Homily

Today’s epistle is dealing with a problem that existed in Church during St. Paul’s time. I think we could call it the “Food Fights of Corinth.” Was it wrong to eat meat, because much of the meat sold in the city markets had come from an animal that had been sacrificed to a pagan god? Meat wasn’t labeled with stickers that told the buyer things such as, “previously frozen” or “previously sacrificed to Zeus.” Some people thought it was wrong to eat meat that was part of a pagan sacrifice, because somehow you were kind of participating in that sacrifice by eating the meat. If you thought like that as a Christian, then you wouldn’t be eating any meat bought at a butcher shop because you could never be sure about how or why the animal was killed.

St. Paul teaches that since there are no gods but God the Lord, it doesn’t matter if the food you buy and eat had been previously sacrificed to an idol. Sure, some of you used to believe in those gods, but now you know better so show that faith by not worrying about your food. And yet for some people it was just too much to ask.

And there was another problem. Some of the parishioners were bringing Big Macs and Pulled Pork Tacos to the Sunday coffee social and this was driving the people who worried about meat crazy. So, St. Paul tells these guys, “Now food will not bring us closer to God.” It’s okay to eat the meat. But if your meat eating is driving your fellow parishioners crazy, then don’t bring it to church. They may not be correct, but at least they are trying to do the right thing. So why do you want to offend them by bring meat to church? Why not just leave it at home? The food fights of Corinth!

But these food fights come after an even bigger food fight that had been settled a few years earlier: Do Christians have to eat kosher style? Two big issues in the early Church and both of them were centered on food.

When I was a boy, hardly anybody ever thought of “healthy foods” because mostly everyone thought that all food was healthy and the only unhealthy thing you could do was eat too much candy.

How differently we see food today in America! There is a tremendous amount of concern by a large portion of society about the foods we eat. It’s seen in books, articles, blogs, and on TV shows and the way they discuss all the various aspects of food and how they do or do not contribute to a person’s health. Labels on boxes and packages give us lots of information about what is inside. One of my favorites is a frozen pizza that tells me each serving is 340 calories. Okay, how many servings is that based on? Five. Five! Per pizza! We may read that this beef came from grass-fed free-range cattle, but then maybe you should start to wonder just what kind of grass they were eating.

We’re told these foods contain these elements which help ward off cancer, diabetes, and liver spots, and these foods work against heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and skin wrinkles. To hear some people talk about it, you can live forever if you just eat right and don’t get hit by a bus. And what about the area of allergies or food intolerance. Imagine telling someone in Springfield in 1950 that you were “lactose-intolerant.” She would probably respond by saying, “Oh really? Well, we’re Presbyterians.” Even if you yourself do not have a whole lot of food concerns, you must admit that as a whole, we Americans express a whole lot more concern about foods than we used to.

Let’s get back to St. Paul’s words: “Now food will not bring us closer to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, nor are we better off if we do.” And in terms of the Corinthian food fight, he was correct. But as time went on and the meat sacrifice no longer was an issue, the church began to see that food could take on importance in another way. By voluntarily not eating certain foods or cutting back on the amount of food eaten, or by doing both—these could be ways to strengthen a person’s growth in faith. And so, fasting became a part of Christian culture, building upon the example of Jewish fasting, as we read about in the Scriptures and as seen in the example of our Lord Who fasted for 40 days before beginning His public ministry. This self-denial became a part of Christian life, and people fasted before receiving the Holy Eucharist and during certain days and seasons of the year in order to help themselves grow in grace and virtue. Fasting is a way to acknowledge the truth of Jesus’ words to Satan, “Man does not live by bread alone….” Fasting is a way to regulate a very important area of our life and place it under restriction so that we can exercise our freedom over eating and reminding ourselves that we are not simply material creatures.

Fasting can help us reorganize our priorities and remind us that we are not only children of Adam and Eve but also sons and daughters of the living God. Fasting hits home in a regular way, on a regular basis as a reminder that this world is not all there is and that freedom is not always taking as much as you can get, but it’s also about being able to leave things behind. Fasting is a way to live in the truth that it’s not only important what we eat, in terms of our physical health, but that it can also support our spiritual health. Indeed, fasting without a connection to prayer and repentance is called “dieting.” How many people are willing to go on a diet vs. how many are willing to fast?

The Fathers tell us we fast from food so that we may also fast from sin. Could it be true that we spend more time examining the labels on food packages than we do examining our consciences. For many, many centuries people have fasted during Lent and the Church has encouraged them to do so. Could it be there’s something to this practice?

Dear friends, the ancient practice for Lenten fasting is a strict vegan diet for the whole time, with a few exceptions. But our current Church law only requires us to fast strictly on two Lenten days, the first day of Lent and Good Friday. So, between those two ends of the spectrum there are plenty of options and I want to urge you to consider a fasting plan for you and your family. Maybe it will be the whole and complete fast. Maybe it will be something less than that, like keeping the strict fast on Wednesdays and Fridays or some other arrangement for yourselves.

Decide what is good for you to do and then do that. It can have a genuine effect on your spiritual life. When I am fasting, everything seems different in some way. For example, when I walk into Albertson’s it is a very different store now during the Great Fast. And it reminds me of my Lenten life in Christ. And I ask you to think about how that might be if you haven’t experienced it already. Restaurants, billboards, food advertising of every kind—they can all appear different now, and for me fasting helps to get me out of the everyday normal routine, and it points me in the direction I ought to be going, reminds me of the virtues I ought to be pursuing and it helps to keep me a little bit more open to the grace that Christ wants to give me.

I looked up all the different types of vegetarianism that people may follow: Vegan, Lacto-Vegetarian, Ovo-Vegetarian, Lacto-Ovo vegetarian, Pollotarian, Pescatarian, and Flexitarian. We do not restrict our fasting foods for any of the reasons that these other people may give for their dietary measures. We fast for the love of God and for the salvation of our souls.

So please make a plan for fasting, as much as or as little as the Lord may direct you, and as you see fit for your particular situation. But know that whatever you give up in food can become a profit for you in spirit.