Gluttony and Gluten Free

'Tis the season to overspend, overindulge, and overeat. There's a show on the Travel Network called "Man vs. Food." He makes a living traveling the country looking for food challenges; 30 oz. steak in 30 minutes, 6 deadly hot chicken wings in an hour, etc. I find it interesting what happens to him about halfway through each challenge. He begins to sweat. He becomes miserable and has to adjust his posture. He has to walk around and stretch. All of this so he can force another bite down his pie hole.

Compare this to another show on the same channel. In "Meet the Natives" five men from a primitive tribe on a small island somewhere between Hawaii and Japan (My geography is lacking here) come to the US to learn more about us. In the only scene I've seen, they are at a barbecue in Montana. One of the men looks at a steak on the grill and says "That would feed our entire village." That's just one steak he was referring to, not the 20 or more that were on the grill.

Turn now to my birthday dinner at Lone Star. Stephanie, Rachel and I went for a meal to celebrate my 47 years. Out of habit I ordered one of those deep fried onion things. Then I had a side salad. I had the good sense to order only a 10 oz. steak and the baked potato was only about the size of a baseball. I didn't finish any of those items. But then they brought out that birthday surprise. It was a brownie, topped with ice cream, topped with whipped cream, topped with fudge. Insane. The three of us managed to polish that off. (OK, mostly just Rachel and me.)

We're the fattest nation in the world... is there any wonder? Gluttony really is a deadly sin.

Yesterday, was a communion Sunday. We are all invited to the table of Christ to fellowship with Him in this communion meal. But this is a meager meal. While evidence exists in the bible that at one time this was an actual potluck of sorts, today it is a loaf of bread and a cup of juice. More often than not people take a very small portion of bread when they break it off. So small at times that they have to dip their fingers into the juice just to wet the bread. Now I'm not suggesting that we should be gluttons at this time, but I think we should never fear getting too much of the bread. It is Christ to us and if we symbolically keep him to the smaller, more manageable piece of bread, what does that say about our faith life?

We started a new tradition this week. We began offering a communion station with gluten free wafers. There are some people who refrain from taking communion because of an allergy to wheat gluten. To most it causes an irritation, but to some it is a dangerous reaction. To do this right we have to provide a separate cup as well to assure that there are no bread pieces left behind. We also have to keep the wafers away from the bread since they are made from pecan flour and people with nut allergies could be adversely affected. I was the one that served this station and I was careful not to even touch the bread so as not to provide any kind of cross contamination.

There were only five people who came to my station for communion. 5 out of 525. Is it worth it? 3 of those five are from one family. The daughter cannot have gluten at all or she will become seriously ill. So mom and dad avoid it in solidarity with her. They came forward together and for the first time in 2 years participated in communion. I was almost unable to say the words, "The body of Christ broken for you" since I was so choked up. Communion is about uniting the body of Christ. I even say in the time of invitation that everyone is invited to the table. There may be other barriers to full participation that we need to address as a church, but this week, 5 were invited in in a way they have not been in the past.

I love Good Shepherd.