?Gluttony: Tooooo Much
Series “Sinning Like a Christian: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins”
(inspired by William H. Willimon’s book of the same name.)
Rev. Marti Zimmerman
Smoky Hill UMC
Genesis 2:9 NRSV
Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow
every tree that is pleasant to the sight
and good for food….
Luke 16:19-30 NRSV
The Rich Man and Lazarus
‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen
and who feasted sumptuously
every day.
And at his gate
lay a poor man named Lazarus,
covered with sores,
who longed to satisfy his hunger
with what fell from the rich man’s table;
even the dogs would come and lick his sores.
The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried.
In Hades, where he was being tormented,
he looked up and saw Abraham far away
with Lazarus by his side.
He called out,
“Father Abraham, have mercy on me,
and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue;
for I am in agony in these flames.”
But Abraham said,
“Child, remember that during your lifetime
you received your good things,
and Lazarus in like manner
evil things;
but now he is comforted here,
and you are in agony.
Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed,
so that those who might want to pass from here to you
cannot do so,
and no one can cross from there to us.”
He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house—
for I have five brothers—
that he may warn them,
so that they will not also come into this place of torment.”
Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets;
they should listen to them.”
He said, “No, father Abraham;
but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”
He said to him,
“If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be convinced
even if someone rises from the dead.” ’
Prayer
Recent headlines
900 pound man cut out of side of home, fork lifted onto flat bed truck for medical treatment.
Barrel of oil reaches record high $83.32 an all time record as US, China and Western Europe seek to feed petroleum habit
Wall Street Journal reports US shoppers used 100 billion plastic shopping bags last year (made from petroleum at $83.32 a barrel) an average of 333 for every man, woman and child (cited in World Ark/heifer project magazine Sept./Oct. 07. p. 5)
Business Week (8.13.07 p. 68) reports 8.4 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions were generated in the US alone last year in the making, filling and shipping billions of plastic water bottles (made from petroleum at $83.32 a barrel) equal to 2.2 million cars on the road for water that is equivalent to what comes out of most taps.
Gluttony.
We are nearing the end of this sermon series,
having looked at pride, lust, envy, greed, and sloth
and their amazing ability
to encourage us to take our eyes off a deeper relationship with God.
Today, munch, munch, gobble, gobble…
gluttony is the 6th of the seven deadly sins,
the only one to merit is a recent issue of Consumer Reports
as they researched the mullion dollar weight loss industry.
Gluttony is a health issue to be sure,
one that some of you have watched me struggle with for 15 years,
but why did the ancient church fathers of the 4th and 5th century
include it as a deadly sin?
The word comes from Latin “gluttir”
meaning to gulp down or swallow.
They fasted and prayed out in the wilderness,
seeking a closer relationship with God.
And what did they discover in the midst of such intense prayer?
They wanted more than anything, a good meal!
Gluttony is not about only about food and drink,
but gluttony is a force for gulping so much more.
What do you and I have in common
with AOL chairman Steve Case and Starbuck’s chair Howard Schultz?
None of us made the Forbes 2007 Billionaire list.
Speaking of gluttons, we also, like them
and unlike 1 billion people in our world,
didn’t try to eke out an existence on $1.oo a day last year.
How much is enough?
The glutton never asks.
Our text this morning comes from Luke,
Jesus telling the familiar story of poor Lazarus,
so poor that he waited for crumbs from the rich man’s table.
The leftovers that fed the dogs,
like the $41 billion Americans spend each year on their pets,
would have been enough
to save the poor man’s life.
They both die, we all do.
Lazarus ends up surprisingly
with Father Abraham
and finally has enough,
enough food and
enough water and
enough comfort
in the heavenly lap of luxury.
The rich man can see all of this across a chasm.
Still feeling rich I guess,
he demands that Lazarus fetch him water.
When this request is denied,
he asks that his rich family be warned.
Abraham reminds him that as a Jew,
the prophets already have warned about the responsibility
of the wealthy for the poor.
The rich man notes “they’re not listening.”
“Send someone back from the dead,” he pleads.
Send someone back from the dead.
Jesus isn’t too sure that even that will make a difference.
Why does Jesus tell this story?
It makes me wonder if we listen any better
than the rich man’s family?
Remember the little boy who started off our series on sin?
Remember how his Sunday School teacher asked,
“what must you do to be forgiven?”
And remember how he raised his hand,
”I know, I know. You’ve got to sin to be forgiven.”
Bishop Willimon in his book on the Seven Deadly Sins,
suggests that the church
is a training ground for “how to be a sinner.” (p. 149)
Not how to sin, we do that pretty well on our own,
but we can’t be forgiven,
if we don’t acknowledge
how we miss the mark in our lives.
We gather to worship, to sing, to pray, to study,
to think about gluttony and sin not because we are good enough,
but because God loves us enough,
just as we are,
to support and strengthen us to become
more like Jesus.
That’s what is so amazing about grace.
When it comes to gluttony,
whether its eating too much
the Center for Disease Control says 60% of adults eat too much,
and many of us drink too much, affecting our families and jobs,
and most of us use too much oil (at a record $83.32 a barrel)
for our cars,
in our double-sized home over the last generation,
with our plastic bags
and our water bottles.
We need help.
Susan Woodbridge needed help after Christmas eating up left-over fudge.
(of Micahprays.com- June 3. 2007).
She joked to a young relative,
“the more you eat, the less I eat.”
He took her seriously.
One and a half lbs of fudge later
he was sick, moaning in agony on the couch.
It is similar to the feeling some of us adults will have come January,
moaning in agony on the couch holding the credit card bills
if we don’t sit down in the next few weeks,
with the Xmas catalogues filling up the mailbox,
and plan how much we will spend
to feel financially healthy in January 2008.
The TV and the radio, the newspaper and the culture will chant,
“go, go, go-
you can have
more, more, more.”
As the little boy learned from too much fudge,
just because we can have it,
doesn’t mean we should overeat or overspend.
They are both gluttony- a hunger out of whack.
The rich man in Jesus story had a hunger out of whack.
He didn’t listen to generations of warnings from Moses and the prophets.
He didn’t see the consequences coming.
I’m so like him. Are you?
My dentist warns me to floss.
I forget.
My doctor warns me to exercise 5 days a week and watch my blood pressure.
I put it off.
My financial planner warns me to save more for retirement and charge less.
I see something I want. I pick it up.
My savior tells a story about how no one wants to listen to the warnings.
My life feels too busy,
in fact too overwhelmed with just getting the family through the day,
to worry about the billion poor hungry Lazarus’ on the planet.
If it is in our best interest to head the warnings,
why do we ignore them?
Gluttony is a deadly sin
because when our focus is on consuming
food or drink or gasoline or whatever,
well it’s like that irritating person
driving on the road in front of you.
You wonder
why do they go so slow,
why are they weaving,
why did they miss the light?
You pass, then you see the cell.
Why is it that the other guy can’t do both at the same time?
Gluttony, that is, the over-indulgence and over-consumption of
food or drink or gasoline,
it takes our focus off of God
and the things God loves.
Like poor hungry Lazarus,
and the home-bound,
and the refugees,
and those in prison.
The feast wasn’t sinful in fact scripture beginning with Genesis
is full of stories of banquets and meals and celebrations.
Truth is, gluttony affects our sight more than our bellies.
Gluttony describes our culture’s approach to food and stuff, especially oil,
too much of a good thing.
Gluttony keeps our focus on keeping up with the rich
instead of caring for the poor.
That’s how the rich man got caught.
Too busy to see.
Gluttony makes us and our world sick,
physically and spiritually,
because we are out of whack, too busy to see.
As the world heats up and the glaciers melt,
we could see how guzzling oil and coal affects the poor
living on the hurricane devastated coasts of Mexico
and the floodplains of Pakistan.
Too busy.
The rich man knew his family was too busy to see.
They feasted but were never satisfied, never full.
Their poor sight affected their hearing.
(sing)Do you see what I see?
Can you hear what I hear?
The 17th Century Philosopher Blaise Pascal said,
“Within every person is a God-shaped vacuum.”
Recovering alcoholics know this.
We are hungry, but not sure what will quench.
Later in Luke there was another rich man, Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus knew he was hungry for something that had meaning.
He had a hunch and went out on a limb
looking for the opposite of gluttony and greed.
He found mercy that strengthened him for lasting change.
He grew up hearing the warnings.
Jesus could have said,
(sing) ‘its too late baby now it’s too late.”
He didn’t, instead he said,
“let’s have lunch. You treat.”
Did you see how Jesus knew,
like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers,
what needs feeding
is a hunger that cannot be tempered by a pound and a half of fudge,
or a bigger car.
We crave and ads promise if we buy this,
or eat this cereal,
or live in this house,
we will be full. But we are not.
There is never enough.
“Feed on me.”
“I am the bread of life.”
“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.”
God didn’t send Jesus to leave us parched and in pain.
Jesus looks tenderly at those of us up in the tree.
That’s way we are here in worship, in bible study,
like Zacchaeus,
hoping he’ll notice and need us too,
cause we need what he’s got.
Brothers and sisters, over generations,
Christians have learned that the sin of gluttony can be tamed.
If you struggle with weight like I do,
or if alcohol affects your work or family life,
then you like me must admit you can’t fix your body alone.
God gave the gift and invites our tender care of it.
We need help.
In this room, someone needs to pray today for strength
that this time you’ll find support and stick to your plan.
If you don’t know where to turn
write me a prayer card with your name and number.
We’ll find you help.
We have a new group at the church working to help folks
find an exercise partners or
support group to get the blood pressure down or control their diabetes.
Disciple of Jesus admit they need each other.
Secondly, try to go cold turkey on your water bottles and plastic bags
for the next two weeks.
Don’t just recycle. Reuse and refuse.
It’s God’s earth, a gift to be treated with tender care.
Thirdly, look up, look around and see what’s happening to others.
That was the rich man’s sin.
You see gluttony isn’t about weight, skinny or too much.
Gluttony is about blinders.
The rich man didn’t hear the warnings and
didn’t see the poverty and hunger of others.
Zacchaeus did. We can too when we imitate Christ.
The best meal I ever ate
was as a part of the Habitat crew this church sent to Alamosa.
We worked hard all day while learning about life on the financial edge.
That night we set our picnic table feast at the Sand Dunes.
As we gave thanks, I knew Jesus joined us.
“Feed on me you who hunger for justice and righteousness.
You will be filled.
Choose now to ask for help and come Jan.
you won’t need to start a diet
and you won’t moan when those bills come due and
just think how many plastic sacks and bottles
will never hurt this earth.
Listen….. listen.
