Sermon 8/15/2021 “We are what we eat”
Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Church of the Resurrection, 2800 Hope Way, Alexandria, VA
Text: John 6:51-58
Day: 12Pentecost, Proper 13, Year B
In 1826, a French lawyer wrote, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” He was explaining the relationship between diet and gout, but his point is well taken: Our bodies can use only the materials we give them to replenish the cells in our organs. If we eat the wrong things, or even if we eat too much of the right things, our health is diminished.
The same is true of what we consume mentally. About the time of our Civil War in the United States, a German philosopher wrote, “Man is what he eats.” HIS point was that what we put into our brains influences our state of mind and our mental health.
Perhaps, for example, you have experienced the benefit of refocusing on the opportunities presented by a problem. When we focus on benefits versus costs of any situation, our thinking changes and our brains obediently dish up potential solutions rather than bludgeoning us with the problem.
We have turned these thoughts into pithy sayings, all the better to remember them by. We say:
- “You are what you eat,” and even
- “Garbage in, garbage out.”
There’s physical food that builds our bodies and spiritual food that enriches our souls. Both give life: abundant life, life that taps into the life God created us to have. On the other hand, there’s food that doesn’t sustain us, either in body or mind or spirit.
These concepts were in scripture long before they became pithy sayings. For example, even in Eden, there was both a Tree of Life AND a Tree of Death. After we are the death fruit, we weren’t allowed to eat Life until there was a corrective in place to rid us of death. We’ll return to the corrective later; for now, there’s “You are what you eat.”
In Hebrew scripture, God told his prophet Ezekiel to literally eat God’s Word. God told Ezekiel to eat a scroll of scripture, then go speak God’s message to all of Israel. We science-minded people might think that physically eating God’s Word couldn’t possibly affect Ezekiel’s ability to proclaim God’s message. But the God who created us knows our physiological and our psychological processes better than we do. We are what we eat.
Even Satan understood the relationship between what we consume and who we are. His first temptation of a starving Christ Jesus was to suggest he turn stones into bread. The choice would not have been random or circumstantial; instead, stones in, a stone heart out. Jesus avoided that trap by reminding Satan what we are to feast on.
In Proverbs 15:14, the very Wisdom that built her house in our first lesson today and calls us to dine, says: “The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.”
In our gospel lesson today, Jesus draws a distinction between these two different kinds of food. He’s already dismissed as mere manna that which relieves hunger but never fully satisfies. Miraculous? Yes, manna is a miracle of God’s provision. Filling? No. Eat manna and live the same old life, for a while. Eat manna and murmur against the very God who offers us a choice of food. Instead of manna, today Jesus urges us to dine on him. “Feed on me,” Jesus says, “and you will have true life, abundant life.:
At this point, scripture tells us, many of Jesus’ newest disciples went home. “Eat Jesus? Never!” they said. “Taboo,” the ones focused on physical food must have though. “He’s crazy!” others must have judged. I’ll bet EVERYONE thought, “Eeew!” Or “Yuck!” Cannibalism is never attractive.
We digest these words of Jesus by serving them up as a different meal than Jesus intended. We serve Jesus as the Eucharist; we dine on Jesus’ Body and drink his Blood and thank him for the meal. We DO take Jesus into our being in this way, but the Eucharist is not what Jesus meant in today’s lesson when he tells us he is the Bread of Life that we are to eat. What Jesus meant was that he is the corrective for the Tree of Death, that he is life itself and to have life we need to turn from feasting on death and fill ourselves—body, mind, and spirit—with him.
If we were a different kind of Christian congregation, here is where I would tell you to eat Jesus by believing in him. Jesus DID urge this in his long sermon about bread, not just once, but four times. And we DO have to believe in Christ Jesus. But that, too, can become a false meal if we merely believe in Jesus and consume other, empty food.
If we were a different kind of Christian congregation, I would tell you to evaluate anew what you watch, what you listen to, what you spend time with online and elsewhere to ensure that what you consume is spiritually nourishing. But I’d rather look at Jesus’ advice positively. Jesus doesn’t so much tell us what not to eat; Jesus doesn’t PROscribe, he PREscribes. Jesus simply says, “Feed on me.”
How do YOU consume Jesus? How WILL you let Jesus fill your life with purpose and meaning, filling your life with LIFE?
Like all good coaches, Jesus is right here with us, living our lives, facing our temptations. And Jesus offers us the solution, “Feed on me and on everything that comes down from heaven.” In other words, you are what you eat; don’t settle for manna.
