Now, quick quiz: Which of these haven’t you heard a sermon
about in the past year (or, like me, the past 22 years)? If you were
ranking these in order of relative badness, which one would end up at, or at
least near, the bottom?
Let’s disregard the fact that you were predisposed to answer
gluttony because of the title of this post. And maybe your experience is
different than mine, but from what I’ve seen, Christians tend to conveniently
ignore the sin of gluttony.
The questions is, why? Maybe we’re trying to get away from
the stereotype of stern legalists who can’t appreciate the pleasure of enjoying
a good meal. Maybe we too closely associate eating with “fellowship”—basically talking
with other Christians over some form of food—to think of it in a negative
context (long live the potluck!). Maybe we’re too busy posting pictures of the
cheesecakes we just made on Instagram or pinning bacon recipes.
 |
| I made and ate this cheesecake last week. And I don't think that was gluttony. |
Or maybe we’re really not sure what gluttony is, exactly.
Only those people on Biggest Loser struggle
with it, right? It’s about being grossly overweight and making poor life
choices in regard to how much you shove down at once (except at Thanksgiving,
because that’s a holiday where we thank God for the ability to shove down too
much at once, so he’s got to be okay with it).
You have to wonder, though: if we don’t struggle with
gluttony at the time in history when we have more resources, food and
otherwise, available than we ever have in the past, should we just erase this
one from the Big Seven?
I’m going to say no, and here’s why: I am a glutton.
