Monday, December 20, 2010

commercialism at Christmas? An ancient story worth pondering

A world-denying Jew heard the call to asceticism. He thought it a part of the commandments that he must do without good food, good wine, and the company of good women and friends in general. He took no place at their festive tables; he heard no good music and did without great art. All of this he did with an eye on the promise of paradise for the renouncer.

He died. He did indeed find himself in paradise.

But three days later, they threw him out because he understood nothing of what was going on.

Posted by steve at 03:19 PM

3 Comments

  1. Indeed! Sounds more like John the Baptizer than Jesus. We do sometimes forsake the feasting tradition to flagellate ourselves unduly with the fasting tradition.

    Comment by Carl Gregg — December 20, 2010 @ 11:37 pm

  2. Well having been brought up in a christian “can’t” culture, can’t have long hair, be a socialist, listen to various sorts of music etc etc this reminds me of that. As christians we so often forget what we have to celebrate in favour of being puritanical bores, a culture which tends to breed hypocites also. Kids teaching often becomes a moralising list of rules rather than an introduction to relationship with Jesus, a man who feasted and fasted at appropriate times.

    Comment by Andrew T — December 23, 2010 @ 8:19 pm

  3. […] http://www.emergentkiwi.org.nz/archive/commercialism-at-christmas-an-ancient-story-worth-pondering/#… […]

    Pingback by Digging a lot » Blog Archive » I really like this posting… — December 28, 2010 @ 6:33 pm

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