Sink your teeth into this

Rev. Tom Dolph

Food – finally, a spiritual discipline I can sink my teeth into. Thank you Lauren Winner!* It’s okay, if you need to take a moment to groan aloud at the above pun. I almost did.

I will have to admit that my initial reaction to the possibility of considering food as a discipline to further my spiritual journey was both excitement and trepidation. Excitement because, well, I love food! Trepidation because I suspected that, as a discipline, my love of food would be challenged. I was right.
I eat too much and too often, that’s easily discerned, but truthfully it is far from being powerful enough to move me spiritually. I mean if it were I wouldn’t still be eating too much and too often would I? But now, thanks to Ms. Winner, I have to deal with a more sobering thought, one that might actually have the strength to shake my spiritually complacent attitude toward food.

Winner invites me to consider that God is the protagonist in the story of me and food. No problem, I can easily admit that God is the ultimate source of everything that I put in my mouth. “God is great, God is good, let us thank God for our food!” All done, but wait, umm, if God is the protagonist, doesn’t that make me the… antagonist? No can’t be. At best, antagonists antagonize and, at worst, they are at cross purpose with, and actively in opposition to, the protagonist. Could it be that my relationship with food puts me at cross purposes with God? Recognizing that I am actively in opposition to God because of what and how much and how I eat could definitely be powerful enough to move me spiritually.

Perhaps, as a matter of discipline, I should pay more attention to my food. What might I learn if, before I fed my face, I considered what was on the plate in front of me? Where did it come from? Whose hands planted it, picked it, plucked it, poured it, prepared it? What are they eating today? Which of our world’s resources are being tested because of its production? What could I learn about God by studying the great variety of food available to me? What lessons lay about in the intricate structure and properties of our sustenance? (After all, even an ogre knows that onions can be metaphorical.) What would happen if I slowed down while I ate, taking the time to consider why Jesus told stories about food and drink, hunger and thirst? What does it mean that when he wanted us to connect with the meaning of his sacrifice he attached it to food? How would it change my life, my relationship with the environment, myself, others and God if I admitted that “God cares about what I eat”?

Food – finally, a spiritual discipline I can sink my teeth into. Will I? Will you?

*Lauren Winner is author of Mudhouse Sabbath, companion piece to this blog. (2003 Paraclete Press)