Sold on Faith, Not on Sales

Spirituality Column #223
February 15, 2011
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville – Current in Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Sold on Faith, Not on Sales
By Bob Walters

Looking back on the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day, are you at all weary from being in the cross-hairs of America’s high powered marketing mechanism?

Be the MVP, we’re told. Everybody’s a VIP. Sit on the 50-yard line. Buy a big TV. Win love with a gift. Say it with flowers. And on, and on.

Back in the late fall there was all the election hoopla, followed by Christmas. More marketing. Vote now. Buy this. Consume that. Experience the magic.

As consumers we are bombarded with sales messages encouraging us to maximize our personal feelings of importance. That’s the coin of the realm these days – personal esteem – and oh how it’s laid on thick, aimed at our hungry egos.

Is it any wonder that churches often struggle to create effective marketing plans? The whole world is telling people how to buy personal specialness and importance, and the message of Jesus Christ – of humility and service – is just the opposite.

Our world, or at least our nation, is filled with people whose profession it is to make sure we have fun and they make money. Through a trade, purchase, transaction or “deal,” our personal prestige is a commodity vigorously sought, bought and sold. We learn to be savvy, to trust no one, and to look out for Number 1.

Antithetically, Jesus Christ tells us to have faith, love God and love others. Our faith and love become our Christian life, loving the Christian community and serving mankind as best we can. No marketing, just trust.

For a consumer, that’s not much of a deal. But salvation is a gift, not a transaction. There’s nothing in it for the marketer; you can’t make money on free gifts.

In Philippians 3:20 we read, “Our citizenship is in heaven …” I haven’t always “gotten” what that scripture meant. But I recently read an interesting theological/political commentary which described “consumers” and “citizens” as opposite sorts of creatures. A consumer waits for the best deal and looks out for himself. A citizen focuses his or her own life on selfless service to others.

The difference is the basis of relationship. As a consumer, it’s money, pride, “me” and maximized value. As a citizen, it’s love, truth, service and the right thing.

Our relationship with Christ is a tough sell, because it’s not a sale; it’s a gift.

No purchase necessary.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) spent most of his career in public relations, frequently at odds with marketing people.

Love Starts with God, Not Us

Spirituality Column #222
February 8, 2011
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville – Current in Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Love Starts with God, Not Us
By Bob Walters

I love my wife, my kids, my family, my community, my church, my work, my home, my country.

I don’t love my sin, my debts, my mistakes, my thoughtlessness, my impatience, my pride, my fear, my selfishness.

Everything – and more – on the first list is a gift from God.

Everything – and more – on the second is a function of my fallen humanness.

As for the vagaries of health, wealth, family dysfunction, natural disaster, political turmoil and other things that blow hot and cold in our world, I think they provide context to learn when to call on God and when love matters most.

With Valentine’s Day coming up, love is in the air. But what we should learn about love from God’s word, the Bible, is far different from the playful rituals of human romance celebrated on February 14.

The “love chapter” in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13 – recited often at weddings (Love is patient, love is kind,” etc.) – is lovely to read. Indeed, the chapter describes the necessity, characteristics and permanence of love.

But parts of it make little sense unless we realize it’s not about marriage; the chapter is merely one part of St. Paul’s larger argument sternly warning the first century Corinthian Christians to knock off their pagan-like worship involving tongues and prophesy. It’s an argument for the sufficiency and totality of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ (read Burton Coffman’s commentary on 1 Corinthians 13 for a most interesting perspective).

Then of course there is the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) in the middle of the Old Testament (just after Ecclesiastes). This is first rate poetry celebrating wisdom and love as gifts from God. It’s typically read as a steamy allegorization of human sex, or a description of God’s relationship with Israel, or even a story of a maiden choosing a shepherd over King Solomon (he of 900 wives).

I don’t favor allegorizing so much as a single word in the Bible (another topic for another day), but Song of Songs lyrically tells us that God beautifully authors both the emotional and physical joys of love.

Perhaps the Bible’s clearest, simplest, shortest discourse on love is 1 John, especially chapter 4. Nothing in it about chocolate or flowers though; it says “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 4:16).

Love starts with God. It’s His gift to us that we can share it with others.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com), noting that Valentine’s Day is about human romance, is reminded he needs to go buy a card.

Valentine's Day for the Birds

Spirituality Column #66
February 12, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper

Valentine’s Day for the Birds
By Bob Walters

It’s surprising what turns up when you Google “St. Valentine” and “Patron Saint of Love.”

I didn’t expect the heart of the matter to be Geoffrey Chaucer. Or to learn of several St. Valentines, none formally recognized by Catholic sources as “love” saints. Or to discover Ste. Dwynwen.

Let me try to put what I found in order. Three martyrs named Valentine from the 3rd and 4th centuries were beatified (sainted) long ago by the Catholic Church. One was evidently beheaded in 270 A.D. by Roman Emperor Claudius II and there is a legend, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, about him marrying young lovers against the Emperor’s wishes.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, which on matters Catholic I think trumps Britannica in its authority, makes no reference to this. It says the various Sts. Valentine defended Christians and were executed (FYI, “martyr” means you were killed for your faith. If you are merely maimed or beaten, you are a “confessor”).

Feb. 14, for legendary but unconfirmed reasons, was very early-on selected as the Feast of St. Valentine on the Catholic ecclesiastical calendar. An old pagan fertility holiday was Feb. 15, and some suggest a Valentine correlation (think All Saints Day and Halloween). All unconfirmed.

The Catholic Encyclopedia says this: “The popular customs associated with St. Valentine’s Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e., halfway through the second month of the year, the birds begin to pair.

“Thus in Chaucer’s Parliament of Foules we read: ‘For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day, Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.’”

Birds! That story, and variations of it, appear throughout the Google search: birds pair-up in mid-February, so Valentine’s Day became a human mating celebration.

Interesting that the Catholic Encyclopedia mentions Chaucer, a Brit, but Encyclopedia Britannica does not. Even the often-wacky but occasionally accurate populist Wikipedia insists no Valentine “love” link existed before Chaucer.

According to the Catholic Singles page on CatholicPeople.com, the Patron saint of lovers was a beautiful Welsh maiden later known as Saint Dwynwen who in order to become a nun, sacrificed her love for a young man deeply smitten with her.

Valentine’s Day cards, today second in number only to Christmas cards, came along around 1840 birthing the greeting card industry. Yet nothing but imputed modern legend suggests any of the several ancient Sts. Valentine had anything to do with love.

For pure love, I don’t think any Saint beats the Lord Jesus Christ. As for Eros and Cupid, Song of Songs in the Old Testament tops anything they ever thought of.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wishes all you lovers blue skies and candlelit dinners.