Food and Feasting at God's Table of Blessing
Romans 14:17
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
We live in a different time. Here in the United States we have been blessed and accustomed to plenty. Food is readily available to most. Yet the waste that has been going on is unacceptable.
“The United States is the global leader in food waste, with Americans discarding nearly 40 million tons of food every year. 1 That’s 80 billion pounds of food and equates to more than $161 billion 2, approximately 219 pounds 3 of waste per person and 30-40 percent 4 of the US food supply.” From RTS.com
Hopefully, our wastefulness will be curbed by the pandemic.
Our human heart, broken and fallen as it is trends toward taking God's good things and making them into idols, ultimate things.
Sins like gluttony are disordered loves or inordinate loves. They start with legitimate love — proper and proportional, Christ-exalting — for something simple and innocent that God has provided for our enjoyment. Then they become improper and disproportionate and cease to exalt Christ and God.
So, do we eat to live or live to eat?
Much like money, we can start craving beyond what is routine and obsess without satisfying our need for food.
We become indifferent to the harmful effects that the food is having on the temple of the Holy Spirit, our body, and how we spend our money on it. Food becomes an escape, medication for our unhappiness. The goodness of God is replaced with food sex, or many other things.
Finding contentment in God puts all other idols behind us.
Food no longer has the same grip on us as it did even in church.
In the face of possible death from coved, those of us tempted to idolize bodily health through food and exercise experience fears and doubt. Food is not a cure-all or the answer to our depression or anxiety.
Romans 14:3, 14:17
3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The family table has made a return of sorts which is a blessing for families in general.
So, food far from being a bad thing feasting is a Godly occasion for gratitude.
The Bible has many references to the goodness of food and the holiness of feasting. God in his goodness made much of his creation edible. He made trees “pleasant to the sight and good