Retail confusion

I walked into a retail store this evening, to find a very weird sight. The promotion table right in front of the door was filled with Easter Bunnies and Hot Cross Buns and right behind them was a table of chocolate Santa's. Now come on people, can't they make up their mind anymore as to which retail season we are in.

All right I get it. The Santa chocolates are going to go stale, but really, Christmas goodies went out of fashion on Old Years Eve. Easter is a good 2+ months away and there is still Valentines day in between. Kinda just made me sick for a minute. All for a buck!

The question is, do we do the same thing in our Christian lives? I'm pretty sure we do. Jesus certainly dealt with it in His time. In fact that's the only time we see the Lord get righteously enraged. Traders were doing business in the temple and He had seen enough of it for Him to do the one thing none of us would have expected, He gets a whip and starts lashing people and turning over their money tables.

I'm certainly not against retail stores, we need them and they have their place, but I do think there is a line between supplying a market and exploitation. Jesus message runs deeper than that though. His message was that God's tabernacle needs to be kept Holy. When we come to God's church to worship, let us do it with hearts that are free from worldly entanglements and open to the presence of God!