Response #1

One question posed to us, Octovetians, this week was whether or not Christians should be mindful of food. My initial response jumps from my lips and is why should Christians not be mindful of food? This commodity that we call food, what else so floods our lives daily, routinely, yet can excite women and men of all ages and backgrounds? What else is so fundamentally necessary and instinctual, but now has become recreational. Food, obviously, infiltrates itself throughout every culture and group of humanity by sheer indispensability. Oddly enough though, something so plain, so essential, is lifted up, lauded, to the point of being the centrality that almost every celebration and festival revolves around. Now there are entire educational institutions to teach people to properly prepare food. On top of all of this, there is a mystical power that food brings to the table (pun intended). A power to unite, heal, nurse.  A power to cultivate discussion, understanding, joy, and peace is one of the wonderful strengths of food. However, not only is food so synonymous with happiness and glee, it also resounds with much angst and despair from an saddening amount of people. Anorexia and bulimia scour and starve the population at the same time gluttony and obesity gorges another significant portion of our friends and family. Yet, we haven’t even broken out of a major first world country’s problems and explored the devastating impact a dearth of food has on a staggering percentage of the earth’s peoples. Further beyond that, we have the almost unfathomably immense system of food production. This ranges from a single herb on the window sill of a country house on the rolling hills of southeastern Ohio to the vast swathes of grasslands in eastern Montana that support lumbering herds of cattle. How could one not be mindful of this, especially one claiming, or better yet, being a Christian? This thing called food, comida, 食糧, еда, nahrung, it actually is the building blocks of our civilization for without it we would all quite literally die. But, I believe that is not where its magic, its true power springs.

So, should Christians be mindful of food… well, I may only answer from my experience, my story, but yes, they should. I would like to share from the only thing that I can speak on. Yes, I am aware of the ravages that eating disorders impose upon young beautiful women, and yes, I do know that people are dying from starvation by the minute. Wretched and heart wrenching can only begin to describe these two scenarios. However, that is not my story. The Lord has blessed me with a dining story of joy, mostly, and from that I will (and should only) draw upon. For me, Christians should be mindful of food and the divine power that lay within it because it is so rich, so teeming with power of healing, laughter, and conversation. I could not hope to remember all of the amazing discussions I have been privileged to have around a pizza, or BBQ, or plain ole ham ’n’ cheese sandwich at the high school lunch table. So, like the article The Joy of Food, I resonate with food being tool of fellowship and friendship. Some of my earliest memories revolve around a birthday cake, a burger run with my grandpa, or delectable buckeyes from my grandma. These foods herald in family, communion. Communion with one another is so much easier with food. It opens doors and tears down walls. It builds community and fellowship while deconstructing differences. Food is a common denominator among all humans. For me, I discretely remember how often my family would sit down to the dinner table and afterwards would have a short devotion together. That is one reason I strongly believe that Christians should be mindful of food, its ability to bring together and raise community and love. Tell some guys to come hang out at church… maybe they will come. Tell them there are free pizza, hot wings, and a sundae bar, now you got a winner. I think we forget the unbelievable tool of communion we have, quite literally, at our fingertips, food! Let us not neglect such a gift, such an instrument of fellowship and love that God has given, and, I do believe, ordained us to have. Let the church remember her meals and her feasts, lest she forget her friends and those who hunger. That, yes that is why I do believe Christians and thus the church should be mindful of food so to bring others into care and healing and begin to break old dissimilarities.