Junk Food - Sacred Food

Deuteronomy

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

“Junk Food – Sacred Food”

            As we enter in this sacred journey together, I am glad that on this first Sunday, we have a mission component to our worship service.  I personally think that the Souper Bowl of Caring is genius and completely God inspired.  To think, this started as a small movement, a youth pastor in a church looking at culture, looking at the world all around us, and asking the question, how can we be a faithful people of God in and amongst this world in which we live?  Before becoming overwhelmed with all the issues of the world, God whispered and directed, Pastor Brad Smith, specifically towards Superbowl Sunday. 

As a child, I loved watching football with my dad, but over the years, I have drifted away and really only focus any attention to the game on Superbowl Sunday.    I have many fond memories of Superbowls past from those days watching the big game with my dad, to youth group gatherings where we would play games as we watched the game together, or as an adult, gathering with friends.  Over the years, things changed, and more and more attention was moved away from the game to the commercials.  And then, one year, I remember on the news that a 30 second commercial was running for a million dollars.

 I think at that point in my life it all clicked and connected and the inner faithful part of me questioned this use of money.  What!  That’s a lot of money to run a commercial for Doritos, M&Ms, and Coke.  I might have thought about how this just did not make sense, but I did not know how to respond.  I have absolutely no control over how businesses operate and they have every right to spend their money how they want to. 

            And perhaps that’s why I think the Souper Bowl of Caring is so God inspired.  For this one youth pastor, he sought a way, not to stop the commercials, but to respond to this inner calling that so many of us feel.  That’s a lot of money to spend on commercials that are selling food that – well, is junk.  Yes, very tasty, but junk.  And so, instead of condemning the culture, he found a way to walk along side and helped people connect a day of football which incorporates lots and lots of food, to the reality that a lot of people right here in our own communities are going hungry.  Would people prayerfully consider bringing in a can of soup for the local soup kitchen, or contribute a dollar towards the local feeding programs.  He invited people to faithfully think about the way in which we celebrate this day, with parties, and food, and junk food, and commercials that cost way too much money.  This year they are 4.5 million.  He asked us to prayerfully consider taking a step away from our own celebrations and make a contribution towards feeding others. 

            What started twenty-five years ago as a local movement is now a national day of giving raising over 8.5 million dollars last year.  Their vision statement is the following:  To transform the time around the Super Bowl into the nation's largest celebration of giving and serving.  One person’s spiritual creativity has been a gift to so many people over the past twenty-five years. 

            Food, we Presbyterians love to eat.  And we are also very good at feeding others.  But can you imagine, if in our faith, we were restricted as to what we could or could not eat?  Various faith practices have food restrictions, whether it is pork, beef, alcohol, or caffeine and that is just to name a few.  Our first reading today from Deuteronomy is an example of food restrictions.  At one point in time, people of God were not to eat any of these unclean foods.  In my own life, I’ve always just eaten the foods that I like.  I’ve never really examined food in my life to what God would or would not like me to eat.  My church, my faith tradition, has not given me restrictions on what I can and cannot eat.  My mom, at least, did her best to teach me to eat healthy, and to not have my dessert before dinner.  But that’s about the extent of it.  

So, can we even relate to this issue that Paul is addressing?  We purchase or food at the grocery store and I, for one, have never worried about it being dedicated to an idol.  We could look at it from the angel of how sports have become our modern day idols and all the junk food we eat while watching these games is part of the sacrificial worship we do while watching our games.  But, I’m not going to go there.

Instead, I think the real issue in this text is that food is not just food but can be a symbolic representation of our spiritual selves.  We are what we eat,  I learned that when I was rather young.  But does food impact our soul as well?  Paul is saying here that it can, depending on how strong our faith is.  In the case of food being sacrificed to idols, the food is then eaten, either in the temple or sold in the markets.  The food is just food but it carries with it a symbolic meaning of is intended purpose. 

I have various friends that are very specific about what they will and will not eat.  For them, food is not just food, food is a part of their life practice, part of their philosophy, part of their faith practice.  More and more people are buying organic fruits and vegetables or free range meets.  I attended a Vegan wedding a few years ago, several of my friends are becoming vegetarians and more and more people are on gluten free diets.  Various movements are being practiced by people, such as buying only local food, which means not purchasing food that has to travel more than 100 miles to get to your store.  Farmers Markets are a huge draw in the summer months as people seek to purchase the freshest produce. 

What does food mean to us?  Throughout the Biblical story, food has often had greater meaning then just what we need to eat.  Jesus gathered with people over a meal.  Food represents hospitality.  Food is essential to our celebrations: Thanksgiving, birthdays, Christmas and Easter.  What symbolic meaning does food have for us as spiritual people?  I know for myself, I have been living on a processed food diet for most of my life.  I am seeking to grow in my own spiritual practice of sacred eating.  Of being more intentional about what I eat and how I feed not just my body but my soul. 

            It is no accident that God uses food to meet us in this sacrament that we call Communion.  God told the people when they fled from Egypt to remember the Passover and to celebrate and to remember once they were not a people and now they are a people, once they were slaves in Egypt and now they are free.  As a spiritual people, God continues to use food not just as food but as a symbol of who we are.  We can argue whether this bread and this cup are just bread and cup or the real presence or symbolic presence of Jesus.  But more than that, we come to this table to remember that we do not journey in this world like locusts tearing through a cornfield, but that we are created to be a community, a community that has a God given purpose to be set apart for sacred living.  Sacred living where we walk alongside our culture and listen to those places where our souls sit uneasy.  Are there places, such as the high cost of commercials for food, that make your soul uneasy?  Take, eat, and remember, that God is calling us to listen and respond. 

            Ann Weems writes this:  Ordinary bread made by ordinary people is holy when we take and eat and remember.  Ordinary grapes taken by ordinary people made into ordinary wine is holy when we hold it to our lips and rink and remember.  This bread…remember his body was given for us.  This wine…remember his blood was poured out for us.  Bread and wine, from ordinary to holy, Remember. 

            Food is just food, but as spiritual people, our creating God recreates food as we gather in this sacred time and are blessed by this covenant of Grace, Forgiveness, Renewal, and Love.  Amen.