Food For Thought

"Food For Thought"
Matthew 6:24-34


I’m not sure how many people really consider over-eating a sin.  Gluttony, morbid obesity, childhood obesity are all issues that make it into the news and comedians nightly routines as a “huge” issue.  (Pun intended.)  With our fixation and fear of death added in the mix, gluttony has moved from a sin to a health issue that could take years off your life.  But not send you to hell, forever.

I mean, how many people really seriously consider the idea that eating too much, or enjoying your food is a crime against God.  I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone, in my 30 plus years of ministry, come into my office asking for pastoral counsel because they were looking forward to breakfast too much.  Or because they were worrying about how much pleasure they got out of eating at a buffet the night before.

One time, when my daughter was little, we went shopping together and were coming out of a department store.  My daughter was very outspokenly blunt as a child and there wasn’t much of a delay between thinking a thought and when that thought came out of her mouth.  An overly rotund woman was coming in the store as we were going out, and Kristin said, way too loud, “Wow, Dad; that woman is really fat!”  I quickly picked her up and walked straight for the parking lot and our car, not looking back.

I have a small sense of how the woman might have felt.  One time I was in the grocery store, when we lived in Nebraska.  A mom was shopping with her little girl, sitting up in the shopping cart.  When I walked by, the girl said, pointing at me, “Mom, look, a giant!”  The mother did what I did with Kristin that day, and quickly pushed her cart around to the next aisle.

What’s different about those two situations, as people look at those of us who are outside the norm, is most people understand I can’t do anything about being tall.  I’m tall.  I’m always going to be tall.  I can’t make myself shorter.  Nobody looks at me thinking I have a negative body issue because I’m so tall.  (They think I have problems for other reasons, but not being tall.)  But, we expect that obese or overweight people can, or should, do something about their problem--that they should make themselves thinner.  And the other thing we don’t hear others say about obese people is a comment like, “Wow, Dad, that woman is really a sinner!  She’s going to hell!”

So what is gluttony, and where does it fit on the scale between sin, health issue, lifestyle choice, or psychological problem?

Here’s the thing.  The other so-called deadly sins hurt others.  The ripple effects of anger, envy, greed, pride, lust, and sloth move out and effect any number of people--especially those whom we love.  But who does gluttony hurt?  Basically it only hurts the one who is the glutton.

The other thing is, gluttony is at the strange intersection of necessity and pleasure.  We have to eat.  We can’t not eat.  If we are going to survive as human beings, the way God created us, we have to consume food.  With gluttony, something happens that pushes a person over the line of consuming adequate daily calories to sustain your life.  And crossing that line can lead to the contaminating influences of craving, obsession, or pleasure seeking.  Once that line has been crossed, is that sin?  A mortal sin?  And where exactly is that line?

And what about the opposite?  If gluttony is a sin, then is anorexia and bulimia a virtue that qualifies you for sainthood?  A number of the female saints, like Claire who was allied with Francis of Assisi, were anorexic, refusing to eat as a supposed sign of their obedience to God.  But is that healthy?  Is that a model we want to hold up as appropriate for Christian living?

There are all kinds of reasons people overeat or under eat to excess.  Morbid obesity and anorexia don’t just happen.  In respect to gluttony, some people just like eating.  The flavors, the textures, the aromas of food are very pleasurable.  But what happens that makes people eat compulsively; or starve and purge themselves compulsively?  The reasons could be many, from illness, to self-destructiveness, to the desire for self-obliteration, to intimacy issues, relationship avoidance, or socialization fears.

Over eaters, and under eaters, may have issues involving low self-esteem, or use their disorders to cope with past abuse, or are feeling some bottomless void they are trying to fill by mass quantities of unnecessary food.  Certainly, if we were to look at gluttony from the stand point of psychological disorder, it seems more logical than classifying gluttony as a mortal crime against the divine order.

This whole discussion is made more complex by a statement Jesus made.  In responding to the judgmental religious leaders, Jesus said, “For John came neither eating or drinking and they say, ‘He has a demon;’ the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold a glutton and a drunkard…”  Jesus evidently liked his food, and was judged as an overeating glutton.

Which was really odd, since the Roman culture at that time was all about gluttony in terms of food and sex.  The wealthy, when putting on a multi-day orgy of food and sex, would have what they called “vomitoriums” near the banquet hall.  When someone got so full they couldn’t eat any more, their servants would haul them out to the vomitorium, put a finger down the moth of their master so they would throw up.  Then haul the guy back into the feast and so he could continue eating.  It’s hard, if not impossible, to imagine Jesus taking part in such a thing, as he was accused by the Pharisees.  But Jesus evidently enjoyed his food.

It is important to note that it was Pope Gregory the Great who first came up with this list of Seven Deadly Sins back in the 400’s.  So the list has been around a long time.  But it can’t be traced back to Jesus.

For me, food, like money, is amoral.  That is, there’s nothing inherently moral or immoral about food.  Food just is.  It’s what we do with the food that brings in the element of morality.  It’s our attitude and relationship with food that creates moral and immoral situations.  But food, by itself, can’t taint us with immorality or make us saints simply by eating it.  The question is, can food make us sinners for eating too much of it?

So I thought it was vital to see what Jesus said about food and our relationship to it.  The guidance we get is in the part of the Sermon on the Mount that Priscilla read a few moments ago.  Here it is again, but from The Message:

If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion.  There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.  Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job-description, careless in the care of God.  And you count more to him than birds.  (Matthew 6:25-26)

Instead of “fuss about” other translations use the words, “...don’t be anxious about…”  Other translations use the word, “worry,” instead of fuss or anxious.  I don’t know if your soul is going to be damned to eternal hell if you eat too much.  What I know is Jesus saw that people experience an overabundance of anxiety; he then used the examples of how that anxiety can be caused by our relationship to food and clothing.  It’s not the food that is causing the problem.  It is the anxiety that is damaging the spirit of the person.  It’s in understanding and dealing with the anxiety that brings us back to where God wants us in our life with him--according to Jesus.

Anxiety is a normal human reaction to the stress we experience in life.  It’s normal.  We are human beings.  We experience tough stuff in life.  That tough stuff leads to a certain level of anxiety.  But if the anxiety becomes excessive, the person can become filled with dread about life.  That dread can be paralyzing, and keep the person from going through everyday life freely.

Over productive anxiety, moving into the level of dread, causes panic attacks.  It contributes to depression.  Too much anxiety can lead to compulsive behaviors.  And gluttony--over eating--is pretty much a compulsive behavior.  This over productive anxiety can either take over a person’s life slowly; or, sometimes there are trigger events that kick off the anxiety, ramping it up in a person’s life.  That, in turn, ramps up the panic, the dread, the depression, the compulsion and it becomes a hellish cycle.

Anxiety involves thoughts of uncontrollability and unpredictability of upcoming personal and major events.  This feeling of being out of control creates a shift in attention from our ability to cope, to the fear of our inability to cope.  Memories of past hurts quickly surface.  Concentration shifts us to only look at negative aspects of certain events, and negative emotions.

Worries become exaggerated.  Anxiety makes the person expect the worst outcome.  In these situations that create normal stress, an over anxious person’s mind creates all these “what if” scenarios which are often accompanied by physical symptoms.  Over eating, and under eating, are a couple of the possible physical symptoms that people use to cope with their anxiety.

What’s startling is that, even though anxiety is found in every culture, anxiety disorders are exceedingly more prevalent in Western societies--particularly America.  Which says to me that there is something entirely wrong with ways we are choosing to live and cope with life.  Something needs to be changed.


Jesus said, “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about…”  Become anxious about…  Worry about…  Anxiety and fussing has at its heart, trying to live your life outside of God.  Anxiety has to do with making your life about something other than God.  Worry has to do with not throwing your lot entirely in with God, trusting God in every life situation.  Anxiety has to do with majoring on the minors (food, clothes, etc.).  It means allowing anxiety and fussing to become your God, because that is what is controlling your life.

That’s why I included the prior statement of Jesus that you can’t serve two masters.  I think it has a lot to do with what Jesus says next about anxiety.  Food and clothing are simply symptoms of a life controlled by anxiety.  It isn’t about gluttony.  It’s about centering and concentrating your vision down to one thing--God.  In Jesus’ mind, you can’t serve two masters.  The choice for Jesus is between anxiety over not being able to be clear about what or who you are about, and dedication to God.  Who you serve.  Deciding for God, “living a life of God-worship.”

According to Jesus, anxiety is caused by being divided.  It’s trying to serve two masters at the same time.  Anxiety comes from trying to drive your life on both sides of the street at the same time.

The way I see it, and I might be wrong here, but the way I see it, it’s not about eating too much, too little, too lavishly.  I don’t know if gluttony will send you to hell for an eternity.  I do know that a divided life, a life of constant fuss and anxiety, a life of worry will kill you.  Excess in food is just one more indication that you’re trying to calm your anxiety about your divided life with something that isn’t God.  That’s where you start getting into trouble.  Trying to fill up your life on something that is not God.