Chick-fil-a and the Bread of Life

What are you hungry for?   Have you ever stood in your well-stocked kitchen or sat at a restaurant to decide what to get on the menu and asked that question of yourself?  What am I hungry for?  Sometimes when we offer a certain meal or snack to our children they respond, “I’m not hungry for that.”  I think we are confused about the difference between hunger and self-indulgence.  For many of us, access to more than enough food is not a problem we face.  But this church has met the face of food insecurity here. We know people who struggle to put food on their tables.    If Christianity were the Olympics, fasting would not be not our best event.   We are told that it is not healthy to skip meals. So we don’t.  And we don’t think it’s right if anyone is forced to skip meals because of their circumstances here. So we feed people.  This church is a food relief site inspiring other churches to become food relief sites, too.  Jesus fed hungry people and so do we. 

This week food and faith made the news.  Some Christians or Republicans decided to make chick fil-a some more money by eating there on Wednesday as a sign of moral unity with the COO of the restaurant chain, who spoke out in opposition to same sex marriage in an interview last week.  Apparently there were crowds at chick fil-a on Rt. 30. On Friday a counter protest was launched. Apparently one man from Quarryville quietly picketed the same chick fil-a.  He is a gay man and he carried a sign that said choose empathy.  One man against the crowd. I ask you: Where was Jesus in that story?

 With whom was Jesus present?  The morally righteous crowd or the one man on the curb seeking empathy, understanding, compassion?  Jesus told a story about a shepherd with 100 sheep, who lost one sheep and abandoned the other 99 to find it.  He rejoiced when he found that sheep.  God rejoices over one sinner who repents than over the 99 in no need of repentance, says Jesus. I believe Jesus comes for the one man alone on the curb, seeking empathy.

I didn’t eat or decline to eat at chick fil-a.  Frankly, I can’t believe we have come to this place.  Christians have lost their heads. I have read the red-letters in my bible. Jesus never speaks for or against homosexuality.  He affirms that marriage is better than divorce, but Jesus never speaks out against homosexuality. (His approach to divorce addresses misogyny and the abuse of women.)  Jesus does speak in opposition to wealth that corrupts people’s ability to see and love their neighbors.  He opposes rules that prevent people from experiencing the presence of God in their lives.  He speaks against religious and political systems that exclude people, reject people, abandon people to their suffering, judge and condemn people on account of their sins. 

In all four gospels, Jesus feeds hungry crowds. But he is giving them more than food for their stomachs.  He is giving them a vision of the end of the present evil age.  He’s giving them a vision of the kingdom of God. He’s giving them a way to receive God’s Spirit into their bodies. Feeding people is a sign. He’s giving them hope.  He gives them bread and in so doing he gives them his life.  Somehow Jesus’ very presence heals the divisions and reconciles the broken relationships that he encounters in this world.  He creates a new reality into which we might enter here and now:  A reality in which our moral certainty is replaced by Jesus’ compassion and love for those we once esteemed immoral or wrong.   A reality in which all are fed at a banquet table set every Sunday throughout the world, where bread is passed and wine is poured and Jesus gives his very self to all who come.  Whether one eats chick fil-a or not is not now nor ever will be a sign of one’s Christian faith, contrary to what some have said.  A certain type of morality or political persuasion does not define Christ’s followers. But I can say with certainty that when you eat this bread and drink this cup you commune with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. God comes to us in this meal.  We do not come to God through right behavior or moral rightness.  Believing that God is in Christ Jesus and in this bread and cup defines the Christian life.  And from this meal we are sent to love and to serve our neighbors; not to condemn them.   On the matter of same sex marriage, I say this:  Better that you have no opinion about certain matters than that you seek some moral high ground in either direction.  The law to which we submit is the law of love.  What does it mean to love two gay men who seek the stability and unity of marriage?  What does it mean to love those opposed to it?    

Finally, I think we need to reframe the way we think about food and faith as Christ’s people.  What are people hungry for anyway?  Right answers to hard questions?  Certainty?  Prosperity?  At what cost?  Someone always suffers at the hands of the moral majority.  In the gospels, the one who suffers at their hands is Jesus.  One man against the crowds. When we stand with that one person, we stand with Christ.  Why do Christians allow others to paint us into a corner, to define us, say what we are about, speak on our behalf in ways that offend? What unites us is more important than what divides us.  Is there room at our table for diversity and disagreement? Our unity is not found in moral certainties but in Christ's mercy freely given for all.   

What are you hungry for?  Peace?  Rest?  Friendship?  Forgiveness for sins that are eating you inside and out?  A hope that stretches beyond death?  An end to suffering?   Are you hungry for God’s rightness to correct the wrongs of this world, even if that rightness corrects you in the end?  What are you hungry for?  I hope it is more than chick fil-a, or even for the bread and wine.  I hope you are hungry for God.  I hope you are hungry for the one who alone can fill the emptiness you are trying so hard to fill in so many ways every day. Seek him where he can be found; in His word; in this bread and cup; in the communion of the saints gathered throughout the earth to share this meal with you.  God satisfies every hunger.  He fills and sustains us daily and abundantly.  He comes to us that we may know love and give it.  Many more are hungry too.  They are not partaking in the bread of life.  They are starving. Some are Christians. Some are not. Invite them to the feast.  Jesus says, "You give them something to eat."  As if it’s a matter of life or death.  Jesus seemed to think it was.  Do we?  Amen.