The Silversmiths of Ephesus and Christmas

The connection was made as Jocelyn and I reflect on a possible Christmas RE lesson at Brookfield for Primary 6 and 7.
Then into the equation came the story from UNICEF about the UK and the consumerist society. Following this was a comment
from Karen, our distinguished RE leader that Boxing day is the worst day in Australia for suicides.
How do folk claiming membership of the Kingdom of God and trustfully and obediently following Jesus the Messiah and true
King of All address this?
The story of the Silversmiths appears in Acts 19
23 About that time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way. A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the artisans. These he gathered together, with the workers of the same trade, and said, ‘Men, you know that we get our wealth from this business. You also see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost the whole of Asia this Paul has persuaded and drawn away a considerable number of people by saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be scorned, and she will be deprived of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her.’
When they heard this, they were enraged and shouted, ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’ The city was filled with the confusion; and people* rushed together to the theatre, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s travelling-companions. Paul wished to go into the crowd, but the disciples would not let him; even some officials of the province of Asia,* who were friendly to him, sent him a message urging him not to venture into the theatre. Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. Some of the crowd gave instructions to Alexander, whom the Jews had pushed forward. And Alexander motioned for silence and tried to make a defence before the people. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours all of them shouted in unison, ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’ But when the town clerk had quietened the crowd, he said, ‘Citizens of Ephesus, who is there that does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple-keeper of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven?* Since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. You have brought these men here who are neither temple-robbers nor blasphemers of our* goddess. If therefore Demetrius and the artisans with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls; let them bring charges there against one another. If there is anything further* you want to know, it must be settled in the regular assembly. For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.’ When he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.

Then came the story from UNICEF
"Cycle of 'compulsive consumerism' leaves British family life in crisis, Unicef study finds British parents are trapping their children in a cycle of "compulsive consumerism" by showering them with toys and designer labels instead of spending quality time with them, a UN report has found."

Added to this is the financial commentary from retailers on the importance of Christmas for their balance sheets. There is a note of entrapment about this. Many people dependent for their livelihoods on this consumerist society but that was the confronting challenge for the Silversmiths of Ephesus.

Then follows a comment about Boxing Day suicides. We do not have to move to suicide before we note serious fault lines in society. The debt level significantly increased over this 'season'

What if? We followed the Kingdom story and Christians opted out of the consumerist society for the sake of this society and its children ?? Or should I write ... follow the Kingdom story rather than the consumerist society story which we ought to be doing anyway.

How then would we celebrate Christmas and how would we help those who are heading for suicidal conclusions to their lives?

What would Christmas celebration look like. ..The Promise is fulfilled … the Time is Now … The Messiah the Lord of All reigns and ….. actually there is little reference to the Birth of Jesus in the New Testament …. The main focus is on the Death .. Resurrection and Ascension of the Messiah.
Your Kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven …. and so how should we live?

The Word Militant - Preaching a Decentering Word

This post is a strong recommendation of another book by Walter Brueggemann. While other books provide examples of good preaching and others address the issue preaching this is by far the best and most challenging I have read so far. I have copied the first section of the Introduction. I will add more material to this post and provide other posts besides under the Label.

Walter Brueggemann : The Word Militant – Preaching a Decentering Word.

Introduction : At Risk with the Text

Preaching is an audacious act. It always has been.

It is audacious because the preacher stands up to make a claim that she has something new to say that the gathered listeners want to hear. That audaciousness is now acute, because it is no longer the case, as in the days of clergy monopoly, that the preacher might be the most learned person in town. Now, almost anywhere, the congregation teems with people who, in every dimension of our common life, know things well beyond the learning of the preacher. On all counts the act of preaching is:

• foolish – because in the congregation some know more and because in every congregation there are those ideologically committed in ways that preclude serious listening. As a result the preacher’s utterance is already determined to be disputatious even before it is heard.

• dangerous – if it is faithful, because the powers of retrenchment are everywhere among us, a passion to keep things as they were before the utterance. Ideological resistancenis readily evoked in most congregations. And if not in the congregation itself, the rulers of this age keep a close eye on every proclamation that may disturb present arrangements. We have all read of the dangers of preaching in a police state where the preacher on any occasion is at risk and may be called to account. But even in our more-or-less benign democratic society such surveillance is not difficult to evoke, as witness All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, which has had its “tax status” called into question because of a preacher’s critique of the Iraq war policy.
• A risky self exposure of the preacher , who at best is vulnerable in the precariousness of the utterance. Every preacher knows with some regularity that what is said and what must be said inescapably expose the preacher to something of a fraud, for good preaching must speak truth to which the preacher’s own life does not always attest. The preacher, with any self-awareness, knows of such incongruity, and of course every knowing congregation can spot the slippage between utterance and utterer. But such discrepancy is inevitable unless preaching is confined to the small truths verified in the preacher’s own life.

Preaching is foolish, dangerous and exposing, because what must be said in proclamation constitutes a daring alternative to the ideological passions that may be present in the congregation, to the powers that conduct surveillance, either inside or outside the congregation, and to the preacher’s own sense of self.
The occasion of preaching is risky on all counts, inherently risky because something other happens in the preaching besides the echo of our preferred ideologies, our studied interests, or our personal inadequacies.