I had always known how difficult the struggle with lust could be. In my mind, it was incomparable to any other. The flood of images in our over-sexualized culture makes a life without war almost impossible. Recently, however, have I come to understand a struggle that, in many ways, is more difficult than the struggle with lust. It is the struggle with food.
In a culture where adjectives like fast, easy, and cheap describe most of the food we eat, it is no wonder why so many live in constant fear of being blindsided with the irresistible temptation that lingers at every major intersection in the country. And it is so much easier to indulge. No one ostracizes you if you walk by with a double cheeseburger like they would if you were to walk by with a Playboy.
I'm not saying that eating a double cheeseburger is wrong. I am saying that there are many people who struggle (myself included) with eating a DCB unto the glory of God.
Because of the fall, the food that provides the nourishment our bodies need is difficult to harvest, purchase, and prepare. Maintaining our health therefore takes patience, self-control and discipline, as well as a large portion of our time and income. Fast, easy and cheap are the buzzwords that promise to alleviate the consequences of our fallenness. In the end, they do not provide - our lives become slower, more difficult and more costly.
But there is hope in Christ. Watch, as this struggling Christian gives his testimony and admonition.
Love the artful sermon. Content is great and a great medium for it.
ReplyDeleteScott I'm gonna start snapping my fingers when you make a good point from the pulpit.
I'm not saying food can't be an idol, but...
ReplyDeleteWhat if "No one ostracizes you if you walk by with a double cheeseburger like they would if you were to walk by with a Playboy," because the whole "your body is a temple" metaphor has to do with being joined to whore rather than eating a cheeseburger?
What if the bigger issue is our ostracizing someone who walks by us that we deem is in sin?
What if the far more common problem is being overly concerned with how we look, thereby making it far easier (i.e. less convicting) to make being fat a sin than to make bowing down to our 45lb iron plates the sin that it may well be?
What if our logic is completely contradictory when we say that food and children are a blessing from God but you can only pursue so much of one and you are duty bound (or at least guilty conscience bound if you believe God is sovereign) to pursue as much as you can of the other (even if it is to the detriment of your wife's health and your view of children is as at least as idolatrous as someone's view of cheeseburgers might be)?
What if the point of Daniel 1 is not that Daniel ate super healthy and was fit but that Daniel ate healthy and God still made him fat (not fit like the ESV Study Bible notes try to spin it, but fat, which apparently was a sign of health and blessing in the ancient near east)?
What if the emphatic structure of the Genesis 2.16-17, "you may eat freely," is rightly interpreted by Dr. Currid when he says, "mankind may eat to their heart's content from every tree of the garden?"
What if the unclean animals of the Levitical food law, such as pork, are known to be among the least healthy things you can eat and our God sent a flying barbeque of unclean foods and saying to Peter, "Rise, kill, eat?"
What if one of the primary biblical fellowship activities for Christians is eating (not to mention that one of our two sacraments is a meal)?
What if one of the glories of the promised land is an abundance of food?
What if the satanic lie is that you need to be skinny and look a certain way rather than you can't?
What if our theology of food is actually more tempered by a pornographic ideal for the body than a biblical one?
While I agree with many of your "what ifs", it would be impossible for me to address those in less than 500 words.
ReplyDeleteThis is a touchy subject, I understand. It would be unloving to remain silent on the issue. Food, a very good thing, is commonly exalted to the status of god in our culture - and in most cultures for that matter.
When food hinders our ability to love God and neighbor, it has to be brought under the light of the gospel.
This post is for those who "struggle" to bring glory to God when they eat (1 Cor 10:31). Your statements do serve to provide direction in that line, and are much appreciated.