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(Listen to the podcast at www.bibleblogpodcast.com or subscribe on iTunes.) There’s a man who I consider a friend named Brian Hardin. I’ve spoken of him before in this blog because he is responsible for the Daily Audio Bible and Daily Audio Proverb podcasts. It’s perfect for today’s busy society because people can throw it on an iPod and listen at work or in the car or while just walking through the day. Recently, Brian told a story about his father who was a pastor and how his father had an impact on his life. In that story, he shared about how his father’s aunt had been the one that lead his father to Christ which led to the impact on Brian’s life and how it’s all connected together. It was a great reminder to me that we do things every single day that plant seeds where God can grow people into many different parts of the body of Christ. It’s not you and I who can make the growth…that’s only God…but we have to plant the seeds and water them. It’s a lesson that can easily be missed in 1 Corinthians during the passage where Paul is warning against divisions in the church. In the midst of his teaching on the subject, he says in 1 Corinthians 3:6 (ESV): It’s a pattern that’s been here since Jesus himself walked the Earth. Someone plants the seed of God’s truth by sharing the gospel with them. Other people come alongside that person to water the seed by talking about the gospel and working through questions the person has about the gospel. God provides those opportunities for people to be His light in the world…and what makes a plant grow? Light! I think of Brian and the seeds that he plants daily through the DAB and DAP. I know that he’s planted seeds in my life because I start every morning listening to the DAB and having God’s word planted within me. There have been over seven million downloads of Brian’s podcast and that’s over seven million seeds that have been planted by Brian. So to take Brian’s chain further, his aunt led his dad to Christ…that’s one on one. His father was a pastor to several churches and planted seeds in thousands of lives including his son Brian. Now Brian has planted over seven million seeds and in most cases he’ll never see the growth that God is going to bring although I hope that today if he sees this blog he’ll know that God’s grown seeds he’s planted here. So today when you’re talking to a friend about Christ or you give a sandwich to a homeless person or when you stuff envelopes to raise money for the church’s muffin bake sale you’re planting a seed that someday might bring a harvest seven million fold.
You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being good luck, gifts from angels, etc. This is the first time I’ve ever heard this twist on the story. Gives you something to think about. Several years ago, a friend of mine and her husband were invited to spend the weekend at the husband’s employer’s home. My friend, Arlene, was nervous about the weekend. The boss was very wealthy, with a fine home on the waterway, and cars costing more than her house. The first day and evening went well, and Arlene was delighted to have this rare glimpse into ho the very wealthy live. The husband’s employer was quite generous as a host, and took them to the finest restaurants. Arlene knew she would never have the opportunity to indulge in this kind of extravagance again, so was enjoying herself immensely. As the three of them were about to enter an exclusive restaurant that evening, the boss was walking slightly ahead of Arlene and her husband. He stopped suddenly, looking down on the pavement for a long, silent moment. Arlene wondered if she was supposed to pass him. There was nothing on the ground except a single darkened penny that someone had dropped, and a few cigarette butts Still silent, the man reached down and picked up the penny. He held it up and smiled, then put it in his pocket as if he had found a great treasure. How absurd! What need did this man have for a single penny? Why would he even take the time to stop and pick it up? Throughout dinner, the entire scene nagged at her. Finally, she could stand it no longer. She casually mentioned that her daughter once had a coin collection, and asked if the penny he had found had been of some value. A smile crept across the man’s face as he reached into his pocket for the penny and held it out fo her to see. She had seen many pennies before! What was the point of this? “Look at it.” He said. “Read what it says.” She read the words “United States of America “ “No, not that; read further.” “One cent?” “No, keep reading.” “In God we Trust?” “Yes!” “And?” “And if I trust in God, the name of God is holy, even on a coin. Whenever I find a coin I see that inscription. It is written on every single United States coin, but we never seem to notice it! God drops a message right in front of me telling me to trust Him? Who am I to pass it by? When I see a coin, I pray, I stop to see if my trust IS in God at that moment. I pick the coin up as a response to God; that I do trust in Him. For a short time, at least, I cherish it as if it were gold. I think it is God’s way of starting a conversation with me. Lucky for me, God is patient and pennies are plentiful!” When I was out shopping today, I found a penny on the sidewalk. I stopped and picked it up, an realized that I had been worrying and fretting in my mind about things I cannot change. I read the words, “In God We Trust,” and had to laugh. Yes, God, I get the message. It seems that I have been finding an inordinate number of pennies in the last few months, but then, pennies are plentiful! And, God is patient…
Fasting and feasting has long been a part of all the sane religions of the world. YHWH kept the Jews busy with feasting and fasting all the year long, both to remember and to celebrate His work among them and their identity as His people. The Muslim calendar holds its two festivals in lunar equilibrium, keeping a balance not unlike the finely-tuned centripetal motion with which the moon orbits our earth. The Greeks, Romans, and various pagan cults of the world each have acknowledged something of the sanity of the rhythmic motion between celebration and mortification; and the Christian Church, having already celebrated Fat Tuesday, is quite solidly begun upon its Lenten fast, even while eyeing Resurrection Sunday with an ever greater longing—to say nothing of growling stomachs. It is the modern, secular man who has settled into an unholy and insane destruction of food through dieting. It is modern materialism, or perhaps only reductionism, that describes food as merely fuel for the body and presumes that, whatever life might be, it is not something worth celebrating in the way that most men have always celebrated—with a cornucopia of victuals and a liberality of drink. Such a viewpoint not only runs the risk of dehumanizing mankind and destroying civilization, it will most certainly conclude in tragedy: men will never again relish the simple yet monumental achievement of a Dutch baby browning in the oven while the family gathers in anticipation around the breakfast table on a Sunday morning. Fasting in general, and Lent in particular, is the key by which men can remain sane in their relationship to food. There are two types of people who abuse food—those who love it in all its particularities and flavors so much that they either eat it in excess or not at all, and those who see food merely as a means to an end, eating with a morbid monotony and guilt punctuated only by unrestrained orgies of glut. Contra modern dieting fads, the Christian takes food and pleasure seriously enough to recognize that the best way to overcome inordinate desires for either is to cut them off altogether, rather than coaxing and dallying with poor imitations that will never satisfy a true soul and will only dull the senses. Christians have always understood fasting to be an exercise one enters into in order to curb unlawful appetites and to deal with personal or corporate sin. It has never seriously been suggested as a permanent way of life—a way of life that would endure from this one and into the next. It is only for a time and for a purpose, allowing them to acknowledge the goodness of food, even while guarding them from ever-present lusts and idolatry. Fasting frees men so they can hear the symphony of the soups and salads, the meats, sauces, butter, sugar, and eggs. As Father Robert Cappon so masterfully puts it in his culinary reflection:
Fasting prepares us for feasting, and feasting prepares us for heaven. This Lenten season fast, and fast strenuously but not out of religious compunction or as some sort of holy motivation for counting calories. Fast so that you see your weakness…and so that you can see the glorious once and future provision of God in a supper, a marriage supper with the Lamb!
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