Read part 1 here.
As I said before, food is a way God mediates or communicates God's life to us. I will continue exploring this statement by considering how creation itself is a gift of God, a gift God is intimately present in and through which God personally addresses us, drawing all creatures into deeper relationship. Eating is one of our most consistent and direct ways of interacting with non-human creation. Consequently, how we eat influences how we relate to creation more broadly -- and vice versa. In our Western, industrialized, and technological world, this often means we are further and further removed from non-human creation.
Our food comes in plastic packages -- or from a restaurant or fast food checkout -- and bears little resemblance to its original form. Most of us rarely interact with the farms, farmers, and butchers that produce the food. And these sources of our food are so far removed from us, both geographically and technologically, that we probably wouldn't be able to interact with them even if we wanted to. For those of us who live in cities, this means that most of our world is humanly constructed and mediated, removing us from direct contact with the rest of creation.
It's easy in this situation to think of non-human creation through the lens of all our other cultural productions, which are now proffered as consumables. If food is simply a "consumer good" waiting on the shelf for our use and indulgence, and food is a primary occasion for our interaction with non-human creation, then we will likely come to see all creation as some kind of grand "consumer good". Creation is there for our use and abuse, for the excesses of our self-indulgence. Creation, rather than being recognized and celebrated for its diversity, is made fungible through economic mediation.
How might we come to not only see creation rightly -- as the place where God is present to us -- but also to love creation better, to abide with it through faithful practices? I offer two claims about our food and our eating as a way to explore an alternative interaction with non-human creation.
II.1 By recognizing food as a way God mediates God's life to us, meals are an occasion to receive non-human creation as a means of God's grace and a good in itself; so good eating helps us cultivate the earth through deeper intimacy with creation rather than distance.
God is present in all creation. As John Wesley said:
This is part of the practice of "saying grace" for each meal. We say grace because it's a verbal pronouncement on receiving food as grace. We receive it as nourishment for life with God, and as a way of receiving God's goodness. However, when we eat and eat and eat in excess, simply because it's there and we like the taste, we negate food as a reception of grace. Rather, we turn it into a mute thing disconnected from God's delight in its own goodness. So, our practice of saying grace is often in conflict with our practice of over-indulgence and under-appreciation.
This doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy food -- quite the opposite! There are good and bad ways to enjoy. Enjoyment that leads to indifference to the good of the other is manipulative and degrading. Enjoyment that leads to fellowship and intimacy with the other is proper. When we enjoy our food as a way of celebrating the goodness of created matter we join in God's own delight for creation. And in this way, we are drawn into deeper intimacy with creation that helps to correct our distance and alienation.
II.2 By recognizing food as a way God communicates God's life to us, meals are an occasion to improvise on the love of God that infuses and sustains all reality; so eating allows us to share in God's delight in creation and to be drawn into fellowship with non-human creatures.
Jazz improvisation is a great metaphor for cooking. In jazz music, a theme will be presented and then throughout the song different instruments will improvise on the theme, weaving new elements into the melody, changing the syncopation, or transposing it into a different harmonic register. When we prepare food, we receive the good elements God has created (the theme) and improvise on it, adding elements, finding additional foods that complement the flavors, cooking it in a manner that highlights something unique about that particular item or combination. This is a way to draw out things to enjoy in the material world.
Consequently, cooking and sharing food is a way to receive and improvise on God's creative love. We receive non-human creation as a gift of love and as worthy of love. Creation is a gift of love because it is a way God abides with us, through the created world God shares Godself with us as the overflow of God's triune love. But, food is also a way that creation itself abides with us, in a sense. All eating is a form of sacrifice, for something had to be killed (either plant or animal). Consequently, eating is a way of receiving the sacrifice of non-human creation as an act of giving -- creation shares itself with us through our food. Is it possible to see this as something analogous to an act of love?
Receiving food as a gift and (possibly) love helps us see how it is an occasion to be drawn into fellowship with non-human creation. We receive the otherness of creation into our very bodies as nourishment for our lives, and in this way we draw creation into ourselves. How might we learn to offer ourselves back to creation toward mutual fellowship? This question will be part of the subject of the next two posts. But in the meantime, what do you think? Can we sacrifice non-human creation for our well-being and be drawn further into fellowship with it, even in our eating?
______________________
The title of this blog is taken from Charles Wesley's Eucharistic hymn, "O the Depth of Love Divine".
Our food comes in plastic packages -- or from a restaurant or fast food checkout -- and bears little resemblance to its original form. Most of us rarely interact with the farms, farmers, and butchers that produce the food. And these sources of our food are so far removed from us, both geographically and technologically, that we probably wouldn't be able to interact with them even if we wanted to. For those of us who live in cities, this means that most of our world is humanly constructed and mediated, removing us from direct contact with the rest of creation.
It's easy in this situation to think of non-human creation through the lens of all our other cultural productions, which are now proffered as consumables. If food is simply a "consumer good" waiting on the shelf for our use and indulgence, and food is a primary occasion for our interaction with non-human creation, then we will likely come to see all creation as some kind of grand "consumer good". Creation is there for our use and abuse, for the excesses of our self-indulgence. Creation, rather than being recognized and celebrated for its diversity, is made fungible through economic mediation.
How might we come to not only see creation rightly -- as the place where God is present to us -- but also to love creation better, to abide with it through faithful practices? I offer two claims about our food and our eating as a way to explore an alternative interaction with non-human creation.
II.1 By recognizing food as a way God mediates God's life to us, meals are an occasion to receive non-human creation as a means of God's grace and a good in itself; so good eating helps us cultivate the earth through deeper intimacy with creation rather than distance.
God is present in all creation. As John Wesley said:
God is in all things, and ... we are to see the Creator in the glass of every creature; ... we should use and look upon nothing as separate from God, which indeed is a kind of practical atheism; but ... survey heaven and earth, and all that is therein, as contained by God in the hollow of his hand, who by his intimate presence holds them all in being, who pervades and actuates the whole created frame, and is, in a true sense, the soul of universe (Sermon 23, on Matthew 5.8-12, I.11).And as God is present to creation, loving and abiding in it, creation is therefore good in itself. If we eat creation as simply another fungible product, we run the risk of using it as if it is separate from God, which is indeed a kind of practical atheism. Instead, we should seek to receive our food as an expression of God’s abundance and love, and as an object of that love in its own right.
This is part of the practice of "saying grace" for each meal. We say grace because it's a verbal pronouncement on receiving food as grace. We receive it as nourishment for life with God, and as a way of receiving God's goodness. However, when we eat and eat and eat in excess, simply because it's there and we like the taste, we negate food as a reception of grace. Rather, we turn it into a mute thing disconnected from God's delight in its own goodness. So, our practice of saying grace is often in conflict with our practice of over-indulgence and under-appreciation.
This doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy food -- quite the opposite! There are good and bad ways to enjoy. Enjoyment that leads to indifference to the good of the other is manipulative and degrading. Enjoyment that leads to fellowship and intimacy with the other is proper. When we enjoy our food as a way of celebrating the goodness of created matter we join in God's own delight for creation. And in this way, we are drawn into deeper intimacy with creation that helps to correct our distance and alienation.
II.2 By recognizing food as a way God communicates God's life to us, meals are an occasion to improvise on the love of God that infuses and sustains all reality; so eating allows us to share in God's delight in creation and to be drawn into fellowship with non-human creatures.
Jazz improvisation is a great metaphor for cooking. In jazz music, a theme will be presented and then throughout the song different instruments will improvise on the theme, weaving new elements into the melody, changing the syncopation, or transposing it into a different harmonic register. When we prepare food, we receive the good elements God has created (the theme) and improvise on it, adding elements, finding additional foods that complement the flavors, cooking it in a manner that highlights something unique about that particular item or combination. This is a way to draw out things to enjoy in the material world.
Consequently, cooking and sharing food is a way to receive and improvise on God's creative love. We receive non-human creation as a gift of love and as worthy of love. Creation is a gift of love because it is a way God abides with us, through the created world God shares Godself with us as the overflow of God's triune love. But, food is also a way that creation itself abides with us, in a sense. All eating is a form of sacrifice, for something had to be killed (either plant or animal). Consequently, eating is a way of receiving the sacrifice of non-human creation as an act of giving -- creation shares itself with us through our food. Is it possible to see this as something analogous to an act of love?
Receiving food as a gift and (possibly) love helps us see how it is an occasion to be drawn into fellowship with non-human creation. We receive the otherness of creation into our very bodies as nourishment for our lives, and in this way we draw creation into ourselves. How might we learn to offer ourselves back to creation toward mutual fellowship? This question will be part of the subject of the next two posts. But in the meantime, what do you think? Can we sacrifice non-human creation for our well-being and be drawn further into fellowship with it, even in our eating?
______________________
The title of this blog is taken from Charles Wesley's Eucharistic hymn, "O the Depth of Love Divine".