Now a drachma is a coin that was worth roughly a day’s wages-not an insignificant amount even though this woman still has nine other coins of the same value. I do know that clergy everywhere have been asking: “You mean only 30 books on each subject, right?”īut back to the parable: This woman had ten drachmas but one is missing. I don’t know how that’s going to play here in the City of Literature. Marie Kondo suggests that you only keep thirty books. I even look at my bookshelves, where everything is supposed to be in some kind of order, and ask myself: “Where is that book?” Or if I’m willing to take a modicum of responsibility: “Where did I put that book?” You probably know what that’s like-unless you’ve been practicing the KonMari method for some time now: where did I put my keys, my phone, the remote? I don’t think I’m the only one who has had those kinds of experiences. She has obviously not found a place for everything. In the parable that we heard this morning, however, Jesus tells of a woman desperately cleaning her house. Now, the Bible really doesn’t have a lot to say about keeping things neat and tidy. In fact, it seems that quite often, those things that spark joy are buried underneath other “stuff.” At every turn we are encouraged to buy more and told that buying more will give us the joy that we seek. Kondo’s method and her Netflix show remind us of the shallow consumerism that has descended upon us. And if we can find it right in our own homes, in our closets, our drawers, or out in plain sight, so much the better.īut as Marie Kondo’s method-and our own experience-shows, it can take some effort to find those things that spark joy. It led to the New Yorker cartoon showing a woman holding two overstuffed black garbage bags in a room in which all the dresser drawers were pulled out and empty, saying to her partner: “I’m not so much keeping what sparks joy as getting rid of everything that sparks rage.” At the start of each New Year organizations such as Goodwill experience an increase in donations as people clear out unwanted “stuff.” But this year, across our nation there have been long lines of cars backed up at such places-a larger than usual increase, attributed to the number of people watching Kondo’s show and suddenly buying into her method. Or, you know, giving them to someone else or recycling, selling, or donating them to charity. Kondo’s “method” focuses on finding the things that you own that bring joy to your life-and tossing the rest. Her 2011 book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has been an international hit and Time magazine declared her one of the 100 most influential people in 2015. In case you are even more cut off from these kinds of things than I am, Marie Kondo is an organizing consultant who was born in Japan and now lives in the United States. I don’t have a Netflix machine-or whatever it is you need to be able to watch Marie Kondo’s show-but it’s been hard not to notice the craze that has swept our nation since “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” was released by Netflix on the first of January. It is a distinct method and comes with its own checklist-although I don’t think that “Tidiness is next to godliness” is actually its official motto. I thought of Wesley recently mostly because of another “method” that has captured our nation’s attention-KonMari-the wildly popular system for tidying your house. And Methodism took its name from the “method” that Wesley’s followers used to develop their spiritual lives. Those are the words of John Wesley, the eighteenth century Anglican priest who was the founder of Methodism. You have heard the proverb: “Cleanliness is next to godliness”-but don’t go looking for it in your Bible.
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