Magrey on a Coke Bottle?

July 7, 2014

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

Sometime along the six-hour drive to the Wisconsin Dells last week, the girls and I stopped at a gas station to stretch and refuel.  We went inside to grab a few drinks, in what I had intended to be just a quick stop.  I never thought I'd have a reason to pull out my smartphone to take a picture of anything inside the store.  But there was, and I did.  

I reached for my usual drink of choice (a caffeine-free Diet Coke), and found that each of the Coke bottles was uniquely labeled, not with the words “Coke” or “Diet Coke,” but with the words "Share a Diet Coke with:" folled by names like Luke, Julia, Lauren, Jacob and Travis.  

It caught me off guard, as I thought this was some kind of joke.  But it wasn't.  Apparently, the Coca-Cola Company has printed bottles with 250 different names as part of this summer’s “Share a Coke” campaign.  It goes like this:  find a bottle with the name of someone you know, and buy the bottle to share it with them. 

“‘Share a Coke’ is designed to get people talking and sharing,” said Jennifer Healan, a marketing executive with Coca-Cola. “When teens see that the iconic Coca-Cola logo has been replaced by their name or their friends’ names, they can’t help but take a picture and post it online.”  [1]   It is a campaign designed to capitalize on our simultaneous desire for face-to-face connections with people and digital interactions with them through social media.  Stuart Kronague, Coca-Cola’s senior vice president, put it this way:  “For teens and Millennials, personalization is not a fad, it’s a way of life,” she adds. “It’s about self-expression, individual storytelling and staying connected with friends. ‘Share a Coke’ taps into all of those passions.”

Well, it didn’t quite work for me.  I rummaged through all the bottles of Diet Coke on the shelf and didn’t find a plainly labeled one among them.  And, more importantly, not a single one with the name Magrey on it.  I decided it would feel silly walking out of the store drinking a soda with someone else’s name on it, and I didn’t know anyone by the names above with whom to share it, so I switched to another brand of soda and walked back to the car.

But then, a thought occurred to me as I was driving away.  What if I did find a bottle with the name Magrey on it?  How cool would that be?  Wouldn’t I want to buy it?  Or what if someone had found a bottle with my name on it, and decided to hand it to me personally?  How neat would that have been?  Instantly, the rather mundane experience of drinking yet another carbonated beverage would have been transformed into a uniquely personal, altogether memorable moment.  It wouldn’t have just been any bottle of Diet Coke.  It would have been my bottle of Coke.  And this massive, global, multi-billion soda company would have found a way to make little old me feel a part of it. 

All of this is mere conjecture, of course, as I doubt a Magrey Coke bottle will ever emerge.  But I think Coca-Cola is tapping into something very interesting in its assessment of the very same culture to whom we are called as a church to reach:  we are relational creatures, who crave personal connections between us and others, and with larger narratives that go beyond ourselves.  It isn’t enough to drink a Coke.  We want to drink a Coke with someone special, and feel drawn into a story that is bigger than we are.

And when you think about it, isn't that the task of the church?  

Well, just ask the two central characters in this Sunday’s scripture reading.  I didn’t plan it this way, but my experience with the personalized Coke bottles coincides with preparing to preach this Sunday on Phillip and the Ethiopian in Acts 8, the next stop on our journey through the stories of the early church. 

Here was an Ethiopian man, whom Acts describes as a government treasurer and a eunuch, standing alone in his chariot one day, scratching his head as he pondered the odd complexities of a scripture text.  Sort of like standing in front of a refrigerator case trying to figure out what beverage would best quench his thirst.  But then the disciple Phillip, taking a page from the Coca-Cola campaign playbook (or, more accurately, following the prompting of the Holy Spirit), came up to him out of the blue and made a personal connection with him.

We’ll dig further into the particulars of this wonderful story this Sunday, but the quick result is that the Ethiopian man discovered something of himself in the grand story of the gospel.  Thanks to his personal connection with Phillip, he found his own identity, and his own name, immersed into the story of Jesus.  He was baptized and became a follower of Jesus Christ. 

So here’s the question.  What would happen if you were reading a passage of Scripture and discovered your very own name in it?  What if, tucked among the powerful story of Jesus’ love, grace, and forgiveness, you were actually a part of that story?  And what if, instead of struggling to understand that story on your own, you found yourself surrounded by a community of people joining you on that same journey, with face-to-face interactions that offered you encouragement, discernment, and guidance?

Well, look closely.  That's your name written into God's story.

Shouldn’t that make a difference?

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega

St. Paul's United Methodist Church

531 W. Main St.

Cherokee, IA  51012

Ph:  712-225-3955

Email:  mdevega@sp-umc.org

[1]  http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/summer-of-sharing-share-a-coke-campaign-rolls-out-in-the-us

CHURCH WIDE PICNIC AND POOL PARTY

Once again, we are having a church wide picnic at Gillette Park on Sunday, July 13, from 6:00-8:00pm followed by an exclusive pool party at the Bacon Aquatic Center from 8:00-9:30pm.  Grilled meats and fixings will be supplied.  You are invited to bring your own drinks as well as a side dish or dessert to share.