March 17: On Gluttony and the Stomach
♫ Music:
Day 21 - Tuesday, March 17
Rung #14: ON GLUTTONY & THE STOMACH
Scriptures: Ezekiel 16:49; Phillippians 3:19; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Luke 4:1-4
Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
Poetry:
Sonnet 146: Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
by William Shakespeare
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
[......] these rebel powers that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end?
Then soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more.
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And, Death once dead, there's no more dying then.
ON GLUTTONY AND THE STOMACH
It’s common to think of the power of the stomach as a modern, Western issue, but it’s possible we’re only the latest manifestation of the consequences of prosperity. The prophetic scriptures speak to people in every age wherever there is a tendency to the pride of gluttony. Though gluttony is often associated with obesity, is it possible the obsession with body image is only another face of gluttony?
Our relationship with food is complex, and it reveals our inner states of being. In whom or in what do we trust? How do we feel about ourselves? How do we feel about our looks? Both of Lauren Schiller’s pieces demonstrate unhealthy relationships with food. In Renunciation, the woman appears to desire the food she holds in her plate, but she refuses to eat. Does the lifeless scenery around her reveal her inner state as it is, or as she feels it is? At first, it might seem she is renouncing food as a discipline, but the mood of the picture communicates something else. Meditation, Craving depicts sweets laid out on a table as if on an altar, candles and incense burning before a picture capturing a moment of awe. In our self-restriction and indulgences, are we worshipping food?
It’s common practice to “give up” during Lent, whether that’s food or movies or social media, but it can be more than that. Lent is a time to refocus our energy and affection on Jesus. It is a time to remember what he gave up so we can have something, namely, life in its fullness. We fast during Lent in order to experience this fullness of life in a more complete way. And yet, I wonder if relating to food in a new way that isn’t about restricting or gorging can lead us into new experiences of the life to come.
What if we didn’t worship either food or our image? The two are so closely related that developing a healthy relationship with one will ultimately affect the other. This requires embracing that kind of death Shakespeare, “Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross/Within be fed, without be rich no more./So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,/ And, Death once dead, there's no more dying then.”
To give up being overly concerned, perhaps even concerned at all, with our image is a kind of dying, because we must trust that our form is beautiful, regardless of cultural norms. You are as beautiful as God because you are his image. To give up unhealthy relationships with food, whether that is binging or coping or whatever, is to trust that God will care for our bodies. It is to trust he will provide for us, but even that is an eschatological move because, in the end, our destiny is not to not die, but to be raised from death.
May this Lent be a time, not of giving up, but of embracing the Life that comes through death. May it be a time of receiving more from God through faith. May it be a time when we see our true beauty, the image of God.
Joshua Bocanegra
Pastoral of Community Life Create Church KC
Kansas City, Missouri
For more information about the artwork, music, poetry, and devotional writer selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
To learn more about the themes of this year’s Lent Project, please go to:
https://ccca.biola.edu/lent/2020/#day-feb-25
About the Art: (2 pieces)
Meditation: Craving (Hunger Moon)
Lauren Schiller
2017
Oil on panel
8" x 8"
Renunciation
Lauren Schiller
2006
Oil on panel
8” x 6”
These small, intimate works are painted using tiny brushes with such meticulous care that the artist’s hand appears invisible. The muted palette creates a stillness and quietude that gives them a reverent, meditative air, the essence of their subject. As the artist explains, “I have become increasingly interested in the spiritual dimension of the material world. I first started thinking about how we attribute meaning to material objects in my earlier work that focused on food and meaning. In it, I drew the imagery for my prints and paintings from food-related memories, associations and rituals. I explored themes such as food and morality (gluttony vs. abstinence, denial and restriction) and food and identity (personal, cultural, familial). These images also touched on confession and the seven deadly sins. Another series of paintings focused on food and religion, inspired by stories about medieval women mystics and their relationship to fasting. I culled these stories from Carolyn Walker Bynum’s book, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. These paintings are not illustrations but rather are inspired by stories about how the women mystics used fasting as a means of obtaining independence and, ultimately, spiritual sustenance….In recent paintings, I have focused more broadly on rituals of contemplative significance….My particular focus is on household shrines, altars and meditative spaces. Contemplative practices are intended to remind us, in our daily lives, to pause, to reflect, and to take time to connect with our inner world and a deeper dimension of life.”
http://www.laurenschiller.com/statement
About the Artist:
Lauren Schiller is a Professor of Art at Seton Hall University where she teaches painting, drawing, and printmaking. Lauren received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Adam Baumgold Gallery, the Allan Stone Gallery, and the Painting Center in NYC as well as in two editions of New American Paintings. The subject matter of her work focuses on food related memories, associations and rituals. She is interested in how we use ritualized food practices, symbolic objects and contemplative spaces to create meaning and to help us reconnect with our inner world and the spiritual dimension of life. Lauren lives with her husband, a printmaker, in Middletown, NJ.
http://www.laurenschiller.com/
About the Music:
“Lent 1: Refuse the Bait” from the album Lent
The Lyrics:
Jesus, you entered Satan’s lair
To conquer evil in its keep.
In forty days of fast and prayer
You showed your right to tend God’s sheep.
When hunger closed its vicious grasp
‘Round your incarnate body’s need
You fled from food as from an asp,
For you had bread enough, indeed.
O help us, Lord, refuse the bait
Of evil's constant, charming lure.
Protect us now from Satan's hate,
And keep us in your arm's secure,
And keep us in your arm's secure.
You would not use the gift of bread
To cover man’s true need for grace,
The resurrection of the dead,
The gift to ‘waken Adam’s race.
For Caesar’s ways you had no care.
The way of pow’r you would not trod.
Instead you took old Satan’s dare
And let him think that he killed God.
When you return to claim your due
May we be found upon your breast
With heads reclining near to you,
Like little babes, secure, at rest.
Composers/Lyricists:
Nelson Koscheski, Ryan Flanigan, and David Moffitt
A month into his new job as music director of All Saints Dallas, an Anglican church, Ryan Flanigan received a poem from parishioner Nelson Koscheski. "It was gorgeous," he says, and he immediately set the poem to a short folk tune and sent the song to an astonished Koscheski. "I was tickled pink," says Koscheski. "This guy can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!" So began Liturgical Folk, a music project that centers around Koscheski's religious poems set to Flanigan's folk tunes. Since writing that first hymn in early 2015, Liturgical Folk has gained the support of producer Isaac Wardell, who has worked with many spiritually minded songwriters, including Sufjan Stevens, Sandra McCracken, and Josh Garrels. Wardell produced Liturgical Folk's first two albums, which debuted in 2017. The hymns range from mournful lamentations to spirited carols. Many include language influenced by Koscheski's childhood spent on Texas ranches. Most wrestle with substantial themes such as sorrow and hope. The collaboration of Flanigan and Koscheski is also a unique cross-generational pairing of two men united by a belief that when music is honest and refined it can be a credible, positive witness for the church.
https://www.liturgicalfolk.com/about
Nelson Koscheski (b. 1941) was a poet and priest in the Anglican Church of North America. A lifelong Texan, Nelson's collaboration with Ryan Flanigan began in 2015. Nelson’s poetry is saturated in his life experiences, West Texas imagination, and lifestyle of contemplative prayer. His poetry takes the listener through some of the darkest places of human despair into the presence of goodness, truth, and beauty.
https://www.liturgicalfolk.com/about
Ryan Flanigan (b. 1979) is a songwriter, church music director (All Saints Dallas), and curator of new songs for the growing liturgical renewal movement in America. As an artist rooted in the Christian story, Ryan works to create beautiful and believable sacred music for the sake of the world. He believes the Church can be a credible artistic witness of God's goodness, truth, and beauty to the whole world, not only Christians. Ryan’s melodies are accessible and rooted in the inherently joyful sounds of the American folk tradition.
https://www.liturgicalfolk.com/about
David Moffitt is a worship leader and Dove award-winning songwriter whose songs have been recorded by artists such as Natalie Grant, Travis Cottrell, Audio Adrenaline, The Booth Brothers, and many others. He is also the writer/creator of nineteen worship musicals for Brentwood Benson. David and his wife Susan live in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and have three teenagers — Grace, Glory, and John David.
https://brentwoodbenson.com/choir/David-Moffitt
About the Performers:
Liturgical Folk and Liz Vice
Liz Vice has always had a love for storytelling. The Portland native, who currently resides in Brooklyn, started her career working behind the scenes in the world of film and video, only to accidentally find herself behind the mic. Liz Vice’s sound is a fusion of Gospel and R&B, with dynamic and soulful vocals and lyrics deeply rooted in spirituality that give her work a timeless feel. Liz taught herself how to play piano, marking the notes on the piano using blue painter’s tape on the notes of a keyboard. At the age of 19 Vice’s health declined and she found herself on hemodialysis for the next three years. Vice received a kidney transplant in December 2005, which marked the beginning of a time of great healing and perspective. A year later, Vice became a member of a local church and felt a nudge to sing background vocals on the worship team. Suffering from stage fright, Vice knew that fear could never overpower this unknown “call.” She said yes to the nudge and sang her first solo during a Sunday evening service, “Enfold Me.” For the past four years, Vice’s music and live performances have put her on the map as an artist to watch. She collaborates often, including projects with The Porter’s Gate and this project with Liturgical Folk. Today’s song is based on the Collect for the First Sunday in Lent from the Book of Common Prayer:
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan; Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
https://www.lizvice.com/about
About the Poet:
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon.” His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long narrative poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Published in 1609, the Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare
About the Devotion Writer:
Joseph Bocanegra
Pastoral of Community Life Create Church KC
Kansas City, Missouri
Joshua Bocanegra lives in Kansas City with his wife, Katrina. They have served in inner-healing and pastoral ministry for over ten years and are committed to the health and maturity of Christians within their communities. Joshua is a writer and teacher for his church and for Estuaries, a program dedicated to the reintegration of deep spirituality and intellectual rigor within the Christian tradition.