Sermon - All Food is Sacred - and not just on Thanksgiving - Preaching Environmental Issues - Fall 2023
Matthew 6:24-34
Serving Two Masters
24 “No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.[j]
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,[k] or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?[l] 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God[m] and his[n] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
Sermon - Food is Sacred, and not just on Thanksgiving!
When I was in my 20s my life was consumed with raising my 3 children on my own, and times were pretty tough. Money was always tight, there was no child-support forthcoming from my ex-husband (which is the subject of another sermon on another day), and we often had to make do with very little. Here in the US we just celebrated Thanksgiving day, and I can’t help but be transported back to the days when my children were small, and we really did not have enough money to make a giant feast of our own. We were not blessed with lots of money, but as mentioned in the gospel reading, God already knew what we needed, and had taken care of that in advance. At the time, I lived in a neighborhood of hippies and “Rainbow” people. Of all the various groups of folks that I have been around in my lifetime, I think that they most truly embraced not only this passage, of not worrying about what they would wear, or how they would be fed, but also, a true concern for the future of our planet and the health of our environment. My first Thanksgiving in the rainbow neighborhood was a pretty eye opening experience, and it was there that I first started to learn about the real depth of one of our biggest environmental problems, that of food waste.
So, the first year that I lived there, we were invited to take part in the neighborhood feast. I gathered up my 3 little babies (all under 5 years old at the time) and we went to the central/common area of the neighborhood. Picnic tables had been pulled out and centered around the firepit and laden with a mind-boggling array of food. Turkey, Ham, potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, all the normal stuff, plus raw veggie trays, hummus, salads of all kinds, fresh fruits - 3 kinds of melon, fresh pineapple, pies and cakes - several from the grocery bakery, and some homemade…my kids were in awe, and filled their bellies beyond capacity. We rarely saw such abundance on our own kitchen table. Much to my dismay, I learned that the vast majority of the food that was prepared and served that day had been retrieved from a dumpster behind the local Publix grocery store. At first, I expressed concern, but then got one of my first ecological lessons from an unlikely source - an unhoused man, whom we all just called “Bicycle Gary”. He explained to me that there was nothing wrong with the food, the turkey, and the ham, were frozen still when they pulled it out of the dumpster, and the fruit, vegetables, and other perishable items were all just fine as well. The people in this neighborhood made a regular practice of “dumpster diving”, and they would share the food they got with each other.
Now I know some of you might be thinking, oh disgusting. I would never eat food from the trash. Most of us have been well-trained by our capitalist culture to find this practice gross, and something only the “unfortunate” people in our society would need to resort to. Those of us with means deserve the best quality food. But let me just lay a few facts and a little theological reflection on you, and then we will revisit the Thanksgiving feast.
Think about how much food you waste in your own home, multiply it by all your neighbors, and you are just starting to scratch the surface of the issue. The UN estimates that about 10% of all global carbon emissions are caused by food waste. When uneaten food enters the land fill, it is subjected to decomposition in an airless environment, which produces copious amounts of methane. If food waste were it’s own country - it would be in 3rd place for carbon emissions, only being eclipsed by the emissions of the United States and Canada.
Here are a few more shocking statistics:
The amount of food waste generated per year is enough to end world hunger 4 times over.
The amount of emissions from food waste is almost equal to that of road transport.
The cost of 2.5 Tri in food waste is larger than the GDP of many small countries
Reducing just consumer and retail food waste by 50% would lower global greenhouse gas emissions by the amount currently generated by the entire country of Japan
In just the US - it is estimated that approximately 30-40% of our total food production is lost to food waste
Every single American waste about 218 lbs of food per year
As Christians, why should we care about this issue?
Food is sacred!
James 2:15-17 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
This is a profound statement about the Christian life, and how we ought to think about needs and our part in helping our neighbors.
Hebrews 13:16
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God
Indeed, there are dozens of scripture passages that talk about sharing food with others, in both the new and old testaments. Humans would not have made it this far had we not shared our food with each other, and really it is a relatively new development to let so much food go to waste, and for us to exhibit such greed in relation to the very stuff of life…just contemplate for a while, why our most sacred act as Christians is the Eucharist, and why it’s a meal and not some other kind of ritual. Table fellowship is at the very heart of our tradition, and it is so for a very good reason.
In a new documentary called “Just Eat it” - a couple embarks on a 6-month journey to eat nothing but food that would be otherwise thrown away and end up in a landfill. It’s free to watch on Youtube and I really recommend it.
In one of the clips from this documentary, they talk with a farmer in California who grows celery that is bound for retail markets as celery hearts. More than half of the celery that is grown is left to rot in the field as it is stripped off the outside to make a “heart”. The main bulk of the celery is not recovered or eaten. This is pretty common in our modern farming practices. We leave much in the field that in ancient times would never have been left to rot. It WAS normal practice to leave a portion of the yield in the field, however it was left for the poor, not to rot.
See Deuteronomy 24:19-32.
Deuteronomy 24:19-22
“When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Passage after passage implores with us to share the bounty of the earth with those who are in need. Share with the widow the fatherless, the sojourner, reach out your hand to the poor, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where insects and pests will consume it.
Part of the problem is however that so much of the waste that happens in our society is hidden from our view. We rarely go out into the farm fields to see the celery laying on the ground. In fact we might get in trouble if we did because we are not supposed to trespass on people's private property.
This is another problem altogether and the subject of another sermon. There are countless passages however in the Bible that implore us to not be wasteful with the Bounty of the Earth which is all ultimately a gift.
This is Our Father's World After All and all things that come from this world are given as a gift. One of the most sacred Acts that we can perform as Christians is that of sharing food. and this not only helps our fellow man but it also helps our environment. anytime we can do something that will divert some food from ending up in landfill and on a table instead is helpful.
There are so many ethical problems with wasting food and I don't need to detail them all for you here, however I should mention one more very important ethical consideration for those of you who are animal lovers.
Did you know that up to 30% of all meat produced in the United States ends up going straight from the farm to a dumpster and into a landfill. This is an animal whose entire life was spent in a factory farm in deplorable conditions and his life was sacrificed to end up wrapped in cellophane and then thrown into the dumpster. I'm not telling you that you should not eat meat, I am telling you however that this kind of practice does happen. I can't think of anything more unethical then raising an animal and killing it to Simply throw it in the trash
The sad fact is, Capitalism breeds waste - and inequality and human rights(labor) problems. Most of what I've discussed so far hasn't even touched on the real atrocious human rights issues that factory farming and industrialized farming systems have as an intrinsic part of their operation.
We can't produce the amount of food that we do without a lot of human labor. Well yes we do have Automation and a lot of farm machinery these days that makes things easier there's still a large number of human beings needed in order to harvest food for consumption. A large number of the people who work in these industries are immigrants
Or people from other marginalized communities. in the meat packing houses in Colorado a large number of the employees are immigrants from Somalia many of them are undocumented. These people have very little power and no voice when it comes to their working conditions. the powers-that-be actually prefer to keep the system this way because it's cheaper. It basically equates to modern day slavery.
People are hungry….
These are all problems that we really should be focusing our attention on when we think about environmental issues. They often take a backseat to other more visible sources of pollution Smoke Stacks polluted water plastic floating in the ocean acid rain however something that causes as much Harmony mission as personal cars really is something that we should all be paying attention to every day.
But what can you do?
There are a number of things that you can do . Let's revisit that Thanksgiving feast. One of the things that I learned while living with this community of hippies was to not worry about where my next meal was going to come from.
All good things come from God, even food from the dumpster. We all ate very well that day and every day because someone in the community was always out trying to reclaim some of the waste that our capitalistic society breeds. No one got sick, no one got food poisoning, we were all fine and we were all full and we were happy and grateful for that day, and for the bounty. Some things that you can do on a regular basis that don't require you to jump into a dumpster are the following:
- You can buy produce that isn't perfect, pick up that banana that has some bruises, the Apple that isn't quite round, the carrots that are a little wonky they're perfectly fine to eat and should be eaten.
- You can buy dented cans, squished boxes, something that might look like it might sit on the shelf - just pick it up and buy it and use it. It's fine.
- Don't buy more than you need. Our society is constantly telling us that we need more, more, more all the time and it's very difficult sometimes for us to judge how much we really need. Being a bit more mindful about what we buy and how much will go into our trash can at the end of the day is another place where we can really make an impact.
- At the farmers market you can ask people at their stalls if they have any calls or produce that they are just going to throw away at the end of the day that they don't think will sell and buy it. Sometimes you'll get it for a cheaper price, what a deal is that!
- You can compost waste instead of throwing it away. There are indoor compost systems for those of you who live in small apartments and who don't have access to a yard and which to actually engage in gardening. However, if you do live in an apartment it's probably best to just do your darndest to reduce the amount of food waste you produce. Sometimes this might mean shopping more frequently instead of buying a bunch of stuff once a week or so.
For those of you who are adventurous, you can always try to go out and reclaim some food that's been thrown away.
If you do have a big yard and you can have chickens there are a great way to dispose of leftovers that might otherwise just get tossed or other kinds of animals like pigs will eat all of your leftovers. I even knew of gentlemen back in my younger days who would go to the restaurants in the neighborhood and collect their used cooking oil and turn it into biodiesel and he drove his car with that diesel.
Just knowing that this kind of problem is happening is the first step in making change happen though and maybe spending a few hours a week at a food pantry or soup kitchen would be enlightening for those of you who have never done any of these kinds of volunteer work.
If we really want to usher in the kingdom of God I truly think that it begins with table Fellowship. There is a reason that Jesus told us to eat this bread and drink this cup. Do this and you will never thirst.
Amen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUHdTDwdq8U
“Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story” (Movie - Free on Youtube)
https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs
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