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)
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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