Gluttony

Introduction As I was considering doing a sermon series on the seven deadly sins, I was always a bit nervous about doing the sermon on gluttony. An obese person might lack the moral authority to talk about a sin that I am so obviously given to. But as I dug into each of the seven deadly sins, I realized that I was no more given to gluttony than to the other deadly sins. The name deadly sins seems to imply that these sins are the worst kind of sins, but the list is really about showing how these are sins are easily excused while having potentially serious consequences. It's also true that these are the kinds of sins we can convince ourselves we don't struggle with. I can tell myself I'm not proud (especially compared that that guy over there). I can convince myself I don't have problem with lust, because I'm not enslaved to porn, meanwhile perhaps I'm silently categorizing people by how attractive they are. I can say I don't have a problem with wrath because all the people I"m angry at deserve my anger. So all of this is to say, that the deadly sins are deadly because unlike piracy and arson, we easily rationalize them in our lives. So now I realize I'm proud, envious, lustful, greedy and angry as well as being a glutton. All of us probably struggle with these sins on some level. The point is not simply to excuse them as not-important, but neither is it to become overwhelmed with a sense of helplessness. When we come face to face with our sinfulness, there is good news: God's grace is greater than our sin. If we seek God's grace, we can find freedom, although becoming free isn't a one and done, but a discipline where God's grace takes root and grows in our lives. So if discussions of sin hit a bit close to home, the point isn't to make us feel better, but to remind us that we must live in a posture of receptivity to God's abundant grace. Defining What we're talking About What Gluttony Is So today, before we get talking about Gluttony, as with the other sins we've discussed, we first need to define what we're talking about and what we're not. To understand what gluttony is, we can look to the other deadly sins to help us understand. Many of the sins are about a disordering of desires, it means taking a good thing that God has given us and turning into an idol. Desiring for our material needs to be met is not a sin, but when the desire for things becomes our god, we are greedy. Sexual desire is, when experienced within the appropriate boundary of marriage, is a gift from God, but when sexual desire becomes our god, we are lustful. Gluttony is a disordered desire for food and drink. It's what happens when we make these things too important in our lives. The person who comforts themself by eating or drinking is behaving gluttonously. I learned to overeat when as I child we moved from town to just outside of town. I was culturally out of step with my classmates who didn't like me. I found I could manage the emotional distressed this caused me by over eating. The pattern continued at other times of high stress like when we had the twins, or during the pandemic. We can deal with stress by going to God, or we can do other things, some of which, like eating too much or drinking too much, can causes us long term harm. But it's not just those who overeat that have a disordered relationship to food and drink. So do those who obsess about what they don't eat. When I was in journalism school, I remember interviewing a woman who was a sports nutritionist. She was convinced that the local Junior hockey team should be employing her services because if the players on the local team weren't scrupulous about what they ate-if they indulged in even a single cheeseburger during the hockey season-they might destroy their competitive potential. Sure, athletes need to be selective about what they eat to optimize their performance, but what she was saying was necessary was clearly an overcompensation. What she was advocating was, In my judgment, a disordered relationship with food. I should qualify this to say that certain people have food allergies and sensitivities that mean they have to spend a lot of time concerning themselves about what they eat or drink for legitimate health reasons. So I'm not saying the celiac who insists on eating gluten-free or a person with an anaphylactic peanut allergy who goes out of their way to avoid peanuts has a disordered relationship with food. So, the person who obsesses over what they eat (or don't eat) is behaving gluttonously. Food is a good gift from God that is mean to be enjoyed (or else why would God have created so many things that are delicious) but like all the good gifts he has given, when we focus on the gift to the exclusion of the giver, we are behaving idolatrously. What Gluttony is Not Gluttony is not a simple imbalance between calories ingested and expended. So not every person whose body doesn't look like it belongs on a runway in Paris is a glutton. This is especially true because of the reality of our modern food economy. Throughout most of human history there has been too little food to go around. The scarcity was made worse by economic inequality, where a relatively small elite got the lion's share of the food. In Jesus' time and place, it's estimated that the top 10% got 50% of the food. So when someone ate more than necessary, they were creating further scarcity that could be deadly for others. The advent of industrialization and mechanization in farming has changed the equation somewhat. Modern farming no longer takes 90% of the population, it takes 2%. We produce large food surpluses. So what if we all reduced our caloric consumption to the bare minimum and were better are reducing food waste? The price of food would decrease, making it less profitable to grow food in our high-cost environment. This would probably result in less land being cultivated, until the prices rebounded enough to ensure profitability. So reduced demand would probably result in reduced supply. So solving the economics of hunger in our economy isn't as easy as reducing how much we eat. Focusing on the Gift Not the Giver So Gluttony is not a sin because by saying no to dessert after dinner, I save the life of starving children overseas. Rather gluttony is a sin because in food we try to find the things we are meant to receive from God. A story to illustrate: At the beginning of Jesus' ministry, immediately after his baptism, the Spirit drives Jesus out to the wilderness for a time of prayer and fasting. After fasting forty days and forty nights, [Jesus] was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:2-4, NIV) For Jesus to change stones into bread and eat would be an act of gluttony. Not because his body didn't need the calories, but because he would be using food to get what God intended Jesus to get from him. It would be to make the food more important than the God who provides food. Of course, Jesus' refusal to yield to the temptation is meant to contrast with Israel's many food-related complaints while they were in the wilderness. The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death" (Exodus 16:1-3, NIV). So the Israelites have been in the wilderness for about 40 days when they complain that God is trying to starve them. Compare this to Jesus who patiently accepts the privation because it is God's will. When the people complain, God provides manna, but the people aren't satisfied with what God gives them. A little while later, we read: "They [the Israelite assembly] spoke against God and against Moses, and said, 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!'" (Numbers 21:5). I have to empathize with the Israelites a bit. If I had to eat a single food for years on end, I'd probably get pretty tired of it too. But the people don't see God's grace in providing food for them, they instead focus on what they feel they deserve. Who knows, what would have happened if the people had come to Moses and said, "Moses, could you thank God for providing for our need for food. However, would you mind asking God if he could build some variety into our diets. After all, God has created a world with so many yummy flavours, we'd like to experience some more of them!" Perhaps its the attitude of entitlement, not the desire for new flavours that upsets God. But unlike the Israelites, Jesus focuses on God, obeying God's call to deny himself for a time. The Israelites become angry and entitled when God places them in a position of needing to deny themselves. The Israelites are focused on the gift while Jesus is focused on the giver. The lesson we take away from Jesus shouldn't be that we need to never eat, or be content with bland food. Jesus, after all, regularly eats with his disciples, so much so that some critique him as a glutton and a drunkard (Lk. 7:34). Jesus eats in celebration with others, but food is a tool for sustaining his body and building community that celebrates what God has done. The food never becomes the end itself. Gluttony and the Places of Addiction Gluttony and Eating Disorders Now the topic of gluttony bumps up against some very touchy subjects: eating disorders, and alcohol addiction. My point here is not to shame those who suffer from addiction, but to point to a more hopeful future. People with eating disorders may experience those disorders for a number of reasons. It may be low self-esteem, grief, a need for control, a distorted body-image or any number of things. I don't mean to stigmatize those with disorders, but to point out that disorders are probably a symptom of an unhealthy spiritual or emotional reality. These should drive us to pray. However, praying is not a magic fix-all that always painlessly ends the place of hurt, but it is the first, and a very important step in a healing journey. So we must pray, but please understand, I'm not saying, "If you just prayed, God would immediately fix you." But rather, hand this over to God, and walk with him so that he can bring healing to your life, even if that healing is a far more gradual process then you would like. Gluttony and Alcohol Addiction Alcohol addiction also grows out of disordered relationship with food and drink. It's not that alcohol is strictly forbidden, but about how it must be used. The possibility of fermenting foods to create alcohol is something God built into nature. The scriptures acknowledge that wine (or other alcoholic beverages) can bring joy. For example: "He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate- bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts (Psalm 104:14-15). And, of course, we see wine as a symbol of celebration in the life of Jesus. first, early in his ministry, Jesus and his disciples were invited to a wedding. Part way through the celebration, the wine runs out (a huge cultural faux pas). Jesus, encouraged by his mother, has ceremonial washing vessels filled with water and then he transforms it into wine. And not just cheap wine, the very best wine. Clearly, Jesus thinks the celebration should continue. Of course we should also consider the use of wine at the last supper. At the last supper, Jesus invests wine (a symbol of celebration) with an additional meaning, it is his blood. By tying together the symbol of his sacrificial death and celebration, he's pointing to the new reality that through his blood, we can come to God and that's something worth celebrating. Yet, to follow Jesus' example, means the wine is always about relationship (to others with whom we are celebrating, or the relationship to God) not about the wine itself. When my hope is in the wine, this becomes problematic for the same reasons as putting my hope in food is problematic-because a created thing cannot do for us what only the creator can do. In the case of alcohol, however, there is an additional layer of difficulty: Wine may be a part of our celebration with others, but if we indulge too freely in the wine, then our uninhibited selves can damage rather than enhance relationships. This is why Paul tells the Ephesian believers: "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18, NIV). When we consume enough alcohol that we're no longer in control of our behaviour, we are prone to making very bad decisions. Instead, Paul admonishes us to be controlled by the Spirit. That's quite a contrast. The person who says or does hurtful things while under the influence of alcohol might say, "It was the drink doing it." Instead, we should be the people who say encouraging and kind things to our friends, and can say, "It was the Spirit it." Imagine how much better our relationships would be if we did the later rather than the former. Just like the case of eating disorders, alcohol addiction is something we need to take to God in hopes of finding healing. And just like with eating disorders that healing may take a great deal of time and effort, including false starts and do-overs, before we find healing. But if we seek to make God, rather than gifts like food and drink, the centre of our world, we will find a greater blessedness in the long term, even if in the short term, we find denying ourselves to be a slog. Analogues of Gluttony I want to take some time to talk about some modern analogues of gluttony, things that touch on very similar issues, but that wouldn't have been imaginable in the days when the lists of deadly sins were developed. Like gluttony, these involve indulging in behaviours that feel good in the short term, but lead us away from a deeper dependency on God, and often have destructive effects. First there is shopping. There's a reason people refer to certain types of shopping as 'retail therapy.' This happens when we use the novelty of acquiring something new to help buoy our spirits when they face stress, grief or boredom. Obviously engaging in retail therapy can have significant financial consequences, but again, like gluttony it channels the holy discontent we experience in life into places that offer us immediate gratification, but that can't give us long term relief. These stresses are things that only God can take care of. So getting the latest fashions, the newest tech, good as these things may be, don't help us find lasting peace in a stressful world. The second analogue of gluttony I want to briefly touch on is entertainment. Movies, TV and books can be a very good thing. Stories can help us relate to people whose experiences are very different than our own. Good stories can also help us understand important issues with greater nuance. While our culture does produce these kind of stories, if we're really honest, most stories are meant to provide us with an escape. Whether its people fighting the zombie apocalypse, a new spy thriller or a historical drama about beautiful people courting at court, much of our media is about nothing more important than diversion. When we are stressed out or sad, binging a show on Netflix may feel like a welcome distraction, but if that stress is meant to push us to pray, then we're avoiding doing what can actually help with the stress in the long-run for temporary and ultimately unsatisfying relief. Virtue of Feasting and Fasting So if becoming over-focused on food and drink (or other indulgences like shopping or entertainment) is a vice, what is the corresponding virtue? The virtue is a rhythm of feasting and fasting. It's not enough to say, "don't eat or drink so much." There are times when eating and drinking (in moderation) are appropriate. God commanded the people of Israel to observe several annual feasts to celebrate and remember what he had done for them. Passover celebrated God's deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The Festival of the Pentecost, before it became associated with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, celebrated the beginning of the harvest. Over time, as people had new experiences of God's faithfulness, new feasts were added to celebrate and remember new things God had done for them. Purim celebrated the deliverance of the Jews from slaughter at the hands of a malicious Persian official. Hanukkah celebrated the liberation of the people from the rule of Antiochus IV who tried to eradicate Judaism. As Christians we celebrate Christmas to remind us that God sent his son into the world and Eater to remember that Jesus gave his life for us but that God raised him from the dead. The feasts remind us of the most important part of our stories. But feasts need to be occasional: if we feast every day, feasts lose their impact. That's why the biggest feasts in the Christian tradition are preceded by times of fasting: Advent prior to Christmas and Lent prior to Easter. At these times, we emphasize some types of self-denial, because when that season of denial is over, we appreciate the good blessings that God has given us all the more, and we associate those blessings with the joyous celebration of God's goodness towards us. So that's feasting and fasting on the big scale, over the course of the liturgical year, but is this something we practice on a smaller scale the rest of the time? It Is. For example, we might choose to eat plainer food during the week, and then have an intentional time of dining together as a family for dinner or Sunday (or another day if that works better). Sunday dinner becomes the time we focus on being attentive to one another, a small rhythm of celebration built into our weekly life (the specific day is less important, what is important is that it is time set aside where we can be attentive to one another, rather than eating and running.). The food then serves to facilitate greater relational connection, because food is mean to connect us with God and with each other. Another way we can learn to fast well is to teach ourselves delayed gratification. Maybe I get the kids down to bed and I'm stressed. My first impulse might be to put on a TV show to help melt the stress away. But what if I say, "Before I put on a show, I'm going to take my stress to God." So I resolve to spend 15 minutes in prayer first. Rather than reaching for the remote control to cope with my stress. I don't mean to say that prayer will just magically make the discomfort and stress go away (or that 15 minutes is always adequate), but if we learn to pray first, then we're training ourselves to respond constructively. When our first impulse is to reach for something else, then we're training ourselves to deal with our discomfort in a way that can't ever properly fix the problem. Conclusion So if you take nothing else away from what we've talked about this morning, ask yourself: What is more important to me, food or the one who gives us food to eat and the people with whom I eat? How do I deal with stress and worry, by seeking out God or the gifts that God has given me? The gifts can be good and life-giving if they're used right, but they can never take God's place, so let's learn to seek the giver, not just the gifts he gives.