are called to seek peace and pursue it - not seek arguments with strangers on social media or people in our families and communities who hold different opinions to us.

God’s will is for the salvation of everyone, from every nation, every ethnicity, every culture.

And He calls us to consume His message of love, forgiveness and reconciliation so that – as we encounter an increasingly angry and divided society – we can be healing forces in this broken world.

Today, let’s examine our diets, remove the things that are harming us, and accept Wisdom’s invitation to consume Christ and walk in His ways.