Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Everybody's got a hungry heart.

Dear Readers,

It's gnawing at me today, but I can't tell you what it is. It could be the fist-sized organ tucked away under layers of flesh, bone, and other essential organs. Or it could be that "lonely organ", perhaps speculative in nature, and whose exact location remains unknown. God knows we have searched for it.

They both must be fed, every day. The appetite itself is easily satisfied. Our physical stomach won't know the difference between brussell sprouts and chocolate; when it is full it is full. The "lonely organ" is almost as easily satisfied, in today's post-modern cafeteria. A bit of Buddhist meditation, a smattering of New Age mystics, a few Eastern Orthodox rituals, and a regimen of Thai Chi. The "lonely organ" could survive on a diet like this, for awhile. It isn't exactly unpalatable fare; almost certainly more readily swallowed than the Christian discipline of history.

Maybe there is a simple explanation for this soul-hunger. It just feels like my pills didn't work today.

Your Friendly, Neighborhood Apatheist,

~Bill

Soul Food, or What are you bringing to the Potluck?

Dear Readers,

Everyone eats,and many people endow their eating with religious significance. Think how often food and food experiences are part of the church life. In practically all faiths, food plays a role in their religious life--from the ice cream social or chili cook-off, to communion, to the worship of the corn god.

Food cuts across these traditions much like it cuts and weaves through our physical and spiritual lives. It is material and ephemeral. We consume it and it is gone, transitory but essential to life. Prayer over a meal may be the only prayer in some people's lives, in what seems a peculiar mix of both physical and ideological substance.

We even have our food fights, evident in the debate between the theologian and the medical practitioner, regarding the common chalice or the individual communion cup; the common loaf or the individual wafer; wine or grape juice. There's the church cookbook, too. Churches range in their emphasis on food from "here are some recipes we'll share", to the move in the 1970's to fight world hunger.

If you were to ask a person attending a church potluck why they were there you could expect a number of answers. They might range from "because God wants us to be together", to "because this is where my friends are". Have we gotten so hung up on "fellowship" that we have forgotten the broader reasons we belong to a church and the mission of the church? Or is it that some people are looking for community, and when they come to church they find community and a place to fit in.

For some folks, (not just the kids), the highlight of their church experience each week may be coffee hour, or juice and snacks. We may look down on that as being not particularly Christian, but they may get from the coffee hour that "this is a place for me, this is home", and it may be something that will shape their Christian lives forever. Acting out community in this way may be more important for them than hearing a sermon on community.

I guess all this could be over-analyzing a bit. After all, sometimes a broccoli casserole is just a broccoli casserole.

One thing about potlucks--you'll always eat well. People bring their best stuff to potlucks. Keep your fork; the best is yet to come!

Your Friendly, Neighborhood Apatheist,

~Bill

Monday, September 10, 2007

You are what you eat. Or, What's in Mystery Meat, anyway?

Dear Readers,

I lay moaning in my bed. I was so miserable, so embarrassed and so humiliated! My stomach ached from too much food. I hadn't felt that way in a long time. I'd almost forgotten what gluttony felt like.

What was I thinking? Amazingly, the whole episode started in my mind, not in my mouth! I'd been looking forward to the Cultural Diner for days. Now, there's nothing wrong with the Cultural Diner. You can have it anytime you're hungry. And who isn't hungry? The remarkable thing--it really is all-you-care-to-eat there.

And we like what they're feeding us! After all, instant sensual gratification is so tangible at the Diner. Our mouths savor the meat there, fat and sizzle and all; we can super-size the already gigantic portions; and the refills are always free. We have questions, and the answers at the Diner are so attractive. "Buy bigger, buy now, look perfect, Here's How." " Live life as you see fit." "Look better than ever!" "Don't you want to look like this?" "No money down!" "You deserve the best that money can buy!" Don't ask questions! "Somebody's gotta win; it might as well be you!" And if you're not up to the task, we have Viagra and Cialis. In fact, a pill for everything.

It seems as though the Cutural Diner has gone into the catering business, too. We're finding it in places we would least expect it. Goes to show how effective their marketing is. Be aware of what they're feeding you, even at the church that prioritizes entertaining its members with a “relevant” mix of loud music, amusing skits, and video clips.

Beware the need to keep a television in the car, the bedroom, and the bathroom. Beware a culture that teaches us to avoid meaningful conversation by putting on our headsets whether on the subway, shopping for groceries, or eating at the Diner.

Are we getting full? We're taking it all in, consuming what they give us, but our appetite is never satiated. We're sacrificing a deeper hunger to fulfill a shallow need. We're consuming the superficial in order to avoid facing the visceral.

But if we remain hungry for a solution to loneliness, it is not because we lack access to something that will fill us. In fact, God has given us unlimited access to spiritual food and spiritual drink. If we remain hungry, we do so because we choose to starve ourselves.

We do not fully understand why the world is as it is, and the mystery that looms over us. It is an intimidating feeling not to fully understand the answers to life’s profound questions: Where did I come from? Why am I here? What will happen when I die? So we seek others for answers to these great questions. And we hope that the answers will soothe the loneliness. The other answers, however, are scary because they conjure up notions of objective moral standards, accountability for actions, and, most frighteningly, an eternal God.

The next time we're tempted to pop in the earbuds and grab a quick snack at the Diner...let us feast instead, on the Manna in our cultural desert; let us eat of the Bread of Life; slake our thirsts with the Living Water. Just think how far a few loaves and fishes might go...

Eccl 2:25 "for without Him, who can eat or find enjoyment?"

Eccl 9:7 "Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do."

What's on your menu? What's in your wallet? The Cultural Diner comes at a high price, but you can charge it.

~Bill

"The Kingdom of Heaven is not meat and drink...but righteousness, peace, and the Holy Ghost."

Open all hours! Serving everything!

Dear Readers

If there were to be an organ in the human body that causes loneliness, I am sure it would be somewhere near the stomach. When I am really hungry I will eat just about anything--that stuff in the tupperware at the back of the fridge, dry spaghetti, anything past its sell by date, brussell sprouts.

The same thing is true when I am lonely. I will look anywhere, do nearly anything, to satisfy that hunger. If we hunger, there is food. If we lust, there is sex. If we are lonely, there is company, or at least the din of the crowd. Our culture crowd begs us to get in, sit down, plug it in and turn it on, and shut up. When it wants our opinion it will give it to us, all through those cute little iPod ear buds.

The company of our pop culture is superficial, however; is harmfully superficial. It never engages us in a meaningful manner. Instead it is full of empty chatter, hollow talk, false praises, soulless confessions, and boring secrets. It never fills the "lonely organ" the way food fills the stomach. It's meals are as cotton candy, sweet but for a moment, but dissolving into nothingness. We are left wanting something more substantial, and so we gorge ourselves on the senseless noise of the culture.

Human company, too, fails to satisfy fully. It is as an appetizer to a meal. Again culture answers; if we will only put our earphones back in or turn on the TV (with the remote, of course), the Dr. Phils will tell us what we want to hear, how to fill that loneliness. The cotton candy provides no nourishment.

Your Friendly, Neighborhood Apatheist,

~Bill

"The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing" Eccl. 1:8 Not yet finished....