THE SUPERFICIAL SAGA: PART VII
My family and I moved to Meadville in November of 2003. Prior to that, I served a church in Salem, Ohio for about seven-and-a-half years. I believe it was near the end of September of 2003 when I formally announced to the congregation that we would be leaving Salem. I was surprised by how fast the news spread in the community.
For example, it wasn’t more than a few days after I made my announcement in church that I was approached on the street by a young man I knew from the gym. His name was Dominic Panzott. Dominic approached me and said, “I hear you’re leaving town.” I said, “Yes. We’ll be moving to Meadville, Pennsylvania. It’s a tremendous opportunity and I’m really looking forward to it.” He said, “Meadville. Isn’t that where Allegheny College is?” I said, “Yes, as a matter of fact, it is.” He said, “Oh.”
I was puzzled by his response, so I asked him, “Are you familiar with Meadville?” He said, “Yeah. I went to Allegheny College for a year.” Then I asked him, “Well, what did you think of Meadville?” He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Pretty boring.” I said, “Dom, I’m raising three kids. Boring is exactly what I want!”
Now, those of you who’ve been paying attention know that the subject matter for today is supposed to be gluttony. Thus, you’ve got to be wondering, “Why on earth I would begin my sermon with a story like that?” What has the relative boredom or excitement of Meadville got to do with gluttony? Just keep that thought in mind. Hopefully it’ll all make sense by the end of this sermon.
This is the seventh in a series of sermons entitled The Superficial Saga. It’s a sermon series on the seven deadly sins. We poke a lot of fun at sin these days. Truth be told, I don’t think we take sin very seriously. Yet God takes sin seriously. In fact, God takes sin so seriously…that he sent his Son to die on a cross in order to overcome it. Sin is not a matter to be taken lightly, as though a person could saunter into God’s presence at any time, in any mood, with any sort of life behind them…and at once perceive God there. No, the sense of God’s reality is a progressive and often laborious achievement of the soul; the soul that takes sin seriously and earnestly tries to dispel it.
Like I said, The Superficial Saga is a sermon series on the seven deadly sins. The seven deadly sins are: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust. Yet along with the seven deadly sins there are what we call the seven holy virtues or the seven cardinal virtues. The seven holy virtues are meant to counteract the seven deadly sins. For example, the opposite of pride is humility. The opposite of envy is love. The opposite of wrath is forgiveness. The opposite of sloth is diligence. The opposite of greed is charity. The opposite of gluttony is temperance, and the opposite of lust is chastity or purity. You see, the only way to conquer sin…is to replace it with something better.
Five weeks ago, we examined the sin of pride. There we determined that pride is a sin basically because Jesus said it was. The secret to overcoming pride is humility. We determined that the key to humility is to approach God not as the big, self-sufficient, and self-reliant adults we pretend to be. Instead, we approach God as little children: frail, empty, dependent…needing a gracious and loving God in the worst possible way.
Four weeks ago, we examined the sin of envy. We determined that envy is cold-hearted and
cruel. From a theological standpoint envy is basically our own sense of dissatisfaction with the way God created us. The secret to conquering envy is love. And the secret to love…is to wish what’s best for someone else.
Three weeks ago we examined the sin of wrath or anger. We determined that anger is a normal human emotion that needs to be expressed. Yet that anger needs to be expressed in the form of an offering to God. In other words, we express our anger to God in prayer…and then leave it in God’s hands to rectify the situation. The secret to conquering anger is forgiveness. Forgiveness then breaks the cycle of anger that peace might rule the day.
Two weeks ago we examined the sin of sloth. We determined that sloth is essentially a spiritual apathy that stems from a sense of hopelessness about the world. The key to overcoming sloth is to remember that we work for God, not for anyone else. We are called to remain diligent in our tasks, and in our belief, that God’s kingdom will come to pass when all the world comes to serve God.
Last week we examined the sin of greed. We determined that all that greed gets us is a whole lot of stress and a much shorter life. Greed says, “I want, I need, I’ve simply got to have.” Charity says, “Thank you, God, for what I do have.” Thus, perhaps charity is just as much for us…as it is for whatever charitable institution to which we choose to give.
Today we examine the sin of gluttony. Gluttony is unique among the seven deadly sins in that it doesn’t seem to affect anyone but us. I mean, if you happen to eat too much, who are you hurting besides yourself? Of course, as we shall soon see, gluttony applies to far, far more than the mere intake of food. But for now, let’s focus on the intake of food. Eating too much these days is often perceived as a sign of the good life. Case in point…where would the holiday of Thanksgiving be without the sin of gluttony?
Have any of you ever seen the television show, The Big Bang Theory? Aside from the fact that – like far too many T.V. shows, it seems to be sex-obsessed – the writing is really quite clever. It features three physicists with Ph.D.s, an engineer who only holds a Master’s Degree and a pretty girl across the hall who is an aspiring actress. Leonard and Sheldon are two of the physicists, who happen to be roommates.
In one scene, Leonard walks into their apartment with a large bag of Chinese take-out food. He says to Sheldon, “I hope you’re hungry!” To which Sheldon replies, “Interesting. A friendly sentiment in this country, a cruel taunt in the Sudan. It’s a lesson in context.”
A lesson in context, indeed. Eating too much in this country is often perceived as a sign of the good life. Yet listen to what a woman named Francine Prose has to say about gluttony in a book entitled, Gluttony. She writes:
One-third of all Americans, approximately sixty-three million people, are overweight. Fifteen percent of all American children are overweight. Two hundred fifty thousand deaths can be attributed to poor diet and inactivity. Fifty percent of cardiovascular disease is related to excess weight. We spend as much as fifty billion dollars a year dieting. Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery has become the new status surgery for the rich; more chic than a face-lift. That fifty billion for diets is more than we spend on education, training, employment and social services. We Americans spend more on dieting than the gross national product of Ireland.
Maybe gluttony does affect more than just ourselves. Thirteenth century theologian Thomas Aquinas once said that gluttony was the devil’s bait for our first parents. He’s referring to Adam and Eve, of course. As it says in Genesis 3, the forbidden fruit was a delight to the eyes and good for food. Thus, tempted by the serpent, Eve took of the fruit and ate. Then she gave some of it to her husband, and he ate of it as well. At that, sin entered the world. Could we go so far as to say it was gluttony that brought about original sin? After all, Adam and Eve were tempted with food, and they failed the test.
Now let’s consider the passage that Nancy read a moment ago from the gospel according to Matthew. After Jesus was baptized, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Note, however, that it wasn’t until after he had fasted for forty days that the devil came to meet him. Hunger was the door through which the devil tried to enter. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “command these stones to become loaves of bread.” The devil knew that hunger would be Jesus’ weakest flank at this point in time…and that’s where he chose to strike. Yet unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus did not fail his test. Jesus replied, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
The passing or failing of temptation aside, I think these stories reveal what gluttony really is.
Gluttony is weakness. And weakness is the door through which the devil always tries to enter. The devil always worms in…right at the point of our most glaring weakness.
I thought about this weakness as I read an article by Larry Peers entitled, The Problem Trap. You see a quote from Larry Peers’ article in the Silent Reflection portion of your bulletin today. He writes:
One of the primary kinds of stories that takes hold in a congregation and makes change difficult is what is known as the problem-saturated story, or one in which the focus is on who or what is or has been wrong. You can recognize the problem-saturated story when you’re in a group where someone offers an example of how difficult or awful something is in the congregation, and before you know it the rest of us can’t help but chime in with more evidence for how truly bad and impossible the situation is. We can almost hear ourselves say – even if the words aren’t verbalized – “If you think that’s bad, let me tell you how it is even worse than that!”
Weakness is the door through which the devil always tries to enter. You’ve heard the term, “Glutton for punishment,” have you not? How would it be if we coined another term here, because I think it truly applies. How would it be if we coined the term, “Glutton for misery?” A desire to be miserable is a very strange weakness that a lot of us seem to have. And the more we gripe and moan and complain, the more miserable we become…and the less likely we are to ever encounter a change for the better. It’s also the less likely we are to ever encounter God. For you see, our incessant grumbling can quickly become a cancer.
Such was exactly the case in the passage I read from the book of Jeremiah. The Hebrew people had been conquered by the Babylonians. Many had been deported from their homes in Jerusalem and forced to live in the city of Babylon. The Hebrew people were none-too-pleased about that. So what did they do? They griped, and they moaned, and they complained. And their incessant grumbling was quickly becoming a cancer.
This is the situation Jeremiah was addressing. Speaking on behalf of God, he cried, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, to all the exiles whom I have sent into Babylon: Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives, and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may multiply and not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
Did you catch that last part there? “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” In essence he was saying, “Don’t cave in to your sense of despair and hopelessness.” He reminded them of who they were outside of the problem, and encouraged them to do what they knew how to do when they were not in exile. These actions were the start of a new story. Jeremiah was prophetically helping the people of Israel to re-author their story in the midst of exile. In other words, bloom where you’re planted. And you’re either a part of the solution…or you’re a part of the problem.
I hear a lot of complaints about the church today. I hear a lot of complaints about the city of Meadville, as well. Why, it seems as though we truly are gluttons for misery. Yet as Jeremiah said to the people of his day, so, too, do I think he would say to us: “Seek the welfare of the city and the church where I have sent you…for in their welfare, you will find your welfare.”
My old friend Dominic Panzott said that Meadville was boring. To him, I suppose it was. To me, it’s not boring at all. In the end, I suppose it all comes down to what you make of it. Amen.
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