Diet and exercise

A sermon preached for the congregation of St. Stephen Anglican Church, Summerland BC Canada on Sunday March 9, 2025 — The First Sunday of Lent — The Very Rev. Ken Gray

Don’t get me wrong. After many years, Kathie and I how have a family doctor, right here in our little town of Summerland. Hallelujah. I am less sure he is all that excited having us as patients — as I told him, we are medically complex, but we are fun to have a patients. That said, truthfully, I don’t like going to the doctor.

Truth be told, I am a rather disobedient and uncooperative diabetic. I was born, for sweets. No dentist has been able to remove my sweet tooth. A previous physician told me to “avoid anything baked.” “You’ve got to be kidding,” I said. “You mean I can only dream of donuts?” “Just the hole” he said.

Going to the doctor is a lot like Lent. It’s an exercise in Truth-telling. The data confirms that all is not well with my soul but also with particular body parts. So a change in behaviour is required. Sigh!

I got to know Judy, a transplant to Canada from Zimbabwe (Rhodesia when she lived there) in my Colwood parish. She had some great stories to tell; like when an elephant climbed her back porch (shortly before destroying it) trying to get into her kitchen (from where she watched the amazing spectacle) unfold). She was a big woman, sturdy, formidable, with a heavy accent and a fine story-telling ability. With me, she also was not crazy about visiting her doctor. I asked her, “why don’t you like seeing with your doctor Judy? Does he tell you things you don’t want to hear?” Looking down at the floor she replied with one impactful word: “Exercise!”

Sister I’m with you; I feel your pain . . . though I get two words: diet, and exercise. A long line of physicians have sung me the same song. Each using different words they tell me, along with Nike, to “just do it”; more exercise; more restraint.

Truthfully, I need to change my response to food and increase my physical activity. In my defence I am pleased to report a significant drop in my A1C, though there is still room for improvement. The tendency remains however, to bargain with my health and my future. “How about one donut for two long walks” I counsel myself. With Mephistopheles, when diet and exercise are on the table my attitude sometimes challenges the limits of Truth.

The penitential season of Lent is a time of Truth-telling, not in a final sense, but in the sense of taking stock. Who are we, and where are we situated in relation to truth and truth-telling? What is the truth about ourselves? I mean here is so much more than what we have done, or left undone.

I recall a character from Saturday Night Live, the uber catholic Fr. Guido Sarducci, who introduced his television audience to the practice of corporate confession. During one sketch he had everyone shout aloud all their sins, all at the same time. Drenched in not-very-repentant sin, the cacophony went on for about thirty seconds. Their lives remained unchanged; the skit was funny, though not pastorally helpful.

I think Lenten Truth-telling looks much different. The Lenten disciplines of self-examination, penitence, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and by reading and meditating on the word of God, all these take us deeper than a comic sketch could ever do. I love comedy, but in the end Truth-telling about ourselves is no laughing matter.

So what about Truth-telling in relation to the world in which we live, and move, and have our very being? Recall with me the arraignment of Jesus before the Roman Governor, Pilate. Pilate asked Jesus, “what is Truth?” It’s a great question for any age. Jesus proffered no reply; in other words: “You figure that out; off you go now . . .”

And then, there’s the Truth about God, revealed and demonstrated in the life of Jesus. What do we know about Jesus? Nice guy, clever, healed lots of people, got in lots of trouble; “God in the flesh” so we could see, understand, and experience True Love. Jesus—on a mountain-top, on a stormy sea, and today, in the wilderness.

When you go home today, perhaps just before you head off to sleep tonight, read today’s Gospel [the first thirteen verses of Luke chapter four] once more. Then ask yourself Pilate’s question. “What is Truth?”

Is Truth found in a sorcery which can generate bread from a stone? Don’t think so.

Is Truth found in the worship of self-proclaimed idols? Don’t think so.

Is Truth found in the promises of tricksters? Definitely not so.

There is no truth in any of these temptations, though similar notions have been proposed as righteousness in every generation. Take a moment, and ask a hard question: “How might I actually do these very things?” For myself, I can see ways I actually prefer to create my own version of truth instead of responding to God’s Truth. There’s an important difference between the two. The problem is that many of us still prefer to create our own solutions to the Truth-telling deficits we face. Jesus returns us to the Word, to the tradition of Deuteronomy, literally to the “second law”; the first is Creation.

“It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'”

“It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'”

Trickster, go away . . .

Lent is such a rich time of the Christian year, a season in which we continue our journey, despite ourselves, despite what is happening all around us, and despite what the Prayer Book calls “the vain, pomp, and glory of the world.” Today’s collect sums things up nicely:

Almighty God,
whose Son fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are but did not sin,
give us grace to discipline ourselves
in submission to your Spirit,
that as you know our weakness,
so we may know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.