On Fast-Food Religion

I have to admit that every now and then, I love a good juicy hamburger, especially the one served by Logan's Roadhouse, the one made from three different kinds of meat.  But even when I was working, with only an hour for lunch, I could not exist on a steady diet of fast food.  Most of the time, I brought lunch from home and went to City Park, where I leisurely ate lunch while gazing at the moss-draped oak trees surrounding me.  I thought about my day, my classes, my life in an atmosphere of serene beauty while I ate.  Often, I would read something that inspired me and fortified me for the rest of the day, or I would even take a short nap and awake refreshed.

What a different experience my lunch hour was when I hurried into a fast-food restaurant, stood in line, ordered a hamburger, and then ate it at a formica table surrounded by noise!  It was even worse if the establishment insisted on playing its version of "music" over loudspeakers.   I returned to class or to the office having eaten, but not having been nourished at the cellular level.

I think all of us, sooner or later, crave nourishment at a deep level, both in the realm of food and in our spiritual lives.  Last night, I talked to a woman who, in her words, "...cannot find peace where I live.  Sometimes, I just have to come here and sit in church for awhile; it's the only place I can find peace."

In our culture, our lives are not built for peace; they are designed only to "get things done," and that philosophy extends to our eating.  Fast food places are popular for a reason -- they help us to eat as quickly and efficiently (cheaply) as possible.  But they do not really satisfy our need for deep physical nourishment and renewal. 

Unfortunately, for most people, their religion or "church" has become a fast-food experience.  Once a week, they "show up," "grab a cheap bite to eat," (it costs little or nothing) and then they are on their way to their real lives, where things are really taking place.  There is no slow digestion of spiritual truth; there is no encounter with the Living God, a close Friend Who desires to share the table with us; there is no gazing at the beauty around us, a slow "digestion" of the signs that God is with us and for us.  There is no nourishment for the week to come and no relaxation in the Presence of Peace.  There is no renewal of spirit. 

Even the doctrines and teaching of some churches have been reduced to "fast food."  My former secretary belonged to an Evangelical Church that had "saved her" from a life of sin.  She was starving spiritually when someone first brought her to that church, and just like a juicy Logan's Roadhouse hamburger, the church "fed' her hunger in a very appetizing way.  But she had been with the church for years and years, and she found herself growing tired of hamburgers; she had grown beyond the starvation stage and was craving deep spiritual nourishment.  She told me that she loved her church (as did I), because it was so good at picking people up out of the gutter, brushing off the mud clinging to their souls, and setting them on a path of dignity and self-respect.  She would never leave her church for that reason.  But she needed solid nourishment now for the depths to which she had grown.  Her church offered no avenues for reflection and deep spiritual truth.  The message of salvation remained the same from year to year, feeding the newcomers walking through the doors, but starving those who needed real "soul food."

When she tried to talk to people in her church about deeper things, they backed away from her.  To them, her image was that of a solid Christian woman, a well-respected elder in the church.  She could not confess to them, though she tried, what Jesus said of the church at Laodicea:  ...though you do not realize it, you are a pitiful wretch, poor, blind, and naked (Rev. 3).  As we grow spiritually, we become even more aware that we are not "rich, well-fed, and sleek."  In fact, we become even more hungry for the deep spiritual nourishment that comes only through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  We crave the deeper things of the Spirit of God, the things that can no longer be given to us by a Sunday sermon.  We crave deep spiritual Presence and Refreshment.

When I returned to my students after an hour or more in the park, looking at the trees, or reading something that fed my soul, I was a different person from the one who had rushed over to Burger King for a quick bite.  I carried with me the peace that passes all understanding, the joy that comes from knowing real food, and the love that had been given to me to pass on to others.  In the same way, my secretary and I would often bare our souls to one another without regard for the differing doctrines and teachings of our churches.  We would laugh together, weep together, pray together -- and together find the deep satisfaction that comes from "sharing a table" with one who loves and understands us whether we live up to our doctrines or whether we do not. 

I think our hearts yearn to hear the Good News that God has accepted us in all our humanity, and that He yearns to feed us with the Bread of Life.  Like the pelican, He wants to open His heart to feed His little ones with His own blood --- but we are too busy satisfying our hunger with fast food that lasts for only a moment or an hour.