When Moses stood with God, receiving the Ten Commandments, the Israelites made a golden calf and worshipped it (Exodus 32:1-4). We may laugh at their credulity; but the message is a stark one. Today we are bombarded with advertisements for consumer goods. When we are writing on our laptops, images appear of beautiful things to buy and exciting holidays. We are in fact invited to worship many golden calves.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta declared that the only thing she had was a bucket. Most of us could not aspire to such absolute poverty. We do have certain material needs such as clothes, food, housing etc. It is important to see these merely as tools for living and not ends in themselves. Our possessions should not possess us.
John Bunyan’s image of Vanity Fair in The Pilgrim’s Progress illustrates clearly the lure of worldly things. Christian and Faithful are thrown into prison and Faithful executed, because they do not conform to the city’s values, which are entirely materialistic.
Martha was gently chided by Jesus for being overwhelmed with busyness (Luke 10:41-42); yet in John’s gospel she had come to see very clearly what was important. “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who is to come into the world” (John 11:27).