Get the appHungry for God: Biblical Reflections on FoodSample
Food is Good (Gen. 1: 26-31)
I wonder what comes to your mind when you think of food? Do you picture a table laid with delicious food, like at Christmas? Or maybe tempting cakes that you know you should resist? Or do you see food as a fuel that simply has to be eaten in order to get on with everything else you need to do? Is food a pleasure to be savoured or a daily routine to be undertaken?
How we view the food we eat what we see it as being impacts our whole attitude towards it, whether we approach it with nurture and care, or thoughtlessly and neglectfully.
Our reading today gives us our foundational theological principle for how we should view food as Christians: it is part of Gods creation, which he pronounced as being very very GOOD! More than that, food is actually a gift. It is something that God has given to us: a concept that we will explore more tomorrow. For today we simply want to establish the understanding that food is a part of a very good, created world.
This is vital for us to grasp because for too long we have held a strange dualism that has only given significance to activities that are seen as spiritual. Something as mundane as food could never be a subject that Christians should be interested in! But Genesis 1 teaches us that this is wrong. God is interested in everything that he has created and how we eat is every bit as important to him as any other area of our lives.
Reflection: what are the implications for you that God is interested in the food you eat?
I wonder what comes to your mind when you think of food? Do you picture a table laid with delicious food, like at Christmas? Or maybe tempting cakes that you know you should resist? Or do you see food as a fuel that simply has to be eaten in order to get on with everything else you need to do? Is food a pleasure to be savoured or a daily routine to be undertaken?
How we view the food we eat what we see it as being impacts our whole attitude towards it, whether we approach it with nurture and care, or thoughtlessly and neglectfully.
Our reading today gives us our foundational theological principle for how we should view food as Christians: it is part of Gods creation, which he pronounced as being very very GOOD! More than that, food is actually a gift. It is something that God has given to us: a concept that we will explore more tomorrow. For today we simply want to establish the understanding that food is a part of a very good, created world.
This is vital for us to grasp because for too long we have held a strange dualism that has only given significance to activities that are seen as spiritual. Something as mundane as food could never be a subject that Christians should be interested in! But Genesis 1 teaches us that this is wrong. God is interested in everything that he has created and how we eat is every bit as important to him as any other area of our lives.
Reflection: what are the implications for you that God is interested in the food you eat?
Scripture
About this Plan
All over the world, 1 in 8 people go to bed hungry every night, even though there is enough food for everyone. In this reading plan, international aid agency Tearfund and theologian Ruth Valerio help us reflect biblically on hunger and how we think about food, as well as how we can take action for our brothers and sisters around the world.
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We would like to thank Tearfund for providing this plan. In 2013, Tearfund is part of a joint campaign effort to tackle the injustices of hunger. For more information on getting involved in the campaign, go to http://www.tearfund.org/yv
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