Simple Spirituality

The Gadget Society

Our culture is mesmerized by gadgets, especially expensive ones. We are attracted to TVs that have all sorts or bells and whistles. We are turned on by buttons, and options. We do not seem to mind if this increases the price of the object. We assume that their is real value in the higher end products.

A Viking stove, refrig and something else costs nearly $10,000. A Breville toaster oven runs $270. A Margaritaville Frozen Concoction Maker retails for $300. And a Shun chef's knife, with its own wooden display stand? $300. This is expensive kitchen equipment, being purchased at a time when more than a quarter of all meals and snacks are being consumed outside the home.

Journalist Megan McArdle, in her article, "The Joy of Not Cooking," reports that the average woman in the 1920s spent about 30 hours a week preparing food and cleaning up. By the 1950s, she was doing this just 20 hours a week. Now, women average about five hours a week in the kitchen, but that is not because these expensive gadgets are time consuming.

McArdle believes that each expensive kitchen gadget "comes with a vision of yourself doing something warm and inviting: baking bread, rolling your own pasta, slow-cooking a pot roast." Gourmet kitchen equipment promises a warm and wonderful feeling, even if you rarely touch it.

Guys are getting into cooking as a leisure pursuit, and buying a lot of high-end equipment for the relatively small amount of time they spend in the kitchen. Dude cookery, says Rosner, is all "fire, blood and knives."

Food Base Spirituality

In the gospel of John, Jesus uses a number of food-based images to describe himself and his mission from God. "I am the living bread that came down from heaven," he says, offering a warm, inviting and nourishing image of himself as the bread of life. But then his language changes:

John 6:51 NIV84

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

"Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh" (6:51).

In the gospel of John, Jesus uses a number of kitchen-based images to describe himself and his mission from God. "I am the living bread that came down from heaven," he says, offering a warm, inviting and nourishing image of himself as the bread of life. If anyone eats this bread he will live forever.” (6:51).

In the gospel of John, Jesus uses a number of kitchen-based images to describe himself and his mission from God. "I am the living bread that came down from heaven," he says, offering a warm, inviting and nourishing image of himself as the bread of life. But then his language changes: "Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh" (6:51).

Last week we discussed the difference between the manna that rained down upon the people during their desert wanderings and Jesus as the bread of life. The manna was only temporary in satisfying the hunger of God’s people.

Exodus 16:13–15 NIV84

That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.

ex

Each day they had to hike out into the desert and gather their daily portion of manna for their family.

Exodus 16:19–20 NIV84

Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.” However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.

ex 16

Each day they had to hike out into the desert and gather their daily portion of manna for their family. They could not gather any more than a day’s supply of food. If they tried to save some work and gather an extra day’s portion, they discovered that upon waking the next day, their bread was laced with worms and inedible.

They could not gather any more than a day’s supply of food. If they tried to save some work and gather an extra day’s portion, they discovered that upon waking the next day, their bread was laced with worms and inedible.

They could not gather any more than a day’s supply of food. If they tried to save some work and gather an extra day’s portion, they discovered that upon waking the next day, their bread was laced with worms and inedible.

Their story should serve as a reminder that God will provide us with our daily portion of sustenance. I wonder if God only supplies us with only our daily bread, how could anyone make use of 7 yachts valued at over $45m in one day. Maybe someone other than God provided for them?

Any way, back to the lessons that apply to our lives.

Have you ever considered that God has given you exactly the right amount of resources, I will not say money but it should be included, to make it through each and every month, no more and no less. The problem that we have is envy. We always want more than God has provided. Carol and I made a decision several years ago that we would only spend money in a few select areas. First we tithed. Then we sent aside money for housing, food, transportation and clothing. We considered everything else luxury items that we could not afford as we approach retirement. I struggled with that at first. I wanted a new computer, flat screen TV with surround sound audio, newer not new but newer cars and a new lawn mower. I had to ask God to take away my desires for these items because they really were not necessary to my ministry or even my personal life. For a few years I was like a recovering addict who was sober but kept thinking about the enjoyment he would have if he would indulge himself.

I did not have a moment of epiphany or a dramatic moment of release from these desires but slowly over time God has freed me from them. For me, this is part of the promise that Jesus offers. In John he says that if we eat the bread, we will live forever.

John 6:51 NIV84

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

I believe that eternal life begins the moment we accept Jesus as our savior. One scholar described the kingdom of God as the already but not yet. Every time Jesus healed someone, preformed a miracle, told a parable the kingdom of God, or you could say eternal life, dawned into the already.

Revelation 21:1 NIV84

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

But that already is not yet complete until the return of our Lord and Savior and the Father brings in a new heaven and and new earth.

The book that helped me the most through this transition is entitled Practicing the Presence of God. It is a compilation of the sayings of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection who was a lay brother in the Carmilite order.

Born, Nicolas Herman, into humble circumstances around 1614, in Lorraine, located in eastern France, he enlisted in the army during the Thirty Years' War because he had no other way to earn a living. After his discharge he worked for a time as a valet, before entering a Carmelite priory in Paris and adopting the name, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. Lawrence was a lay brother. He lacked the education to become a priest. He spent the rest of his life within the walls of the Priory, cooking in the kitchen and working as a repairer of sandals. Yet, Brother Lawrence communicated such an attitude of inner peace that others flocked to him, seeking to learn the secrets of the spiritual life. After his death, friends compiled a collection of his sayings, which Father Joseph de Beaufort gathered into the spiritual classic, The Practice of the Presence of God, a book beloved by Catholics and Protestants alike.

Brother Lawrence's Rule of Life

Lawrence was a lay brother. He lacked the education to become a priest. He spent the rest of his life within the walls of the Priory, cooking in the kitchen and working as a repairer of sandals.

Yet, Brother Lawrence communicated such an attitude of inner peace that others flocked to him, seeking to learn the secrets of the spiritual life. After his death, friends compiled a collection of his sayings, which Father Joseph de Beaufort gathered into the spiritual classic, The Practice of the Presence of God, a book beloved by Catholics and Protestants alike.

"I began to live as if there were no one save God and me in the world."

Brother Lawrence's rule of life was simple: "I began to live as if there were no one save God and me in the world." This method he took into the Priory kitchen, where, amidst the "common business" of cooking, he attuned himself to God's presence: "Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. ... We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God."

This method he took into the Priory kitchen, where, amidst the "common business" of cooking, he attuned himself to God's presence: "Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. ... We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God."

Although the kitchen could be a place of many distractions, Brother Lawrence managed to cultivate a quality of attention that allowed him to contemplate God even there:

"The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great [a] tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament." Monastic fare being what it is, Brother Lawrence wouldn't recognize half the gourmet gadgets posted on Amazon’s website. Yet, by all accounts, he attained more joy scrubbing out dirty pots than even the most determined Abbot could aspire to.

Monastic fare being what it is, Brother Lawrence wouldn't recognize half the gourmet gadgets in the Williams Sonoma catalog. Yet, by all accounts, he attained more joy scrubbing out dirty pots than even the most determined foodie could aspire to.

Monastic fare being what it is, Brother Lawrence wouldn't recognize half the gourmet gadgets posted on Amazon’s website. Yet, by all accounts, he attained more joy scrubbing out dirty pots than even the most determined Abbot could aspire to.

I suppose Brother Lawrence had several advantages over us. He was born into a somewhat poor family. The temptation of material possessions was never an option. He had to enlist in the army then join the Carmilites just to survive. He was not surround by material wealth as an adult. But I believe that is the secret to eternal life. We must remove whatever worldly possessions tempt us and seek our nourishment only from our Lord. This does not mean that we must be stripped completely of every activity and possession. We all know the things that interfere with our spiritual life. It is those that must go.