7UP: Gluttony

Text: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Theme: “7UP: Gluttony” (7th in a series)
18th Sunday after Pentecost
October 16, 2011
First Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

IN THE NAME OF JESUS

1 Paul, Silas[a] and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace to you.
2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 For we know, brothers and sisters[b] loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

At least two people, during the past few weeks, asked about what Sunday the sermon on gluttony was to be given. They hinted, with a smile and chuckle, that they might not be there for that one. Now, I really didn’t want to be here either for the sermon on gluttony. Gluttony hits a smidge closer to home than I care to admit, and talking about it might make me a tad uncomfortable. I’ll just come right out and say it. You remember Lays Potato Chips? The advertisements used to say that no one could eat just one. Well, Lays potato chips do not hold a candle to the Zappo’s brand Cajun/Crawfish flavored potato chips that they sell at Rudy’s barbeque. I confess to eating an entire bag in one sitting, and I’ve done that more than once. Whenevever I eat just one, immediately my taste buds send a signal to my brain with the mandate to eat more and more and more! In a gesture of consideration, I’ve often bought two bags so that my family can share the first and I can keep the second to myself. And Cajun/Crawfish flavored chips aren’t the end of it. They make these little crackers with cheese and they put six of them in a little package. Then they sell them in a package of six of the little packages with six cheese crackers. One afternoon, not long ago, it was discovered in our pantry that one of the packages containing the six little packages was entirely gone. Now who was the glutton who raided the pantry and snarfed down all those crackers that, I am reliably told, are loaded with fat? That’s right! It’s Rev. Glutton here!

There’s nothing in today’s New Testament reading, First Thessalonians 1:1-10, about gluttony. For that matter, there’s not much in the Bible at all about the subject of gluttony. But when it does pop up, it’s rather dramatic. Start with the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament. Chapter twenty three begins as follows: “When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.” This passage seems to suggest that good manners are the order of the day. Gluttony and good manners don’t fit together very well, but the whole knife to the throat thing seems a bit harsh. Perhaps the author was exaggerating for effect. Later in the same chapter we read: “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.” This seems to be saying that if you eat and drink too much, you will be physically tired because your body is working overtime to digest all that food and drink. And thus, being so tired, you won’t be productive. Enter the 5-Hour Energy Drink! As Thomas a’Kempis said in his Imitation of Christ: “When the belly is full to bursting with food and drink, debauchery knocks at the door.”

That all sounds reasonable. But then we turn back the pages from Proverbs to the book of Deuteronomy. The subject of gluttony is addressed here as well. Hang on because this is going to freak you out. I cite Deuteronomy 21:18-21: “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.” Yes, my friends, it says it right there in the Bible.

To our twenty-first century sophisticated ears, the notion that gluttony is a capital offense strikes us as absurd. We’ve all heard about “tough love”, but execution as punishment is entirely out of line. To take someone’s life for being a glutton and a drunkard would be a permanent reaction to what should only be a temporary problem. It’s not that big a deal. And, besides that, we all have to eat and drink. We can be excused for overdoing it a bit, right? We tend to do that at Thanksgiving and Christmas! I wonder what percentage of new year resolutions are made that relate to losing the weight brought on by chowing down so much during the holidays!

Thanksgiving and Christmas, of course, have religious roots. In fact, a great many of the religious observances, holidays, festivals, and feasts revolve around food. The Passover meal in the Old Testament certainly did. At the center of our togetherness as Christian believers is – drum roll please! – a meal: the Lord’s Supper! And food is nothing short of a family value! At family birthday get-togethers and such, the issues often revolve around who is bringing the meats, the side dishes, the drinks, and the desserts.

What else does the Bible say? Well, Jesus Christ Himself was accused of being a glutton. In Matthew chapter eleven, while speaking to a crowd, our Lord mentions his cousin, John the Baptist: “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.” The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners”’.” Just as an aside, one of the most beautiful titles for our Lord Jesus Christ came from the lips of His enemies. It’s one of the great ironies of history. It’s the best evidence there is: positive evidence from a hostile source. The enemies of Jesus, derisively, called him a “friend of sinners.” And, indeed, He is! To paraphrase that old Billy Joel song, Jesus would rather laugh with the forgiven sinners than cry with the self-centered saints.

The Thessalonian Christians appear to have gluttony, or any other problem for that matter, nipped in the bud. The apostle Paul, in his letter, raves about them. He thanks God for them and their “work produced by faith”, their “labor prompted by love”, their “endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” The report is a glowing one, and they get high marks. They are, says Paul, a “model to all believers… .” And they have “turned from idols”, we are told, to worship the true and living God.

What is the opposite of such faith, love, endurance, and true worship? In his letter to the Philippians, Paul describes the ugly flip-side: “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.” He says much the same to the Christians at Rome. Consider Romans 16:17: “Now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine you have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such served not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”

Here in both references the stomach – or belly -- is mentioned as a god, and it gets us right to the heart of gluttony. To say that someone’s god is their stomach is to say that one is living by little more than instinct, and the whole purpose for life and living – the whole nine yards, as they say – is to satisfy that instinct and craving.

On the silver screen, Academy Award winning actor Al Pacino played the role of the devil in the movie, The Devil’s Advocate. In the closing monologue, the devil, played by Pacino, says, referring to God: “He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift, and then what does He do? For his own amusement, for his own cosmic gag reel, he sets the rules in opposition. It’s the goof of all time! Look, but don’t touch. Touch, but don’t taste. Taste, but don’t swallow. And while you’re jumpin’ from one foot to the next, He laughs.”

Instincts. Cravings. Once the craving is satisfied, instinct redoubles its efforts and demands more and more. Why is instinct acted on so often? Stated differently, why is gluttony so real?

John Cougar Mellencamp, the “Hoosier rocker”, put gluttony in lyric form when he wrote:

I’ve got seven of everything and more in the till
But I ain’t ever satisfied
You think this is dangerous stuff
It ain’t even a thrill
I ain’t ever satisfied
Oh, I am never
No, I am never
I don’t know why I ain’t ever satisfied.

If you don’t like all the double-negatives, try Dave Matthews on for size. In his song “Too Much”, he puts it this way:

I'm no crazy creep, I've got it coming
To me because I'm not satisfied
The hunger keeps on growing
I eat too much
I drink too much
I want too much
Too much

If Rock and Roll alludes to gluttony, so does country music. Think of all the ballads touting the benefits of bourbon. Willie Nelson’s “Whiskey River” comes to mind. Jerry Jeff Walker, who is Texas through and through, spoke more generally of gluttony with the following:

Too far and too high and too deep ain’t too much to be
Yeah, too much just ain’t enough for those old five and dimers like me.

We’ve got a nation and a culture loaded with five and dimers for whom too much is not enough. Our country is obsessed with food and drink. Is it any surprise that one of the most watched TV programs, watched by a larger proportion of viewers than nearly every other channel – is the Food Channel? As one scholar asks, “When does concern about good food become too much concern?”

Still, we over-indulge – we “super-size” our “combo meal” -- and then wonder why we have to face the dismal statistics related to obesity. We occasionally abuse alcohol and drugs; the occasional can become the regular, and, for some people along the line, the regular abuse crosses over into alcoholism and addiction. This spawns its own set of abysmal statistics. Then there are the eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. The national dieting craze rakes in billions of dollars each year as people learn to count their calories, cut their carbs, and discover the joys of polyunsaturated fats! We spend more on dieting each year than the gross national product of the country of Ireland! We’ve become a society not of Bible readers but of label readers, all the while taking note of how many grams of this goes into that and what percentage of whatever meets our minimum daily requirement! This, we have convinced ourselves, makes us feel healthy, makes us look healthy, and provides that patina of sophistication that we so desperately crave.

Medieval theology, which gave us the listing of the seven deadly sins, considered gluttony a moral problem. Writers considered it to have five main branches: eating too soon, too much, too avidly, too richly (meaning expensively), and too daintily. And gluttony was more than stepping up to the table at a hot dog eating contest. It was also a matter of being overly concerned about food, fixated on food, rather than the amount of food. Gluttony, overindulgence, was considered an outrage against God, but not anymore.

In our day, gluttony is an outrage against something else: the idol, the false god, of our ideal body image. It has nothing to do with faithfulness to God or the lack thereof. For the modern mind, any “sin” involving gluttony relates to the resulting ugliness and ill health. It’s not a moral problem; it’s an aesthetic one. And here in America we’re far more concerned with externals (how things look) than internals (how they really are). We’re more impressed with what words evoke than what they mean. We’re all about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And happiness involves, at times, catering to our pleasures – as long as those pleasures do not harm us or our neighbor. We still speak of “safe sex” between “consenting adults”, of course. We are told, by Madison Avenue alcohol marketers, to “drink responsibly.” And do consider buying the low-fat devil’s food cake!

The columnist William Raspberry once gave a talk on “the most detrimental point in human history.” To the surprise of all, he claimed that the most detrimental point was when humanity learned to refine sugar. Why? Because it instantly satisfied cravings.

Do we Presbyterian Christians take gluttony seriously as a sin? Are there times when, we have to confess, that our god is our stomach, our belly? Are we given to gluttony?

It’s easier to moan and groan about evil that is larger than our own occasional excesses. A case could be made that we like our consideration of evil to be systemic and more universal. That’s easier than making it personal, a matter of the gut! Talk, instead, about the evil that is done to us by these evil politicians, by these wicked institutions and unjust economic systems such as big government and big Wall Street. That’s where the problem lies. It’s not because we ate one too many enchiladas.

Jesus Christ – distressingly and yet wonderfully – was not so cosmic about our notions of evil. He was far more personal – man to man and woman to woman. We are all filled with instincts and cravings that we respond to –in ways, at times, that bring us, our neighbor, and God to grief. We are sinners not only by our own design but by nature.

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. His blood-bought gift to us is the forgiveness of our sins. He, the one accused of being a glutton and a winebibber, is, indeed, the friend of sinners!

It is as forgiven sinners, then, that we consider what we eat or do not eat, what we drink or do not drink. We no longer live for ourselves -- or live too indulgently or too daintily. We live for Him who died and rose for us.

This understanding is powerful for what it enables: not gluttony, but work produced by faith; not overindulgence, but labor prompted by love; not self-centeredness, but endurance inspired by hope. We are turned from the idol of the belly, the false god of stomach, to serve the true and living God who bids us to eat and to drink with Him and in whose presence is fullness of joy.

Amen.