Gluttony: A Crisis of Temperance

Don Friesen
March 3, 2002
Ottawa Mennonite Church

www.ottawamennonite.ca

This is the second of my series of sermons on the Seven Deadly Sins, and after greed, which got a modest treatment last week, we move on to gluttony. And first of all, I'd like to offer some apologies. I apologize for scheduling this sermon on a Sunday that we eat a Fellowship Meal together. I also feel apologetic because I had hoped to lose ten pounds before I preached this sermon, and I've only managed to lose seven. I guess I found the hands-on research for this sermon much too enjoyable, especially the strategic fieldwork I did at the Men's Breakfast yesterday! Perhaps my own weakness will serve to temper my words on gluttony.

Gluttony's Excesses

Gluttony is one of the slob sins, and if you can combine gluttony, say, with sloth and prop yourself up in front of the television with a pillowcase-sized bag of potato chips, watching cooking shows and rivetted by food commercials, then chances are you have first-hand experience with gluttony.

Gluttony, of course, has to do with more than eating excessive amounts of junk food, but we certainly associate it with excess. Years ago I read a book about the famous Scopes trial of 1925, a colourful duel of wits in the courtroom between William Jennings Bryan, representing fundamentalist Christianity, and Clarence Darrow, representing academic freedom. I am easily distracted from substantive issues by quirky things on the margins, and what I remember from that reading are not the legal arguments offered by two outstanding legal minds, but rather a description of William Jennings Bryan's eating habits! A man who travelled with him on his presidential campaign describes a breakfast he saw Jennings Bryan eat on a Virginia plantation in 1900: "First a large cantaloupe. Then two quail followed by Virginia ham and a half-dozen eggs. After that a full plate of battercakes swimming in butter and a second helping of the same. In addition, there were many cups of coffee and fried potatoes and side dishes of various kinds before he left the table, ready to begin a day of speech making...." (Irving Stone, Clarence Darrow for the Defense, page 508)

I would have left out the quail! Ironically, Jennings Bryan was a fanatical worker for temperance, but as his own loyalists admitted, "few more intemperate men ever lived!" I guess it's hard to make a lot of speeches on temperance on an empty stomach!

Jennings Bryan's eating habits, however, seem healthy in comparison with that of a man in New York who last summer ate a record 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes! This is gluttony-as-entertainment, and it would be one thing if this represented only the whims of a deranged but isolated individual; this young man ate--or rather inhaled--these 50 hot dogs at a frankfurter eating contest that has been taking place since 1916 and is sponsored by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. This is institutionalized gluttony! The previous record had been 25 frankfurters, and as one spokesperson for the International Federation of Competitive Eating indicated about the new winner, "He has truly redefined the sport." (Associated Press, July 4, 2001)

Perhaps greed has driven the food industry to turn food consumption into a sport. Such sporting events, for example, are part of the entertainment at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, where anyone who can finish the restaurant's 72-ounce slab of beef with all attendant trimmings in less than an hour gets it free! That's enough to feed an entire family! In the Acme Oyster House in New Orleans, your name gets put up on the Wall of Fame if you consume at least 15 dozen raw oysters within four hours. The record is 32 dozen oysters!

About the only thing I like about gluttony's excesses is that they make my own eating habits seem modest in comparison. It's unnerving, however, to realize that our society has so little capacity for shame. Admittedly one can find anything and everything on the world wide web, but one site, divinegluttony-dot-com is sponsored by a company called Divine Gluttony which exhibits no shame in trumpeting its "sinful delicacies". Another site, formerly called "StuffYourMouth-dot-com," is a guide to the increasing number of "All-you-can-eat" restaurants, and there's yet another company called "Hope, Faith & Gluttony," the title revealing some knowledge of biblical phrases, but little shame about sin.

You may remember a few years ago when in an Advent sermon I described a Christmas celebration sponsored by an international financial firm that flew its employees to London, England for an extravagant Christmas staff party, the theme of which was the Seven Deadly Sins. Gluttony was well represented among the party's many intemperate features and was celebrated at the ten bars, each lined with a trough packed with truffles and candies, where entertainers acting as "fatties" lay on the floor having food shoved into their mouths! (Ottawa Citizen, Business section, December 22, 2000) All that's missing from the decadent days of ancient Rome is the vomitoria, a special fixture installed in the Roman banquet halls where those who ate and drank too much could go and vomit--and then come back for more. Seneca, an ancient Roman philosopher, was disgusted by the goings-on at ancient Rome's smartest dinner parties, and wrote, "They vomit to eat, and eat to vomit."

One doesn't have to be a slob to be a glutton. You may prefer upscale gluttony, in which the quantity of food is not as important as your craving for the fare-of-the-day, like the person who wrote in "Gourmet" magazine about his attempt to jump the cue at an exclusive New York restaurant that had a 2,700-person waiting list. The tasting menu alone cost $160, and the bill for a group of four was close to $1,500. The writer said, "For the three hours and 45 minutes it took me to eat my 11-course meal I was the lights on the top of the Chrysler Building. I was the smile on the Statue of Liberty. I was New York." (Janice Kennedy, "So big you can't get around it," Ottawa Citizen, December 24, 2000)

We may find ever new ways to commit old sins, but C. S. Lewis called this latter variation the "gluttony of delicacy" (Screwtape Letters), basing his judgment, no doubt, on the medieval approach to gluttony which distinguished five different kinds of gluttony, known by five Latin words (prae-propere, laute, nimis, ardenter, studiose), basically meaning: too soon, too expensively, too much, too eagerly, too daintily. ("Caviar and Big Macs: gluttony, moderation, and world hunger," The Double Cross: Messages on the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven ‘Deadly' Virtues, by Stephen O. Swanson)

Gluttony Is a Health Issue

Of the Seven Deadly Sins gluttony is one of the few of the seven sins which is visited by physical retribution this side of death. Health experts reckon that the average North American family is busy digging their own graves with their teeth! Which is to say, gluttony is a grave health problem.

In the United States, more than half the country's adults--97 million people--are overweight, and nearly a third are obese. A study published in 1999 in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed a dramatic increase over the last decade in obesity rates. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control, says, "Obesity is an epidemic and should be taken as seriously as any infectious disease epidemic." (Janice Kennedy, "So big you can't get around it," Ottawa Citizen, December 24, 2000) In Canada Anne McLellan has announced that obesity will be a Health Canada priority. ("Shape up, McLellan tells ‘nation of obese people,'" Ottawa Citizen, February 22, 2002) A good thing, for almost 50 per cent of adult Canadians are also either overweight or obese. ("Get moving to fight obesity," letter, Ottawa Citizen, March 2, 2002)

I'm sure we're all aware of gluttony's health risks, but I'm not sure we know that obesity is a problem with particular relevance to people of faith. Kenneth Ferraro, a sociologist at the University of Purdue who has done two national surveys in this regard, says that religious people tend to be weightier than their non-religious counterparts. His findings apply to all major religions in the United States, though American Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists on average weigh less than American Christians. (Virginia Stem Owens, "The Fatted Faithful: Why the church may be harmful to your waistline," Christianity Today, January 11, 1999)

So gluttony is of particular relevance to North American Christians, and I was astounded to discover the magnitude of the Christian dieting industry. I don't know if Christians are hoping to pray off the pounds, or what, but the modern Christian dieting industry began in the 1950s when a Presbyterian minister (Charlie Shedd) did indeed publish a book entitled, Pray Your Weight Away (1957). The book offered an exercise regimen that, among other things, instructed readers to perform karate kicks while reciting Proverbs 3, but it was a best-seller! (Lauren F. Winner, "The Weigh & the Truth," Christianity Today, September 4, 2000)

The dieting industry in the United States is worth $30–50 billion, and a conservative estimate is that the Christian dieting industry accounts for 5 percent of that, worth $1.5 billion. There are now a host of programs to help the "fatted faithful" diminish themselves--programs like the Weigh Down Workshops; the 3D program, standing for "Diet, Discipline, and Discipleship'; and the First Place program. Some of these dieting programs combine dieting and evangelism and have helped many non-Christians come to faith. And then there are books, books, and books, many of them best-sellers, like the one with the cute title, More of Him, Less of Me. (by Jan Christiansen)

Now, a few caveats. We need be careful that we don't reduce gluttony to a jingoistic "fat-is-sin-and-the-righteous-are-thin" slogan. One doesn't have to be overweight to be a glutton. An overemphasis on thinness and body image also represents an obsession with food, and leads to other neuroses, just as unhealthy and potentially deadly as gluttony. While I have focussed on food, we should keep in mind that the notion of gluttony is much broader and includes over-consumption of alcohol, narcotics, and any other substance we may crave.

We are also told in Scripture that while we tend to emphasize our "outward appearance," the Lord "looks on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7) While I find that personally comforting, it doesn't follow that my own tendencies toward gluttony do not have a spiritual dimension. When I am feeling sad or lonely, I find it very easy to reach for comfort in a snack, and rarely a healthy one. Frederick Buechner defines a glutton as "one who raids the icebox for a cure for spiritual malnutrition." (Listening to Your Life, Page 255)

A Scriptural Take on Gluttony

When I first thought about this sermon I thought that I could make it a short sermon and just repeat what we all already know: "Don't eat too much." However, John Cassian (360-435), the 4th century monk who first came up with the Seven Deadly Sins list, devotes an entire book to gluttony, a book with 48 chapters! Chapter 2, for example, begins with the title, "How the occasions of these faults, being found in everybody, are ignored by everybody; and how we need the Lord's help to make them plain".

The Scriptures agree that gluttony is a health issue. The Apocrypha especially works the health angle, saying "Healthy sleep depends on moderate eating," whereas the glutton has to contend with the "distress of sleeplessness and of nausea and colic...." (Sirach 31:20) It tells us that "overeating brings sickness," that "gluttony leads to nausea," and that "many have died of gluttony, but the one who guards against it prolongs his life." (37:30-31)

I particularly like the reference in the Apocrypha that talks about both a "glutton" and a "solitary gormandizer" (IV Maccabees 2:7) I don't know what the difference would be, but if I had to choose between the two I would prefer the latter.

The Old Testament warns us not to be "among winebibbers, or among gluttonous eaters of meat...." (Proverbs 23:20) Gluttons and drunkards often appear together in the Bible. (Deuteronomy 21:20; Proverbs 23:21) Proverbs maintains that "companions of gluttons shame their parents" (Proverbs 28:7), so we shouldn't even hang around with gluttons! Proverbs also provides us with what may be one of the first biblical rules of dining etiquette, suggesting that when you sit down to eat with royalty it would be better to "put a knife to your throat" than to indulge "a big appetite." (23:1-2) It also adds, "Do not desire the ruler's delicacies, for they are deceptive food." (23:3) Or, as the King James Version renders it, "Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful...."

The New Testament warns us about those whose "god is the belly..." (Philippians 3:19) and also complains about "lazy gluttons" (Titus 1:12), but more importantly, the New Testament lays out its conviction that the human body is the temple of God's Holy Spirit and encourages us to glorify God not just with our spirits but with our bodies as well. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

Along with this positive approach to our bodies the New Testament often counsels temperance and self-control, the latter named by Galatians as a fruit of the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:23) I don't particularly like how often church leaders are mentioned in the New Testament with respect to these seven sins, but there we are again, in 1 Timothy and in Titus, being urged to be "temperate" (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 2:2) and "self-controlled". (Titus 1:8; 2:12)

There are obviously some health benefits to the exercise of temperance and self-control, but this biblical counsel is issued in the context of a larger purpose, to help establish God's kingdom, on earth, as it is in heaven. It's difficult to focus on the kingdom if food and drink are an obsessive distraction for us. Our reading from Deuteronomy indicates how God blessed Israel with great food--with the "produce of the field" and with "honey" and with "oil," "curds" and "milk" and "fat of lambs and rams" and "bulls and goats, together with the choicest wheat" and "fine wine from...grapes". (Deuteronomy 32:13-14) "Jacob ate his fill" and "grew fat," says the Deuteronomist. He "grew fat, bloated, and gorged! He abandoned God who made him, and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation." (32:15) A blessing can become something that draws us away from God.

A Need to Temper Natural Appetites

Willy reminded me last Sunday that there must be something good at the core of these seven deadly sins, and he's right. At the core of greed, for example, is our acquisitive spirit; without it we would achieve little. At the core of gluttony is our appetite for food; without this drive we would starve to death. At the core of sloth is the need of our bodies and spirits for the rest and regeneration of inactivity. At the core of lust is our appetite for pleasure and our God-given ability to experience it.

The Scriptures do not disdain food and drink. Jesus himself was accused of being a glutton (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34), an accusation uttered as a slur, to be sure, but nonetheless it may indicate that Jesus enjoyed his food and drink. When Jesus told his story of the Prodigal Son returning home, the family celebrated the reunion with a "fatted calf" (Luke 15:23), and we don't read anything about anyone doing a cholesterol count on the calf! Food and meals in the Bible stretch from Genesis to Revelation, including the great celestial banquet table at the end of time!

The Scriptures are respectful of the natural rhythms of life, knowing that "for everything there is a season (Ecclesiastes 3:1), a time for sharing simple meals, and a time for celebrating with a feast! Times for eating a meal in the company of others, mixing food with fellowship, and also times for commemorating a special event with an unusual meal. It seems to me that gluttony is disrespectful of life's rhythms and that its excesses erode love and fellowship.

Last Sunday I likened the deadly sins to the effects of cancer. The comparison may be an appropriate one for the sin of gluttony. Cancer cells are cells that have escaped the control of the normal forces regulating cellular growth. As these cells multiply, they grow without any regard to the function of the tissue of origin. In other words, they're out-of-sync. Similarly our appetites need to be tempered and disciplined less they get out-of-sync with our spiritual commitment.

The seven deadly sins represent appetites that by virtue of their incredible power can become obsessive appetites. Perhaps this is why Dante considered these sins perversions of love. They represent natural appetites, but left untempered by considerations of love, community and conscience, they drive us beyond the pale in the search for their fulfilment.

If greed represents a crisis of confidence in God's providence, gluttony represents a crisis of temperance. One of the books in the Apocrypha speaks often of a "temperate mind" (IV Maccabees 1:35; 2:2, 16, 18), whereby our "appetites are restrained," "bridled by reason," much as the New Testament speaks of bridling the excesses of the tongue. (James 1:26; 3:2)

Perhaps the Apostle Paul's athletic imagery could serve us well as we bask in the afterglow of the Olympics. Paul points out, in 1 Corinthians (9:24-27) that in a race many runners compete, but only one receives the prize, and the athlete who excels subjects himself or herself to a demanding training program so as to win the prize! Similarly, in his work for the kingdom of God, says Paul, "I run the race...with determination. I am no shadow-boxer, I really fight! I am my body's sternest master, for fear that when I have preached to others I should myself be disqualified." (9:26-27, J.B. Phillips)

The "enemies of the cross," whose "god is the belly," says Paul, have "their minds... set on earthly things." "Our citizenship," says Paul, "is in heaven...." (Philippians 3:18-20) And Paul writes, in our reading from Philippians, of his strenuous efforts to focus on Christ, "Not that I have...already reached the goal," he says, "but I press on to make it my own.... ...forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward ...the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus." (3:12-14)

May God help us to "temper our intemperance" (Madeleine L'Engle), so that we might maintain our focus on God, and on God's call. AMEN