September 2, 2018
His rules were simple – if it was on the McDonald’s menu, he could eat it; if it wasn’t, he couldn’t. He had to eat everything on the menu at least once during the month. And, if he was asked whether he wanted to super-size his meal, he would always say, “Yes.” In addition, he decided to walk no more than 5000 steps a day, the average number for adults in our country.
Before beginning, Spurlock received physical examinations from three doctors – a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist, and a general practitioner. He was pronounced by each to be in outstanding physical health. None expected him to experience serious health risks from this diet, only a modest rise in triglycerides, in cholesterol, and in weight.
Boy, were they wrong! He gained weight at an alarming rate – nearly 25 pounds. The high sugar content of not only the drinks, but the food, gave him serious mood swings each day. And, after three weeks, his blood readings were off the charts. His general practitioner told him he was killing himself. He was ruining his liver with fat, much like an alcoholic could do with alcohol. The doctor begged him to quit.
Despite his doctor’s warnings, Spurlock persisted and survived, apparently without doing permanent damage to his liver. But his personal experiment – which is portrayed in his documentary film, “Super Size Me” – remains an interesting parable about our society. And it leaves us with the daunting question – Are we what we eat?
It also poses – in a more modern way – the issue in today’s gospel lesson. Is it true that we defile ourselves by what we put in our bodies? Perhaps you have overindulged on your favorite food and regretted it the next day. Perhaps you are in recovery from alcoholism and understand the effect of chemicals in your body. Or perhaps, like me, you once ate meatballs that had been in the freezer way too long and your body let you know that it was a big mistake. We are aware of how what we eat has a strong and lasting – sometimes negative – effect on us.
Yet, Jesus makes a counter claim – “There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
There were some church officials and religion scholars who saw that a few of Jesus’ friends weren’t washing their hands properly before eating. They themselves always made sure to dip their hands in water before eating, to give them an extra scrubbing after being to the market place, and to use only special cleaned pots and pans in food preparation.
So, they said to him, “Your disciples aren’t following the sacred traditions of our faith! They are making themselves unclean before God by the way they eat!”
Jesus shot back, “The prophet Isaiah was right about frauds like you. You know how to mouth the right words, but your heart is not in the right place.”
Then he said to the crowds. “Let me say this as plainly as I can: Whatever you eat cannot make you unacceptable to God. It is only what comes out of you – only your actions, your words and your deeds – these are what disrupt your relationship with God.”
Jesus is not a dietitian. He is not a health expert. He is not a medical doctor. He is a spiritual doctor. Jesus is deeply concerned about our relationship with God. For Jesus, our relationship with God is far more affected by the way we treat others than by how or what we eat – by what comes out of our mouths rather than by what goes into them; by what arises from our hearts rather than what goes into our stomachs.
Jesus recites a long list of things that pollute: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptions, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness. You get the idea that Jesus could go on for some time!
Jesus does not list things that cleanse, but let me suggest these: confession and forgiveness; humility and generosity; patience and kindness – these are things that come out of our hearts and make us clean. These are things that show up in our relationships with other people.
I’d like to tell you a story I once heard from Sister Jose Marie Hobday. Sr. Jose is a Franciscan nun who was descended from a full blood Seneca mother and a father who was half Seminole and half Irish. Both of her parents converted to Roman Catholicism as adults. Her mother named her, “Jo,” but her nine brothers called her, “Jose,” since she was the only girl.
Sr. Jose got her storytelling from her father and she got her wisdom from her mother. Sr. Jose tells that her mother had a special fondness for old people. She would send Jose or one of her brothers off to take a fresh-baked loaf of bread, a plate of cookies or a basket of Easter eggs to an elderly person.
One day she sent Jose on an errand to Mrs. Casey. Mrs. Casey had cancer. The cancer had ravaged her face and she had bandages covering most of it. The cancer also caused a bad smell. So, it was quite an ordeal for a young girl to visit her, especially since her mother expected her not just to drop the basket off, but to sit and visit awhile. After a couple of visits to Mrs. Casey, Jose announced to her mother that she wasn’t going anymore and that she should send one of her brothers instead. So, of course, Mrs. Hobday always made sure to send Jose.
One November her mother announced that she had invited Mr. and Mrs. Casey for Thanksgiving. Jose protested that the smell would ruin the dinner. That didn’t matter, her mother said, because the Casey’s had no place to go. Well, Jose thought about it – the baked turkey, the pumpkin pie, and her all-time favorite, sweet potatoes – and she realized she didn’t want to miss any of it. So, she told her mother she would simply sit at the other end of the table.
Of course, when everyone sat down, her mother arranged for Jose to sit directly across from Mrs. Casey. So, she tried to be polite and to keep her head down. But then the sweet potatoes started coming around. They were made with brown sugar and marshmallows, just the way she liked.
Now they had a rule in their house that you could only take one of everything until everyone had been served. But one of her brothers took two sweet potatoes, knowing that their mother wouldn’t object in front of company. Since Jose was going to be the last served, that meant she wouldn’t get any sweet potatoes.
But when the sweet potato platter came around, Mrs. Casey counted the number of potatoes. When she realized there would be none for Jose, she passed the platter without taking any. So, when the platter got to Jose, there was one left. Jose felt terrible, but she had the good grace to take the potato, divide it in half and offer half to Mrs. Casey. Then, Sr. Jose said, a wonderful thing happened. Mrs. Casey didn’t smell anymore. She looked like a beautiful person. Mrs. Casey took the half-potato and smiled at Jose. From that point on, it was a great Thanksgiving dinner.
Being clean before God does not mean washing your hands before you eat or eating the right foods or eating foods that are prepared in the right way. It has far more to do with who we are with and how we are treating them, especially if we don’t like them. Are we quick to anger and slow to listen? Or are we slow to anger, quick to listen, as the book of James says? Are we quick to show the love of Jesus?
For that reason, we come to this table. It is not a Super-size meal. It is a Mini-size meal. It is so small as to have little effect on our bodies. But it has great effect our hearts.
Regarding this meal, Martin Luther says, “Fasting and other outward preparations serve a good purpose, but the one who is rightly prepared is the one who hears and believes the words, ‘given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’”
It is those words that assure us that, not only do we have God’s forgiveness, but that God’s forgiveness continues to work in us, as we seek amendment and reconciliation, as we cultivate humility and generosity, as we practice patience and kindness.
This love – which comes to us in this simple meal – has been born in us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is nurtured in us when we listen to his teaching. It is expressed from our hearts when we live according to it.
It is this love that is who we are.
It is this love that is who you are.
Copyright 2018 Chris S. Lee-Thompson
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