Sermon Title: "Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony" Part 6 of 7
Author's Name: Rev. Alex Knight
What is normal? I remember reading some time ago a social commentator said there is no such thing as normal any more. Because our families are so different and because there is so much dysfunction in families there really is no sense of normalcy. More and more in our society, people think normal is everybody doing what they want to do. Each person defines normal. Well, the scriptures talk about such a time. They say there is going to be a time when everybody does what seems right in their own eyes. This is not a good time to look forward to. One of responsibilities of the church is to show people that God defines "normal" behavior. One of the most spiritual and gifted writers of this century is Watchman Nee. His first book I read was The Normal Christian Life and it is an exposition of Romans 6, 7 and 8. Nee says the normal Christian life, is a life of grace and an understanding of our relationship with God and our identity as a child of God. When I define the normal Christian life, in addition to looking at Roman's 6, 7 and 8, I also look to Second Corinthians 3:16...
". . . God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We are free of it. All of us. Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of His face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him."
The normal Christian life is recognizing we are called to be transformed to become like Christ. It is a process of transformation. It is not keeping rules and regulations, it' is living in a relationship where you understand God is personally present. A living Spirit. There is nothing between you and God. Our faces shine with the brightness of His face. When you understand , when you believe , when you accept this Truth, you begin this process of transformation. You see transformation at work in you when the fruit of the Spirit start maturing in your life. The Apostle Paul describes it this way in Galatians 5:
" But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way fruit appears in an orchard -- things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in ilfe, able to marshal and direct our energy wisely."
You may be more familiar with this translation of Galatians 5:
". . . the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."
Regardless of which translation of Galatians you read, I think you see the point. As Christ lives His life through you, as you are being transformed into the life of Christ, the fruit of the Holy Spirit starts becoming evident in our life. Gentleness, meekness, a winsome spirit, compassion from the heart, this is what people see in a transforming life. It is the reflection of the brightness of God in our lives. The old way of living diminishes as the fruits of the Spirit increase in our life. This is the normal Christian life. Recognizing we have a relationship with a living God who loves and accepts us. As we participate with him in a process of transformation the fruit of the Spirit begins to develop and ripen and mature in our lives.
We are in a season now we call Lent that is a time of self-reflection, self-introspection, where we look at our own lives. We look at our own lives in the light of the cross. We look at our lives in the light of God's awesome love for us. We examine our response to God's love and acceptance of us. Are the fruits of the Spirit beginning to develop in our life? Or, are we still holding on to old habit patterns? One of the ways we can examine our lives is to look at they hindrances, the obstacles in our life which prevent an orchard of Spiritual fruit from fully developing. These obstacles are sin. Today we are in the 6th week of this seven week series on the Seven Deadly Sins. Today we are looking at the sin of gluttony.
Our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him.
As we begin to think about this sin, let us hear the parable about the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Jesus says:
"There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered in sores, had been dumped at his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man's table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores. Then he died, this poor man and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, "Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I'm in agony in this fire."
One of the things going on with this rich man is that he ate very well and he always had plenty to eat and he enjoyed lavish banquets. In contrast, Lazarus did not have enough to eat. They both died. Lazarus went to heaven and the rich man went to hell. We don't know a lot about the character of the rich man, we're not given a lot of details. Neither are we given a lot of details about the poor man and his character. We are given the very basic information we need. Jesus wants us to be able to see when some people have enough to eat, an abundance to eat, and others do not, the kingdom of God has not arrived. This is the sin of gluttony.
The rich man had plenty. He had more than enough for his needs. But, he became blind to those around him who did not have enough to eat. His heart became cold, he didn't care. You can see the lack of real care and compassion in this man when he speaks from Hell. He expects Lazarus to be his waiter and bring him a cool drink of water - - - even in Hell he is still expecting somebody to wait on him. He has become oblivious to the condition and to the needs of other people. The one who has plenty is unmindful, unseeing and uncaring of the one who has none. There is no sharing taking place and no kingdom of God present. This is the sin of gluttony. Gluttony is overindulgence and becoming cold and callused and unaware and uncaring of those around you who do not have enough.
Let us contrast this story. In the gospel of John, chapter 6:
"Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee, a huge crowd followed Him, attracted by the miracles they had seen Him doing among the sick. When He got to the other side, He climbed a hill and sat down, surrounded by His disciples. It was nearly time for the feast of Passover, kept annually by the Jews. When Jesus looked out and saw a large crowd had arrived, He said to Philip, "Where can we buy bread to feed these people?" He said this to stretch Philip's faith. He already knew what He was going to do. Philip answered, "Two hundred silver pieces wouldn't be enough to buy bread for each person to get a piece." One of the disciples -- it was Andrew, brother to Simon Peter -- said, "There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that's a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this." Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." There was a nice carpet of green grass in this place. They sat down, about five thousand of them. Then Jesus took the bread and after giving thanks, gave it to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish. All ate as much as they wanted. When the people had eaten their fill, he said to His disciples, "Gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted." And they went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the 5 barley loaves."
In the Old Testament there is a story about the prophet Elijah who had gone to a widow woman who had barely enough food for her and her son. Elijah prevailed upon her to share with him. She had already made up her mind that she had enough for one last meal and she was going to prepare and eat it with her and her son. Then, she thought, they would die because there was no more food. But, Elijah prevailed for her to share with him. Then the next day there was still sufficient flour and oil to make more bread. It went on day after day after day after day. There was always enough. Miraculously, there was always enough. It was beyond the woman's belief and she could only attribute it to the power of God. Sometimes when we look at the story of Jesus feeding of the five thousand we think, Jesus broke this bread and He handed it to people and in some miraculous way, the bread was not all consumed. The bread just began to expand and to expand until everybody had enough to eat and then there was a lot left over. Well, God could have performed a miracle that way. But, I would like to suggest another way of looking at this story.
And they went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the 5 barley loaves
Other accounts of this event in the Bible tell us Jesus had the people sit down in small groups. In these small groups people could get to know one another. Further, if this little boy had 5 loaves of bread and a couple of fish, it is reasonable to assume many of the other people also had bread or other food for their journey. When they got together in small groups and got to know each other, then they extended what they had to one another and shared with one another. By sharing with one another, there was more than enough for everybody.
What does this sound like to you? Second Sunday of the month at Bethel? Have we ever gone hungry on the second Sunday of the month at Bethel? None of us prepares enough food for the whole church to eat. We bring what we have...one dish, maybe two and we put it on the table. Then we all go through and we eat and there is always leftovers. Sometimes there is not enough desserts left over...but we all eat, we all have our fill and there is always food left over. Isn't this true? I have been a pastor now for 16 years and I have gone to a lot of covered dish dinners and luncheons at churches. We have never run out of food and nobody has ever gone hungry. I can remember one time we had a lot of visitors. It is always my custom to ask the visitors to stay and eat with us, Most of the time, visitors will not stay because they think they are intruding, or maybe they've got other plans or because they didn't bring a dish. But, this particular day was unusual. I think everybody who visited that day, accepted our invitation. And so, we had a big crowd for lunch. But, many of our members were away that day and we very little food. But, we all ate and we all had plenty and there were leftovers. It was not a magic show where the food somehow expanded in a miraculous way. The miracle is people sharing. People share and they may be careful to not take as much perhaps as they normally would take. But, they eat and they have their fill. And the kingdom of God is present.
I can remember another time being at a covered dish dinner Someone had prepared some rice and some choice cuts of meat. An individual went down the line and he recognized the choice cuts of meat in the dish. He picked every one of them out. He left the rice and took the choice cuts of meat. When he sat down there was his plate heaped with these choice cuts of meat. Everybody else got the rice and he got the meat. The kingdom of God went out the door and the sin of gluttony took a seat in the fellowship hall that day. Can you see this? Does this make sense to you?
God wants us to come to a place where there we have an awareness about us of the gifts of God around us. We sing a doxology as we give our offering to the Lord each week where we say, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." God wants us to come to a place in our life where we recognize He has so blessed our life in every way that we praise Him for all the blessings we have. Then we then share those blessings with others.
Is the only blessing we have food? No, of course not. We have friends. We have homes. We have families. We have talents and gifts the Lord has given us. Every person has been blessed by God in so many different ways and God wants us to come to a place where we recognize what we have is a gift of God. The best use of a gift of God is to give it away and to share it with others. Then they too, can experience the blessing of God.
The kingdom of God went out the door and the sin of gluttony took a seat in the fellowship hall that day
In this season of Lent, as we are looking at our own lives and asking the Holy Spirit to give us insight about our life. How are we letting God have His way with us? What are we doing in our life to let the orchard of the fruit of the Spirit develop and mature and grow in our life? Sometimes to develop an orchard of the fruit of the Spirit we need to prune other aspects of our life. We need to weed out other aspects of our life so the fruit of the Spirit has more room. Maybe we need to weed out pride or envy or anger or greed. Or maybe we need to weed out gluttony.
I invite you to let the Holy Spirit guide your thoughts as you examine your need for pruning. Sometimes we have an attitude about the blessings of God that says, "I have mine - - - I hope you get yours - - - but I am not going to help you." A lot of folks have that kind of attitude. When I think about the sin of gluttony in the context we're talking about this morning I am mindful we are sitting on five of the most beautiful acres of land in God's creation. We have a beautiful sanctuary. We have a nice fellowship hall. We have fine facilities and opportunities to lift up the Word of God and to praise God. We have many opportunities to fellowship and to share with one another. As the scriptures said, we are feasting sumptuously on all God has given us and we are surrounded by a bunch of folks for whom God is a stranger. We are also surrounded by people with whom we work, and in our own neighborhoods where we live, for whom the love of God is a stranger. When the time comes and we stand before the Righteous Judge, are our roles going to be reversed as they were in the story of Lazarus and the rich man? God has given us so much to share, . . . are we sharing the marvelous gift of our church with the world around us for whom the love of God is a stranger? If we are not, it may be the sin of gluttony has crept into our camp. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you - - - thank you for your love - - for your mercy - - for you compassion - - for you acceptance for each of us. Father, it's only in the light of your incredible grace that we have the courage to invite the Holy Spirit to burn through our lives and to reveal to us everything that is not Godly. Father, as we are mindful of your incredible love and acceptance of each of us, we ask you to give us the eyes of Christ, the mind of Christ to look at our own lives, our own attitudes, our own beliefs. Where we see obstacles, where we see hindrances to the fruit of the Spirit developing in our lives, Father, we ask by your grace, help us to eliminate those sins so the fruit of the Spirit may grow and may mature in our lives. For this we humbly ask, in the name of the one who came to set us free, Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.