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In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our reading for today is taken from
Paul's first letter to the Corinthians
the eighth chapter
"Concerning food offered to idols
we know that all of us possess knowledge
this knowledge
puffs up
but love builds up.
If anyone imagines that he knows something
he does not yet know as he ought to know
but if anyone loves God he is known by God.
Therefore
as to the eating of food offered to idols
we know that in an idol has no real existence and that there is no god but
one
for although there are many so-called gods in heaven or on earth as indeed
there are many gods and many lords.
Yet for us there is one God
the Father
from whom are all things
and for we exist
and one Lord Jesus Christ
through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
However
not all possess this knowledge
but some through former association with idols
eat food as really offered to an idol and their conscience being weak is
defiled.
Food will not commend us to God we are no worse off if we do not eat and no
better off if we do
but take care that this right of yours
does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
For if anyone sees you who has knowledge eating in an idols temple
will he not be encouraged if his conscience is weak to eat food offered
to idols
and so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed
the brother for whom christ died.
Thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is
weak
you sin against Christ.
Therefore
if food makes my brother stumble
I will never eat meat
lest I make my brother stumble."
First Corinthians eight
verse thirteen
"Therefore if food makes my brother stumble I will never eat meat
lest I make my brother
stumble."
So what's the problem here?
The problem is that in the ancient world
the temples were often the places
that handled
meat distribution.
People would bring their sacrifices to the temples
and the priest would take those animals and sacrifice them
and then a portion of the animal would be burnt as a burnt offering but the
remainder would be then used by the priests, part of it given back to the
person brought the sacrifice
and the rest of it made available for sale to the community.
Some temples even would have
dining areas where people could stop by and
have a sandwich.
So the pagan temples were really the McDonald's of the day.
And I've created a problem for the christians at that time
because it raised the question is it right to keep meat that has been
offered to idols or isn't it?
Now it seems that Paul's answer this question is
"it depends".
Paul knows that
pagan
gods don't exist.
There's nothing wrong with the meat itself
so with full knowledge and in christian liberty
Paul considers himself free to go and have a hamburger
and even have ketchup
and mustard and onions and other stuff on it as well if he so chooses.
But there's more involved than just
that
because others may be watching,
watching Paul and what he's doing and what does it mean for those who are
watching him. How did they interpret it
and is it possible that by his exercise of his freedom
others might be lead in to sin.
Well granted on the surface of this, this becomes a difficult
text for us to deal with in the twenty first century
because it seems so distant. It's not a problem in our lives. The
grocery stores are not selling meat that has been sacrificed idols.
So let me change the
setting, do contextualization as we might call it.
And rather than talk about meat
let's talk about alcohol.
That should get your interest.
The first parish that I served
as a pastor was a dual parish
and the larger of the congregations was in a dry
township.
That was not commentary on rainfall,
it was the fact that in this township
one could not buy or sell alcohol.
Prohibition had never been repealed in this area.
The community had a strong pietistic methodist christ church,
church of disciples of christ background
and so in that setting
the congregation that I served too was
very sensitive
about issues regarding alcohol.
Now in my freedom as a christian I could have
on a blistering hot
summer afternoon
in this uncontrollably
unbelievably humid environment
gotten a lawn chair, sat out on my front lawn and had a beer
and done so without sin.
But what if
while I'm out there sunning myself
somebody drives by in a car
who happens to be from one of those communities which looks at alcohol as a
sin
or what if and this is an absolute certainty, what if the little old lady
who lived across the street in the white frame house
who knew our every move meticulously from careful observation over the months
that we had lived there,
would've looked out the dining room window and seeing the pastor
on the front lawn drinking a beer.
Why that news would have traveled through that community
in the early nineteen eighties faster than a facebook
post.
And what would I've done?
I would've led
people into sin
because what would have happened?
There would have been slander.
'Did you see what that Lutheran pastor was doing out on his lawn?'
There would've been gossip.
'Well if he's doing that kind of thing in public imagine what he would do in
private. I'll bet he even drinks
on Sundays.'
And worse yet maybe one of those driving past
would now be
tempted seeing a pastor actually consuming alcohol
decide to test it himself and violate
his own conscience
because he believed that it was wrong.
Well other communities are different.
The second call that I had was to a parish only seventy miles straight west
and the property committee made up mostly of farmers came over
in their gooseneck trailers to move us
and they filled that all up and by the way it was a move in which no plate was
broken or
tables scratched. They did in excellent job.
As they were unloading into the new parsonage
one of the property committee members, an officer of the congregation, reached into
a cooler and brought out a beer and said 'here pastor do you want one?'
I knew right away I was in a different community
with different morals.
Afterwards I learned that had I declined that offer
I would've cause no small amount
of offense.
Well what's the point? The point is not really about meat or really about alcohol
both of which could be abused
whether one is prone toward alcoholism
or high cholesterol.
The real question here is:
how much do I love my brother?
What am I willing to give up in order to protect my sister how much care will I take
to insure that nothing that I do would lead to either of them into sin.
For Paul this is a really serious matter
because you see in his context there are new christians who have just come
out of paganism
and having just come out of paganism they haven't quite yet freed themselves
from an understanding of these other gods having some kind of reality and so
they see Paul
sitting there at
the McDonald's of Diana
having a zeus burger with jupiter fries
and they thinking that zues still has some kind of reality after all
decide well
maybe if Paul can, well maybe there is something to this zues guy yet.
Maybe I can just take zues and jupiter and I'll put Jesus Christ together and we
could put them all into a into a new pantheon and suddenly
Paul's led
a brother in Christ
into idolatry.
Just two chapters later
Paul writes this
'what do I imply then
that food offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything?
No I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to god.
I do not want you to be participants with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of
the table of the Lord
and the table of demons.'
That gets us back to the beginning of this text
where we read
'knowledge puffs up
but love
builds up.'
If I get all puffed up in my knowledge of my christian liberty
there's the temptation that I might fail to love, I might use my liberty
in order to lead others into sin.
Now on a dry campus such as our own here this should lead to some very
interesting questions.
For example:
exercise of my freedom off-campus
as someone of age
would I ever tempt
or lead to someone underage
to sin?
If not by action then by
action against conscience.
Am I even concerned about this and if I'm not concerned about it
why am I not concerned about it?
Does my lack of concern show a failure to love?
For from Paul's perspective if food makes my brother stumble I'll never eat meat
let's I make my brother stumble.
Jesus is the one who had all knowledge and he did not having all knowledge
puff himself up
but instead used his all knowledge
on our behalf
and what did he give up
so that our sin could be removed?
He gave up his life itself
so that our loveless thoughts, deeds and words could be forgiven
and they are for Jesus sake forgiven
and this is the knowledge that we have
that does not puff us up
but instead by the Spirits power
leads us
in leading lives where the concern
for our brother and sister
becomes one of the most important things
about which we think.
I actually grew up
in an alcohol-free home.
My parents
did not drink.
The only time I ever saw my dad consuming alcoholic beverage except at
the Lord's supper at which he frequently attended
was when an older cousin of mine tricked him into drinking a mixed drink
and my dad was not happy.
Well for a long time I just thought my parents had it in against alcohol.
It wasn't until later that I learned that
my dad had a favorite uncle
a guy he liked to work with, a guy he admired.
He was a carpenter
but that favorite uncle
suffered from alcoholism
and he wound up losing his job
his wife
his children
everything.
He spent the last years of his life
in the county home, pickled.
My dad had it in for alcohol
because he wasn't going to let that happen
to anybody else that he loved.
He wasn't gonna let that happen
to his family
and if all it would take to help prevent that was abstaining
then abstain he would.
So that brings us back to
Paul's question for us today.
How much do we love our brothers and sisters?
What are we willing to give up
if it means protecting our brother
or keeping our sister safe? Think about it.