Today's Epistle warns of "enemies of the cross," and who are these enemies? People whose "God is the belly," bringing to mind someone gorging themselves at a restaurant or banquet.
It's an unpleasant image but a good one, drawing our attention to the substance of the thing, worshiping the cravings and appetite of the empty cavity of our gut. What a hungry and jealous god. Euripides puts it well in the mouth of the splendidly wicked one-eyed monster, Cyclops:
Wealth, manikin, (Odysseus) is the god for the wise; all else is mere vaunting and fine words... I shudder not at Zeus’s thunder, nor know I wherein Zeus is a mightier god than I... The earth perforce, whether she like it or not, produces grass and fattens my flocks, which I sacrifice to no one save myself and this belly, the greatest of deities; but to the gods, not I! For surely to eat and drink one’s fill from day to day and give oneself no grief at all, this is the king of gods...
The Apostle describes this in terms of "flesh," listing its attributes in Galatians, and for sure, it's an attitude and state of mind, body and spirit which ends in destruction, being diametrically opposed to the selfless love of God evidenced on the Cross.
Long story short, you can't worship your belly and God at the same time and with St. Paul, those who do, "glory in their shame." Go on, watch a Pride Parade on Youtube and dare to disagree. On second thoughts don't, it'll ruin your Sunday, but you get the point.
So we've i.d.'d the enemy, well done, and if we're honest we'll admit it's something very like the religion of our age. Drive into any one of our cities and behold the square miles of strip malls and their accompanying advertising, signs lifted up like the plastic standards of a conquering army, all of them telling you to gorge yourself.
Hideous, isn't it, and you don't need a degree in moral theology to sense it. But here's a question for all you Christians out there, people who go to church every Sunday.
Do you walk the way of the cross, of sacrificial love, such that Christ will recognize you as his disciple or are you merrily wandering along the broad way, the way of the flesh that leads to perdition? Serious question with serious consequences.
Strive to enter by the narrow gate.
End of sermon,
LSP
