Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Good morning. Would you pray with me, please?
Almighty God, in you are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of your word. Give us grace that we may clearly understand and that we would choose the way of your wisdom through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen. We've got two scriptures today. One, Ecclesiastes 9, 7 and the second one, Philippians 4.
In Ecclesiastes, we're told,
[00:00:37] Speaker B: go eat your
[00:00:38] Speaker A: bread with enjoyment, drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has long ago approved what you do.
Our passage in Philippians starts with verse 10.
I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last, you have revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned for me. But I had no opportunity to show it.
But you had no opportunity to show it. Not that I am referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have.
I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty in any and all circumstances. I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
This is the word of the Lord.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: Good morning.
Have you ever had this experience before?
You're comfortably sitting on your sofa streaming one of your favorite television shows.
The episode finishes and then it automatically starts on the next episode.
And then after some time, a message pops up on the screen that says, are you still watching?
I confess that this happens to me on a semi regular basis. And if you're like me, you probably react to the message with a little surprise, right? What? It's been this long already? I'm, you know, I'm surprised I'm still here. Then there's a little shame too. You know, you sort of feel judged.
Yes, I'm still here. I'm still sitting on my sofa two hours later watching tv.
Still watching. Yeah.
Remember when we used to watch television where we would have to wait a whole week to see the next episode?
Now we have the opportunity to binge watch.
Apparently, binge watching became More common around 2013 when Netflix released the first season of the political drama House of Cards.
They basically introduced a new way of consuming TV shows by allowing the viewer not to wait a whole week, but to watch as many episodes as they wanted, even the entire season, all at once.
It's a new model of consumption. Streaming services even promote shows as binge worthy.
Recently, I think I've noticed that some streaming services are starting to drop just one episode per week. Maybe a reaction to too much binging, but, you know, there's kind of pros and cons to watching TV either way.
Right. We have the anticipation of waiting for the next episode, but then you also don't get that experience of kind of fully immersing yourself in a show over several episodes together.
Well, the concept of binging is nothing new.
It's often associated with kind of unrestrained and excessive indulgence of TV shows. Possibly, but we can binge on lots of other things we enjoy as well. Right.
And it's a word that came to mind as I was preparing this sermon.
We're continuing the sermon series that Matt started a few weeks ago on the seven deadly sins or vices.
And our focus today is gluttony.
The seven deadly sins have been part of the church Christian tradition for a very long time.
Gregory the Great is kind of known for developing a list of seven vices in the 6th century, and that became known as the seven deadly sins, deadly because they were dispositions that lead to sin and separation from God.
In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas elaborates on these seven deadly sins or vices in his own writing.
And during the medieval period, the.
The seven deadly sins were a common motif in art and literature.
Think Dante's Inferno.
They're mentioned in the Canterbury Tales. There's a very famous painting by Hieronymus Bosch of the seven deadly sins. So they've been a long standing way of talking about types of sin and mindset that leads to sin.
It seems that the seven deadly sins, though, get less attention in the contemporary church.
And perhaps that's because we think it's too depressing to talk about sin. We think it's too negative.
But in fact, recognizing and naming our sins is a necessary part of knowing the love of God.
Pope Francis said he went to confession in order to be healed. To receive forgiveness, we must be able to name what is ailing us if we are to be healed from it.
Naming sin is meant to be empowering.
It helps us take responsibility for what we've done in the past and to participate in a process of doing better in the future.
So what is the sin of gluttony?
Essentially, gluttony has been considered to be a distortion within the self around the desire for food and drink.
It's a disordered pattern of eating.
I think it's important to note that there are genetic and social factors that contribute to some disordered desires associated with food.
And I want to acknowledge that reality while still talking about gluttony as a sin.
Fundamentally, gluttony is not about the amount of food we eat, but it's about how it distorts the God given pleasure around eating and drinking.
Gregory and Aquinas were not against enjoyment.
Aquinas believed that sensory pleasure in ordinary things can draw us to know and love God.
God made food good and for our pleasure.
The writer of Ecclesiastes affirms enjoyment as a divine gift. In verse 9, 7 that Angela read, it says, God approves that we eat with joy and drink with a merry heart.
God gives gifts and we have the opportunity to enjoy them, including food and drink.
We don't want to take this enjoyment for granted, though.
We must attend to how we eat and drink so that we don't simply consume what God has provided.
When we're driven by our demands for more without consideration to how those demands affect others, that can lead to gluttony.
We can see ourselves as consumers and creation becomes a resource to exploit for our own gratification.
One place I think we see this type of consumer approach to food is, not surprisingly, social media, right?
For those of you familiar with Instagram, you've probably seen lots of posts related to food, right? There's cooks post recipes or pictures of what they're cooking, which actually I find pretty helpful.
People photograph, you know, special occasions and food that they're eating. And then there's also influencers, which I learned are called foodstagrammers who post about food trends.
Gluttony involves a preoccupation with food and I wonder if these foodstagrammers reflect this preoccupation.
The images they post often disconnect food from the physical act of eating and they change food into this status performance, right? We see people lined up around blocks, you know, to sample the latest food trend that they've been seeing posted about.
I heard butter dipped ice cream, $20 strawberries, I saw all kinds of things, square croissants, you name.
Turns out that a lot of these influencers don't even eat the food that they photograph. They throw it out.
And so for them, it seems that it's about demonstrating how much excess time and money they have in order to acquire these food items.
In a survey by the Zagat Restaurant Guide, 60% of people polled said they actually stopped their dining companions from eating until they can take a picture of the food.
In these cases, there appears to me at least to be something about the food that is more important than the pleasure of eating it and sharing it with friends and family.
Consuming food like this is about acquiring something, and the photos are proof of that.
This mindset fails to see food as a gift from God to enjoy.
This isn't to say that we shouldn't try to acquire food.
Having enough food is important, and it's a concern in the Old Testament. Not surprising in an agrarian society.
Abundance in that context is seen as a divine blessing.
But there are concerns around abundance.
The prophet Amos in chapter six says, alas for those who lie on beds of ivory and lounge on their couches and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the stall, who drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.
Therefore, they shall now be the first to go into exile and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.
This text talks about those in an elite class who enjoy rare food, right? Young lambs that are killed to eat rather than raised to sustain needs that people have for milk or wool.
So they have this rare food. They're drinking wine in bowls and dining in luxurious settings without concern to share what they have.
This approach to eating and drinking is not about true pleasure.
Scripture also shows us that blessings like this are to be enjoyed in community.
Food and wine are divine gifts that all should enjoy.
So gluttony is not simply excessive eating and drinking. It's how we eat and drink that is important.
Are we eating and drinking to show status? Are we excluding.
There are ramifications for the environment.
Food consumption affects the environment.
I encourage you to talk to our own Erin Mead, who has written on the environmental consequences of excessive meat consumption.
Wendell Berry says that the true pleasure of eating occurs when we are conscious of the lives and the world from which food comes.
All this relates to gluttony as a sin because it distorts relationships, relationships with others.
Do we share what we have with creation? How does our eating impact the environment and with God?
Do we take these divine gifts for granted?
We live in a consumer oriented culture that encourages human appetites to be satiated, and we're tempted to give too much attention to these appetites without consideration for these other concerns.
What can we do to live as a people who are not enslaved to our appetites?
The church has practiced fasting as a way to discipline our natural desire for food and to make it serve our relationships with God and with others.
Fasting is any voluntary giving up of some food or drink, and it's one of the oldest practices in the church. It's not intended to punish the body, but it's a way to remind ourselves of our dependence upon God.
Fasting realigns our desires and reorders our passions toward God.
Christians have regularly fasted as a community.
Eastern Orthodox Christians have days when they don't eat food with meat or dairy or oil or they don't drink wine. Roman Catholics have traditionally not eaten meat on Friday, and Christians across all traditions typically fast during Lent.
Almsgiving or service has also been part of Christian fasting because it creates solidarity with the poor and those in need.
Fasting is an expression of love of God and love of neighbor.
Even extreme ascetics like the desert fathers and mothers would break a fast to eat with a guest.
They didn't fast to restrain desire for its own sake. They practiced disciplining their desires to better serve others and enjoy communion with God.
I think we might see fasting as just about kind of having a strong will, right? Just restraint or controlling our appetite.
But this is a limited view, and I think Paul's words on contentment in Philippians can be useful to us.
Contentment doesn't seem to be a natural state for human beings, right? Satisfaction is always tempting, temporary, and we tend to crave more.
And even when we have an abundance of what we need, we try to see how we could get more or at least keep what we have.
Paul elaborates a view of contentment in the context of financial support for his ministry. But I think it can relate to how we resist this consumer mentality when it comes to food and drink.
Although Paul is grateful to the Philippians, the church there for their generosity, he recognizes that no matter his circumstances, he has learned to be content.
Contentment is not stoic self sufficiency. Paul's not talking about his own ability or willpower to make himself be content. In times of plenty, in times of hunger, Paul's contentment is dependent on God.
It's not Paul's ability to pull himself up by his own bootstraps, but it's God who gives Paul the strength to face what comes his way. Abiding in the love of God in Jesus Christ empowers Paul to be content with what he has.
Fasting is not an exercise of individual willpower.
It's a practice that reminds us of our dependence on God, that we do not live by bread alone.
We also remember, though, that the aim of fasting is not to take away the enjoyment of food.
So how do we practice fasting and still enjoy food as God intended?
I think that the liturgical year provides a useful guide.
There are seasons in the church calendar where Christians fast Like Lent.
But there are many occasions for feasting, like Easter.
Fasting combined with feasting helps us learn contentment and frees us from the sin of gluttony.
Jesus performed his first miracle, changing water into wine at a wedding feast.
And he happily participated in banquets.
So much so, the religious leaders accused Jesus of being a glutton and a drunkard.
Jesus feasting was not about consuming Godly Feasting sees food as a divine gift for sharing and celebrating.
This kind of feasting promotes hospitality and thanksgiving. It celebrates community.
Gluttony cultivates none of that.
The glutton sees creation as a resource to exploit for their own gratification.
But feasting and fasting are primarily about sharing, thanksgiving, participating in the community.
The practice of fasting and feasting releases us from the harm of gluttony and teaches us how to eat and drink with the fullest pleasure.
Reflecting on godly fasting and feasting reminds me of one of my favorite films, Babette's Feast.
This 1987 film is set in a remote Danish village in the 19th century where two sisters live in like a strict religious community. They're very pious, and their father has started this community. Was the minister there?
One night, a French refugee, Babette, shows up at their door. She's fleeing war in France. She's desperate, and through a mutual contact, she ends up at their home, and the sisters take her in.
Babette offers to be their housekeeper and their cook, and they have no money to pay her. And she says, I will stay here for free.
It's a safe place where she can be secure.
And many years go by.
Babette lives happily there. And Babette gets news from Paris that she has won a large amount of money in the lottery.
So she wants to repay the sisters for their kindness by giving them a great dinner to celebrate the occasion of what would have been their father, the minister's 100th birthday. The community is going to have a special feast, a party, basically, but. And so Babette goes out and starts getting all these special ingredients.
She buys live turtles for turtle soup and quail. She buys all the table linens and crystal and candles and china.
And as these villagers see all these preparations, they get very concerned.
They've been taught not to enjoy earthly pleasures, and so they are worried that Babette is going to bring evil upon their community.
So they meet with the sisters and they decide. They make a pact together.
Okay, we will go to this dinner, but we will not enjoy it.
We will not show any emotion. We will not have any pleasure at this meal.
When the occasion comes, the film.
It's wonderful, you know, this beautiful table, the candlelight. It shows Babette making each course with great care.
And as the meal progresses, the guests begin to change.
You know, they came to the table very stern, very grumpy, but they start to enjoy the food and wine despite themselves, and the whole meal is transformed into something sacred.
Around the table, these friends find their spirits lifted.
They have long held grudges that they've kept down and resentments, and these begin to melt away. They speak words of forgiveness to each other. They share stories about the minister and their time in this community.
And by the end of the evening, they leave this dinner out into the night, holding hands, singing songs.
It's a moving portrayal of what a true feast is meant to be.
May we enjoy the pleasures of life, like food and drink, and enjoy them as God intended, receiving these divine gifts with gratitude and sharing them with others, like the apostle Paul. May we learn to be content with much and with little.
And may we practice fasting and feasting to help us cultivate this contentment as we strive to better love God and neighbor.
Amen.
