Join us this Lenten season for a transformative journey as we delve into the depths of human nature with our sermon series titled "Glittering Vices." In this series, we will courageously confront the timeless struggles that plague our souls – the seven deadly sins.
As we explore each vice, from vainglory to greed, envy to wrath, we will uncover the deceptive allure that they hold, captivating us with their glittering promises of fulfillment and always leading us instead to spiritual, emotional, and physical ruin. Through reflection we will learn how so many of our regular behaviors can easily stem from these seven vices, and how learning to repent and return to God in the midst of them can lead us to the sort of eternal life Jesus came to bring us. Join us as we journey through the shadows of our souls, seeking redemption and embracing the light of God's love.
Watch as Pastor Clint explores one of the most overlooked of the Seven Deadly Sins in our American, consumeristic culture: the sin of greed.
Sermon Resources:
1. John Paul Getty III - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Getty_III
2. “We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.” -Paul Mazur
3. “Our enormously productive economy…demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption.” -quoted by Rodney Clapp, Why The Devil Takes VISA: A Christian Response to the Triumph of Consumerism
4. Forbes study on number of ads we see: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/08/25/finding-brand-success-in-the-digital-world/?sh=388cf9f626e2
5. Study on American consumerism: https://gitnux.org/consumerism-in-america-statistics/
6. “There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.” -Buddha
7. “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” -Socrates
8. “It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more that is poor.” -Seneca
9. “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.” -Mahatma Gandhi
10. “In this way, greed is a sin directly against one’s neighbor, since one person cannot overabound in external riches without another person lacking them, for temporal goods cannot be possessed by many at the same time.” -Thomas Aquinas, "Disputed Questions on Evil"
11. “The myth of scarcity ends in despair. It gives us a present tense of anxiety, fear, greed, and brutality. It produces child and wife abuse, indifference to the poor, the buildup of armaments, divisions between people, and environmental racism. It tells us not to care about anyone but ourselves–and it is the prevailing creed of American society.” -Walter Brueggemann, "The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity"
12. “If you want storehouses, you have them - in the stomachs of the poor.” -Basil of Caesarea
