Gluttony
Luke 12:22-24, John 6:35
Chef Chris Cosentino, Food Network star and executive chef at Incanto restaurant in San Francisco, has created the Gluttony Pants for those of us who occasionally indulge and engorge without the post-meal awkwardness. The pants have three buttons, allowing you to expand the pants’ waist. The buttons are labeled “Piglet,” “Sow” and “Boar”. Gluttony seems to be a sin that we like to ignore or at least accommodate. Christians are often quick to label smoking and drinking as sins, but for some reason gluttony is accepted or at least tolerated. Yet Proverbs 23:21-22 warn us, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.” Do you struggle with gluttony? During this Lent, a time of reflection and repentance, we are focusing on The 7 Deadly Sins because we all struggle with these sins in our thoughts and actions. There are moments in our lives when we wrestle with them and other times when they overcome us. Today, just before Mardi Gras, a day founded to eat and drink in excess just before the season of fasting, Lent, we’re looking at gluttony.
There are two variations of gluttony: there is the ordinary sin of gluttony which the Catholics call a venial sin meaning it’s forgivable and not going to derail our walk with God. Yet we still need to confess, repent and then move in the opposite direction in our lives. Then there is the mortal or deadly sin of gluttony which becomes the obsession and consuming passion of your life so that it separates you from God and relationship with other people. That’s what we want to talk about today as we discuss gluttony.
Most of us deal with the venial sin of gluttony and we as a nation are paying the price. Obesity and being overweight have reached epidemic proportions. Since 1990, the prevalence of obesity has increased by 135% and it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. 65% of us are overweight today and Johns Hopkins University says that number will rise to 75% by 2015. Louisiana is ranked 5th highest in the country in obesity. 65% of Louisiana adults are overweight or obese and 48% of our children are overweight or obese.
But let’s be clear: gluttony and obesity are not necessarily the same thing. If you are a glutton, there is a likelihood that you will be obese over time. When we take in more calories than we burn, we store it somewhere in the body, unless you’re fortunate to have a metabolism that burns all of those calories. You know those people and hate them like I do. But for most of us, that’s just now how it works. However, obesity is not the same thing as gluttony. Obesity can be caused by a lack of an active lifestyle like spending too much time in front of the TV or computer. It’s also caused by longer work hours and commute times, oversized food portions, a lack of access to healthy foods, your family genes, hormone problems like an underactive thyroid, certain medicines and even a lack of sleep.
So what is gluttony? It comes from the Latin word gluteo which means to gulp down which says to us that they didn’t even stop to taste, enjoy or experience their food. They just crammed it into their mouth as fast as they could and then swallowed it. So that begins to paint a picture for us of what gluttony is. Gluttony is consuming more than you need and more than it takes to satisfy you. Gluttony is consuming to the point that it hurts you. This is gluttony. It’s not just what we eat but also is what we drink. But it’s also not just what you consume in excess, it’s also what you think about in excess. We can be guilty of that in New Orleans. We are the only city that I know of where we can go out to eat and the topic of conversation will be about food and other restaurants to eat at. Gluttony is when you can’t stop thinking or talking about your next drink or next meal.
The problem of gluttony. First, our culture has created an unrealistic body image in our mind that for example, women should be skinny, sometimes even excessively so. The problem is that we value something which is unrealistic and so we find ourselves caught in a body image that we will never meet. It hasn’t always been this way. In the Renaissance period, the ideal woman was not ultra thin. Michaelangelo’s painting in the Sistine Chapel shows Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and Michaelangelo was trying to capture the ideal woman. Take a look. Now tell me does Eve look like a size 2 here? She looks closer to a size 12 or 14 but she is the ideal woman for the Renaissance period. If a size 2 had shown up at Michaelangelo’s door, he would have thought she was starving to death and certainly would not have found her attractive. So we have to be very careful about getting caught up in unrealistic images of what your body should look like when it comes to size, shape and weight. Even be careful about what your doctor says about your ideal body weight because those are taken from actuarial tables from Met Life Insurance company in the 1950’s. In fact, when I put in my height and weight, it said I was overweight. So we have to be clear: that’s not what we’re talking about when we speak of the sin of gluttony.
Now God made us to enjoy life. There’s a reason He created such a variety of foods with their flavors and smells. God created us with tastes buds which means he wants us to enjoy eating. In the Middle Ages, there was a period where the monastics said you shouldn’t even enjoy your food. You’re just supposed to tolerate food. Give me a break. God gave you pleasure centers in your brain. He wants you to enjoy life. Our culture has taken this to the extreme in thinking that the chief end of life is pleasure. But the Christian faith doesn’t believe that. We believe pleasure is lagniappe. Pleasure does not come from consuming more and more because you’re never satisfied. There comes point where you actually begin to diminish pleasure in eating or drinking while at the same time increasing pain and even damage to your body.
I love King Cakes, especially cream filled or pecan filled King Cakes. Last year, Giovanna brought home a cream filled King Cake and every time I passed by that thing, I took a little piece. I justified it because it was just a little piece but by the end of the day between Luke and me, we had just about consumed the entire thing. But there comes a certain point where it doesn’t even taste good or even feel good anymore. Gluttony is moving beyond the pleasure God intended for us and starts to do harm to our body.
Third, portion sizes have gotten larger. The 8 oz bottle of Coke has grown to 12 oz then 16 oz bottle and now to the 20 oz bottle. Many of us drink 1 or 2 of these a day and if you look at the portion sizes you find that the portions are 2 ½ servings per bottle. We’ve gone from a regular fries to supersizing fries. This is the best value and so we justify our over-consumption financially because we’re getting the best bang for our buck. All of these things are indicative that we have come to believe as Americans that more is always better. And so if you have a car with 200 horsepower, isn’t it better to have a car with 400 hpw? If you have 2400 sq foot house, isn’t it better to have a 4000 sq foot house? If you have a hamburger, why not supersize it for a few cents more and that can lead to gluttony.
The Bible has a lot to say about a lack of self-control, the lack of focus on the right things in life and the relationship between sin and food. Here are just a few. In the beginning God said to Adam and Eve that you can eat anything you want except one thing: the apples on the tree in the center of the Garden. What was the sin that launched all of the rest? Eating. It was the desire for something they were not to eat which made it look all the more attractive. This story teaches us about our struggle with sin itself but also our struggle with consuming more than we need. Of course the story is about much more than that but at its root Adam and Eve gave up paradise for the sake of a bite of apple. What are you willing to give up to consume, to have just a bit more than you’re supposed to have?
Remember Jacob and Esau? Esau is the oldest brother who would inherit his father’s birth rite and all he owned. But Jacob also knew that Esau loved to eat and so he made his brother’s favorite stew and when Esau comes back from hunting starving, he asks for some. Jacob says, “Sure, but for your birthrite.” And Esau says, I gotta have it and sells his birth rite and spends the rest of his life regretting that decision. You remember when the Israelites were in the wilderness and they were sick of tired of eating manna and so they go to Moses saying they want to go back to Egypt because at least there they were able to eat cucumbers, leeks and melons. Can imagine sacrificing your freedom for food? Many of us have become slaves to our own appetites. You remember when Jesus was fasting in the wilderness? The very first temptation was food. And Jesus’ response was, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Your life is more than food or drink or even possessions.
The problem with struggling for just a little bit more is that gluttony can take over in our lives. Our desires become our god and when that happens, the venial sin of gluttony becomes the deadly sin of gluttony. The Apostle Paul talks about some Christians that were this way. This became their god, the very thing they lived for. They lived to eat, to have just a little bit more and they became slaves to their desires. He describes them in Philippians 3, “Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. I have often told you them and I now tell you of even the tears. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.” Most of us struggle with the venial sin of gluttony. For some of us, what we think about and look forward to and live for is consuming and we’re dangerously close to sin.
How do we break free from gluttony? There are eight keys. First, avoid foods that tend to trigger your tendency to overeat. Second, surround yourself with healthy, filling food options instead of foods with empty calories, like foods high in fiber and protein. Third, check for a connection between overeating and your emotions. Many people do not eat because they are hungry, but rather because they are emotional and are using food as a source of comfort. Fourth, when you go out to eat, split the meal. USA Today wrote in an article that “Most restaurant chefs are dishing out portions that are two to four times bigger than the government's recommended serving sizes.” And “typical restaurant meal has at least 60% more calories than the average meal made at home.” So either split the meal or eat half and take the rest home. If you’re a guy and don’t think that will be enough then get a side salad with the dressing on the side. Fifth, never buy or eat on impulse. Don’t go out to eat or in a sweet shop when you’re starving because your eyes will always be bigger than your stomach. We think, O that was so good, I just have to get more. Sixth, make over eating inconvenient. Use a smaller plate, have the food away from you so you have to get up to get seconds and don’t go back and get seconds for 15 minutes so your stomach will settle down and you feel even more full. Seventh, pause and ask yourself three questions. Do I really need this? Will I feel better after consuming it? What are the consequences of my consuming this? Remember, less is more. There is a moment of diminishing returns: where there is less pleasure and more pain or price to pay.
Eighth, recognize what we’re really hungry for and eat that which really satisfies. Jane tells the story of having her weight double in 1 year when she was 12 years old. In that year, her parents divorced, 3 of her grandparents died and then her home was destroyed by a tornado and so she turned to food. What was she really hungry for? The BBC did an interview with Princess Di in 1995 where she talked about her struggle with bolemia. She said, I had bolemia for a number of years and that’s like a secret disease. You inflict it upon yourself because your self esteem is so low and you don’t think you’re worthy or valuable. You fill your stomach up 4-5 times a day or more and it gives you a “feeling of comfort” and then she felt disgusted, shamed and made herself sick. Then she would go back and do it all over. In the end, it was always a temporary comfort she found, a repetitive pattern which only harmed her. What was it she was really looking for? Was it food or was she hungry for someone who would love her for who she was, accept her, hold her and never let her go.
Mary Louise Bringle of Brevard College writes of her struggle with gluttony. For her, it had to do with the fact she thought there would never be another chance. She had this moment right now to take what she could. She had better seize it so she would taste something and just had to have more because she never knew if she would have another chance. “I lived my life with this fear that I never had enough and I would never have this again. I didn’t trust God in my life that things would be OK. I had to eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow I didn’t know what would come.”
God provided the Israelites manna every day but that wasn’t enough so they began to hoard the manna. Yet the next day, they would open the jars only to find that it was covered in maggets. They didn’t trust God to provide each day. Jesus told us to pray: Give us this day our daily bread, not tomorrow’s bread but today’s bread. Last year we learned that when we pray these words, it means give us just enough for today. The issue trusting God to always provide, knowing that there was no need to be afraid, that there is one who will always love you, always receive you with open arms and who will always claim you as His child.
That emptiness inside which drives us to gluttony can only be filled by a loving God. Jesus said, “ I am the bread of life and those who eat of me will never go hungry.” You and I will never really know satisfaction until we have eaten of the bread of life, symbolized in the loaf when we celebrate Holy Communion. He is the bread of life and will meet every need in your soul and fill every hole in your heart. And what you will find is that when He is the Bread of Life for you, you will always be satisfied.
