Turkish Delight Anyone?
By Michael E. Thomas, Pastor
Living Waters Lutheran Church
1808 Miller Road
Crystal Lake, IL 60014
Ephesians 6: 10-12 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
There is nothing like a good turkey dinner, either at Thanksgiving or on Christmas day. The post turkey meal usually leads me to sit on the couch, ready for a nap. Turkey has a way of enticing us into an oblivious state of thinking because of the amino acid, tryptophan. “Tryptophan helps the body produce the B-vitamin niacin, which, in turn, helps the body produce serotonin, a remarkable chemical that acts as a calming agent in the brain and plays a role in sleep. So you might think that if you eat a lot of turkey, your body would produce more serotonin and you would feel calm and want a nap.”
Perhaps the magic of the turkish delight caused Edward’s moral and ethical standards to take a nap when he started to eat the magical food in the book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In the seen, Edward has entered Narnia for the first time through the magic wardrobe and encounters the Queen of Narnia. He is enticed by the magical “methods” of the evil white witch. Her scheme is to capture all four of the “children of Adam and Eve” and turn them into storm in her castle. Edward has be tricked by the “whiles” of the evil witch through the serotonin like turkish delight.
Edward cannot stand against the “whiles of the devil” because he has no armor on to face her. The trickery of the evil one is easy to overlook. The snake in the garden was called “crafty” , which means that the evil one is sly, tricky, subtle or scheming. Jesus called the devil the “a liar and the father of lies” . Edward is easily tricked by the power of the darkness and the lies of the turkish delight slip past his taste buds of personal satisfaction. We cannot stand the attack of the evil one without being protected by the armor of God.
With the season of Christmas upon us, it is easy to be tricked to think about other aspects of the Christmas marketing blitz instead of the real meaning of the season. The tricks of marketing perhaps guilt us into buying more stuff than we really need. Time spent with family and friends is more important than the stuff we feel the need to purchase.
Putting on the whole armor of God gives us the “power” to stand against the distractions of the season. The Greek word for power is “endunamoo” which is a form of
“dunamis” and it’s the same word we have for dynamite, a real blast that will blow up the house of cards we build in our lives that cannot stand in the winter storms of life. If we are not wrestling with the choices of what to buy for family and friends, we have completely bought into the turkish delight of always wanting more.
I have a one year old girl and a three year old boy. I wrestle with keeping our shopping list for our children to only a couple items each. Our kids have more stuff than they really need and what they need more of is time with dad and mom. If you tell yourself that you have to buy more stuff, you and I have fallen into the seratonin mindless shopping haze of the Christmas season of more stuff.
So put on the whole armor and be armed with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of the Lord. "Our affluent lifestyle is deadening our souls and spirit; it enslaves us.” Stand up and fight this battle of our middle class “affluenza” , which is caused by eating too much turkey delight.
