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John 4:27-42 You're running late and you're very hungry. You know that you don't have time to go home and fix something to eat. So, you think about waiting until later. But, then you see it. Just ahead on the road is a fast food place. Your mouth starts to water and your stomach grumbles. You pull into the parking lot and zip around to the drive through lane. A raspy voice greets you over the intercom. You place your order and within a few minutes a bag full of food is delivered through the open window. As you pull out into traffic, you're already reaching into the bag for some of those french fries. You make it to your destination a few minutes late, having dined on your fast food meal. You feel full, but the junk food is already taking its toll. You feel a little bloated and your stomach is queasy from all the grease. Fast food has become a major part of life for busy Americans. Today, one of every three meals is eaten out and at least 40 billion dollars are spent in fast-food restaurants. For people trying to consume a healthy, balanced diet, this trend makes it difficult to get a good meal. Junk food is notoriously high in calories, fat, and sodium and low in vitamins and minerals. The majority of foods offered in fast food restaurants contain over 55% of calories from fat. When you are ordering on the run, it is easy to forget about these "fat traps." So, why do we fall into these traps? With our busy schedules, we often don't take the time to schedule a good meal. And the advertising for junk food makes it look mighty enticing! Let's take a look at an ad for a well-known fast food restaurant... [VIDEOTAPE] So, let's say you ate a fast food meal from this restaurant. You eat a chicken breast, a chicken thigh, an order of french fries, some cole slaw, and a soda. That comes to 863 calories and 45 grams of fat. Not a very healthy meal. Have you noticed that a lot of fast food restaurants now offer super-size meals and value meals? It might seem like these options give you more food for your money, but they also give you more fat, calories, and sodium. As we choose what we eat, it's important to remember the needs of our bodies. We can choose food that will just fill us up, or we can choose food that will help to build us up. It's the same in our spiritual lives. In today's gospel lesson, Jesus reminds us to watch out for junk food as we feed our spiritual hunger. What does this passage tell us about feeding our spiritual needs today? The Bible tells us that the disciples were surprised that Jesus was talking with a woman. Keep in mind that this was not because of her nationality or her reputation. In the patriarchal society of the day, there was a rabbinical teaching that said, "A man should hold no conversation with a woman in the street, not even with his own wife, still less with any other woman, lest men should gossip." Sexism was very much a part of the religion of the day. Jesus, as he so often did, broke the rules. He broke the rules that didn't make any sense. And it makes no sense to treat a woman as less than a man. The actions of Jesus demonstrated that men and women are equal in the eyes of God. Jesus had been talking with the woman about her life. She is surprised that he knows that she has had five husbands. And that the man she is living with now is not her husband. As she draws water from the well, he talks with her about living water - the kind of water that you can drink and never get thirsty again. She is intrigued by the spiritual confidence of Jesus and is receptive to the thought that she could find meaningful spiritual strength. Today's scripture reminds us that:
One of my favorite restaurants in Tucson is Pastiche. Have you ever eaten there? They have some wonderful dishes - salmon, sea bass, pasta. I had dinner with some friends at Pastiche a few weeks ago. As our meals arrived, people around the table began to say, "Mmmm, this tastes great. You've got to try a taste." Or, "This is wonderful! Here, have a bite." The joy of good food makes us want to share the experience with others. Have you ever had a meal at McDonald's where someone said to you, "Wow, this Big Mac is great! You've got to taste it." Or, "These fries are incredible today. Here, have a few." Well, probably not. My experiences at fast food restaurants are that people are pretty involved in wolfing down their food. There's not a lot of sharing going on. The woman at the well probably didn't talk much with her friends and neighbors about her spiritual life. I doubt that she shared much about her spiritual questions or longings. Her personal life reflected a search for meaning in relationships - a search that had been futile. The spiritual food in her life had been meager and she didn't have a lot to share with others. But what happens in the scripture story? We're told that she left her water pot, a valuable commodity, there at the well. She went back into town specifically to tell people about what she had experienced. She was so touched, so moved by the nourishment that Jesus provided that she couldn't resist sharing it with others. Have you ever experienced this in your life? You're going through a real dry spell in your spiritual nourishment. You're getting by on spiritual Whoppers and Taco Bell. And then, you come across some real spiritual meaning. And you can't wait to tell others about it. That's probably a pretty good sign about your spiritual nutrition. If you're not excited enough to tell people about the things that are feeding your soul; you're probably eating spiritual junk food. Jesus let's us know that we don't have to settle for that.
After the woman headed back into town, the disciples urged Jesus to eat something. But Jesus told them that he had food to eat that they didn't know about. Being a spiritual teacher can be a difficult job. Here was Jesus, trying to teach his followers a deeper meaning, and they took him literally. When Jesus talked about this mystical food, the disciples started to look around for it. They speculated that maybe someone else had brought him some food. They missed the whole point. Ever patient, Jesus started to teach them what he meant. In a nutshell, Jesus told them that his real food was carrying out God's purpose. That's where he found his satisfaction, his fulfillment, and his nourishment. Do any of you enjoy candy bars? Talk about junk food! They're full of empty calories and loads of sugar. But we often turn to them when our energy is lagging. In fact, one major candy maker markets their bar to fill that need. Ads for Snickers often show people who need a quick pick-me-up to get through the day. And what do they say in those ads? A woman smiles and says into the camera, "Snickers really satisfies me." True spiritual food satisfies us because it returns us to our purpose. It satisfies us. When we are centered in our spirituality, we are more genuine and more whole. We are feeding our true selves. The ministry of Jesus was successful because he found real exhilaration in his spiritual work. Christ's days were so full that it makes you tired just to read about them. When you read the gospel of Mark, you're struck with how often people intruded into the life of Jesus asking for help. Every one of these people felt that their case was all-important. Anything else that Christ was doing should be set aside. Often, sometimes without waiting for the end of the plea, Jesus was up and on his feet. "Let us go at once," he would say. This created concern for the disciples who felt that he was wearing himself out. On those occasions when Jesus would set aside some private time, there was no rest because the crowds always surged into his privacy. We also have a purpose in life. We have a work that we are here to accomplish. Too often we are grudging and miserly with our lives. We claim large margins of time for ourselves and dole out small bits of life to God and humankind. But Jesus reminds us that we are fed spiritually - with real, meaningful nourishment - when we are in the center of our purpose in life. Jesus also reminds us that:
One day I bought one of those frozen bean burritos at the grocery store. I took it to the office because I knew I wouldn't have much time for lunch. I popped it into the microwave and set the timer. As the burrito heated, I could begin to smell it, but really didn't think much about it. When the timer beeped, I took the burrito out of the oven and started to eat. Then a woman came into the kitchen with a Tupperware container. It was a homemade dish - leftovers from the last night's meal. She started to warm the food and it smelled wonderful! As the aroma began to waft through the office, people started to come down the hall to ask what kind of food it was. Others wanted to know if they could have a bite. As I sat there eating my sorry little burrito, it hit me. Nobody had paid any attention when I heated my junk food in the microwave. But, when a quality dish of healthy food was warmed, people couldn't wait to check it out. It's the same way in our spiritual lives. If we're living our lives on the basis of meager spiritual food, nobody's going to pay much attention. But, if we're dining on the meat of real engagement with God and balanced expectations of life - others will want to know about it. Jesus explains this to the disciples by telling them that the fields are ripe for harvest. He tells the disciples that he sends them to reap what they have not worked for. By simply showing and sharing the richness of a well-nourished spiritual life - a gift from God - others will come desiring the same.
Our bodies suffer when we subsist on junk food. The calories and the fat fill us up but don't satisfy our real needs. In our spiritual lives, we can subsist on junk food. We can try to find deeper meaning in money, or things, or relationships. They might help us get by, but they don't satisfy our real spiritual needs. God offers us real nourishment - in the form of unconditional love, courage, and power. And the good news today is that we can dine at this sumptuous spiritual feast.
Amen. |