A favorite comedian of mine, Gabriel Iglesias, has a line where he pokes fun of his weight as being fluffy. And as a former fluffy person, I get why he does it. Too often we are reminded by society that our weight is our own fault, despite that genetics, stress, and emotional factors play a heavy role in how people carry weight. So much so in fact, that I had to go to mandatory therapy to tackle these issues when I went through a medical weight loss program.
The church is no different, they like to point out the gluttony is a sin to those experiencing weight issues. But an interesting thing happens when we look at things as theologians. We realize and learn that the seven deadly sins are not absolutes. Meaning they cover more than just one thing. So gluttony is not about eating a full box of jelly donuts yourself, but it can also pertain to other facets in our walk.
This weeks passage points us to that. We talk about hoarding all of our stuff, our gifts, our time our treasures for ourselves. Jesus warns us that we can not take our material gifts to heaven with us so why would we want to hold on to them?
Materialism is real in American culture. While we say that we are a “ Christian” nation which is in itself a farce, but it is shoved down our throats all the time. We have a culture, that likes us to have things like Gucci wallets and purses, and fancy cars, while our brethren on the streets are starving, because they can not access mental health care that is affordable, or have a shelter because we need our high rise luxury apartments more.
The temptation to hoard our money, and our talents, is indeed gluttony, it is not sharing our stores. And like grain mentioned in the parable it will rot, before it gets used. So why not share it with others, so that all may prosper at the same level. That is not socialism, that is not communism, that is true Christianity, not American Nationalistic Christianity.
Matt+