healthy diet

John 6: 56-69

 

A few years ago there was a nutri-grain bar commercial that started out by watching people eat breakfast on their way to work on the subway.  They were all eating horrible sugary “breakfast foods” like doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, sodas etc.  It isn’t until they stand up and try to leave the train that you realize that they have become what they were eating.  The woman now has cinnamon rolls for her rear end and a man has a huge chocolate covered doughnut around his waist and can’t fit through the turn style.  It is only the man eating the “healthy” nutri-grain bar that is tall, lean and of course handsome.  

This was a great commercial, very memorable and to some extent truth telling.  You are what you eat.  Now this is a problem for some of us.  Especially on days when we have church potlucks with dishes made with cream of mushroom soup, butter, cheese, sugar, bacon, and all those other things that make them such an exciting and fun event. 

Thankfully we don’t eat like this on a regular basis.  But we live in a world that doesn’t encourage us to do much better.  It is faster and easier to run through the drive through, throw a frozen pizza in the oven, or just have an entire bag of chips for dinner than it is to buy fresh vegetables, or spend time in the kitchen cooking something that not only tastes better but is better for you. 

Our lives are dictated by food.  When you give someone directions- you choose restaurants as land marks. We say things like- “it’s behind McDonalds” We want to spend time with friends… so we go out to lunch.  We have to eat. 

But what we put into our bodies matters.  Some of us have to watch our salt intake while others are watching their sugar and some are counting calories.  And those of us who pay close attention to what we eat know the difference in how we feel when we cheat. 

The same is true with our spiritual life as well.  What are we hungry for?  Are we hungry for spiritual junk?  Only wanting to hear messages that tell us that saying we believe is enough, and that if we listen to the right preacher, say the right prayer or give to the right cause that we will be guaranteed happiness and success?  All the while our ego and our waste grows larger.  Or are we willing to make the sacrifice following Jesus requires? Do we want to only listen to scriptures that we agree with, that is sweet to hear and makes us feel better about ourselves or are we willing to be challenged by what we hear and read?  Motivated to be better people. 

The people who were following Jesus at first, liked that being around him felt exciting and interesting.  He was always saying something that stuck it to “the man.”  They were getting some of the positive vibes and attention from all those seeking to be healed.  It was like being the best friend of a rock star- even if you didn’t have much to offer- just being near them makes you feel important and popular too.  There were benefits to hanging around Jesus………… and then it starts getting weird. 

Then he starts talking about people eating his flesh and drinking his blood!  What kind of quack job is he?  Has he lost his mind?  What had been fun and exciting, just got real.  This wasn’t something people would ignore.  This was offensive.  Not just because of the cannibalistic talk but because their way to eternal life was being questioned.  He isn’t just some guy performing miracles- he is God!  The source of life, and fulfillment.  He has switched from telling the people that he will give them the bread of life to being the bread of life. 

This is not an easy word to hear.  It goes against all they understood the scriptures to mean.  It went against who they thought God to be and it challenged their whole belief system and all they had thought was right and wrong.  It was offensive, it was harsh and difficult to agree with and even more difficult to follow because it meant that all the things that had been cut and dry, black and white, right and wrong were now shades of gray.

He would begin asking them to love people they didn’t think were loveable.  They would be called to touch people and offer healing and acts of mercy to those who were unclean and thought to be unworthy of God’s blessings.  They would be called to stand up against the injustices in this world- not just watch Jesus do it on their behalf.  They would be called to not only feed themselves, but feed others. 

What they thought would be a fun and easy path to changing the world around them now asked them to think differently, act differently and be different. 

When I was 25 or so, I began seeing ads on TV for the new prescription weight loss medications.  I was overweight and unhappy with how I looked and felt.  I went to the doctor hoping that he would tell me that this pill was the answer to my problems.  I wanted to blame my obesity on something other than myself.  I wanted him to tell me that it wasn’t my fault I was fat.  I wanted him to tell me there was an easy solution to my problem. 

What he told me offended me.  He told me my problem was that I ate too much and made unhealthy food choices.  I needed to eat right and exercise more.  In fact he said “you have fork to mouth syndrome… put the fork down!”  How dare he challenge the choices I had made and tell me my life priorities were out of order?  I like sodas.  I like chocolate.  I like fast food.  And I worked hard!  I was tired when I got home.  I didn’t have the energy to exercise.  I had every excuse in the book! 

It took me 5 years to acknowledge he was right.  At that point, I visited a nutritionist who challenged me to eat healthier, got a personal trainer who challenged me to work harder, and I begin to make the changes necessary to live a healthier life.  I am not perfect.  I still need to be challenged to drink water instead of soda and eat salsa instead of guacamole, veggies instead of chips, but it is getting easier and I am getting wiser about the choices I make, even if I don’t always make the right choice.

Many people come to church with the same expectations I had when I went to the doctor.  We want affirmation that we are doing everything right. We want to be told that we are good, moral, kind hearted and generous people who already have the correct political, social and religious opinions and that whatever is wrong in our lives and world is someone or something else’s fault.  All we need is a dose of Jesus every week and we will be perfect and we can go on living our delusions.

 But, if I am doing my job correctly, that is not what you hear.  If you are reading the scriptures, that is not what you hear either.   

Jesus offended a lot of people that day when he told them that he was the way, the truth and the source of life.  He offended people when he told them that the religious rules they had so strictly held sacred for so long were actually bad habits that were not strengthening their faith but damaging it. Many people walked away from Jesus that day.  They weren’t ready to hear what he had to say.

 Jesus, if listened to, continues to offend and challenge all of us.   

Sometimes, in the life of faith you will get pats on the back and kudos for striving to live a life that is honorable and good.  Sometimes you will read scripture that makes you feel good about yourself and the decisions you make.  But if we are honest with ourselves we will also be challenged.  We will be reminded that the junk food we occasionally or regularly like to eat is not good for our bodies nor is the spiritual junk food good for our souls.

We will be held accountable for our biases and assumptions.  We will be  reminded that there are always hungry that need to be fed, homeless that need to be housed, sick who need to be healed, lonely who need to be visited and people who have made mistakes who will need to be welcomed home.  We will be challenged to forgive even those who have and will betray us.  We will be challenged to share meals and conversations with those we don’t always agree with.  And we will be challenged to live and worship with people who are difficult to love. 

So what does a spiritually healthy diet look like?  It is worshiping together, studying together and fellowshipping together.  It is reading scripture and talking with God.  It is surrounding yourself with people who love you enough to tell you the truth, hold you accountable, challenge each other and learn from one another.  It is being with others who want to see you grow in your faith and love you in spite of your faults; who will encourage and support you.  People who will help you get back on the wagon when you fall off.

And the exercise?  Is service- it is using the gifts God gave you to make the community and the world a better place.  It is packing backpacks, it is offering communion to the homebound, it is chopping wood for the winter for others to stay warm, it is tutoring a child after school, it is offering a warm coat to someone who is cold.  Some days it is a run and other days it is a stroll- all that is necessary is that you keep moving.  Some days will be easier than others but in the end we will grow in our faith, in our knowledge that it is life with Jesus that is fulfilling and it is Jesus himself who is the source of that life.  There is no more need for junk when you have the real thing.   

True food, true drink, true life comes from the source of Life itself- Jesus Christ.  There are no short cuts or quick fixes.  But there is always today.  Each day we are given the chance to start a new.  The things of the past are just that- past they don’t have to dictate your future.  God offers you the love, forgiveness and clean slate to start over each day or each breath.  The commonly told joke is that the best day to start a diet is tomorrow.  But when it comes to your spiritual life…. Start living it today!