The following guest sermon was submitted by ULC Minister Kirk Haas. All ULC Ministers are invited to contribute their own sermons for consideration/publication. To submit a sermon, please email it to sermons@ulc.org.
The Thanksgiving leftovers will still be warm, the pumpkin pie still settling in our stomachs... time to shop?
This Friday, millions of Americans will set their alarms for an early-morning dash to snag the hottest Black Friday deals. For many, it’s the unofficial kickoff to the holiday season, wrung in by doorbuster deals on the latest electronics or other hot items.
Shopping is itself becoming a seasonal tradition. Loading the kids up and going to the store (or increasingly, scrolling through our devices like zombies while we shop "amazing deals" online) is becoming synonymous with the holidays… but should it be?
A day dedicated to stepping over your friends and neighbors just to get the last discounted air fryer sounds like a day manufactured to exploit our greed and avarice -- something the Bible explicitly condemns.
That begs the question: Should Christians be celebrating Black Friday at all?
The Greatest Story Ever Sold
Scripture doesn’t mince words when it comes to greed.
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10) is an oft-quoted verse this time of year, but it’s not the only one.
Jesus himself warns, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15).
Black Friday, by design, invites us into a frenzy of rabid consumerism: slashed prices, limited stock, countdown clocks, the manufactured fear of missing out.
When we step back, it’s worth asking, does this annual shopping ritual draw us toward Christ… or away from Him?
The Hidden Cost: Workers Forced Away From Family
Beyond personal spiritual concerns, Black Friday also comes with a human cost. Every year, countless retail workers have their Thanksgiving cut short (or erased entirely) so stores can open earlier and earlier. Once upon a time, Black Friday was actually on Friday during business hours. Then stores started opening in the pre-dawn hours to serve eager shoppers. Then it moved to Thanksgiving itself.
Now, your favorite discounted items can also be delivered overnight.
While many families enjoy togetherness and rest, someone else is driving that delivery van, or ringing up discounted televisions after eating a rushed dinner in a break room.
Christians are called to love our neighbors, not benefit from systems that pressure them into sacrificing time with their own families. “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). These aren’t first responders or essential workers -- of whom some will have to work holidays to ensure society remains safe and civil -- they’re cashiers and shelf stockers.
If our holiday rituals depend on overworking others and needlessly depriving them of their own precious family time, are we truly living out that command?
When Giving Thanks Turns Into Getting More
There’s an uncomfortable irony at the heart of Black Friday's position on the calendar: it asks us to transition from gratitude to grasping. One minute, we’re thanking God for the blessings we have; the next, we’re battling strangers for discounted electronics. The contrast is sharp enough to give anyone spiritual whiplash.
For Christians, Thanksgiving is about humility, gratitude, and community. Black Friday flips that script. Its ethos isn’t “give thanks,” but “get more.”
So… Can Christians Celebrate Black Friday?
Christians can do many things -- but not everything is spiritually healthy. The Apostle Paul reminds us, “Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial” (1 Corinthians 10:23). Black Friday may be permissible, but is it beneficial to our souls? To our neighbors? To workers who want to be home with their families? To the gratitude we just spent a whole holiday cultivating?
When viewed through the lens of scripture and Christian ethics, it becomes hard to defend.
Ultimately, Black Friday isn’t just a day of shopping, it’s a ritual of rank consumerism that stands in stark contrast to the teachings of Jesus. It encourages greed, fuels unhealthy desire for possessions, and comes at the expense of retail workers who deserve rest and family time just as much as anyone else.
Christians are called to gratitude, compassion, and contentment.
Not doorbusters.
38 comments
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Rudolph Harrision Turley
Let's see if my will post. Is black Friday a sin? Yep! It sho is a sin. Are people serious? I would love to be a fly on the wall when someone prays to God about black Friday. Could anyone imagine the conversation? Individual: forgive me father for I have committed an awful sin. God: what sin are you asking about to be forgiven by the blood of my Son? Individual: I went shopping on black Friday. God:......
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Walter J. Holbrook
Faith for sale is not true faith
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Donald G Magel
This is a silly article. The Christiaan right is standing strongly behind the vile and anti-christian Trump! What has happened to the US christian membership and why are their ministers remaining silent?!
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Lionheart
Well if Christians want to support their duly elected President, and your President if you live in the United States of America, I say, let them. Isn’t that what democracy is all about? 🤷
🦁❤️
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Rudolph Harrision Turley
Sorry but what does having stuff on sale got to do with any religion? I can understand behaving yourself and acting civilized. I can understand questioning oneself if they're actions qualify as being a christ follower or not? But straight out asking if a sale is demonic??? I can see the conversation: Individual: Forgive me father for I have sin God: What sin have you done to seek forgiveness for? Individual: I have went shopping when items were on sale God:............ Which law was violated when it came to sales from a business?????
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Warren Calvin Wall
Outside of religious concerns, the season has become the filthiest, most obscene display of humanity in American traditions. One of the darkest traditions we have. I'm confident in our ability to do worse though.
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Lucas V. Nickol
There really is no reason people should starve in America. Not just on Thanksgiving, but ever. I can see how a person might choose to live a life free of possessions to the point of living a houseless nomadic existence. This might even be a religious practice for some, but no one should be deprived of shelter, and basic sanitation if he chooses to live in a building. I think it is OK to have a lot of money or possessions, but not OK to have obtained them through greed and exploitation of those in need. We generally chastise the wealthy, when oftentimes wealth is the end result of right thinking and right action. Yet we become envious of the wealthy. Envy is greed's cousin and too much of it leads to greed. A person can end up with a lot of money or possessions through frugal living and accepting what has been given. Money is safety and security in the modern world and it's money that oftentimes allows the wealthy to do charity. What good does it do for any man to give his wealth away entirely other than for him to become a charity case like those he helps? Rather than relying on individuals to give charity to the poor, a system of government should ensure there are reasonable means to social protection against conditions of unemployment, and a means to medical services, even if it means that a capitalist society might have to accept that taxation and socialist mechanisms that disproportionately tax the wealthy have to exist to achieve these ends.
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Patricia Ann Gross
I will start supporting the mega-corporations during the holidays when the CEOs of organizations with more than 3 sites and 1,000 employees cap their compensation and the that of the rest of senior management at xx times the hourly rate of the lowest wage earners. If that means that specialist talent is paid more than them just to stay competative in the markets, then so be it. When a billionaire CEO has wage earners that are eligible for and have to rely on Medicaid and food stamps, the economy has been tipped on its side. The middle class has disappeared in this country, and it is now just the haves and have nots. If and when I do my holiday shopping, it will be from local small businesses and non-profits. As for my initial first sentence, I don't expect to live long enough to see that happen.
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Roy S. Thorpe
An interesting take on the phenomenon! My favorite line is "spiritual whiplash"! It does indeed go from thanking to grabbing in record time! As a person who sees the commercialization of everything in the modern world (including religion) i am a bit tired of men's greed!
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Steven Ferrell
I don’t see Black Friday shopping as for or against Christianity. I personally don’t go because I hate the crowds. It also is gimmicky to get shoppers in. They post the latest hot item on sale, but only have a dozen or less in the store and sell those fast, but they get you in hoping you will at least buy other stuff
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Anthony Janney
As far as banning the music in schools I was not allowed to have any chances to radios only things were what the band played and the chorus singing class done I don't see any problem they shouldn't even have music like anything like that how does something else that you got to remember the separation of church and state isn't that Constitution says Congress shall pass no laws governing peaceful religion that's what they meant by it because England had a church state that they can say what goes on in the church that's why it was put there Happy Thanksgiving and have a Merry Christmas with the new year glad God will bless you
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Anthony Janney
Well we talked about Christmas people just give gifts to each other but Jesus gave the biggest gift of everlasting life I see nothing wrong and a traditional Christmas most people should know the best gift came from Jesus
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Anthony Janney
As far as the drag queen pastor or Reverend Paul told the theologians not to come to church looking the way of the Celtics which is pretty similar as far as address and things and that's all he said it's better not to as far as the women he said cover your faces her head so to speak because they must have been adorned Celtic theologians for Celtic from the coast of France from put them in Greece are they going to live there as like Representatives also
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Anthony Janney
Black Friday is just a marketing tool you have the right Christian or non-Christian to shop
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Jamie Frost
The devout give their tithe, the church goers give to the offeratory.. so what if people also want to spend their money shopping for others for the holiday season when things have a sale... The thought of this being an issue is astounding.
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Joseph Grieco
Christians have become desensitized to the true meaning of Christmas by the commercialization of the holiday. Then again, we, in the United States, have been conditioned to expect sale prices on furniture, automobiles, appliances, etc. associated with every federal holiday. The major difference is for the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, we are expected to extend our financial resources and go further into debt under the pretext of buying things for others. In the Church we attend, the emphasis is on preparing for the birth of the Christ Child. Yeah, I know the lambing season was in the Spring, not the Winter Solstice. Yeah, my college training in folklore and religion tells me Christmas is a way of shoving a Christian overlay on pagan celebrations (Birth of Mithras, Rebirth of Sol Invictus, Solstice, etc.). Draping the altar in Advent colors. The Liturgy approaching the talk of the coming of the Lord. Putting up the Christmas Tree with our handmade Chrismons, some of which are as old as I am. In that period of holiday spending, however, we also noted an increase in cash offerings, food items for the food pantry, gently used coats, and new hats and gloves for the needy. So folks are keeping the spirit in place.
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Douglas Robert Spindler
Black Friday is the day when Christians do all the things they say they don't and become greedy, worship money and become selfish to the determent of others.
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Elizabeth Jane Erbe Wilcox
Gosh, next thing you know christians will demand to take that day off work because it’s against their “sincerely held religious beliefs.” Boo hoo, the poor christians will use and abuse that excuse to get out of anything! I can’t fill your prescription, I can’t take part in your vasectomy, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. Where does the BS end?
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Keith David Harry
Gosh, in your narrow little mind I guess only your view of Christian’s participate in the greed of Black Friday. Gosh, I’ve got a boatload of agnostic and atheist buddies who can’t wait for this day. But gosh, in your world, how could that possibly be ?
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Ipsissima: Leonora
It's my opinion that anyone who is strong in their Faith can Celebrate anything they want and it won't make any difference to their True Belief.
Whether that True Belief is based in actual Compassion and not finger-pointing and blame might be up for discussion, though.
Strength Heart and Wisdom to you..
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Ipsissima: Leonora
Comment removed by user.
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James Riggle-Johnson
Christmas is a corporate profit machine — that part isn’t new. But does that make Black Friday “unchristian”? I’m not so sure. It depends on what’s motivating people. Is it greed… or is it the desire to make their kids, friends, and families happy? Most people aren’t fighting over cheap TVs for their own self-worship — they’re trying to stretch their budgets and give the best gifts they can.
I don’t love the chaos that Black Friday brings, but I’ve been out there a few times myself hunting for a good deal. The way I see it, people can still honor what Christmas is supposed to be about — the birth of Christ — even if they’re also navigating the commercial circus wrapped around it.
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John W
Can they? Sure, just as much as any other religious group. Now, how some do it as Christians is another matter all together with the pushing, shoving, cursing and fighting over material items to show how good of a gifter they are is incredibly ridiculous.
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Warren Calvin Wall
It gives the opportunity to attach guilt to the gift. "You have no idea what I went through to get this."
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Rev. BH
Celebrate? Like go to church? Sing and dance? Throw a party? Huh? I'd suggest buying stuff instead.
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Colleen McAllister
Can Christians celebrate Black Friday? Of course. Should they? Nope. Nor should any sane, adult human being. This day has nothing to do with religion or faith. It is a day of craziness, greed, and profit. Hardly worth celebrating.
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Rev. Donut
Then don't participate. You say the day has nothing to do with religion or faith. So what's your issue?
So all those people working, at a job, are not sane?
Those people are working and not on the grift milking and sucking the life out of working taxpayers without whom they would be living in mud huts in some fifth world country and drinking water filled with sewage. Think Uganda or Somalia or some other African or middle east dump of a country .
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Rev. Roe
If Black Friday bothers you don’t go there. STOP trying to change those who do not want chance. I am sure there are better things WE could be filling our minds with.
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Nicholas J Page
Black Friday is just another way for retailers making you think you have a bargain and nothing to do with any religion
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Rev. Miche'al Yosef Dixon
The term "Black Friday" originated in Philadelphia in the 1950s and 1960s when police used it to describe the chaotic day after Thanksgiving due to heavy traffic and crowds from holiday shopping and the annual Army-Navy football game. By the 1980s, retailers began promoting the name, changing its meaning from a day of strain to one of profit as their finances moved "into the black" from "the red". So, it's blatantly has absolutely nothing to do with religion but only your wallet. Which mine just got drained at Family Dollar store costing me $75 for a week grocery and leaving me $4 until my VA check on the first.
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William E Muldrew
I say give it a rest people. Your getting ripped off they been marking the prices up since Halloween so you think you're getting a deal. Your really just paying the original price.
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Joseph Grieco
What happens is the manufacturers produce "one off" product lines. When you see something where the ad says "Compare at $XXX.XX" you are not getting the product normally at that price. You are getting something with fewer features and a different warranty. This is a big draw for Consumer Electronics. Check the part number the price is listed for on the manufacturer's website. You will see it's a special run for a couple of retail outlets (usually the W company from Arkansas, the T company from Minneapolis, and the Yellow Tag company from St. Paul, Minnesota), and NOT the comparable regular product. That's why I advise folks to wait until the 3rd week in December to buy Consumer Electronics or Toys. For consumer electronics, they've already sold the lower priced stuff, but now managers realize they have too much inventory of the regular price and will slash prices. Toys? It's called inventory reduction. That's why big box stores offer up to 50% discounts on toys the week or so before Christmas. You really gotta know how to play the game.
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Religion as a Weapon is Wrong
Seriously? Black Friday is just a wild store experience that is not worth it. The traffic, the crowds, the "deals" that are mostly not deals. It has nothing to do with religion. If people enjoy it, more power to them.
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Joseph Grieco
I worked five consecutive Christmas Seasons in the same mall back in the 70s. Trust me, it wasn't a fun experience for those of us in retail. Back then, instead of opening at whatever ungodly hour they do today, we were expected to be in place for the doors to open at 7AM for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of that weekend. In the department store where I worked, we all were on commission. However we were only paid that for merchandise in our own department, or if we were selling something related as a bulk purchase. In my case, I worked the Plumbing and Heating/Home Improvements department. If I sold a complete kitchen job, I got the commission for the major appliances that were installed as part of the sale. Then our boss told us we had to ring up toy purchases. The problem is toy purchases belonged to Lawn and Garden department and did not pay us commission!!! Our boss argued that ringing those up took away from the time we could spend with our own customers (not that we had a lot that season - Nobody bought Z-Brick or Franklin Stoves for Christmas Presents, although we lived for failed water heaters) so we should get the commissions. They relented.
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Patricia Ann Gross
I worked in an electrnics store that had a commisison based on profit, not the retail price. Once I was so excited that I sold a $1,600 TV (when that was a lot of money for a TV), and the $20.00 screen cleaner paid more commisison that the TV, because it was sold at cost or sllightly under. There's a reason why salespeople push hard on the side items like screen cleaners and extended warranties: Those are the things that pay the biggest commissions.
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Rev. Donut
So? Don't make something out of nothing. If you want to participate in "Black Friday", in whatever form, I say do it.
Oh those Poor workers.
It's Friday, a normal person with a normal job that doesn't call in sick and show up late almost every day and that's not grifting off the gimmie dats, will be working anyway.
Some of my best holiday seasons and memories were when I worked during them.
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Dane
Whether or not they can, it certainly has never stopped anyone.
Was on my feet 21 hours for Sears Black Friday. Now look at them. Ask yourself if it is worth it. I should have found other work.