The First Word FROM FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF BONITA SPRINGS SERMON BY REV. BRAD ROGERS NOVEMBER 4, 2018

Transcription

1 The First Word FROM FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF BONITA SPRINGS SERMON BY REV. BRAD ROGERS NOVEMBER 4, 2018 Y ou are what you eat. At least, that s what they say. Isn t that a scary thought? I don t know about you, but that idea terrifies me. What terrifies me about that thought is that, if it s true that we are what we eat, I must have coffee running though my veins. With three young kids at home, I live on a steady diet of coffee and the crust that has been removed from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So, sometimes I think about that phrase and wonder, What am I doing to myself? What about you? I m sure you eat healthier than I do. Your egg salad sandwiches must be made with fat free mayonnaise, right? And you only eat the carb-free version of egg salad over lettuce, too. You are what you eat. What we mean by that phrase the song beneath the words is that, what we fill our bodies with transforms us. What we eat changes us. Sometime around the late 90s, there was an advertising campaign for Nutri Grain bars that took the old adage, You are what you eat, and brought it to new light in a comedic way. Maybe you remember this commercial. The 30-second advertisement takes place in the morning in a big city subway system with a group of people dressed professionally, presumably heading off to work. On the subway car, the camera pans from left to right revealing person after person eating the typical on-the-go unhealthy breakfast options. One guy is eating a long-john and when he bites into it, a cloud of powdered sugar poofs and some filling oozes out and plops on his lap. Another is poised, ready to devour a breakfast pastry. Still another is eating a

2 chocolate-sprinkled donut. The train squeaks to a stop and each passenger files through the train s exit doors. Here s where the commercial gets brilliant after eating the unhealthy food, each person has been, in some way, transformed by it the food becomes a part of them. So, the guy who had been eating the donut has a giant chocolate-sprinkled donut around his waist like a pool inner-tube, causing him to struggle to fit through the turnstile. I ll let you use your imagination at how the woman who was eating the cinnamon bun was transformed. Do you remember this commercial? It was brilliant. The reason this campaign worked and why it was so funny is because it played into a common experience we have all had with food. It s the same experience that leads a person to say, If I even look at that donut, it will go straight to my hips. What we eat can change us. Healthy food can make us feel better. It can give us energy. It may even make us look better. But, of course, the inverse could be true as well. It s not only what we eat that s important, it s how we eat it. For instance, the new diets focus not only on the content of your diet, but how and when you eat it. Some diets encourage you not to eat past a certain time at night. Others say to eat smaller meals throughout the day instead of a large meal all at once. It s not only what we eat, it s how we eat it. And, as you know, sometimes it actually matters with whom we eat! There is a movement called the Family Dinner Project that cites all sorts of research showing that sitting around the table together with your family creates an environment that leads to a healthier family. Who you eat with may help lead kids and grandkids to make better decisions. In other words, what you eat matters, but how you eat it and with whom you eat it matters just as much. This morning, the Scripture passage we will be reading is actually related to the complex world of what we eat, how we eat, and with whom we eat. We will be reading just three verses from 1 Corinthians 10 that distill to the heart of these issues. Since we re reading just a few verses, let me unpack the Scripture by looking at the chapters leading up to the central words. 2

3 Paul, the author of the book of 1 Corinthians, has written to a group of Christians with some real challenges. One of their challenges was a very specific problem. Christians in the 1st century lived in a world filled with idols. There were gods for everything: for healing, for safe journeys at sea, for love for everything. Every day, people from Corinth brought sacrifices to the idols, appealing to them for help with whatever challenge they were facing. With each sacrifice, a lamb or another animal would be slaughtered which illustrated the first issue. If the Christians in Corinth ate at a friend s house, the meat from one of the countless sacrifices was on the table. They were left wondering how to handle the situation. Should they eat it out of respect for the host? Should they stay away because the meat was part of a religious practice of another religion? How could they to be faithful to God in the midst of their culture? This dilemma started all the way back in 1 Corinthians 8 where Paul started his argument by stating that we know an idol is nothing but a wooden carving, it s not a god at all. He said that there is only one God and these so called gods are really nothing, so the food sacrificed to them cannot bring us nearer to God or push us away from Him. He said that for conscience sake, Christians should not ask where the food came from; they should just eat it. Later in the same argument, Paul went on to address a second challenge regarding food in the Corinthian church. It was not a challenge to what they were eating, but how they were eating and with whom they were eating. During their celebration of the Lord s Supper, the meal that Jesus himself instituted as a new covenant in His blood, some individuals were being excluded. Those with means and wealth were excluding those who had neither. In the midst of addressing these two issues, Paul stopped to give us a brief window into the undergirding spiritual lesson that is our scripture reading for today, 1 Corinthians 10:14-17: So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. 15 You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am saying is true. 16 When we bless the cup at the Lord s Table, aren t 3

4 4 we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren t we sharing in the body of Christ? 17 And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body. After Paul gives permission to the Christians to eat food sacrificed to idols as long as they don t have prior knowledge of where the food came from, he turned to the heart of the issue, with a slightly different focus. He started this central section saying, flee from the worship of idols. Now, in the 1st century world, it was believed that when eating a meal of food from a sacrifice, the so-called god to whom the animal had been sacrificed was present; that the one eating the sacrifice to the god was participating with the god. The food, in and of itself, could draw people nearer to the god through the spiritual meal. That s why, at the beginning of this passage, Paul told them to flee from the worship of idols and that the pagan meals were inherently an act of worship. Paul s point was that WORSHIP, unlike food, has the power to spiritually transform us. Biblical scholar Greg Beale wrote a book about idolatry, We Become What We Worship, the thesis of which is: What we revere, we resemble, either for ruin or restoration. In other words, you are not what you eat; rather, you are what you worship! That theology undergirds some brilliant passages in the Old Testament. Psalm 115 (NIV) says, But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats.

5 Those who make [idols] will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. The worship of idols makes us spiritually mute, blind and deaf; unable to feel and walk. This talk of idols may not seem tremendously relevant today. We don t sacrifice animals or burn incense to idols in the modern world. Yet, we re not so different from those ancient times. Timothy Keller s book Counterfeit Gods addresses this very idea. Our contemporary society is not fundamentally different from ancient ones. Each culture is dominated by its own set of idols. Each has its priesthoods, its totems and rituals. Each one has its shrines whether office towers, spas and gyms, studios, or stadiums where sacrifices must be made in order to procure the blessings of the good life and ward off disaster. What are the gods of beauty, power, money, and achievement but these same things that have assumed mythic proportions in our individual lives and in our society? We may not physically kneel before the statue of Aphrodite, but many young women today are driven into depression and eating disorders by an obsessive concern over their body image. We may not actually burn incense to Artemis, but when money and career are raised to cosmic proportions, we perform a kind of child sacrifice, neglecting family and community to achieve a higher place in business and gain more wealth and prestige. Those words are challenging. What we worship transforms us, and though we may not have physical carved idols, it s like the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel said: These men have set up idols in their hearts (Ezekiel 14:3). Idols are anything that our hearts set up as the ultimate thing. Indeed, the great irony of the human condition is that while we are made in the image of God, we constantly seek to create gods in our own image. When we worship those, we become like them without vision, senseless, loveless and heartless. 5

6 You aren t what you eat; you are what you worship! Paul said to not worry about the food itself; rather, worry about what s in your heart and where your worship is oriented. Paul then shifted from the meals of the ancient world where it was assumed that communion with idols was occurring, to speak about communion in the Church. He shifted from what they were eating to how they were eating it and with whom. Remember, people were being excluded from the Lord s Supper, our religious feast instituted by Jesus. Paul says in verses 16-17, When we bless the cup at the Lord s Table, aren t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren t we sharing in the body of Christ? And though we are many [presumably with diversity of socioeconomic class and culture], we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body. When we participate in the Lord s Supper, we are participating in the body and blood of Christ. The reality of what takes place through the sacrament of the Lord s Supper is that Jesus draws near to us through the act of worship we have communion with God. How could we not be transformed by that experience? The bread and the cup are the quintessential symbols of God s transforming work. As food nourishes our bodies and drink refreshes and replenishes our thirst, the bread and cup nourish, refresh and replenish our souls. Through it we commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus, whose body was broken and whose blood was shed for us as a new covenant. We become more like what we worship. It s hard to believe, but this year it will have been 10 years since I graduated from seminary. The good news is that I am now continuing my theological and practical education. But 10 years ago, I went to the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, a small conservative seminary within the Presbyterian Church in Dubuque, Iowa. The movie Field of Dreams was filmed about 20 minutes down 6

7 the road from the school, and part of it was filmed in the library of the seminary. Do you remember these lines from the movie: Is this heaven? No, it s Iowa. The seminary felt a little like that. It was truly a special place. One of the things that Dubuque was known for was the warmth of Christian community. When I first set foot on the campus for a visit, I sensed immediately that this was where God was leading me to attend seminary. Everything about the school was set up to foster Christian relationships. Even the seminary housing was designed to foster community. The seminary housing was organized into 4-unit townhomes, positioned on cul-de-sacs. In the evening (during the warmer months) the students often wheeled their grills into the center of the cul-de-sac and grilled together. Everyone brought enough food for themselves and their families, and a dish to pass. Together we d enjoy Christian fellowship while we shared a meal. The Christian community was palpable. As a seminary, one of the other great strengths was the International Ministry Certification program. Students came from all over the world to Dubuque, Iowa of all places for theological education. We had students from South Korea, Taiwan, China, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and the Sudan, to name just a few of the countries represented. During these events, they brought their own cultural food to share, and we learned about their traditions. Everyone enjoyed the Christian community. What became extremely significant for me was that, though we were from worlds apart, what bonded us together around the table wasn t WHAT we ate, but it was how we ate and with whom. Though we had different languages, different traditions and different cultures, the Spirit of Christ which indwelled each of us bound us together in unity. We were one body because of our unity in Christ. That s how it is in God s Kingdom. As Christians, unity comes because of our commitment to worship Christ. As we become more 7

8 like Him through worship as we become what we worship we find that God connects us one to another in Christ s body, the Church. Today, as we celebrate communion, and as we are united to Christ who draws near during the celebration of the sacrament, we become more united with one another. My friends, through the worship of Christ at this table, we are transformed. And at this table, we are unified as the people of God, the body of Christ in this world Bonita Beach Road Bonita Springs, Florida fpcbonita.org