The Food Pyramid of Evil

If the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, what is food?

Scripture is chalked full of major examples where food is the source of temptation: Adam and Eve, Cain, the Israelites wandering the in the desert, Jesus in the wilderness, the early church.

My prayer for the BRT class is that they would desire to encounter God as much as they desire a pizza party. Yes, the overwhelming desire and overt demand of the class is to have a pizza party… now.

How many times do you suppose Jesus was frustrated with the disciples that they just didn’t get it? I needed a guide to help me understand where the class is coming from, so I came up with this food pyramid of evil.

Pride is a garden variety sin. It’s putting yourself in the place of God. Adam and Eve wanted to know good and evil. We want to decide what is good or evil… we say we have no sin.

Self-Centeredness is being so consumed with your wants and desires that you ignore the needs of others.

Self-Absorption is close to self-centeredness. It is being so consumed with your needs, circumstances, etc. that you ignore the needs of others.

Idolatry is putting some thing in the place of God. It might be food but it is also entertainment, money, your job, …

Have you taken your daily allowance? Have you had your three square meals? Are you using the pyramid to determine your menu for tomorrow?

Wicked Pizza

A wicked generation seeks a pizza.

What motivates you to learn more about God and the Holy Scriptures? A relationship with the Creator of the Universe, a deeper knowledge of the Word of Life… comfort in time of sorrow, protection in time of trouble, provision in time of need, love in our time and in eternity…? Or perhaps a pizza?

In our last class, we spoke of the nature of prayer. I challenged the class to remember the seven types of prayer. And to then to define each of the types of prayer. If they could do this, we committed to a pizza party by the end of the year.

At least three members of the class made an attempt! The attempt involved online research and they pulled down some quality information. However, no one found definitions for each of the seven we discussed and no one was able to provide a response without the “cheat sheets”. If it was a closed-book test, everyone would have failed. With an open book, they may have pulled off a “C”.

I agreed that Travis would judge the outcome. He is more generous than I and granted an “A”. Its an opportunity for me to learn more about grace.

Some Loose Ends:

A pizza party is of particular significance as I cut off all donuts, snacks, and the usual food we partake in during class. At least three members of the class stole drinks from the church refrigerator early in the school year. Only one was caught. All experienced the consequences. The student that was caught was given an opportunity to repent and apologize. He refused. Ultimately his behavior got him kicked out of school. The other students never stepped forward to acknowledge their sin.

Initial Results

If you were asked to actively seek and encounter God… then report back what happened; what would you have to say? A miraculous healing? A burning bush? A stone tablet?

The BRT class provided, once again, a snapshot of the state of the church… lethargic, apathetic, superficial, without expectation.

Three answers were extracted from the group. These answers can be categorized into three buckets: a lie, the trifle and superficial.

Lies. Why do we attribute things to God that are clearly not from Him? It’s nothing less than blasphemy. In our desire to please man, to showcase our religion, we cast swine before pearls.

The Trifle. It is no less a sin to make a mockery of God’s power by manipulating our conscience, our outcomes in accordance to our will in His name. The smallness of our expectation, the smallness of our encounter, the smallness of our hope is an affront to the power of the resurrection.

Superficial. If it has a bushy tail and lives in a tree… it must be Jesus. So goes the Sunday School joke. We relentlessly believe the right answer must be prayer. How do we encounter God? Pray. What should we do next? Pray. Someone is sick, what should we do? Pray. Prayer is not the wrong answer… it’s just the easy answer. Maybe God desires us to sacrifice, to give all we have to the poor, to visit the sick, to take a meal to their house, to suffer and persevere, to live in the hope of the resurrection.

In fact, this is all prayer. Prayer is a superficial answer because we have only a superficial understanding of what it is and what it means. Prayer is responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words.

There were two more points about prayer that we discussed.

Sin hinders our prayer. In fact, Jesus is the one Mediator between God and man. God cannot be approached if we deny Jesus. We deny Jesus by thought and deed, with or without words.

There are seven principal types of prayer: adoration, praise, thanksgiving, penitence, oblation, intercession and petition.

What is the mark of one who encounters God?

Repentance.

There of those who live among us without proper housing, food, heat… there are broken, oppressed, lonely, addicted, dying… and then the lost. What shall we do, then? Repent.

When we encounter God and experience his holiness, we will be broken and humble. We will repent. Then we will shine as a light in the world. And even one day shine like the sun.

Respond to God.

You can find more on prayer in the catechism.

http://anglicansonline.org/basics/catechism.html#Prayer%20and%20Worship

The Challenge

What if you actively sought to encounter God every day? How would you do that? What would your life look like? What would your world look like?

The Bible provides thousands of years of history of man’s encounter with God… from the intimacy of Adam and Eve’s relationship with God in the Garden to the disciples fellowship with the risen Lord. And there is everything in between and beyond.

We see God actively pursuing and redeeming his creation, intersecting the lives of ordinary men and women in ordinary circumstances. We see a God who speaks to us through His word, His creation, through believers, through unbelievers, through our circumstance and through the supernatural and miraculous.

Are we seeking? Watching? Listening? Prepared?

On March 2, 2007 Travis challenged the BRT class to seek and listen. The Challenge is to actively seek the risen Lord, to encounter God. From there, we expect the extraordinary. The tactical “assignment” was to write down, on one side of paper, your “questions for God”… to speak to God. On the other side, to write down what you hear. Then, report back what happened.

God promises us if we seek we shall find.

The class seemed engaged. Will anyone complete the assignment?

What is Bible Released Time (BRT)?

BRT, also known as Released Time Bible Education is an off-campus religious instruction program. Bible Released Time recognizes and reinforces the constitutionally protected right of parents to direct the religious education of their children. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the program.

In Brownsville, we have been doing BRT at the high school since 1995. This program is sponsored by the Brownsville Area Ministerial Association (BAMA). Our goal is to teach students the truth of God’s word so they may apply it to their lives.

For more information on Released Time Bible Education, please see www.releasedtime.org

What’s the most important thing you will do today?

That’s the question I posed to the Bible Released Time class on February 23, 2007. This simple question was the culmination of prayer, contemplation, scripture, conversation, inspiration, and teaching. The week before, Travis and I discussed an experiment where we would challenge the class to prayer for and write about a deepening relationship with God. That same week, I was impressed with a sermon on the intersection of the ordinary and extraordinary. Specifically, from Luke 9:27.

What does a life look like in the realm of the ordinary? In the extraordinary? When does that intersection occur? Why would I seek to lead an ordinary life? How does one lead an extraordinary life? … What’s the most important thing I will do today?

There were only three answers from the class, all were good or honest. (1) Pray (2) Work (3) Nothing.

You might conclude that these three answers represent three general categories: the spiritual, the worldly and the unconcerned.

The unconcerned or complacent or self-righteous truly don’t have a ”most important thing”. They have a need; they meet that need and then move to the next need. There is not time or necessity to consider anything beyond their immediate existence.

The worldly are more focused or very focused. They likely have a list, they may have goals. The list and the goals will often be material in nature and may include finances, work, home, vacation, groceries, etc.

The spiritual may be godly or ungodly, they may have lists or not, have an internal or external focus… they tend to be focused on becoming perfect. The questions are: In What? And Why and then How?

What are you seeking perfection in? love, righteousness, manners, morality, relationship,…?

Why are you seeking perfection? For the eyes of God or man?

How are you seeking perfection? Practicing virtues, practicing the law, … or are you being set free and made righteous… made holy… made perfect.

What is the most important thing you will do today?

Encounter God.