"A Christian Diet?"  San Williams

Scriptures: Acts 11:1-18

The week after Easter I came home from a brief spiritual retreat and announced to Jan that I was going to become a vegetarian.  I did…for almost a week.  Eating habits are hard to change. In his later years, my grandfather’s interests focused nearly entirely on food.  Jan and I received long letters from him in which he described in detail the meals that my mother had prepared for him.  We still tell family stories about how he would often finish his lunch, look at his watch and ask, “What time is dinner?”  Well, our reading from Acts today tells about a pivotal moment in the early church and how the controversy centered on food—what kind of food was permissible to eat and with whom.  This story gives us an opportunity to talk about a subject dear to our stomachs, and perhaps also our hearts:  food. It’s certainly being talked about everywhere else.   In the news this week, stories about food have included the push to tax soda and junk food, concern for healthier school lunch menus, objections to putting toys in “happy meals” to entice children.  Our nation’s first lady has made childhood obesity her signature issue and turned a portion of the White House lawn into a vegetable garden. Metaphorically speaking, let’s put the issue of food on our congregational plate, and ask the question:  Is there such a thing as a Christian diet? 

Surely most Christians would say no.  Food rules are something other religions do.  Muslims, for example, must prepare meat according to Halal.  Fasting during the month of Ramadan is one of the pillars of Islam.  Jews also have strict dietary regulations.  You’ve probably noticed that some H.E.B. stores have a whole section of the store dedicated to Kosher foods.  But typically for Christians the lack of any food rules at all has been a badge of distinction.  Didn’t Christ set us free from food restrictions?  Didn’t Paul argue in his letters that God’s love cancels out obligations to observe dietary laws?  And doesn’t our reading in Acts further show that Christians are not under any obligations as to what we can and cannot eat?  All true.

But in recent years, more and more Christians are reconnecting food and spirituality, eating and ethics.  A recent issue of Christian Century featured an article by David Grumett, who has written a book titled: Theology on the Menu:  Asceticism, Meat and Christian Diet. Grumett encourages Christians to re-examine the connection between our faith and our daily eating habits. He points to monastic practices that often included growing food, consuming only what was necessary so there would be food left over with which to feed the hungry, refraining from meat on certain days, and so forth.  Grumett wants Christians to become more aware of the ethical implications of what and how we eat.  He notes, for example, that, worldwide, animals farmed for meat generate more pollution than motor vehicles, and consume vast quantities of food while elsewhere people are going hungry.   Food, Grumett insists, is a Christian concern.

On a lovely spring Sunday several weeks ago, our congregation processed around to the north courtyard following worship, to dedicate our community garden.  We plan to provide fresh produce for our Micah 6 ministry.  We offered a blessing with the words:  “May this be a justice garden, drawing us into reflection and action around issues of sustainable food production, equitable distribution of food and the danger of a food industry that pollutes the air and depletes the earth….May this garden inspire in us a closer relationship with our Creator, who gave us this earth as a garden to be kept and tilled, allowing us to take from it what we need, but not to exploit it for what we want…”   Our garden ministry is one attempt to make the connection between food production and Christian concerns for social justice, environmental stewardship, care of creation and so forth. So, yes, our daily attitudes and practices around food need to be put back on the menu for conversation, heightened awareness and social action.

            But at the same time, today's reading from Acts presents a caveat.   Namely, that our eating habits never become divisive, threaten community or hinder God’s redemptive plan to bring diverse people together. In our reading, Peter comes home to Jerusalem and is immediately called on the carpet for violating the Jewish dietary laws.  “Why did you go to Gentiles and eat with them?”  Peter’s friends were appalled that he had entered the home of Gentiles, sat at their tables and eaten foods that are clearly on the do-not-consume list.  Whatever possessed you, Peter? they wanted to know.  Well, Peter tells them that nothing less than a vision from God convinced him that all barriers—including food barriers—have been overturned.  Previous distinctions, Peter discerned, no longer apply.  Peter tells his friends how he saw a blanket descend from heaven filled with “beasts of prey and reptiles and bird of the air.”  Now that’s a menu that would turn the stomach of any faithful Jew.  But queasy stomach or not, God commanded Peter to rise, kill, and eat, declaring that what God has cleansed must not be called common. The real issue, Peter came to see, was not that his religious practices cast aspersions on shrimp, pigs, and the like, but that his religious practice cast out other human beings—ones who may look different, have different customs and a different diet.   When the three visitors arrived—all Gentiles—Peter began to see that the Holy Spirit was at work in these non-kosher Gentiles.  Peter was astounded to realize that his obsession with those pigs in a blanket almost blinded him to the new thing God was doing—pouring our God’s Spirit and reconciling people despite their various dietary customs. He now realized that no longer is there a “them” and “us,” clean and unclean, male and female, Jew or Gentile—but all have been made one in Christ, all are equally loved by God and all are welcome at God’s Table.

Well, the bottom line for us? It turns out that there is a Christian diet.  It consists of the bread of life and the cup of salvation, and everyone is invited to partake of this meal—vegetarians and meat eaters, vegans and flexitarians, chicken fried steak lovers and raw foodists. The food offered at Christ’s Table is for the health of body and soul. It reinvigorates the brain by giving us the mind of Christ.  It clears the eyes so that we see more clearly the generosity of God, whose goodness reaches out to all, including the marginalized and the despised. This Eucharistic meal strengthens our hands to reach out and serve those in need.  It revives the feet so that we can walk in paths of justice and peace.  This diet is especially good for the heart.  It opens up the heart so we can love God with all our soul and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves.  So come.  The table has been set.  The feast is ready.  Let’s eat.