August 20, 2006 - Reverend Johnson

"You Are What You Eat"
Today, I want to talk about food, and more particularly, about diet - diet, that is, not in terms of limiting our intake of food, but rather diet in terms of what we choose to eat and what we choose not to eat, and how this has an effect on our health.

As I begin, I want to tell you a story about something that happened to me. It takes place many years ago now - when my children were about four and eight years old. We were traveling across country, from Chicago to New York. It was late afternoon on a hot summer day and we’d been in the car for several hours. The kids were making a lot of noise:. they complained that it was too hot in the car they said - repeatedly - that they wanted to go home, they fought with one another, and they generally carried on. While all this was happening the car itself was acting strangely, there were some unfamiliar noises - and I was worried about might be causing it -- at the same time I was busy thinking about the rest of the trip, and all the things I had to do when we got to our new home. So you can imagine how I was feeling when my wife interrupted my train of thought and said, "We need to stop so I can use the restroom." I was irritable, and bad tempered, totally without patience, and ready, like a backyard dog, to bark at anyone going by.

Then a strange thing happened. My wife and my children went into the restrooms, leaving me alone in the car. I figured they'd be gone for about ten minutes - Hah!!! Guess how long it took! Almost Thirty minutes. One thousand and eight hundred seconds. But I said that a strange thing happened, and that kind of delay, as we all know, whether we are male or female, is not strange at all: time always stretches itself out when you are waiting for someone else. No - what was strange was -- that time did not turn out to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Instead it turned out be a time of calming, a time of peace, a time in which I went from being a bear to being a rather nice human being. And the reason for it was this - I picked up the Bible that my wife had been reading, and I started reading where she had a bookmark -- the very passage from Proverbs that we all heard here today. And as I read the six verses from the Ninth chapter of Proverbs, where God's Wisdom is portrayed as calling us to come and eat of her bread and drink of her wine, I realized that I had been focusing on the wrong things, that I had been eating and drinking the wrong stuff all day long, that I was eating the bread of anxiety and drinking the wine of frustration and that it was doing absolutely nothing for me - nothing good that is..

And as that realization came over me - as the Holy Spirit worked in me through the words that I had read - I stopped, and I thanked God for my children and for all their noise and their trouble, and for the unexpected opportunity I had while they were out of the car to spend time thinking things through, to spend time committing myself to a more wholesome diet. When my wife and children returned to the car I was actually fit to live with, and that, my brothers and sisters in Christ, was very good indeed. Good for them - and good for me.

Jesus said "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them." These word are not words that pertain only to what we do at the communion table, they are not meant to merely apply to the few minutes in which we celebrate the Lord's Supper, they are more encompassing than that. They apply to every minute of every day. What is it that we feed on every day? What is our diet like? What choices do we make from the tables that are spread before us - the table spread by Wisdom and the table spread by Folly? Which table do we sit down at most often? Too often it seems people who should know better - and that includes me - feed on the food that creates worry and anxiety, selfishness and intolerance, hatred and despair. People look at commercials for the latest products. and take note of what some of their neighbors and friends own, and instead of thinking about the source of true happiness, become somewhat envious. They read newspapers and watch the nightly round of bad news and, instead of applying Godly understanding to what they read or see, become somewhat embittered or depressed. They note the hypocrisy of their acquaintances, and of people in the church, and of their neighbors, and they see the spectacular falls from grace of some of the rich and famous, and instead of considering the mercy and grace that God grants those who come to his table, they become somewhat cynical - cynical about people, cynical about life.

The wisdom they consume says things like "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" and "why bother voting or getting involved in political action - it won't change anything" or "if you help those kind of people - they'll simply want more." Someone wisely said, "You are what you eat".... and if your only bread is the bread of envy, and your only drink is the drink of bitterness you become those things. A little junk food doesn't hurt a person. Most of us can safely consume a few potato chips and a piece or two of candy, an occasional pizza and a chocolate bar once in a while. But - if we don't balance this all out, indeed if we don't tip the scales in the other direction, in the direction of fruit and vegetables, milk and eggs, water and meat, then our health will begin to fail, and we will suffer afflictions that we don't need to suffer.
Throughout the scriptures God's word is compared to food - to bread and drink - because in his Word there is life. And Jesus himself tells us that he is the bread of life -- fullness of life comes through him -- abundant and rich life which is able to conquer sin and suffering, and despair and death.

When I was driving across country with my wife and children, I was consuming bad food. Food that doesn't even appeal to me. But while I waited for them, my focus changed. I started looking at things differently because of something that God's word said to me. I had a snack - a healthy snack - a snack at God's table and I felt better. Snacking - in this form - is good for us and should be engaged in whenever our bodies and our spirits require it.

But nothing beats regular meals, good meals, well prepared and lovingly served, and relished bite by bite to the very end. And it is on our journey through life - our pilgrimage - that we have worship, we have celebration, we have ritual, and we have study together. There the ingredients, the food, that we most need is gathered together in one place, the word of God and the people of God the people whose faith and whose hope and whose love can lift and inspire us, the people with whom we can share those gifts that God gives us for the journey. I mention this because we as people can't just exist on snacks eaten alone in a car or on a golf course. We need real love - real people to show us the face of God - real people to touch - to laugh with, to cry with, to pray together with.

Unless we eat of the wisdom of God - we will not be happy and we will most likely will not make the world a better place. "Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her animals and she has mixed her wine and set her table. She has sent out her servants - and She calls from the highest places: "Turn in here...Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed - lay aside immaturity and live and walk in the way of insight."

Nourish yourself from the table that wisdom has prepared, take the word and consume it, sing and pray and offer thanksgiving to God, share and make melody together to the Lord and you will be satisfied. Blessed be God - day by day. Amen