SUNDAY: Bible Study - 9:00 AM | Worship - 10:00 AM | PM Worship - 6:00 PM WEDNESDAY: Bible Class - 7:00 PM ~ 8110 Signal Hill Road Manassas, Virginia | Office Phone: 703.368.2622

Supersize-250

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food…solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.   Hebrews 5.12-14

            Back in 2004 Morgan Spurlock released a documentary film about America’s unhealthy eating habits called “Supersize Me.”  The film followed Spurlock from February 1 to March 2, 2003 as he ate nothing but fast-food from McDonald’s.  He made the commitment to eat everything on the McDonald’s menu at least once, and to say “yes” every time he was asked if he wanted to supersize his meal – which happened 9 times during his experiment.  He also decided to forgo any physical exercise beyond walking the 5000 steps an average American takes every day.  The results were extreme, and a bit frightening.  In a month he gained 24 pounds (an added 13% of body weight), his cholesterol level skyrocketed to 230, and he developed kidney and liver problems.  

            Browsing catalogues of popular Christian books and merchandise, one gets the feeling that one is looking in a candy store window.  So much looks good, but upon inspection seems about as substantial as a box of Peeps.  Junk-food pleases but does not satisfy and sustain. Reading someone else’s reflections, experiences and pop-psych insights on general Christian themes is not a substitute for Bible study.  Christians need solid food, as the writer of Hebrews writes so vividly reminds us in the passage above.

            As the preacher, and the director of adult education for this congregation, I have tried to make sure we get lots of nourishment.  Although a variety of classes are offered, the centerpiece of the educational plan here is the text – New Testament classes on Sunday, and Old Testament classes on Wednesday.  I have also tried to make the word the beginning, middle, and end of every lesson preached.  I haven’t been a chef trained at the Cordon Bleu (or even the CIA), but hopefully, I’ve served up sustenance these last 20 years.

            But being well-fed is not enough.  In Damon Runyan’s short story “Lonelyheart,” a rotund horse-player, Nicely-Nicely, has time while recuperating from a near fatal bout of pneumonia to seek a wife in the personal columns of the old magazines lying around in the hospital.  He contacts a Mrs. Crumb who is a stout and handsome farmer’s widow a few years older than he is.  They are married and he moves to her farm in New Jersey where she commences to stuff him like a Peking Duck.  He is quite content with regular hearty meals until he finds out that she is fattening him up so that he will be unable to resist or escape when she pushes him down the well and collects on the $50,000 insurance policy she has taken out on him.  The story has a satisfying twist ending in which Nicely-Nicely escapes, but the lesson is learned.  Eating well, by itself, is detrimental to one’s health - which is why the passage above also emphasizes exercise – practice and training.

            I believe Satan can come to us in the guise of Mrs. Lonelyheart – encouraging us to eat up, but nefariously helping us to forget to exercise.  What does he care if we know our Bibles if we never exercise that knowledge?  Remember the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day?  They knew the word.  They knew the answer to the question, “What is the greatest command?” (Luke 10.27-28.)  But they didn’t translate that knowledge into obedience - certainly not into acts of service (Matthew 23.4.)  They weren’t eating junk-food, but were spiritually flabby nonetheless.

            Are we?  Service and obedience builds muscle - as the writer of Hebrews makes clear in the passage above.  Without such exercise we will be unable to truly discern good from evil – despite the quality and quantity of our diet.

 

 

 

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