Volume 29, No.10                                 
March 7, 2004

Food For Thought

   Pretzels were invented to put a new twist on prayer.

   According to legend, the salty treats were designed during the Middle Ages by an Italian monk who wanted something to give children who memorized their prayers.  He rolled dough into a long rope and shaped it to look like arms folded in praise and supplication.  The inventive monk called the treats pretioles, Latin for little gift.  

  But centuries later, when Robert Green invented an ice cream favourite, he had to take his licks from local churches.

   The year was 1874 and Green ran a small cafe in Philadelphia where he sold a mixture of sweet cream, syrup and carbonated water.  One day he ran out of cream, so he used vanilla ice cream instead. The ice cream soda or “float” was born.

   But church leaders were upset when people drank the new concoction on Sundays.  It was considered “frivolous” and soda water was widely associated with alcoholic drinks.  So many municipalities passed laws banning the sale of ice cream sodas on “the Sabbath.”

   But ice cream parlours got around the rules by inventing the Sunday, which was sold only on the first day of the week.  It had all the ingredients of a soda, except the carbonated water.  Within a few years, the combination of ice cream and chocolate syrup was for sale all week, so the Sunday became known as the sundae.

   Those two stories illustrate a recurring theme in the history of the church:  a twin desire to promote good behaviour and prohibit bad.  We haven’t done a particularly good job of either, mostly because we keep losing sight of what our role really is.   That Italian monk had it right.  All of us — adults as well as children — respond best to incentive and positive reinforcement.

   Throughout the New Testament, we’re told to keep our eyes on the Prize and encourage one another.   “[Jesus] died for us so we can live with him forever,” Paul wrote. “So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you’re doing.” (1 Thess. 5:11).  “See to it... that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage each other daily, as long as it’s called Today, so none of you is hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”  (Heb. 3:13,14).  More than that,  “Think of ways to encourage each other to outbursts of love and good deeds.  And let’s not neglect our meeting together, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back is drawing near.” (Heb. 10:24-26)

   Think of how different our churches and our world would be if we spent more time encouraging each other to outbursts of love and good deeds.  It’s not as hard as it might seem.  In fact, all it takes is a few minutes a week.  All it takes is more sincere compliments, more recognition of a job well done or even a heartfelt attempt. You can change somebody’s whole week — or their entire outlook — with a note, a card, or a phone call.  You don’t need to be a gifted communicator, either.  We all know how to say, “I appreciate what you do.”;  “You make a difference in my life.”;  “I miss you.”; or “I love you and here’s why.”  Giving a little gift can work wonders.

   Instead, we fixate on the most minor of matters — things that, over the long run, mean nothing.  As individuals and the church as a whole, we spend most of our time and energy dealing with issues undeserving of our attention when compared to what Jesus cared about: love, justice, spreading the good news of forgiveness, and the wholeness that comes of knowing God’s life-changing power.

   Like the early opposition to Sunday sodas, so much of what we champion is wrong-headed and irrelevant.  We routinely turn a blind eye to pressing social problems like poverty and pornography and obsess over insignificant issues such as petty insults, what songs to sing on Sunday and the colour of the new church carpet.

   Moral of the story?  When a church’s priorities are as twisted as a pretzel, its influence will soon melt away.   

By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the Followers of Christ congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To subscribe, contact sgamble@bfree.on.ca