Ash Wednesday – March 5th, 2025
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
“Gluttony and Fasting”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Everything that glitters is not gold.” That’s good advice for a gold-miner, or in the dating years when pursuing a significant other. Outward appearances can be deceiving. Just ask a woman who finds out her “diamond” ring is merely cubic zirconium! Yet we humans, in our sinful nature, are easily entrapped by appearances, and we find ourselves deceived when we finally discover what a thing really is.
Consider the vices, for instance—the subjects of our sermons for these Lenten weeks ahead. Vices often look good on the outside. In fact, as a society, we’ve become so accustomed to vices that we might not even name them so. We hardly even talk about certain habits being “vices” anymore. In America, “greed is good,” and pride is called “healthy self-esteem.” So, just what is a vice? A vice is a habit we’ve formed over time that is detrimental to our Christian life of faith.
The trouble is, we hardly recognize many of these habits as dangerous. In fact, at times, they truly seem to “glitter” in their appearance. After all, what’s wrong with a little more money in the bank, or a healthy dose of confidence in ourselves? Vices look like shortcuts to happiness, and so we take the bait, and pursue them easily enough. But in the end, what we ultimately discover, is that they let us down every time. They were just idols. We trust in them because they glitter, but then they fail us. They aren’t gold, they are fool’s gold—and we are fools to ever think otherwise.
In the Passion account of our Lord Jesus Christ that we will hear in the weeks to come, we’ll see vices on display in the story as sin rears its ugly head in the lives of the disciples. We’ll see their anger, their greed, and their envy. We’ll watch the slothful disciples slumber, unable to watch even a single hour with Jesus in the garden. We’ll watch Peter pridefully declare that he will “never fall away” from Jesus, only to see him moments later deny his Lord three times. Each time we gather together, we’ll consider how these vices are present not only in the disciples’ lives, but in our own lives. And finally, then, we’ll consider what kinds of virtues, that is, good habits, we can cultivate in their place. Good habits drive away our bad habits, and then, living in the faith that fills the void, we find ourselves more willing and able to love our God and love our neighbor as ourselves.
On this Ash Wednesday, we will begin by considering the vice of gluttony. Tonight’s Gospel reading is not from the Passion account, but rather makes use of the traditional reading appointed for Ash Wednesday, words of our Lord which call our attention to three Lenten disciplines that are as ancient as the teaching of our Lord himself: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. In these words from His Sermon on the Mount, we hear Jesus’ words of instruction for “when we give,” “when we pray,” and finally, “when we fast.”
Now, one of these does not sound like the others. After all, if you’ve been around the church for any length of time you’ve heard other members and your pastors talk about praying. And I am sure there has been talk of the need for giving and proper stewardship. But when’s the last time you ever heard another Christian or a pastor talk about the practice of fasting?
A few decades ago, the very mention of the word fasting would probably sound quite bizarre in the ears of most North American Christians. Today, with fasting being a part of some recent diet trends, it might not sound as strange. But I’m willing to go out on a limb and assume that very few of you have ever considered fasting to be a regular part of how you live out your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. But why is that? After all, Jesus says, “when you fast.” It’s as if He assumes that it’s something all of His followers will indeed do. There was one time, you might recall, when Jesus told His disciples not to fast. He said, “Do not fast while the bridegroom (that was Himself) is with you” (Mark 2:19). He then says, “A day will come when the bridegroom is gone, and then you will fast.” “Then you will fast”—as in now, now when the bridegroom is no longer with us. Now we are to fast.
Now, there are likely at least some present here today who could possibly be persuaded to fast for the perceived benefits to one’s physical health, but what, exactly, you might ask, would fasting possibly have to do with one’s spiritual health?
That brings us to our consideration of gluttony. Please don’t be too sensitive about this topic from the outset. Thinking about the sin of gluttony does not mean the primary goal is to make people who struggle with their weight feel guilty. The truth is, we all come in various shapes and sizes, as God has made each of us. Gluttony is not about being overweight, it’s about a disordered desire and focus on what we eat or drink. Overeating is simply one way to be gluttonous. The ancients knew many different forms of gluttony.
For example, someone could be overly picky about every little thing they put in their mouth. Or, gluttons could incessantly snack between meals because they can’t wait for the next appointed time to share their meal together with others. Or, gluttons could be those who spend far too much on their food and insist on having only the finest to eat and drink. Finally, gluttons could be those who, when they do eat, ravenously wolf down what is set before them. All this, of course, means that even skinniest among us, who can eat whatever they want, whenever they want, they could potentially be more gluttonous than those who eat as healthy as they can but still can’t keep the pounds off.
But regardless of your particular penchant for the way you typically engage in gluttony, deep down, at its core, we have to ask: what really is going on with this hyper-focus on food and drink in our lives? What drives it? Ultimately, gluttony is just another aspect of our lives that glitters with the promise of a do-it-yourself short-cut to happiness. For those who feel down and out, “comfort food,” is something we turn to, to feel consoled. For those who feel life is purposeless, turning to food, or drinking alcohol, is one way to try to make our lives that seem so empty feel full again. But as you know, the feeling is only ever temporary. Because this vice, like all others, is just another empty idol. It seems like it will work, but it can’t help but fail us. The feigned fullness fades, the intoxication wears off, and we are left empty again, just as empty as ever before.
So why fast? Because here’s the truth: when all we ever know is the fullness that comes from filling our poor stomachs, we make our stomach our god, as Paul wrote to the Philippian church. And when we constantly feed that god, when our bodies are always physically sated, we never learn the truth Jesus taught us at His own temptation, the truth that “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Plain and simple, when we are always full, the hunger for deeper, more abiding truths never surfaces. How can we ever hope to hunger for God’s word, the only thing that can truly fill our lives with hope, when all we ever think to fill ourselves with is earthly food?
Fasting, you see, has a way of revealing our greatest weaknesses. It brings us to our most vulnerable point. In short, it makes us to rely on God more than we ever could when full. And it’s in these moments when we are truly strong. Knowing this, it’s no longer a secret why Jesus had to spend forty days in the wilderness fasting before he was able to overcome Satan’s greatest temptations. And in contrast, consider the Fall, and the succumbing to temptation. Scripture makes plain that it was Adam and Eve’s pride, their desire to “be like God” that led to man’s fall into sin. Pride was at work yes, but have you ever considered the other means the devil employed? The fall into pride came through the fruit. Hear again how Scripture describes this scene for us, noting how Eve observed that “the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and … she took of its fruit and ate” (Gen. 3:6).
That apple, or whatever kind of fruit it was, was shiny; it glittered. It looked so good, but the indulgence led to the downfall. Gluttony, then, was a part of humanity’s original fall from grace, and it’s still a way the enemy works his way into our lives. The church father Gregory the Great once observed this truth—he said: “those who have not learned to say ‘no’ to something so simple as a morsel of food have not even begun to engage in spiritual battle.” The truth is, in the Christian life, each day is a battle to keep our faith over and against Satan, who daily desires to devour us. And, regarding matters of food and drink, when Satan causes us to cling to these things, to think that these things are more reliable sources of comfort and peace than the one true God, this is one way he continues to lead God’s people astray.
So why fast? When you fast, you learn more than at any other time what it’s like to rely on God alone. When you fast, you learn more than at any other time how important it is to be filled not only with food and drink, but to nourish your soul by filling it with the Word of God. When you fast, you tell the devil he will not control you through earthly sustenance, but rather you proclaim that it is the Holy Spirit who will lead and direct your ways. When you fast, you rehearse for bigger and greater battles the enemy might have planned for you. When you learn to say no to a meal, you just might be training yourself to be able say no to an opportunity at an extramarital affair that the devil hopes to someday set before you. But you’ll win that battle because you’ve already been practicing, teaching yourself how to put to death the passions and desires which the Apostle Peter taught wage war with your soul.
So if you do fast, don’t forget one thing—don’t forget to cling evermore to the One who overcame temptation for you, who fasted for you, and fasts with you still. Hungry or full, Jesus remains Your Savior from all your gluttonous desires. Hungry or full, Jesus is still the One who sustains you with Himself, the very bread of life. Hungry or full, Jesus is still the One who feeds you at His table with His very body and blood. Hungry or full, Jesus is still the one who leads the way to the heavenly banquet at the marriage Supper of the Lamb. If you fast, when you fast, always remember that.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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