“When you come every Sunday and worship with us, in addition to that Spirit of Gilead that makes you feel loved, hopeful, and at peace, you are also feeding the trouble-maker spirit, the spirit of resistance, the spirit that knows that the Kingdom of God is in the making; you are feeding the game-changer within you.”
Sermon by Antonio Gallardo at All Saints Church, Pasadena, on Sunday, August 12, 2018.
“Eat like a caveperson and shed pounds.”
Has anyone heard this statement ? From Where? And please don’t say that Jesus said it because that’s not true.
“Eat like a caveperson and shed pounds,” is the theory and the promise behind the Paleo diet.
I know about that diet because weight management is a constant struggle for me. I am one of the subscribers to the $ 66 billion weight loss market in this country, a market that attracts people that are looking for a quick fix.
Just to be clear, I am not promoting the Paleo Diet.
What caught my attention about the statement from the Paleo diet was the simplicity of the theory. You want to shed some pounds? You just need to do one thing…. What is it? “eat like a caveperson.”
This simple sentence carries with it a significant challenge, because since the cavepeople lived on this planet (about 2.6 million years ago), and thanks to what we call evolution, we have made the way we eat something very complicated. The biggest challenge to follow the Paleo Diet is to unlearn what has been part of our DNA for thousands of years.
Also, as part of human evolution, the same complexity that we have brought to the way we eat has been translated to other parts of our life, including what I would call our spiritual diet.
For the past three weeks, and for the rest of the month of August, Jesus is sharing the basic principles of a spiritual diet toward eternal life, a life with a purpose that surpasses the realm where we currently live.
Jesus said: “If any eat this bread, they will live forever.” (John 6:51).
He used the image of bread not only because it was an integral component of the diet in early Christianity, it was necessary for them to survive. For early Christians Bread = Survival, so Bread was good.
Although what Jesus said sounds simple, it is a concept that may be hard for some of us to live by.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that for some of us who are afraid to put on weight, bread is like evil number 1. Isn’t it? Our brain is trained to relate bread to bad things; Bread = Carbs = Weight Gain; Bad Bread !!
Maybe we have medical reasons why we can’t eat bread, like allergy to gluten; Bread = Allergy = Not Feeling good; Bad Bread !!
To make the Jesus spiritual diet even more complicated, we also live In a part of the country where we are very aware of our physical shape, so I wonder if Jesus’ diet plan toward eternal life is not fully sinking in with many of us in 21st century Southern California because for us Bread is Bad.
Not only we have developed an aversion, or allergy toward bread, we have made bread-eating very complicated.
Does anyone know how many types of bread are there worldwide?
There are more than 200 types of bread worldwide, and what is called American bread alone includes more than 25 different varieties: Amish, banana, beaten biscuit, Boston brown, bulky roll, corn bread, graham bread, parker house roll, Pullman loaf, slat-rising, scalish, slosh, and Texas toast, among many.
Today, Jesus is challenging us to simplify our spiritual life, a life that we have made complicated since the time that he lived among us.
“If any eat this bread, they will live forever.” (John 6:51).
The bread that Jesus is talking about is not what to many of us is bad bread, it is the food to feed our soul, our spirit, our inner energy; To eat the bread that Jesus is talking about is to listen to the word of God, is to learn about Jesus life so that we can follow that way of living, then – we will enjoy eternal life.
As a community, we do that every Sunday that we gather to worship. We listen to the word of God (read from the scriptures, or in songs and hymns), we share a meal, we pray for us and the world, and we share with one another a sign of Christ’ peace.
I am going to ask you to think about the following questions for a little bit while you are in here, and maybe throughout the week:
What are you looking for when you come to worship in community and share a meal at this table every Sunday?
What are you taking back with you to the world?
Why would you come back?
Every time that we get together as a community, that we listen to the word of God, that we share a meal, that we pray for us and the world, and that we share with one another a sign of Christ’ peace, transformation is happening.
It may not be a transformation that would manifest itself in our external body.
It is a transformation that, although is happening inside, manifests itself in other ways – like we feel more at peace, we become wiser, more patient, we increase in knowledge, we acquire spiritual strength, and we increase in courage to do what is right.
Every time that we do all of what we do here every Sunday, we may experience the transformation of the Spirit of Gilead, that spirit that will make the wounded whole, and that will heal the sin-sick soul.
Today, I am giving you a huge warning – when you come every Sunday and worship with us, in addition to that Spirit of Gilead that makes you feel loved, hopeful, and at peace, you are also feeding the trouble-maker spirit, the spirit of resistance, the spirit that knows that the Kingdom of God is in the makings; you are feeding the game changer that is within you.
That is the spirit that visited Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, one night when he was in the kitchen of his house praying alone, and in silence. Dr. King shared that he heard a voice saying “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you.”
That night Dr. King reached a spiritual shore beyond fear and apprehension. When talking about that experience, he said
“I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced it before.
Almost at once my fears began to go.
My uncertainty disappeared.
I was ready to face anything.”
That is the trouble-maker spirit at work.
And that spirit just doesn’t take over the life of people like Dr. King, to do things of the magnitude that he did. That spirit is working in all, and each one of us, lay, ordained, older, younger, binary, gender-fluid, legal resident or undocumented.
That spirit is working on anyone who comes to this table and eats this food.
Like my friend Katie, who is also a member of this community, and who last week, while we were having dinner told me that she had been working very hard to fight plans to industrialize an existing landfill in the neighborhood where she lives.
Very passionately she told me: “I know that what the city is doing is wrong, and it will affect the people and the animals that live here. I know in my heart that is wrong, and I am fired up. We are going to suit the city,” she said very proud and confident. Knowing Katie, I know that this is something that she was not planning to do in her life, and she is doing it.
That is once again the trouble-maker spirit at work.
So, I am giving all of you, subscribers to Jesus’s spiritual diet, a huge warning: one good day, in the most unexpected way, you will realize that there is a fire burning in your heart to do something that you never thought you would ever do: at home, at work, in your neighborhood, in this your church community, with strangers on the street, or to fight the fear-driving policies of the current presidential administration that are threatening the values of our country.
One good day, in the most unexpected way, you will be fired-up like Dr. King and my friend Katie to proclaim God’s dream, to practice the way of love, or to repair breaches that separate and oppress God’s people.
And if you had already experienced it, I am warning you that it may happen again, because as long as we are alive in this realm of the universe, we are instruments to accomplish the vision that God has for God’s kingdom.
Let us continue eating Jesus’ simple spiritual diet in community, welcoming everyone to the table, creating community by offering ourselves recklessly to others, with the assurance that this table is abundant, and never being afraid to give our love away.
Then, be forewarned, because one day, unexpectedly, and when your time has come, you will be fired-up !! Amen
