- Chapters: - [[Luke 12]]:15-21 - [[John 6]]:25-35 # I'll be content when... - "Minimalism" -- trailer from movie from 2016 with some striking lines - We're surrounded by a lot of shops around [[Oxford Circus]]; many tempting shops - Imagine my life if I had that [[The North Face]] jacket! - So we think "I'll be content when..." - you get a cool new bag - or new jacket - or dream home - Yet we spend so much time on the hunt that nothing ever quite does it for us - As a generation here in [[London]] we materially have more than our ancestors could ever dream of - The "minimalism" film starts out with the first 20 minutes that could be the beginning of a [[Christian]] film, though the last half is a focus on the philosophy of minimalism - "It wasn't just about getting rid of my stuff, it was about taking control of my life" - A means of self-actualization - Started a moment in the late 2010s e.g. [[Marie Kondo]] - Later, same filmmaker made movie of "Rise and fall of minimalism" -- the magnetism of consumer culture is too strong - Minimalism doesn't solve all our problems. May help, but life is complicated - Our desire for more and more possessions is a big hole in our life and throwing more black friday deals into that hole doesn't solve it, but neither does throwing in the philosophy of minimalism # The hole - Parable in [[Luke 12]]: man builds bigger barn to store his large harvest - Statistically, money doesn't buy happiness -- once you have enough, doubling your wealth doesn't really change your happiness - Problem doesn't come from outside, but from within the heart -- greed - v. 20: "[[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?'" - Some rich guy once ordered the worlds biggest yacht (it even had a submarine!) - The day it was delivered, he had a heart attack and died - Death mocks our accumulation of buying stuff - e.g. [[Pharaoh]]s built pyramids but they're still dead - **Greed and death** -- two main barriers against contentment with stuff - So what can fill this hole that surpasses these barriers? # [[Jesus]] the Bread of Life - [[John 6]] provides an answer - Bread is a metaphor for satisfaction, a picture of daily needs being meet - The claim is that [[Jesus]] is the bread of life -- he will never leave people spiritually hungry - [[J K Rowling]] recently said online that she "has a [[God]]-shaped hole in her life", though she isn't sure what to do with it (she's not Christian) - But it is indeed a [[God]]-shaped hole -- you can't fill such an infinite hole with finite stuff - Hence, "whoever comes to me will never be hungry" - [[Jesus]] is **bread that is stronger than death** - Food spoils, fashionable clothes expire in fashionability, but [[Jesus]] lasts beyond death - [[Jesus]]'s body did spoil like bread on the [[Cross]], but he did rise from death three days later to live forever in [[Heaven]] - v. 29 gives a specific answer on how to plug this hole: "to believe in the one he has sent" - [[Jesus]] is **enough to satisfy** - Compare to gadgets and tech; modern tech like [[Facetime]] and [[Whatsapp]] are great tools that we didn't have a few decades ago - As [[Christian]]s we have reasons to love tools, especially to love [[God]] and love our neighbours - When we acknowledge that [[Jesus]] is the bread thats stronger than death, we can rest assured that in the [[New Creation]] there will be oodles of time to explore and make new tech and tools. No need for fomo, the best is yet to come - We can be assured that whatever it is about us that lasts into eternity, is our character