Irony, as a fun mind game, is so much better than a crossword or a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. The mental ability to wrap your brain cells around what is expected and what actually happens forms the stuff of songs, sermons, celebrities, and this email.
For example, It’s expected that we take precautionary measures during the much-advertised flu season. What actually happens is that few pay attention to a lengthy season of massive sugar (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine’sDay), decreased sunshine, and necessary sleep. That’s ironic.
Thanksgiving has its share of irony as well. It’s expected that families will gather to highlight the gifts and harvests of the previous year. On Thanksgiving, many will go around the table and give one thought of gratitude before digging into the turkey that inflation and supply chains have caused to be tenuous.
In America, no matter how you size up your harvest, you are globally blessed, and a measure of gratitude is rightfully expected.
But here’s what happens. After stuffing ourselves with stuffing, we prepare for the battle that is Black Friday. Our finely cultivated sense of grabbing more is offset by the premise of saving money and being frugal. The monthly cost of a storage unit, for some, betrays the rationalized morals of Black Friday.
Any true sense of morality is doused by the pushing, shoving, and cussing that 5 a.m. Friday alarms so easily cause. Even if you forsake the pressures of online or big box deals, the nag of missing out will plague you like the Apple stock tip you ignored twenty years ago.
Are you seeing any irony yet? But there’s more…
The Saturday after Black Friday may be the one day people adhere to God’s commandment of keeping the Sabbath holy. Tryptophan and shopping cart PTSD insists on a day of rest. And for many, this bleeds into Sunday morning and more irony.
The Bible suggests how many neglect the habit of meeting together. This rings true for the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Most pastors count this Sunday as a throwaway. Nobody comes. Attendance and energy are down. Why? Irony.
Black Friday begins a progression of exhaustion, entitlement, and selfishness that bleeds into Saturday and Sunday. Isn’t that ironic? Just three days after enshrining gratitude and thanking God, we shrink back into our absorbed selves.
And here’s the solution. On Black Friday, focus instead on Good Friday. Black Friday is working and earning and pushing to save yourself. Good Friday says there’s only ONE who truly can redeem you from you. And if Good Friday is allowed to overthrow Black Friday, I think you’ll run to church on Sunday. As Paul David Tripp writes, you will want to, “…(sing) a hymn of gratitude to a God who met you where you were and did for you what you could not have done for yourself.” Bro… that is no irony. THAT is redemptive truth.
I hope you’ll go to church this Sunday. I’m excited to be preaching. It’s not a throwaway Sunday. In fact, it’s a day needed like never before. We will CONNECT to God through prayer and worship. Bring your workbook!
Blessings!
Pastor alan
p.s. – THANK YOU FOR YOUR FAITHFUL GIVING. I know you are grateful for the cross and that’s what SPURS you. This Sunday we will unveil our special Christmas-giving efforts to help restore people all year long. We’re calling it: “GDT ’23”