7/30/2025

Fill in the blank: 

“I am stuck on Band-Aid brand ‘cause ________.” 
“Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce, ___________.” 
“Nationwide is ______.”
“Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh _________.”
“My baloney has a first name, it’s _______.”

I guarantee if you’re of a certain age, you could answer every one of those – and I purposely chose jingles from decades ago, because once they’re in your brain, you NEVER forget them. 

And that’s on purpose. 

Which is also why each week we stand to affirm our faith (those basic beliefs that bind us together), confess our sins (honesty about our own sins teaches us to forgive others), and share a Great Thanksgiving designed to “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (I Corinthians 11:26).  

Whether it is the liturgies of the church or the liturgies of the world, we are constantly being transformed by something.

We used to have enormous places of worship where people would gather. There would be a vestibule purposely designed to separate you from the world outside. As you enter, on either side of the vestibule were huge pictures of smiling faces, demonstrating the “good life” that could be yours. Scattered through this worship space were smaller chapels where you’d find three-dimensional icons adorned in garb that inspired us to be imitators of these saints – these were concrete images that embodied the “good life.” And this could be yours, if you took part in the sacrament of exchange. Once the sacrament was completed you were sent away with the benediction: "Thank you for shopping!”

I’m being facetious; obviously, that was a shopping mall, but the purpose of the shopping mall and the purpose of the church are the same: transformation. Every aspect of the shopping mall  experience was designed to transform us into a good consumer, promising us happiness through what we would buy. Every aspect of the church experience is designed to transform us into the image of Christ, promising us abundant life, or life to the full. 

Whether it is the liturgies of the church or the liturgies of the world, we are constantly being transformed by something.

Now malls are passé. Online shopping has made most of them go the way of the dinosaur. But! Do not worry!  The Dragon has new and more insidious ways to transform us. 

Don’t get me wrong; I am not anti-technology. But I believe our technology advancements are happening faster than we can create moral boundaries for them. 

On Sunday, I quoted tech philosopher, Jaron Lanier. Lanier makes the argument that to keep us engaged, algorithms used by social media trap us into consuming content that makes us angry, sad, contentious, and depressed because that’s the sort of media that keeps us engaged. I can’t help but think of Philippians 4:8, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” 

Whether it is the liturgies of the church or the liturgies of the world, we are constantly being transformed by something. 

Furthermore, when we use social media, we become trapped inside a system whose goal is to make money. And the system makes money when we are upset, contentious, angry, and sad. Lanier argues that “what might once have been called advertising must now be understood as continuous behavior modification on a titanic scale” (behavior modification is a fancy way to say “transformation “).  I can’t help but think of Paul’s reminder that the “love of money is the root of all evil,” as well as all those commodities we read about at Babylon’s fall in Revelation 18, and, of course, again Philippians 4:8.

Lanier writes that the  addictive nature of social media makes platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, more like slot machines, occasionally giving us a dopamine hit, but more often leading us to greater depression, anxiety, and lower quality of life. And not only that, social media harms our mental health, turns people into bullies, and makes it difficult for people to tell the difference between the truth and a lie. 

All this is part of what John is writing about when he speaks of “Babylon.” Babylon promises a false security that only God can give. Babylon worships wealth and fame. Babylon pursues power. Babylon holds pleasure as the highest goal, but rarely pays off. Babylon will do whatever it takes to control us. Babylon has no respect for human life. Babylon does not love God and does not love others . . . unless Babylon can use God and others to make itself more powerful, more comfortable, and more wealthy.

Which is why God calls to us, “Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins” (Revelation 18:4). How do we do that? We come out of Babylon when we don’t participate and support those things that make Babylon, Babylon. We come out of Babylon when we create our own cultures of Christianity, our own colonies of Heaven, where we live.

And above all, when we worship, our lives are lived in devotion to God, and when we engage our whole selves in acts of worship, we are transformed into the image of Christ. We know our story; we know God is on the throne; we know the Lamb is the Victor, even when we are surrounded by and assaulted by Babylon, in whatever form it takes. The more the story of God’s love for humanity penetrates our bones, the more capable we are of living the life we were created to live, a life of loving God and loving others. 

Blessings,
Pastor Terry