February 1, 2009
Pastor Laura Gentry
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him. Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really exists," and that "there is no God but one." Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as in fact there are many gods and many lords-- yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. "Food will not bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall. (NRSV)
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
There’s an old story about a man who was put on a very strict diet—he was to have no sweets and very little fat. And everything went well for him for the first week. Then one morning, he showed up at work with a large, decadent, half-eaten coffee cake. One of his co-workers questioned him, “I thought you were on a diet?”
“Oh, I am,” he replied, “but this is a very special coffee cake because God wanted me to have it.”
“God wanted you to have it?” the coworker asked skeptically.
“Well yes, I was driving down the street minding my own business this morning, when I heard this coffee cake calling out to me from the window of the bakery I was passing. It called and called, ‘buy me, buy me.’ So I prayed to God and said, ‘God, if you really want me to have that coffee cake who is calling out to me, let there be an open parking spot right in front of the bakery.’ And you know, sure enough, on the fifth time around the block, there was an empty parking spot right there in front of the bakery!”
Many of us have been on diets and have struggled to avoid those tempting treats that seem to call out to us. Yet, we would rarely consider our diet a religious issue as the man in the story with the coffee cake did.
But that’s exactly what is going on in our second lesson for today from First Corinthians. The issue was not about losing weight, however, it was about losing faith. You see, most of the meat available at the local butcher shops was leftover from sacrificial ceremonies in pagan temples. What do you do with all those sacrificed animals? You sell it for meat. Therefore, trying to find non-pagan meat was difficult. It’s not like your waitress would say to you, “Hamburger, and a large Coke, okay...oh, did you want that burger pagan or non-pagan?” It would be kind of like trying to find a meatless steak at Sizzler—believe me, I know how difficult that can be. Non-pagan meat was simply hard to come by. But according to the Jerusalem agreement (Acts 15:29) Gentile Christians were supposed to abstain from meat sacrificed to these gods because it was considered idolatry.
Now this may sound like a little technicality, a silly issue to you and me. But to the Christians in Corinth, it was a huge matter. Corinth, you must understand, was a dominantly pagan city. The Christians were the minority in this culture. It was a large metropolitan area in the center Greece that was known for its wealth and its impropriety. On a hill overlooking the city, there was a temple dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. It is said that there were about a thousand prostitutes who worked out of the temple. And in addition to the prostitution, there was an abundance of alcohol abuse. Indeed, Corinth was “Sin City” in those days.
Many Christians in Corinth were converts from paganism. And for them, to eat meat which had been sacrificed to the pagan idols was a big struggle. It made them feel like they were slipping back into their old religion—that they were moving away from the God of Israel and back into their pagan ways. And of course, being a Christian requires that you give all your allegiance to God, not to any “false gods” and certainly not to any idols of the pagan religions. To do this, the Christian converts simply had to stay away from all thing pagan, including the bargains at the pagan meat counter.
Meanwhile, however, there was another group of Christians in Corinth. They believed they had every right to eat this meat. Why? Because, they claimed, these idols do not really exist, only God does. So, therefore, food sacrificed to them has not meaning. There is only one God, so what’s the problem? “We can eat it and it doesn’t compromise our faith one bit!” they argued. Since they were so strong in their faith, they didn’t have the issues with pagan meat that the new Christians did.
So all of this led to a division in the Christian church. Can you imagine that— Christians having differing opinion about matters of faith? Indeed, Christians have always had trouble navigating the do-s and don’t-s of the faith. So the Apostle Paul is called upon to help them figure out how to solve this disagreement. That’s what today’s scripture is: a letter Paul wrote to these Christians of Corinth. He explains that yes, the strong Christians are right: the idols don’t exist and since there is only one God, there is no real harm in eating this food. But he goes on to explain that they are also wrong. Because they are eating meat sacrificed to idols, and oftentimes they are eating it right in the pagan temples, they are leading others astray. These new Christians see them doing so and feel that perhaps it is okay to stray from the Christian faith and return to pagan worship. So, Paul plainly states: by having such great knowledge, by being right, you are wrong because you are leading people astray. Thus—and I love this part—he arrives at a vegetarian conclusion to the problem. He writes: “If food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.” Isn’t that great?
But actually, I must admit, the modern application of this teaching has nothing to do with meat. We no longer have the issue of meat sacrificed to idols. But we do still face the issue of the secular world being pressing in on our Christian faith, just as the Corinthians did. What worldly activities can we safely participate in without compromising our faith?
What we must remember is that what’s okay for you might not be okay for someone else. So Paul urges us to really examine what we do. “Are my behaviors becoming of a Christian?” We must ask ourselves. “How does it look to others? Might it lead them to stray from their faith?”
But then you may say that if we refrain from every activity that might lead someone into sin, we’d end up locked away doing nothing and then we’d have no ability to witness to the Gospel! And Paul would have agreed with that. We are bound to offend someone at some point, even if we are trying not to. So are there some hard and fast rules about what we can and cannot do as Christians so that if we just stick to them we’ll be okay? If only it were that easy! Paul believed that each Christian should use his or her own judgment on these matters. “Let everyone be convinced in their own mind.” He writes in Romans 14:5. In each circumstance of life, we are to be sensitive to the needs of others around us and make a judgment call about what behaviors would be appropriate to engage in and what would not be.
Really, what this all boils down to is love. “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” If we go around smugly doing what we believe is theologically and morally permissible based upon our great wealth of knowledge, we could be hurting others in the process. Exercising our rights as a Christian could well wrong another. It is not being right that counts—for there are times when being right is wrong. What is important is our love and concern for others, especially others who do not share our values and perspectives. God deals so graciously with us; and so in turn, we are to be gracious toward others.
The only problem with this is that love is difficult. There is a Buddhist saying that goes: “He who loves 50 people has 50 woes. He who loves no one has no woes.” So love is woe? I’m afraid so.
We have trouble loving. It’s hard to love others and it’s hard to love ourselves. The spiritual teacher Pema Chodron wrote: “The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes.” His point is that to be open and loving with others requires being open and loving with ourselves—looking upon ourselves as God looks upon us.
When we can do this, we find that love is joy. It is the whole thing. When we come to die and we look back at our lives, what we’ll be able to hold onto is the love we have given and received. Everything else pales in comparison. That’s why Jesus came to show us how to love. And that’s why Paul urges us to use our Christian freedom in a way that is loving. Even though we have to curb our behavior, it is worth it. What matters is not how much we know, but how much we love.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
© 2009 Laura E. Gentry
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