Disturbingly Cheap
A Sermon for Harvest. Deuteronomy 8.7-18 ; 2 Corinthians 9.6-15 There is a famous advertisement for a brand of beer that describes it as “reassuringly expensive”. Forget everything that you thought you knew about living in a market economy, this advert knew us better than that. It knew that if we spend money on something then we value it and think well of it. I can’t be the only one who has been shopping and made the far from certain connection between the price of something and its quality. Whether it be beer, clothes or cars we rely on the price of something as a guide to how good it is. It is a disaster for the makers of some things if they are sold cheaply, because we might stop trusting in the quality of it. So for a beer to be “reassuringly expensive” means that it can be sold for a high price, and it means we want it to be sold for a high price because it makes us feel that we have bought something of guaranteed quality.