So far we have talked about:
Humans are not primarily thinking things. We are lovers.
We are not most often pushed by the right thinking as much as we are pulled toward what has captivated our hearts and imaginations.
Lovers on our way to a telos – aimed at some envisioned future, some vision of the good life.

Need to shift into seeing discipleship as being about learning to love.

How do we learn to love? How do we aim our love at Jesus telos (the kingdom of God)?

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Proverbs 4:23-27
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
24 Keep your mouth free of perversity;
keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead;
fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.

Guarding your heart will mean guarding the liturgies you participate in.
Cultural practices are formative liturgies shaping what we love.

Liturgies = formative practices, the form our worship takes, love shaping rituals/habits/routines

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The Liturgy of the Mall

"How do we learn to be consumerists? Not because someone comes along and offers an argument for why stuff will make me happy. I don’t think my way into consumerism. Rather, I’m covertly conscripted into a way of life because I have been formed by cultural practices that are nothing less than secular liturgies. My loves have been automated by rituals I didn’t even realize were liturgies. These tangible, visceral, repeated practices carry a story about human flourishing that we learn in unconscious ways. These practices are loaded with their own teleological orientation toward a particular vision of the good life, a rival version of the kingdom, and by our immersion in them we are—albeit unwittingly—being taught what and how to love." - Smith, James K. A.. You Are What You Love (pp. 45-46).

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There is a telos baked into these cultural liturgies.
There is an end, a vision of the good life they are inscribing in our hearts.

1. I’m broken, therefore I shop.
2. Place a disproportionate hope that things will make you happy.
3. They shape us to be detached from the people, production and products.
Don’t ask, don’t tell. The products are just magic. Don’t worry that this way of life isn’t extendable to everyone else.

"The liturgy of consumption births in us a desire for a way of life that is destructive of creation itself; moreover, it births in us a desire for a way of life that we can’t feasibly extend to others, creating a system of privilege and exploitation. In short, the only way for the vision of this kingdom to be a reality is if we keep it to ourselves. The mall’s liturgy fosters habits and practices that are unjust, so it does everything it can to prevent us from asking such questions. Don’t ask, don’t tell; just consume." - Smith, James K. A.. You Are What You Love (p. 53).

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Luke 12:13-21

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

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APPLICATION

1. Do A Liturgical Audit

Find time to pause – look at daily, weekly, monthly annual routines

What are the things I’m doing, doing to me?

Pay attention to your family rhythms

What are the secular liturgies in your life?
What vision of the good life is carried in those liturgies?
What Story is embedded in those cultural practices?
What kind of person do they want you to become?
To what kingdom are these rituals aimed?
What does this cultural institution want you to love?

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2. We need counter formational practices. (going to talk about this in the coming weeks of the series)

Examples - Worship, Prayer, Gratitude, Serving

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Remember, this isn't about earning God's love.
His love is already ours.
His Spirit will empower us to do this. The power we need to do this is available to us.

We can be different.
As we learn to love Jesus’ kingdom and what it looks like, we can write a new parable.