Doughnuts

I am convinced that in our post-modern- 21st century- western civilization, our daily bread, you know the kind we ask God for right before we forgive others of their trespasses, wouldn’t be the Eucharist but it would have to be the doughnut; forever popularized by Dunkin and definitely monopolized by Krispy Kreme. I think the munchkins would agree. Let me explain.
Did you know that Dunkin Donuts has more variety of donuts then Baskin Robins has of ice cream? There are 52 to be in fact! In 2006 Dunkin reported earning 4.3 BILLION dollars and they appropriately changed their motto to “America runs on Dunkin.” Did you also know that Krispy Kreme produces 7.5 million doughnuts each day which results to around 2 billion doughnuts each year? In addition, Krispy Kreme averages above 100 million dollars in sales each quarter. Let’s face it, there is a lot of dough (wink, wink) in the doughnut business.
Not surprisingly, our doughnut culture does not stay outside our church’s door. Don’t believe me? Next Sunday try asking 5 people if they can name you a baker’s dozen (13) of different variety of donuts and see how long it takes them. Then ask the same 5, if they can identify all 13 disciples, including the one that replaced ________?
Did you know that the majority of doughnut shops sell more doughnuts on Saturday and Sunday than they do during the work week, especially Sunday? Look into any Sunday school classroom and you start to get the picture. Whenever I go to a church on Sunday, I always know there will be a doughnut somewhere. I might have to sneak into children’s church, but I almost always find my treasure. Churches & doughnuts go together like sprinkles and doughnuts, you can have one without the other but there always seems to be something missing when you don’t have both.
I must pause to make another little confession; sometimes my gluttonous thoughts drift to the sweet temptations during my pastor’s sermons. Sorry Doug! It ends up creating a hodge-podge of fact and fantasy that I quickly try to cover up when my wife asks me what I thought about the sermon on the car ride home.
Once, I envisioned that I was one of the Israelites in the book of Exodus. I was wondering through the desert while looking for my manna from heaven, the doughnut. Can you imagine if doughnuts fell from heaven? Oh look a Boston crème over there, a French curler over there and another glazed one over there! I would definitely have been one of those characters that hoarded the doughnut for breakfast in the morning only to find that it was rotten. No need to cry, there would be fresh ones falling from the sky! I was so enraptured by the doughnut downpour that when I awakened it was time for communion.
But, If am really honest with myself, it is not the bread of the communion table that I really crave on Sunday mornings, but the fried white flour dough dunked in syrupy sugar I have hidden in my pocket so that I can snack on it during my pastor’s sermons one clandestine piece at a time. Ok, I have never actually done that, but I have thought about it. Yes, I would rather have a doughnut than a wafer. Come on, Have you ever said to your spouse, wow I am really hungry for that communion bread we had on Sunday? If you are like me, the thought would never even cross your mind. It is white, tasteless, and usually of such minute proportions that not even a mouse would be full after eating one. In my heart of hearts, I think others would agree with me.
I also believe that our churches’ spend more money on our doughnut tables than we do on the communion table. If our money shows what we really want to put in our mouths, than what is it that we truly value?
When the Israelites broke bread it was a far cry from the decadent Bavarian crème variety of today. It was a stone ground whole grain variety which took a lot of effort to produce. Imagine the biblical character of Ruth gleaning the wheat from Boaz’s field, then threshing the wheat, and then grinding the grain. The process would affect her whole body. Her forehead would be soaked full of sweat, her hands calloused, and still her stomach would be empty. She would still be picking out the chaff in her hair while starting to make the dough. She would then let it rise for hours on end and then bake it in a wood oven which she would have to attend to in order regulate the temperature. To make this one loaf, was the work of her life each day. It built character, demanded determination, and required patience-A lot of patience.
When friends and family broke bread together in the evening, they were literally sharing their lives with each other. Someone would bring the day’s bread, another wine, and Ruth would bring her bread. Each delicacy was the product of a day’s work. They valued the company of one another so much that they were willing to work all day for it. When they ate this bread, it brought nutrition to their bodies, life to their soul, and joy to their spirit.
When Jesus broke his own bread at the last supper, this is the process he was referring to when he said this is my body, take it and eat it. In essence, Jesus was saying take this as a symbol of my life’s work. This piece of bread is not only good for your body but it is even better for your soul. I am offering you my life, my sweat, by calloused hands, and my gift of patience. The meaning behind a single crumb of this ancient bread is worth its weight 1,000 times over than a single doughnut sprinkle because you were partaking in another’s life, not another‘s profits.
Fast forward 2,000 years to last Sunday. In a Sunday school room somewhere, anywhere, in America. I and another gentleman stand together sipping our Starbucks brand coffee in one hand while holding a Krispy Kreme doughnut in the other with a polite banter of news, sports, and weather going back and forth between us. There is no strong symbolism, no rich metaphor, and no sense of deeper of meaning in the simple interaction over the breaking of this so called bread. Or is there?
I think there is deeper meaning but we first must look at the simple facts about doughnuts. Sad to say, doughnuts do not serve any nutritional value to our bodies whatsoever. The average size doughnut is loaded with 22 grams of fat; they have an enormous amount of sugar, and miniscule traces of vitamins and minerals. Perhaps that is why even the most expensive ones cost less than one dollar. I think nothing of putting my fingers in one to find out what it is filled with only to throw it out when I don’t find my favorite filling. The purpose of this donut is not to sustain life by its nutritional value or lack thereof nor bring community in the biblical sense but to bring about my own comfort and pleasure! The sole purpose of my consumption of a doughnut is indulgence.
So in this one interaction with the other gentleman, I have revealed that I like things that are convenient, sugar coated, and that costs me very little. Sure there was some dialogue between him and I, but it didn’t go any deeper than the thickness of my paper coffee cup. I never discovered what drives him to wake up in the morning, what sacrifices did he make to commune with me and more importantly what sacrifices did I make for him? If I am truly honest with myself, I think the doughnut is a symbol for who I have become as a Christian, the antithesis of everything Jesus represented.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’ think doughnuts are evil. In fact, it would be legalistic of me to believe that if I never ate another doughnut that it would solve all of my problems. It is not the doughnut but the love of doughnuts that exposes my inner inclination to desire my own comfort and pleasure with the least amount of energy, risk, and commitment. The doughnut is a synecdoche, a term that Wikipedia defines as being a small object which accurately represents something much larger than itself.
Have I have lost touch with what it means to desire community so much that I am willing to work all day for it? Have I lost touch with the daily patience it takes to produce the gifts which truly sustains life? Have I lost offering a gift that defines who I am individually order to discover who “we” are communally? I am a little afraid of finding out the answers.
If I am what I eat than I think it is time I change my diet.
If I am striving for my body to become a lean, mean, fat burning machine so it can meet the demands that the world places on it, then I sabotage myself at every meal which consists of chocolate covered donuts. If I always want the glazed, convenient, junk food than my physique will never match its potential. But if this is true for my own body, could the same be said for the church body?
If we as a church only consume the things which are sugar-coated, highly processed to the point it loses any benefit, and convenient, then will we ever match our own potential to become an effective body? Will we be able to respond to the demands that our world places on us? Do we really crave the doughnut over communion bread? Are you afraid of finding out the answers too?
To play off of Dunkin’s famous words, I believe it is not time to make the doughnuts, but time to make our bread of true communion.