I taught my course at Concordia University last night. The lecture was “Theology in a society of plenty”. We live in the wealthiest society human history has ever known. What does theology have to say about that?
Anyway, we got to discussing consumerism, and I proposed that there are some things that money just can’t buy. Money, for example, can’t buy love. The principle seemed self-evident to me, but the reaction from some of the students was laughter, and the comment that (in fact) money can buy love.
I remember when I taught them that Jesus died out of love for us, they looked puzzled. I thought it was just puzzlement about how Jesus saves us. But maybe for some its simply because sacrificial love is something some of them just don’t get. After all, what does Jesus get out of dying? What’s in it for him?
It made me realise that the proclamation that “God is love” truly is Good News, and news we need to proclaim more and more! And not just to make people feel good, but to challenge the notions of love that exist in our society.
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