Monday, February 2, 2015

Together with Love

Together with Love



                I spent my first summer in seminary as a chaplain resident at Baptist Princeton Hospital in Birmingham.  After an exciting spring semester, I was on a liturgical high after taking a couple of courses in liturgy and worship.  I especially looked forward to using the new prayer book I bought especially for the sick and dying.  I was ready to use these beautifully crafted prayers to help reveal the healing power of God’s love.  But my enthusiasm for prayers out of a book was met by some strange responses.      
                This most memorable response came one afternoon when I was making my rounds.  After offering once of those fancy prayers in my prayer book, she looked at me and asked, “Can you just read me something from your Bible?”  Like any good Episcopalian, I thumbed through the pages of my prayer book to find the Daily Office readings.  For those of you who don’t know, the Daily Office provides and index of scripture readings for everyday of the week. 
                On that particular day, the reading from the New Testament was taken from I Corinthians chapter 8.  Without giving it another thought, I turned in my Bible to the 8th chapter of Corinthians and began to read, “Now concerning food sacrificed to idols…”  And this is exactly the point when her eyes began to glaze over. 
When I finally finished reading she smiled at me and said, “How about a reading from one of the Psalms?”  When the woman saw that I was thumbing through my prayer book again to find the appointed psalm for the day, she politely said, “Pastor, Psalm 23 will be fine.  And end with a short prayer—one from you heart, not from that book.”  And that was the last time I carried my prayer book in public that summer. 
Even for those of us who don’t find ourselves on a hospital bed this morning, it is hard to see how this lesson from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians on eating meat offered to idols is relevant today.  I know I’ve only been in Selma for five months, but eating meat offered to idols doesn’t seem to be a current controversy.  But this was a real issue for real Christians that had real consequences.
In order to help us understand what God might want us to take away from today’s lesson it would be good to remember that St. Paul was the first church consultant.  Through his epistles or letters, Paul responded to particular issues or crises in particular communities of faith.  He admonished and encouraged churches all over the region in hopes of vibrant and healthy Christian communities.   
The church in Corinth was made up of primarily of wealthy, well-educated, sophisticated members of society.  These Christians were a part of the social elite and they wined and dined with the movers and shakers of the community.  Naturally, these Christians found themselves at a lot of banquets and celebrations.  And because Corinth was a pagan society much of the meat they ate at these gatherings had been sacrificed to idols.
There is a real dilemma for these Christians in Corinth.  Do they refrain from being a part of this society so that they don’t have to eat this meat, so that they can preserve their identity as Christians?  But if they remove themselves from society, how can they have any influence on the pagan community?  How can the work of God flow through this community without a church that is active in the community? 
But if they do engage with the community and go to these parties and eat this meat, what kind of message are they sending to new believers?  What kind of message are they sending to, as Paul calls them, the weaker Christians who are still trying to figure out their identity as members of Christ’s body?  
Paul first appeals to their intellect and basically says, “You are right.  There is no such thing as eating meat sacrificed to idols because we know that idols don’t exist—at least not to those of us who don’t believe in idols.”  But Paul continues and says, “But what good is it to be theologically correct if you lead new believers astray?”  You see, these new believers have been taught not to touch idol worship with a ten foot pole.  So for these new believers, anything that smells of idol worship is idol worship. 
In the end Paul says, “Even if you know you are right about this issue, don’t let it get in the way of your relationship with new believers.  If eating meat is a stumbling block for those who are still trying to figure out how to be Christians, then stop eating meat—not only for their sake but for Christ’s sake.”  Ultimately, Paul is trying to teach the Corinthians that building up the body of Christ is not about knowledge of the law and right belief.  Instead, building up the body of Christ is about sharing the knowledge of God’s grace and love.
A few years ago a prominent leader in the church said that his biggest fear for the church of the future was that too many in the church are focused on justice and not focused enough of on the righteousness of God.  Yes, this phrase is loaded with theological jargon that I need to unpack a little bit.  I think this person was trying to say that too many in the church are focused on being right and not focused enough on a relationship with God and each other.  Too many in the church are focused on being on the correct side of an issue as opposed to doing the hard work of bringing a diverse group of people together in the name of Christ.    
Ultimately, true justice, God’s justice happens when things are made right with God and each other.  As Christians, we are called to care less about the following the rules or the law and care more about reconciliation between God and neighbor, a reconciliation made possible through the blood of Christ.  If we focus on the reconciling love of God in Christ, then God’s justice will be revealed—it might take a while but God is making all things right through our relationship with Jesus Christ. 
But if we care too much about getting it right, then we can’t help but to create division.  If we care too much about being on the correct side of an issue, then all we are doing is drawing lines in the sand where there are winners and losers.  The body of Christ can handle differences in opinion and different ideas as long as we are committed to loving God and each other.  What the body of Christ can’t handle is finger pointing and drawing lines in the sand.
It has been well documented in the Selma Times Journal that the faith leaders in Selma are coming together to lead a Unity Walk on March 1st.  This walk is symbolic of the pastors and faith leaders of Selma joining together to establish honest and meaningful relationships.  We hope that these relationships will help further unite our city and help bear good fruit in a city with so much potential.
At our first gathering, we recognized that we aren't perfect, we won’t all agree on every issue.  The point of the group is not to agree on issues.  This group isn’t about fixing all of Selma’s problems.  It is not about what church has the correct agenda or the right solution to the problem.  The group is committed to building relationships in a common faith that believes God is not done with Selma, in a common faith that knows that Christ is making all the peoples of the earth one through his body and blood.

(photo courtesy of Selma Times Journal)

          Yesterday at the community quilting workshop that we hosted at St. Paul’s I overheard someone talking about how they weren’t sure if they were going to make a quilt square because they didn’t think they could make one that would be pretty enough for the unity quilt.  And the comment was made that a quilt isn’t perfect because of any one individual square.  A perfect quilt happens when it is sewn together with love.
          The church, the world, this community will never be perfect because of any one individual or idea or agenda or group.  Perfection is not attained because we possess the right knowledge about God or the church or government.  Instead, God is perfecting all of creation and his people through the one who loves us perfectly, through the one who willingly gave himself up to death for the life of the whole world, through the one who meets each one of us personally, not with a word of judgment but with a word of grace and compassion, through the one who is builds us up in love who, the one whom we call our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.     

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