Their God Is Their Stomach

Did you know that the majority of Americans are overweight?  According to American doctors, that is.  There are plenty of reasons for that, I suppose, but the one most prominent one I would expect, is our (as a whole) wealth.  Rarely do you see pictures on the news from impoverished countries of obese people....quite the opposite.  We see hours of film of malnourished men, women and children.  Our wealth, coupled with our greed, has made us a 'heavy nation'.

Paul spoke to people like us (please don't be offended if I include any of you in the 'us', I am referring to the American public in general) when he wrote his letter to the Philippians.  In verse 19 of chapter 3, Paul is referring to people he called 'enemies of Christ'.  One of his descriptions of them is that 'their god is their stomach'.  “Oh, I see where you are going with this Mister Mac; you are taking this Scripture out of context to say that I am overweight and that I love my food more than I do God.”, you might be saying. No, I am not doing that at all (of course, IF you had that thought, maybe you MIGHT be a tad overweight for your health). What I want to liken this Scripture to is how easily we DO put other things before God…things we ought not to. I assume Paul was indeed using those words to indicate the Philippians’ debauchery and over-indulgence in the finer things, while possibly overlooking the needy in their own city.

We do that as well. Overlooking the needy, that is. We (as a group, not necessarily individuals) tend to ‘fatten’ ourselves more than we probably need to. Not necessarily in food, either. But things like nice cars, houses, toys, paintings, furniture, clothes….the list goes on and on. Fortunately, however, we have a father who forgives us of these things upon which we fatten our own selfish lives. Peter tells us in his first letter: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (1:18-19)

I have kept this ‘lesson’ short this morning because I hope you read all of it (I have been told that the long ones tend to get trash-canned much quicker than the short ones). In general, most of us eat too much, call it national pride or whatever, to the point that our waistlines bulge, our weight is non-proportional to our height and our health becomes more and more at risk (not to mention the upcoming medical bills as we age with big bodies). But that admonishment aside, we also are layered with a lot of other ugly fat----that of greed. If you just happen to fall into this category with me (yes, I am overweight AND greedy), then I ask you to find solutions to our problems. Reduce our intake of food and things and increase our outgo of energy and wealth. Find someone who needs your money more than you, and give a bit of it, or a lot of it, for that matter.

Don’t go another day with the fear that Paul is referring to you as one whose god is their stomach.