Gwyneth Paltrow is an incredible individual by today’s standards. She is an Academy Awards and Golden Globe winner for best actress (Shakespeare in Love); has many other films to her credit and awards to go with them; has appeared in six of the Marvel Comics movies including the latest, Avengers: Infinity War, and will star in the upcoming Avengers 4; she is the face of Estee Lauder and Coach products; she is author of two cookbooks; and, she is the founder and owner of the extremely successful lifestyle company, GooP.

According to a New York Times Magazine article, Paltrow’s idea behind Goop is for everyday people like you and me to be able to have what she has. Goop’s ethic apparently is that everyone should have beautiful things; but not necessarily at affordable prices. At the same time, just because one cannot afford beautiful things doesn’t mean one should not WANT beautiful things.

At a seminar at Harvard University about Goop’s success, Paltrow said that the things Goop offers — clothing, creams, oils, etc. — can’t be made cheaply. “Our stuff is beautiful,” she said. “The ingredients are beautiful. You can’t get [beautiful] at a lower price.” Even her wellness products are high cost. For instance, “Why Am I So Tired?” pills containing anchovies, sardines, and mackerel, sell for $90 for a month’s supply.

I don’t have any grievance with Gwyneth Paltrow. I’ve enjoyed some of her movies. She has wonderful gifts and talents, she’s ambitious and creative, she’s entrepreneurial, she’s an activist working with Save the Children and the Robin Hood Foundation. She’s the personification of the American dream. The products Goop sells may be worth every penny. Who am I to say?

I bring up Goop because it’s a reminder to me that those who believe in Jesus Christ don’t see the world through Goop’s lens. From Goop’s perspective, our Christian worldview is upside down. We Christians believe that humanity’s most desirable thing is not a commodity – one with the most beautiful ingredients, to put it in Goop’s words. From our perspective, the most desirable of things is actually free. Free, because the price has already been paid for us. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

When you think of it, what price can you put on a son? What parent wouldn’t give up any of the things Goop sells to regain a lost son? Yet, God was willing to give up his so that the most precious un-commodity a person can obtain is free: God’s Grace.

So, unwrap your free gift; a gift so precious it can’t be purchased. Ask God into your heart today. Say, “God, I want Your free gift of Grace more than anything. I realize that in comparison to Your grace, anything else is just goop.”

In closing I say, Lift High the Cross

Reverend Dennis