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[TITLE SLIDE] Today, I'm afraid I don't have a light-hearted introduction to lead in with. And it really wouldn't be appropriate anyway for a topic so serious, which affects us all on a daily basis. Individually, and as a church, I think it's time that we put an end to this question from our epistle lesson, and once and for all finally figure out what the heck we're supposed to do with all this [MEAT] meat that's been sacrificed to idols!
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I mean it's getting out of control! You can't go to the grocery store, or even order in a pizza without having to make sure that all the ingredients are idol worship free. Right?
No? Nobody? Is our epistle lesson for today that far removed from modern society that the best we can do is see it as a historical account of problems that we no longer have? Maybe. Maybe not.
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Sure, the question of what a good Christians is supposed to do concerning food that has been sacrificed to idols, has for the most part, timed out at this point. Two thousand years later, five thousand miles across the ocean, that's a particular issue that no longer applies to us, true. However, at the same time, it feels like this idea, the [LIBERTY] Christian principals in play here, are more important than ever.
Which means that this is one of those sermons, that I get to really go full force on, not having to hold back out of fear of offending anyone who might be caught up in this sin of eating idol meat. And it's fun for you too because, we all get to nod our heads vigorously and say "Amen! Preach it!"
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Because it's easy to hop on board and condemn a sin which you've never even had the opportunity to commit! However there will come a point as this M. Night Shamalan-esk sermon comes to the twist, and you realize that not only am I not talking about idol meat anymore, maybe I never really was.
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But before we get there, we need a bit of history to understand the basic question in the context of the life of a Christian living in first century [CORINTH] Corinth. See for these new Christians, and new not only because they have newly converted to Christianity, but because Christianity itself was new. I mean this letter is written only about 20 years after Christ's death and resurrection, so they really are still figuring out the Christian life.
It was hard to be a Christian in Corinth at this time. Polytheism, the worship of many gods, is all around them. It's not just in religion, the Greek gods were an integral part of the culture. You really couldn't escape it. This leads to the issue of temple meat.
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In the temples, animals were sacrificed. People would bring animals to be sacrificed and then some of the meat would be eaten by people who came to worship. If there was extra left over, the temple would take the meat to the market and sell it at a cheap price. I mean, it didn't cost them anything, so it was all profit on their end.
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And people would buy this discounted meat, because, well everybody loves a bargain. Though this wasn't just a problem in the marketplace. If you wanted to do a little networking, schmoozing with the elite or the politicians, all that stuff often happened at these temples, with temple meat. Or if you went over to a non-Christian neighbor's house, there was a chance they had offered the food to their house idol.
So what's a good Christian to do about all this meat sacrificed and offered to a god which you don't believe in? By eating that food, are you somehow saying you believe in that god? Is that worship of that god?
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At some point, the church in Corinth writes to Paul and asks this question. It's a letter we don't have a copy of, but we see it in Paul's response. Apparently, they make the argument, that because these greek gods don't exist, the sacrifices to them don't really count. They are arguing that this meat sacrificed to idols is really no different than normal meat. And if it's really no different, then what's wrong with eating it? If it's good meat, at a good price, or even free at a festival, or shared in generosity while dining at a neighbor's table, why wouldn't they eat it?
Paul writes back and answers their questions telling them that they are absolutely correct, but they are absolutely wrong at the same time. He acknowledges and reiterates that they are right, [IDOLS] the idols do not represent real gods. There is no God but one. So it's true that meat sacrificed to an idol is nothing more than regular old meat. You can eat it and it does you no harm, you can choose not to eat it and it does you no better. It's just meat.
Unfortunately though, the issue is bigger than the meat. It's bigger than being right. What Paul is telling them is that they can be right, and still be wrong, because this is a seeing the forest for the trees issue. Something we need to step back and see the whole picture on.
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There were Corinthian Christians who had grown up believing in idol worship. And sure they had learned of the Gospel of Jesus and had converted, but when you have such a deeply rooted history in a belief, it's hard to completely let go of that. These former idol worshiping Christians wanted to leave their old ways behind. They wanted to put all that in the past and focus on the one true God.
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But when these Christians, who are struggling but overcoming, these incredibly determined yet still fragile Christians, who Paul perhaps unfortunately calls weak; when these Christians with all that history and baggage see their brothers and sisters eating this meat sacrificed to idols, it shakes them. They see respected Christians eating the temple food, doing this practice, which has all the connections for them with worshiping idols. They don't see it as simply discounted meat, they see it as Christians talking part in worship of other gods.
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And the knowledgeable, wise Christians writing to Paul probably want to defend themselves saying, "Well, that's not my fault. I'm not doing anything wrong. It's not my problem that those weak Christians can't get past their old hang-ups. Why should I have to change my "not doing anything wrong" behavior, just because they have a problem?"
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This is where Paul holds up [K & L] knowledge and love, and shows them which is more important. Sure, there's nothing actually wrong with eating the meat. But if a weak brother sees you do it, and is encouraged to do it himself, and then because of his history his conscience is vexed and he falls back into old habits and falls away from Christ, then you have become a stumbling block.
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And this is where Paul gets upset. However he is writing to an audience that is struggling with this issue so he has to approach it in a pastoral way. But nobody here is struggling with this right, so allow me to be The Apostle Paul's anger translator [PAINTING] for you and tell you what I think he really wants to write.
Dear Saints in Corinth. GET OVER THE LAMB CHOPS. In your freedom, because you think you know the truth, because you are so puffed up in your superior comprehension, your "knowledge" of spiritual matters, you have broken your weaker brothers in Christ. You think you're right about this? You think you are justified in your actions, just because you are correct?
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
That's not knowledge, that's arrogance. That is the pride that is poison to one's soul. How dare you willingly, knowingly, put yourself as a stumbling block in the way of a brother in Christ who you know is weak, and needs you to help bolster their faith, not be a burden on their conscience.
I hope your "knowledge" makes you happy, because you have destroyed your brother. But Paul doesn't stop there, no he goes in for the kill. You have destroyed this person, this person who seems to you less important than meat, yet to Christ was important enough to die for. And just in case Paul has not yet plunged the knife deep enough, he twists it again saying, [TEXT] "Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ."
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Paul's raw emotion here comes from a place of experience. Paul knows what it's like to destroy a believer in Christ. Paul knows that in doing so, we are not just sinning against the person, we are sinning against Christ himself.
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.
Perhaps no one knows this lesson better than Paul, who persecuted and caused the death of many Christians before his own conversion. Remember Paul's encounter with Christ after the resurrection, where as he was traveling on the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to Paul and said not, "why do you persecute my followers" no, Christ said to him, "Why do you persecute me?"
Concordia Commentary: 1 Corinthians Introduction to Chapter 8
A more ambiguous situation was provided by the great courtyard surrounding the fountain of Lerna, a pleasant place for relaxation attached to the sanctuary of Asclepios. Under the sanctuary’s main building have been found three dining rooms opening onto the courtyard. Because Lerna was such a desirable public place, it is likely that some Christians in Corinth would have defended their right to eat there, whether of their own accord or in response to an invitation. As Gooch concludes: “Even if there was unanimity concerning the wrongfulness of sharing in the table of demons [1 Cor 10:20–21] (as in the case of a meal in the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore), the dining rooms of Lerna would present an awkward case.”
As in the case of those initiating lawsuits against their less privileged “brothers” (1 Cor 6:1–8), it may have been the more affluent members of the congregation for whom the Lerna restaurant presented a special temptation. They “would have been invited to meals in such places as a regular part of their social life, to celebrate birthdays, weddings, healings attributed to the god, or other important occasions. … Their public and professional duties virtually required the networking that occurred through attending and sponsoring such events.” The poor, on the other hand, probably had access to meat only at public religious festivals where meat was distributed to everyone. For them, the eating of meat may have taken on “numinous” connotations.
Finally we need to mention the dilemma facing the Christian who was invited to a meal in the home of a non-Christian. While it appears that many meals in pagan homes were not accompanied by religious rites, it was particularly at special celebrations like feasts in honor of the gods, weddings, birthdays
And so Paul concludes his instruction saying to them, [TEXT] "Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, [then] I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble."
I setup a meeting with Nancy to meet with me a week later, while she was here after the Hamlett Bible Study. I asked her to come in to discuss Altar Guild plans for Lent, and to tell me more about the gum she found and the note she left for the praise band.
And this is where I tell you to just stop eating all that idol meat and we can all go on to the voters meeting as a happy Christian family that none of this applies to. ha. If only it were so simple. The problem is that what Paul is really talking about isn't temple meat. That's not the issue. Just look at his last sentence there. Paul makes that twist from food making a brother stumble, to [RED] I make my brother stumble. That's what Paul's really talking about here.
At our meeting today (1/18), Nancy explained that they found the gum stuck to the corner of the windowsill while cleaning before the Christmas decorations went up, and she left the note on the windowsill then. (Justin did not see it until after he returned from vacation, at which point the rest of the praise band had also seen it and John Larker had talked with Nancy about it.) I suggested that it seemed more likely that it was a child than an adult in the praise band who left the gum. She agreed, and told me that she thought perhaps it was one of the kids in the praise band. I replied that Claire Qua seems like the absolute last person, adult or youth, whom I would think would stick up gum in the church! I suggested that perhaps it was more likely to have been younger children, maybe the preschool kids as they took pictures next to the Christmas tree after their program.
Paul himself doesn't want to be a stumbling block. Paul himself doesn't want to cause his brother to sin, or to fall away, or even to simply get tripped up. Paul is willing to curb his own behavior, much further than he legally has to, if by doing so he can help protect even the weakest of brothers. For what is the purpose of strength, if it is not to protect the weak?
And the trouble with preaching on this text, is that it's impossible for me to tell you exactly how to apply it to your life. How you keep yourself from becoming a [CROSS] stumbling block to those around you.
Maybe it plays out in your life in a similar physical way to what we see in Corinth. Perhaps you have a friend or family member who struggles with addition to alcohol. Now us Lutherans we tend to like and even merrily joke about our Christian freedom to enjoy a Lutheran beverage here or there. But whether it's temple meat or a beer, if our brother suffers from that temptation, we must not exercise our freedom in a way that could harm him.
Or maybe many of us see this rule play out in our lives in terms of that "certainty of knowledge" Paul talks about. I don't know, maybe I'm just a stubborn Lutheran pastor, but when I know I'm right on something, I want to dig my heels in, and stand unwavering on that truth. The problem is, this stubbornness doesn't usually help bring the other person around, it just causes a deeper rift between two people of faith. What good is it for me to be right and win the argument, if the other person looks at me and says, that's how a Christian is supposed to act and show love? I mean, talk about winning a battle, but losing the war.
What Paul wants us to know is that sometimes being right is not what matters. Showing love, caring for each other, triumphs over "knowledge" every time. And it shouldn't surprise us that Paul says this. We are so familiar with first Corinthians 13, but hear these first three verse in light of today's love of compassion, [TEXT] "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
Take it from a guy who spent four years studying at the seminary, you can't study your way into the Christian life. Knowledge will not get you there. But love will. Knowledge is always left standing outside, looking in at love. Loving God, and loving your brothers and sisters in Christ will always be greater spiritual wisdom than knowing God or knowing your neighbor. [LOVE] Love is greater than knowledge.
And if you don't believe me, and you don't believe Paul, take it from John who writes in "Anyone who does not love does not know God, [RED] because God is love."
Let love be the highest rule and guide for your interactions with each other. In everything that you do, treat each other with the love that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has shown to you. Amen.