Sunday's sermon on Gluttony

Well, this Sunday I am preaching on the sin of gluttony. I will be first to admit it is one of the easiest sins for me to give into. We do so often think it all has to do with food and eating. We think of the buffetts and all the food you can eat for one price. We think of Super Sizing our value meals at the fast food places. We think of the holiday feasts, especially at Thanksgiving. We think of Family Reunions and everybody bringing enough food to fee the countryside. We think of the church dinners with all the casseroles, good food, and really good desserts. The list goes on...... Just look what they say about how overweight we Americans are, and we are.

Also, look at how much time we spend thinking about food. We now have the Food Channel. Look at all the cook books like Paula Deen's out there. Rick Ezell in his book the 7Sins of Highly Defective People says on page 128-129 "Gluttony is not about overeating on Thanksgiving . Gluttony is not about appearance; it is an attitude. It is not about being overweight; it is overindulgence. It is not about recreational eating; it is about rampant excess. it is not about too many external effects; it is a lack of internal balance." He then asks the question What is so bad wit a little gluttony, anyway? He sees it that we seek to feed the soul with the body's food."

Do you realize how much scripture centers around food? Do you realize how many stories Jesus tells about food. He was accused of being " a gluttonous man and winebibber", Luke 7:34. But Jesus was no glutton.

In his book Sinning Like a Christian, Will Willimon uses Luke 16:19 to bring out that part of the problem with gluttony is that it is more than self -indulgence; it may also be a way of being blind to the needs of others in a world where millions go hungry. He sees it as excessive consumption as well as excessive attentiveness to food. page 121. He further points to how we are gluttons when it comes to to noise, TV, cars, hi tech, gas, (They do call them gas guzzelers.)

If we are all to eat to survive, to live then what must we do?

We are reminded that in John 6 Jesus tells us that he is the bread of life. Maybe that is one of the ways we deal with this sin by feeding on Jesus for our soul, instead of feeding it body food to excess.

Just thinking out loud for Sunday