Facebook has been in the news a lot lately, and not for good reasons. It turns out that site where we can see pictures of our high school classmate's kids and argue with our uncle's unhinged neighbor has been a funnel for our personal information and habits into the hands of people who are trying to manipulate us. 

However much or little that funneling mattered to the outcome of the last (or any) election, the stories have made me think again about how dependent we are on these platforms. It's how we consume news (though actual news articles are apparently being hidden by Facebook's algorithm), it's how we keep in touch with friends and family, it's how we communicate with each other. It's how we sharing the invitation to our Holy Week worship (RSVP here! Share with your friends!) And it's free! We all love conveniences, especially when they're free.

We've learned an old truth about free platforms from these stories: if you're not paying for the content, you're not the consumer--you're the product. Our precious, scarce attention, our emotional reactions, even our loyalties are the thing being packaged and sold. That's true of social media, it's true of old-fashioned broadcast television, it's true of almost every app on our phones and tablets. 

I've come to love, and be very passionate about, the places and things that don't extract anything from us when we wish to encounter them. We happen to have a wonderful local library in Wauconda, but public libraries in general are almost miraculous today--you can just show up and read or use the computer or borrow a telescope! You can buy a cup of coffee but you don't have to.

And that's something very powerful and liberating about church, too. Yes, there are always a bunch of ways to give your money at church. But no one is turned away from worship because they have no money to give and no data to hand over. We come to the holy Word and the holy Sacrament of God freely and not as targets for manipulation or exploitation. Worship is the work we do together as Christians, but it is freely offered work. No one can force you to come, and no one is extracting or selling your data when you do. 

So this Holy Week and Easter, I invite you to experience the freedom of worship. This is our chance to participate again in the death and resurrection of our Lord--not as a product, not as a target, but as his freely chosen people responding freely in love.

Rev. Ben Dueholm, Pastor of Worship and Education