February 1, 2009
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Love Builds Up
1 Corinthians 8:1-8
Big Heads Still Around
Meat offered to idols is hardly a “hot-button” issue in churches anymore these days. I’ve never been at a church meeting where the #1 issue was “meat offered to idols.”
Big heads still around
We are still at the church of Corinth on the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord. And one of the “hot-button” issues at Corinth was “meat offered to idols.”
There was a certain segment in the congregation, the “strong” Saint Paul calls them (who were probably richer and better educated than most of the others), who correctly thought that eating meat offered to idols would not hurt them.
They took Jesus at his word that it was not what went “into” their mouth that defiled a person, but rather what came out. It wasn’t what they ate that made them good or bad. Idols were not real “gods” who could hurt or harm you.
And so they wanted to use their advanced spiritual learning and their “freedom in the Gospel” to go to social gatherings at Greek temples to celebrate birthdays, healings, weddings and the like—where it would have been a terrible insult to refuse the food and meat offered by one’s host.
But there were others in the congregation (poorer, less educated folk) who were “offended” and “confused” by this practice. For didn’t their new baptismal life in Christ call them to give up their pagan ways? Weren’t they supposed to stay away from idols? And so, someone in Corinth wrote to Paul to mediate this issue.
Knowledge Puffs Up, But Love Builds Up
And his answer might surprise you. “Yes,” Paul says, “Yes, everybody knows that idols are nothing. The ‘strong’ are right. Eating food offered to idols will not defile you. I agree with you 100%.
BUT…you still shouldn’t do it if that becomes a stumbling stone to your poorer, weaker, less-educated brothers and sisters because it might cause them to fall back into their non-Christian ways.
And not only would that be a “sin against the whole community.” A breakdown of the church. But it would be a “sin against Christ.” “My God,” he says, “Christ died for them. And you can’t even change your diet? I would give up meat entirely. I would go vegan, if that is what it takes to keep my brother or sister from falling.”
“You may know a lot,” Paul says, “about food and gods and idols. But, hey pal, you don’t know nothing about love. Knowledge puffs up. Knowledge makes you proud…and arrogant…and rude. But love builds up.”
We Exist for Jesus
And there you have it. Paul’s ethics in a nutshell. We do not belong to ourselves. We come from God and we go to God. We exist for Jesus, our God and Lord. We do not exist for our own purposes.
And so, it is not about “me, me, me.” It is not about what “I” want, what “I” like, what “I” prefer. It is about what “builds up” the body of Christ in “love” for the sake of the world.
In order to draw a pagan world away from its deadly idolatry and towards the Christ, who is the only Lord and God there really is. “Though whom all things are. And through whom we exist.” Not only as the original creation, but also a new creation.
Listen to “Weak” Voices
On February 21 our Strategic Planning Ministry will be holding a Retreat to invite your participation in mapping out our future. And I urge you to go. We want you to reflect on our situation and add your voice to the shaping of our future.
But I also urge you to listen to other two voices that will “not present.” To listen to the voices of our “youth” and of the “community around us.”
As part of our ReVision survey, we surveyed our youth. And we surveyed the community, the context, into which God has placed us and planted us for the sake of his Gospel.
And our kids (our youth) are telling us that there is a strong, adult majority (I am guilty, I am part of it, too)that dominate life in this congregation and they would like some “space,” too.
We Want a Place in the Church, too
They want space “physically.” A room, a place to call their own. A place they can paint and decorate. Their eyes are on the stage.
And they want space in our “worship.” They want to hear the Gospel in their words, in their movements , in their motions, in their music. They do not want to remove the traditional. They like traditional. But they want to add to the traditional a stamp that is their own.
And they want a space in “acts of service.” They want to do service projects. They like doing things. They like helping others. They want mentors, organizers and guides who can help them do what they are eager and longing to do.
And come to the Adult Retreat. And tell me what you think. I almost hear the community around us saying some of the same things our youth are telling us.
And if we are to grow as wise, spiritual Christians, if we are to grow as a congregation, we must listen not only to those who are here, but also to those whom we wish were here.
If we want our youth to remain connected, we need to listen to them, even though they may only have a “weak” voice currently in congregational decision.
And if we want to draw to Jesus more of the unchurched around us, we need to listen to their voices, too, through every means at our disposal.
Christ Died for Them and You can’t even…
Otherwise, that Paul said to Corinth gets aimed at us, too: “Christ died for them. Christ died for our youth. Christ died for the community. And you can’t even create a space in worship or move some furniture around?”
It is not about us. We come from God and we go to God. It is about reflecting the love that God has shown to us.
And where there is love, there is always growth and hope, and not a knocking down of others, but a building up.
For love always builds. Knowledge puffs up. Knowledge makes us proud and arrogant and rude. But love does just the opposite. Love builds up.
© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster