Eating questions

There are gaps on the shelves, queues snaking round supermarket car parks, tips on how to use up leftovers, and arguments over stockpiling; food is a bigger issue than it’s been for a long time.

We’ve always talked about food in our house (from laughing at my burnt sausages to praising my son’s curries), but in these days of insecurity I’ve started to wonder if we talk about food a lot, but hardly ever about eating. Recipes, flavours and tastes are easy to talk about, but appetite, habits and diet seem almost taboo. Why is it that we avoid discussing something we all do every day?

It’s ironic really, given that so much of church life involves food, that we sweep food problems under the carpet. But these problems are real: overeating and undereating, secret bingeing and obsessing over calories, self-hatred and habits that seem unbreakable are live issues for very many of us. They form some of our deepest struggles and reveal our broken and sinful nature. And disordered eating isn’t always just a symptom of problems though, it can be part of the problem itself.

And why don’t we talk about it? Isn’t it because we are all often ashamed of our own relationships with food? I don’t want to make others squirm or feel hurt or shamed when I know I’m prone to reach for the biscuit tin in a time of crisis. A well-intentioned comment about food can shatter confidence and relationships. But if we are prepared to talk about porn addictions and family idolatry and materialism, we have to talk about our eating issues as well.

When Paul warns us to avoid ‘greed, which is idolatry’ (Eph. 5:15 and Col. 3:5) he includes food. And when he writes of those whose ‘god is their belly’ (Phil. 3:19), describing those who are driven by their physical appetites, eating is certainly part of the picture. When we put food first, whether its consumption or exclusion, we worship an idol which cannot save, but surely destroys. It can harm our bodies and do great damage to our souls. That’s why this topic is so urgent.

Bad eating – in all its manifestations – leaves us tired, weak, isolated, and angry with ourselves. The shame which so often surrounds eating problems takes us away from the Lord and further into ourselves. We might blame the pressures of poverty, stress and distress, or the pressures generated by a society obsessed with cooking shows and diet regimes, but these external forces only exacerbate the hunger problems already hiding in our hearts. Ironically, we overeat, or refuse to eat, so often because we want more than food can offer.

So, we need to talk to each other about eating. We need to confess our struggles and ask each other for help. Of course, there is a clear place for professional support for some, but the Bible’s wisdom on food is good medicine for us all.

Eating has a massive place in the story of the Bible, not as an incidental detail, but as a more-than-symbolic figure. The temple-garden Eden is a place for the cultivation and sharing of food. Adam and Eve are provided with an abundance of good fruit to eat (Gen. 2:9), but this comes with a command. They eat the one forbidden fruit; and share in stolen food. So, out of Eden, eating is under a shadow. Food is cultivated with trouble (ask any farmer or cook) and its eating falls short of the satisfaction and communion it promises. The very fact there is food to eat at all, though, is a tremendous gift of grace, a token of God’s patience pointing to his promised future banquet.

Again and again through Old and New Testaments we see God provide abundantly and miraculously for his people.

There’s oil that doesn’t run out, manna, and meat brought by ravens. There are loaves and fish, and ultimately there’s bread and wine. Jesus, who came eating and drinking, brings His people restored communion with Him and each other. He is our bread of life. And so, now, we live in the overlap of difficult eating and the inbreaking of God’s free feast. These are the truths that can liberate us in our eating issues.

This all means that if we broach the subject of food with our friends and church family we don’t have to be ashamed. Together we can remember that food is a gift of grace and so savour it. We can eat together and, rather than just passing on tips and plans, point each other to Christ, the bread of life who will truly fill us up. By sharing food whenever we can, we help each other; our desires to restrict or to eat to oblivion are restrained by the presence of our brothers and sisters who create a new context and meaning for eating. And when we are tempted to pursue perfection in diet, or luxury, we can ask each other to help us remember that we are imperfect creatures who have wonderful Father God, who welcomes us to His table. He gives us bread which lasts, a bread we can never provide for ourselves.