TASTE AND SEE
1 Peter 2:2-10
[Since spoken communication differs from written, some of the grammar and syntax of this transcript may seem awkward in written form. To keep integrity with the spirit of the original delivery, the transcript seeks to stay close to the exact words spoken.]
I'd like to invite you to think of a time when you were deeply satisfied--we're going to do a little guided meditation here as I begin my sermon. What pops into your head when I ask the question, "Think of a time when you felt deep satisfaction?" I'm going to be quiet for a moment, and you might close your eyes and think of what image comes up for you, what memory comes up. [Several seconds of silence] One of these days I really am going to come down there and ask what's going through your head. But you're off the hook today--we don't have time. But one of these days, I'll come down there.
For me, what seems to come up around that question are memories of meals. The idea of being satisfied and food, somehow go together. And the meals that I remember are not necessarily the most fancy ones, or the most expensive ones, but rather those meals I ate when I was prepared to really taste what I was eating. So, a meal that I had with some monks in Russia, 20 years ago--I still remember that meal. I remember the meal I had after a long fast, when I really was able to taste the food that I was eating. Times on a meditation retreat, when you slow down, and don't just pound calories into your face, but taste. Somehow, I remember those meals, those times of eating.
The writer of 1 Peter--and by the way, it's named after Peter, the disciple of Jesus, the guy who stepped out and tried to follow Jesus walking on the water--same guy. Probably didn't write the letter, but in the ancient world people used to attribute such letters to authority figures to give them weight….In any case, the writer of this letter is writing to Christians in Asia Minor who are kind of on the low end of the totem pole sociologically. Many of them may have been slaves, and most of them were people new to the faith. And in that second chapter that Susan read, the writer of 1 Peter gives us some, I think, wonderful images for the Christian life, two of which we're going to explore this morning. The first one is from a Psalm that may be familiar to many of us--which the choir sang at the beginning of our service--Psalm 34. It's the familiar line, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." "Long for the pure spiritual milk that you might grow into the experience of salvation." The exhortation is this: to long for the deeply satisfying life that Christ offers.
We might think of the person who wrote this letter as writing to a community of cultural refugees. They are people who had, in one way or another, checked out of the dominant culture, which, like our own culture, promises life but we find so often deals in death. And they're people who were being rejected and despised because of that--because they had chosen another way of life…because they accepted this invitation to live a different kind of lifestyle, one that promises to be satisfying, even though they were being persecuted for it. And so the invitation for us, as well, is to a meal that really will satisfy us--a feast. But the irony that we so often encounter is that for one reason or another, folks don't accept the invitation.
Historically, the church, especially in the middle ages, talked a lot about not just sin, this thing called sin, which--I know, you mention that word and people start squirming in their seats--oh no, he's going to talk about sin now. And it's a Presbyterian church, you know, uh oh. A Calvinist talking about…SIN. But in the middle ages, you know, people used to talk about sin all the time, and not just sin but sins. It was sort of, basically, you know the DSM4--you know, the list of psychological pathologies called the DSM4--that is really what talk of sin was about--a way to diagnose the illness of the human soul. And one of the sins I'm sure you've heard before--we hear it when we speak of the so-called seven deadly sins, is the sin of gluttony. I want to say a little bit about that. Gluttony.
We often think of gluttony as over-indulging in food. But in fact it's a lot more subtle than that. Gluttony, really, at its heart, is simply putting food at a level of importance that is out of proportion to what's appropriate for it. It's giving food more importance that is due to food. So, to be a glutton may not take the form of over-eating--it may in fact be under-eating, that too is a form of being overly concerned about food. And by giving food more importance than it's due, the irony is that one loses the enjoyment of food. One might ask the question, "Would the person who is suffering from that malady of the spirit--gluttony--truly enjoy food? Or is it an attempt to satisfy a deeper hunger with something that will never satisfy such hunger?" And so, the invitation of the Christian life is to enjoy. Enjoy food, and life, and goodness. Enjoy something that will truly satisfy.
Matthew Fox, a creation theologian--I find many of his insights helpful. I don't necessarily subscribe to all of his theology, but he has a very interesting insight about the fall of humanity, the story of the Garden of Eden. His claim is that the primary sin of Adam and Eve was not disobedience; it was their failure to drink deeply enough of the fruits of the garden--of the goodness of the garden. That was their sin--failure to drink and enjoy deeply enough of the goodness of the creation they had been given.
John Calvin--you have to balance Matthew Fox here with John Calvin. Calvin actually spoke of two ways by which God is revealed to humankind. Of course we all know that this is a primary mode by which God is revealed--through the Scriptures, which bear witness to Jesus Christ, the Word of God. But do you know that the other way that God has revealed God's self to us is creation? We know the goodness of God because of the goodness of bread--the goodness all around us. So this is a part of the Calvinist message that doesn't get trumpeted very often: that our job as Christians is to enjoy; is to taste and see that God is good. That's the exhortation today. Go out there and taste!
I think, as we look toward Earth Day on Tuesday, now is a more important time than ever to do that--to taste, to drink deeply, to enjoy. Because the idea is if we really were to taste, would we be abusing this creation in the way that we are today as humans? Think about it. If we really were to taste the food that we are eating, would we overindulge in food? I would submit that the ecological crisis we face today--global warming, the polluting of the earth--is not primarily an economic problem; it's not a technological, or scientific or political problem. It's a God problem.
Try next time, when you're tempted to go through the drive-thru, to think about all of the petroleum that goes into that meal--the cardboard and plastic that accompanies our food, the diesel fuel it took to get it to you. And instead of doing that--hurrying and eating that way (and certainly I am as much prone to do that as anyone…) instead of doing that take a moment and make space, and time, to eat. And say to yourself, the thing that I'm doing now is making a peanut better and jelly sandwich. And I'm going to breathe in the spring air--I'm not going to be busy, and worried about what I have to do next. I'm going to feel the texture of that bread; I'm going to understand what a gift it is to eat this food. Would we really need as much if we were to do that? Would we not be satisfied? Would we not respect this creation we've been given if we were to slow down in such a way? If we were to enjoy the gifts around us, and be deeply satisfied, would we be literally consuming this Earth, upon which we are living? And so, like 1 Peter, my exhortation is to taste deeply. And to know also the one who enables us to taste and see.
Unique to this Christian message is the notion that the one who enables us to taste the true satisfaction of life is the one who gave himself--his body--for bread. As we have an opportunity in a minute to taste a meal…what if we were really to taste this bread? And to take into ourselves in faith what this bread represents? Would it not transform us? Would we not find ourselves at that feast; at that banquet table; at that deeply satisfying life that comes when we take this bread and it enables us to give ourselves? Inspires us to live a life of self-donation? Is not that the feast to which we're invited? To give yourself?
I said there were two images in this text that we're going to explore--and so one more real quick image that I want to suggest to us this morning. The writer of 1 Peter invites us to taste and see. But he gives another image in this, about what it means to live the Christian life. He says, "Be living stones, built into a spiritual house." I think that's such an important idea--that the church is not this building here, as beautiful as it is. The church is us. You know I wish--I'm almost tempted to ask you to say after me a slogan, that I'd love for us all to memorize: we don't go to church, we are the church. You know? We don't go to church--we are the church. Living stones, built into a spiritual house.
I would submit that probably the primary hunger of human beings living in this early part of the 21st century is a hunger for belonging--a hunger to belong somewhere. And that is what we seek to be, and do, and create together as a church. Belonging. And we create it not because of our own goodness and virtue; we create it because of the one who holds us together. And do we do it well? Do we do it perfectly? Certainly not. Do we have rough edges that rub up against others and irritate them and, you know, thereby get polished and polish each other? Absolutely. Do we drive each other nuts sometimes in this community? Yeah. But we're here together because of the one who is the cornerstone--the one who holds the structure together. Jesus Christ. That's what it depends upon. Not the goodness of your preacher, not the virtue of your leaders, but our faith in Jesus Christ, who gave himself as bread.
So my second exhortation is to, as we try to create this community of belonging, come, join, do something to offer yourself through this community of faith. Join a fellowship group. Get out there with us and do mission in Trenton, or in Gulfport, or in Israel-Palestine. Come and be living stones built into a spiritual house. And taste and see that God is good in this bread, given by the one who gave himself as bread.
Come to the feast. Amen.
April 20, 2008
Fifth Sunday of EasterThe Reverend Jeffrey A. Vamos
e-mail