WEBVTT

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Every day I’m told

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I need to be something more.

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Over 3000 times a day

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from the back of buses,

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from my phone,

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from magazines, from billboards.

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I’m told I’m not enough;

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that I need this product

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or this experience,

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and then I’ll be happy.

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However, I get that product,

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I get that experience

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and they’ve designed an upgrade.

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There’s another advertising campaign.

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Advertising is designed

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to make me discontent.

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I need whiter teeth,

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I need brighter skin,

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I need something else to make me happy.

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It’s called consumerism.

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It’s not new;

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it’s simply institutionalised selfishness.

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Psychologist Tim Cassis says the consumer

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grid is simply time equals money,

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money equals things,

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and things equal happiness,

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and the goal is to be happy.

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And so what takes my time, takes

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my money, takes my things,

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takes my happiness.

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We know that’s

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not how it really works,

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but that’s the grid

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we just simply live by.

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So amongst all that,

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I am taught to be discontent

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with anything that diverts me

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from this goal of happiness.

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In that process, I become commodities.

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People become commodities.

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My hope and desire

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get put in commodities.

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This is one of the reasons

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I love Sabbath,

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because on Sabbath time

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doesn’t equal money. On Sabbath,

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I take a break from that consumer grid.

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I take a break from

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those incessant messages

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telling me I’m not enough

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and I need more.

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On Sabbath, I take a break

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to remember where I’ve come from,

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who I am, and where I’m going to.

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On Sabbath,

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it’s not simply a consumer story

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or my self-brand; on Sabbath

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I remember what my identity really is.

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On Sabbath

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I take time to grow and serve

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and connect and share and worship

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and all those things that consumerism

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could so easily swallow up.

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Zygmunt Bauman, sociologist, says

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that we live in pseudo community

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where we commodify people

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and commodify relationships.

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On Sabbath I take time

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for genuine relationship

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with God and one another.

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In the Bible, the first time

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the Ten Commandments are mentioned,

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it talks about the Sabbath

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and it says, ‘Remember the Sabbath

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because of your Creator.’

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Consumerism so easily destroys creation.

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It tramples on creation,

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it tramples on people;

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and in making the product,

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we forget the story of where it comes from

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or where that product goes to

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once it’s discarded, and we so easily,

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in the quest for more,

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forget about our creation.

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The second time that the commandments

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are mentioned it says, ‘Remember the Sabbath

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because I, God, brought

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you out of slavery.’ He is talking

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to the children of Israel

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who were slaves to Egypt,

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whose value was simply

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in what they could produce.

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They’d become commodities.

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Is it possible that you and I live

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in a consumer empire

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where once again

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we’re slaves to the messages

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of needing more

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and my value is what I could produce

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or what I can accumulate between now

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and the time I breathe

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my last breath on this planet?

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Sabbath reminds me

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that I’m not a slave to consumerism.

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There’s a different story.

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There’s a different way of being human.

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And Sabbath is

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a reminder that I’m here

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for what matters for significance,

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what matters for now,

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and what matters for eternity.

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I love Sabbath

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because it gives me a break

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from consumerism.

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It’s resistance to the culture of now;

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it gives me time to recalibrate

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and remember what really matters.