Victory Over Gluttony

If you've come to the conclusion that you wrestle with the deadly sin of gluttony, now what? How do you achieve victory over gluttony?

We saw that Jesus was initially tempted with gluttony. Those first temptations were very powerful, much like the ones we face on a regular basis. Somehow Jesus continually found ways to be victorious over gluttony. How? Through  fasting.

WHAT IS FASTING? Abstaining from food and/or drink for a period of time as a way of worship, a humbling of oneself, a form of contemplative prayer, a preparation for service to others.

Not only was fasting a key reason for why Jesus was able to be victorious over the temptations to gluttony in the desert, it was a regular part of his ministry. He would often withdraw to the mountains to pray. It's hard to believe that Jesus would pack a papersack of bread and dried fish as he trekked through the hills in order to get away to pray. 

If you struggle with gluttony, you ought to become familiar with the themes of Isaiah 58 - it reveals the heart of God and what he wants to accomplish in the world through his people. If Isaiah 58 gave direction to the life of Jesus, it ought to be instructional for us. It reveals what is true fasting, what God expects from us, as well as what God wants to do in the world through us.

Here's how I would summarize Isaiah 58 (from the Message):

Hey, You’re a Glutton!
1-3 "Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what's wrong with their lives,
face my family Jacob with their sins!
They're busy, busy, busy at worship,
and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people—
law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?'
and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
'Why do we fast and you don't look our way?
Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?'


Your Gluttony Plugs Up God’s Ears
3-5"Well, here's why:
"The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit.
You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
won't get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after:
a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
a fast day that I, God, would like?


Fasting That Feeds Your Neighbor
6-9"This is the kind of fast day I'm after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed, cancel debts.
What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
THEN WHEN YOU PRAY, GOD WILL ANSWER.
YOU'LL CALL OUT FOR HELP AND I'LL SAY, 'HERE I AM.'

Generosity On An Empty Stomach
9-12"If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places— firm muscles, strong bones.
You'll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You'll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.


Jesus Triumphs On An Empty Stomach
13-14"If you watch your step on the Sabbath
and don't use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
God's holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing 'business as usual,'
making money, running here and there—
Then you'll be free to enjoy God!
Oh, I'll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I'll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob."
Yes! God says so!

A Summary: Turn Away From Gluttony To Fasting That Feeds Others

Turning away from gluttony will be a continuous process. The temptations will grow in intensity to the degree that you learn to resist them. The ongoing response to the temptations of gluttony will be to turn towards serving and blessing others with generosity and food and justice. Think about it: the temptation of gluttony can be your reminder and prompt to lifting up your neighbors out of poverty and hardships!

WHAT IS FASTING? Abstaining from food and/or drink for a period of time as a way of worship, a humbling of oneself, a form of contemplative prayer, a preparation for service to others.

Your fasting is not about impressing God or seeing how long you can go without food. We traditionally think of fasting as a spiritual discipline that is to benefit ourselves. But clearly from Isaiah 58, while fasting does have obvious personal benefits, it is at its best when it blesses others. Our fasting is worship and prayer, but God wants it to alleviate the suffering others.


Which is why I think Jesus entered Jerusalem as king on a growling belly. Victory over gluttony comes from fasting that results in generosity to those who hunger and are oppressed. Apparently it takes a lot of work to overcome gluttony. And it also takes a lot of work to alleviate suffering in the world. And God makes a connection between the two with his idea of fasting. Jesus the starving king who saves the world.


If you are considering a lifestyle of fasting, you must consult your doctor. If you have any ongoing medical conditions or on any medication, you need to discuss with your doctor how you can make fasting a regular part of your diet without harming your self. Everybody can fast, and fasting can take many forms.

Victory over Gluttony. Where there is a will, there is a way.  
And where there is unwillingness, there is an excuse.

When Does Feasting Become Gluttony?

We've been reflecting on the thoughts of St. Gregory the Great about gluttony: too much, too soon, too eagerly, too richly, too daintily.

Gluttony has always been a problem in society. We usually associate gluttony with big meals with big servings, or too big of plates or too many trips to the buffet. But if God commands his people to worship him through feasts, maybe gluttony isn't just about the portion size, but the purpose of the meal. And maybe not just about the purpose of the meal, but the people at the meal with you.

God spoke to Moses: "Tell the People of Israel, These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of God which you are to decree as sacred assemblies. "Work six days. The seventh day is a Sabbath, a day of total and complete rest, a sacred assembly. Don't do any work. Wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to God.
~ Leviticus 23v1-3 (The Message)

Following this introduction in Leviticus, we learn about seven feast days, starting with the Sabbath, that are spread throughout the year. Days of worship when the people of Israel are to assemble together - a sacred gathering designated by feasts. You got to like a God who when giving instructions on how to worship him includes regular feasts.

Through this text, I observed three things about feasting - when it's connected to worship, when it's connected to rest, and when it's connected to community.

Feasting as Worship: Eating with gratitude, with God in mind, as a sacred task

Feasting as Rest: Eating slow-food instead of fast-food, preparation instead of pre-packaged

Feasting as Community: Eating as a family, eating with your neighbors, eating as sacred event

Gluttony is probably connected to scarfing your food. And scarfing your food is rarely connected to gratefulness. Feasting becomes worship when we consider the gathering to be sacred, a special moment of the day. Feasting becomes worship when we let God sit at the meal with us, listening in on our conversations, adding to the experience. Feasting becomes worship when we eat with a grateful heart to him and those around the table with us.

Why not prepare home-cooked meals? Because we're too busy. Why not eat dinner at home with your family at least five or six times a week? Because you're too busy. The purpose of a meal is to add energy to your life, to add life to your family - which is the same definition of rest. We've forgotten how to make meals rest-full, instead we've made them stress-full and a chore.   

The irony is: eating fast-food fuels only a fast-paced life that does not lead to rest. Busy people don't usually grow gardens. Busy people don't usually do dinner as a family. Busy people eat pre-packaged meals which add to their waistline instead of their family legacy.

Michael Pollan observes that most American families today report eating dinner together 3-4 nights a week. But - Mom cooks alone; Dad and each kid prepare an entirely different entree for themselves. They might join Mom as long as it takes to eat, but not necessarily at the same time. This does not create for rest and refreshment.

Michael Pollan also observes that people eat more when they are alone. If you have family that live in your home, you ought to do the hard work of rearranging schedules in order to enjoy the blessings of meals together. Of course this may require some mending of relationships, of adding to people's lives before and after the meal. Which would be a good thing, right?

Feasts are meant for community. Every dinner could be a feast - not because of the mounds of food - but because of the attitude towards those seated to your left and right.If you rarely eat with others, you have to ask yourself, why? And when it comes to the prospect of changing your life in order to feast with others more often, you have to ask: why not? 


The ancient Israelites knew how to turn a worshipful community feast into an gluttonous affair of orgiastic proportions. And they were punished for it. You can read about it here in Exodus 32:1-6. The temptation towards gluttony is always powerful, always hard to resist. The rut we get into makes it so easy to eat too much, too quickly, alone. When we take matters into our own hands, life unravels for us. The same for our eating habits. Or addictions. God offers deliverance. But it doesn't come as a miracle, but from a way of life. And for us Christians, Jesus is our guide.

Jesus ate at plenty of feasts, and though he was accused of gluttony, it's easy to see him as making the event worshipful and sacred and good, of making it rest-full and refreshing, and making it a rich community experience. And one of the feasts he was invited to, he noticed how some people used the experience to their own advantage, so he made this observation:

Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
~Luke 14v12-15 (NIV, 2011)

Jesus wants us to reconsider who we are eating with. We all need to make our feasting more worship-full and more rest-full. But we also need to make it more community oriented. And that doesn't mean we only invite people who like us, or who are like us. Would we consider throwing a party or planning a feast and then inviting the poor, the disadvantaged, the socially awkward, the outcasts, the smelly or undesirable ones? Would you EVER do that? Why not?

Notice also about this verse: the assumption that we'll be feasting in the life to come with God. If you don't like feasting according to God's commands now in this life, what makes you think you'll like heaven? If you've got to spend eternity eating with people you avoid on earth, does that sound like joy and bliss? Maybe you ought to reconsider your assumptions about what you eat and who you eat with in the weeks to come.

What can you do this week:
to make Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner worship-full?

to eat more slow-food and less pre-packaged food?

to avoid eating alone – or add another chair to your family meal?

What can you do so that you're sharing a meal with the poor and marginalized?
Maybe at your church? Who in your neighborhood?  
Do you even know any poor people?

Lose the Weight: Gluttony & Worry

What are you worried about these days?

What do you eat when you are worried? Anxious? Nervous? Upset? Afraid? Uncertain?

There's a connection between gluttony and worry. How many of us want to lose weight around our waist AND we wish we could shrug off the big backpack of worry that's wrapped around our shoulders? We become gluttons when we worry, when we open up the fridge or scrounge through the pantry to snack and ease our anxiety. We fuel our worry when we regret  that tub of chocolate fudge caramel peanut butter ice-cream.

For me and for many of my friends, in our effort to resist temptations of gluttony, we need to worry less. In my learning to master my fears, I find I'm learning to control my snacking and second-helpings. Fear and food too often go together in unhealthy ways. Jesus observed the connection and put it like this:

“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, [gluttony and] drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. ~Luke 21:34 (NIV, 2011)

Our hearts and hips get weighed down, and we add to the burden when we fail to control our indulgences and insecurities. Gluttony may feel good for a moment, but it only adds to our problems. Remember: Gluttony = too soon, too much, too eagerly, too richly, too daintily.
And what is worry? Here's how some people put it:

“Worry is like a rocking chair--it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere.”
“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.”
“Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due.” ~W. R. Inge

How do you lose the weight of gluttony and worry? If they are often intertwined, what can be done to lighten the load of each? In looking at Jesus' words above, here are some considerations:

Pay Attention to your Heart.
When it comes to worry, you need to confess to someone else - at least to Jesus, and probably to a close friend - what you are anxious, nervous, or upset about. Confession gets the secret out of your heart and into the open. Confession allows you to share the burden with someone who cares. Confession opens you up to a new solution that undercuts the power of worry.

Along with confession comes repentance. In Hebrew the word repent means to turn around, to change your direction. In Greek the word means change your mind, your heart. Either way, repenting is committing to change, to good change. Confession and repentance go together as an antidote to worry and gluttony. Let a friend share the burden, and then together put in place the changes you've determined to make. Those are the kinds of prayers God loves to answer.

Pay Attention to Your Days.
 As you think about what you've been confessing, of what you've been repenting, it's worth considering what your days are like. What are your habits and patterns, daily routines and weekly ruts that shape your life? Everybody has good habits that add to your life, and bad habits that drain your life. What are yours? Which of them need to be changed? Repented of? Confession and repentance strengthen your resolve to change your daily and weekly ruts.

When you take into account your habits and ruts, you ought to project into the future where all this is taking you? What's the bigger picture - if you change, and if you don't change. What if you leave life the way it is now - weighed down with gluttony and worry? How is that working out for you now? What will that be like in a year? Ten years? What if you started shrugging off the baggage of anxiety now? What if you did the really hard work of repenting and changing your worrisome ruts now?


Pay Attention to Jesus.
He'll help you relax and respond to God's initiatives in your life. Here's what he has to say about how he can help you today:

"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.

"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving.

People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. ~Matthew 6:25, 30-34 (The Message)

You Can Lose the Weight of Worry and Gluttony.

This is the kind of work Jesus can sustain in your life. He can help you carry the load. He can help you change. Jesus is with you.

Jesus says, "Relax!"

Be A Glutton. Like Jesus.

In reading through the Gospels while preparing for this series on Gluttony, I was fascinated by the idea of Jesus being accused of gluttony. Imagine Jesus guilty of gorging?! As I explored this theme, I came across where Jesus threw the accusations back at the Pharisees, naming them as gluttons. So who's right? What's the difference between a glutton like Jesus and ones like the religious leaders of Israel?

Here's how Jesus recounts the accusation:

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”
Luke 7:34-35 (NIV)

He's been walking around Israel for awhile, doing a lot of good work, preaching the good news of God's coming. Lots of people were flocking to him, getting healed, getting touched, getting fed, getting loved, getting a new heart. People hung out with Jesus and they repented, they confessed, they turned their lives around. And they invited him to lots of dinners.

Mealtime was more than just about eating. It was about hospitality, about welcome, about community, about acceptance, about embrace, about love. To dine with someone was to become associated with them, to be with them, to be for them. So be careful who you dined with! Jesus, obviously was spending lots of suppers with sinners and tax-collectors. They were also doing a lot of repenting.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Luke 15:1-2 (NIV)

So why were the Pharisees so bothered by Jesus? And what was it about Jesus' dining with the poor and the outcasts that solicited accusations of gluttony? There were two images behind this idea of gluttony. The first has to do with wisdom:

Oh listen, dear child—become wise; point your life in the right direction.
Don't drink too much wine and get drunk; don't eat too much food and get fat.
Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row, in a stupor and dressed in rags.
Proverbs 23:19-21 (The Message)

The second image has to do with a stubborn and rebellious son:

If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (NIV)

How could Jesus be a true prophet of the holy God if he was spending so much time with gluttons and drunkards? Either he is not full of wisdom and thus not a true prophet, or he's a prophet that has rebelled against God and has stubbornly refused to resist temptations of lamb-chops. Either way, the proper response for the religious leaders was either to drive Jesus out of the land, or sentence him to death.

Jesus wasn't scared by the accusations. He knew what they meant. And he knew what he was doing. He was bringing good news to the poor. He was healing the sick. Those who had faith were getting their sins forgiven. And Jesus wasn't going to let the wealthy or the powerful stand in the way. He turned on the Pharisees and pointed out their hypocrisy, their indulgences, their sins of gluttony:

"Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help.

"Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

"You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.
Matthew 23:4,11-12, 25-26 (The Message)

So what would you rather be? A glutton like Jesus or a glutton like the Pharisees? Here's how it often goes for us - we're a mix of sinner and Pharisee:

Like the tax-collectors and sinners: we eat to satisfy unending cravings, we try to avoid skid row, we get drunk and get fat, our life has been pointed in an unwise direction.

Like the Pharisees: we eat too much too often, we are vain, hypocritical towards sinners and the poor, we aren’t known for being a servant, our inside life can be maggoty

But here's the invitation to us:
Like Jesus: you eat with anyone, you can welcome everyone, you can be generous with the word “friend”, you can add love and joy to a meal, you ought to encourage gratitude, you ought to help people receive forgiveness for their sins, you ought to send people away in peace.

One more story of Jesus the glutton, a stubborn Pharisee, and a seeking sinner:

One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee's house and sat down at the dinner table. Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him."

Jesus said to him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Oh? Tell me."

"Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker canceled both debts. Which of the two would be more grateful?"
Simon answered, "I suppose the one who was forgiven the most."

"That's right," said Jesus. Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, "Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn't quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn't it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal."

Then he spoke to her: "I forgive your sins."
That set the dinner guests talking behind his back: "Who does he think he is, forgiving sins!"
He ignored them and said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."
Luke 7:36-50 (The Message)

What kind of glutton are you?

Be A Glutton Like Jesus. Follow His Way of Eating.

Gluttons Crave

How well do you do in resisting the temptation to eat too soon or too much? The deadly sin of gluttony has it's grip on you. And me. And it almost had it's grip on Jesus. How did Jesus resist the temptations of gluttony in the wilderness? What we learn from him might - it might just be helpful to us.

Here's the story:

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.

The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."
And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone.'" (Deut. 8v3)

And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."

And Jesus answered him, "It is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'"(Deut 6v13)

And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the Temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,

 "'He will command his angels concerning you,
 to guard you,' and

 "'On their hands they will bear you up,
 lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" (Psalm 91v11-12)

And Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" (Deut. 6v16)

And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
-Luke 4v1-15 (ESV)

There were three temptations - all variations of the deadly sin of gluttony. Gluttony is about craving food. But food is about life, and so gluttony quickly becomes about more than just one too many french fries. Gluttony is about craving too much, too soon, too eagerly - recognition and affirmation, attention and affection, sustenance and gifts.

What are the ways that gluttony is at work in your life? Your belly reveals your gluttony towards food and drink. Your impatience and anger reveal your gluttony towards accomplishment and accolades. Your insecurity and worry reveals your gluttony towards attention and affection. You can't hide your gluttony. You can misname it, deny it, or you can accept it and repent.

Jesus was human like you and me. The devil tempted him with real temptations. Forty days in the wilderness - would you and I resist the turning stones to bread? See, Jesus was re-enacting the story of Israel in the wilderness - that's part of the reason why he quotes from Deuteronomy 8. He's letting God test him. Israel failed their test in the wilderness, Jesus must pass his test in the wilderness.

Jesus was announced at his birth as a King. Just as Israel was promised a land flowing with milk and honey, so Jesus was promised all authority and glory. If the devil offered a short-cut, a more convenient way that bypassed crucifixion - would Jesus take it? A powerful temptation it was for Jesus. When he quotes from Deuteronomy 6, he is remembering the promises God made to Israel and to him...there is no easy road to greatness and goodness.

Jesus - his name means "God saves." He was called Immanuel at his birth - "God with us." In the midst of his hunger, his lonliness, his contemplation of the hard road ahead - will YHWH save Jesus? Is the LORD with Jesus? To be atop the Temple, the dwelling place of God - to test God there - it reveals great mistrust in Him. The devil quotes Psalm 91 - twisting the poem on trust to become a tool of testing. Jesus responds by referring to the story in Deuteronomy 6 again - unlike the Israelites who quarreled with God and doubted his ability to care for them, Jesus would stay loyal and full of faith.

Gluttony for bread, glory, affirmation. It's our story.
It's Jesus' story.

The deadly sin of gluttony was the starting point for the devil’s tempting of Jesus. And so it often is with us. To fail to resist this sin is to leave us too vulnerable with all the others.

The devil offered Jesus a short-cut, convenience, immediate results. The devil used lies, vanity, and fear; he sought to blind, to distort, to sow seeds of mistrust.

What are signs that you’re succumbing to the deadly sin of gluttony?
Do you crave short-cuts, to convenience, to immediate results?
Are you letting yourself get lied to? Do you let others appeal to your vanity? Are you often afraid? Is it easy for you to mistrust?

What To Do About the Deadly Sin of Gluttony?
It’s okay to stay hungry. God will provide - at just the right time, in just the right way.

There is only one way to greatness, goodness, and satisfaction. God is trustworthy.

Trust God to answer you when you call on him… and accept the form of help he gives you. God is with you.

Are You A Glutton?

Have you ever been a glutton?

Yes! Of course I have. Maybe you have too.

Next question: in what ways are you living as a glutton these days?

Well, I ate a whole bag of Cheetos on the way home from Toledo yesterday afternoon to help me stay awake. But I was shoving them in my mouth so fast, the only reason they kept me awake was the resulting pain in my stomach. Ingesting junk results in gastric suffering - which also helps me avoid drowsiness.

I could go on. You?

Who wants to admit they are a glutton? Sure, maybe you need to eat a little more healthier. And who doesn't eat a little more than they really need. Doesn't everybody eat fast-food at least once or twice a week?

Face it. You are a glutton. You are guilty of the deadly sin of gluttony.

Once you are able to admit it, you can do something about it. Staying in denial only prolongs the inability to resist the temptations. Jesus was accused of being a glutton. His first temptations in the wilderness were all variations of gluttony. The Spirit of God led him into the Judean desert for forty days, and while there got really, really, really hungry. And then the tempations started.

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. Luke 4v1-2 (ESV)

Jesus knows what its like to have to resist the temptation of gluttony. As a follower of Jesus, we can learn from his way of resistance and let it shape our life. During Lent, we are to reflect on our own life, our sins, and our need for mercy, our will to follow Jesus. This prompts a reflection of the story of Jesus in the Wilderness. It also prompts a reflection of Israel's wandering in the wilderness.



We probably relate more to Israel, though we strive to follow the way of Jesus. Israel complained and whined when the hardships came. The were caught mistrusting God, pining for security and stability of Egypt (despite the cost of their slavery there). They couldn't see the end goal of the Promised Land. They wanted to head to the Guaranteed Land. They failed their testing, they succumbed to the temptations of gluttony.

Jesus re-enacted the story of Israel, and he played the part well. When he got hungry, instead of quarreling with God, he wrestled to obey. Instead of whining and complaining about his hunger, he formulated the Lord's Prayer. Instead of taking matters into his own hands, he persevered to the end. Gluttony tempted him to satisfy his hunger now, on his own terms. Trusting God required him to wait for God's timing on fulfillment. There is always much at stake in these tests and temptations of hunger.

It's interesting that in the original language of the story, it's the same word for test and temptation. One way to differentiate: a test from God to see where your heart is at; a temptation comes from within or from the evil one to mistrust God and pull away from Him. God tests, he doesn't tempt; God provides a way out of the temptation, and he never tests you beyond your ability. The powerful urges of gluttony you feel - the Spirit of God could still prevail in your life...

What is the deadly sin of gluttony? Here's how St. Gregory the Great put it all those years ago:
Too Soon
Too Much
Too Avidly
Too Richly
Too Daintily.

Here's the question again: in what ways are you living as a glutton these days?
Do you ever eat too soon? Do you ever snack? Do you ever eat when you are not hungry? Do you ever eat alone when you could eat with others? Do you ever eat too much? Do you ever eat until you are stuffed? Do you ever eat a whole bag of Cheetos?

Do you ever eat too eagerly? Do you ever value your meal at the expense of others? Do you ever eat too expensively? Do you ever eat too cheaply? Do you place more value on the cost of the food than the nutrition or source of the food? Do you ever value the taste of the food over the health of the food?

Do you ever eat too carefully? Do you ever obsesses about your food? Do you pay too much attention to your meals?

Go ahead - admit that you are a glutton at times. Just say it: I. Am. A. Glutton.

Now, what can you do about it?
Here's what Jesus did: He fasted. He prayed. He meditated on Scripture. He fueled rebellion towards the Evil One. He sustained his stubbornness towards the temptation of gluttony. He became uncomfortably honest with himself about his desires.

To fast is to intentionally go without a certain type of food, or to miss a meal. By withholding nutrition from your body, you become acutely aware of how hungry you can get. And then you begin to get a sense of what you are up against in attaining self-control over your appetite. You'll need God's help, won't you?!

To pray is to listen to the Spirit's promptings about what to do next with your desires for food. Listen for hints of reality, of wisdom, of truth about yourself and why you eat the way you do.

To meditate on Scripture is to let God speak to you in the way he has spoken to others who would listen in the past. Let God shape your understanding of you, your hunger, and what is more valuable.

There is more to be said on this. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst more for righteousness - for the right thing to prevail in their life and those around them. Knock, seek, ask, and you will find...

Rebel against your gluttony.