Life Together: Peace-Seeking - Romans 14:13-15:6
After talking about bread Wednesday night, we might need to talk about healthy
eating and weight loss this morning, so let me tell you a story that
relates a scene from one a weight loss clinic.
At one meeting, the instructor held up an apple and a candy bar.
“What are the attributes of this apple,” she asked, “and how do
they relate to our diet?”
“It’s low in calories” and “It has lots of fiber,” were among the
most common answers.
She then detailed what was wrong with eating candy, and concluded,
“Apples are not only more healthful, but also less expensive. Do you know I paid fifty-five cents for this
candy bar?”
Everyone in the room stared at the forbidden treat the instructor
held in her hand. From the back of the
room a small voice spoke up, “I’ll give you seventy-five cents for it.”
We are in week six of our seven-week journey to rediscover what it
means to live “Life Together” as a Christian Community. We began the journey by being reminded by
Dietrich Bonheoffer that “Life Together” as a Christian Community is a gift of
God’s pure grace…and realizing that we need to recapture what it means to live
out this gift. We began by talking about
humility…realizing that we are not better than one another and realizing that
we are called to serve on another. We
then reflected on the importance of forgiveness, and how we need to be ready
and willing to forgive one another as we life this Life Together, and
remembering that the forgiveness that we seek from God is contingent upon the
forgiveness that we are willing to offer those that have wronged us. We realized that “Love” is central to how we
live Life Together. It is Love for God
and Love for one another that enables our humility and forgiveness. It is Love for God and Love for one another
that directs the other ways in which we are supposed to live out this Life
Together. It is Love that must direct
the last stop on our journey which was accountability…that we are called to
hold one another accountable in love…we are to offer correction to our brothers
and sisters in love, in a way that builds them up, and offers hope for a future
together. It is also love that should
lead us to this week’s consideration, “Peace-seeking.”
“Peace-seeking” is what our rather lengthy reading from Romans as
Paul talked about eating clean and unclean food is all about.
We need to remember that under Hebrew Law, there were a great deal
of regulations concerning what could and could not be eaten. Certain foods were clean, and others were
unclean. Among the unclean foods were
certain types of animals, among them and
animals that had been sacrificed in pagan rituals. Both of these were sold in the marketplaces
of Rome. Paul, and other Christians, had
come to the understanding that the food itself was not harmful, in was not
unclean…this came from some of Jesus’ teachings on what was considered clean
and unclean when it came to eating, as well as Peter’s vision when he was sent
to Cornelius’ home (Cornelius was a Gentile—a non-Jew).
In this church in Rome, then, were those who realized that foods
were not unclean and that they could eat any foods without compromising their
faith. The congregation also contained
folks who still adhered to the Jewish purity laws (remember that all of the
first Christians were Jewish). So, a
debate arose, because, evidently at some of their “covered-dish” dinners, Kosher
food was not being served. Folks were
serving meat that was considered unclean and expecting the folks who had a
problem with it to eat it anyway…and belittling them when they would not eat it
because they felt it would compromise their faith and loyalty to God.
Paul says, “Wait a minute guys, we’ve got to try and live in peace
with one another, it is not for us to force our food down their throats, it is
up to us to respect where they are in their faith journey.” To do otherwise is to practice arrogance, and
when we talked about humility, we learned that arrogance has no place in our
“Life Together.”
For Paul, and for us, we have to be about
building up the Body of Christ, the Church, in our Life Together. He tackles the issue again with the church in
Corinth:
“‘All things
are lawful,’ but not all things are beneficial.
‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things build up. Do not seek your own advantage, but that of
the other. Eat whatever is sold in the
meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience, for ‘the
earth and its fullness are the Lord’s.’
If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you are disposed to go, eat
whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of
conscience. But if someone says to you, ‘This
has been offered in sacrifice,’ then do not eat it, out of consideration for
the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—I mean the other’s
conscience, not your own….“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do
everything for the glory of God. Give no
offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please
everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so
that they may be saved.”[i]
I was
confronted with this personally during my time in Burlington. Many of you met my friend Joshua when he came
last fall and we sang “Brother” together during our Wednesday Night Worship
service. Joshua began attending St. Paul’s
as a young Christian growing in his faith.
As part of his faith journey he felt God leading him to be vegan. Now I like meat, and I believe that it is
okay to eat meat. For years I had had
the belief that when it relates to vegetarians and vegans is that it was fine
with them and if they wanted to eat that way, then that was on them. If they wanted a vegan dish at a meal then
they needed to take care of it themselves, I was going to fix meat. I also argued that if I was supposed to take
their dietary restrictions into practice when they came to my house, then they
ought to take mine into consideration when I visited them and offer me a
hamburger or steak. Now, you need to
know Joshua is the kind of person you can call on when you need help getting
something done, and if he can, he’ll be there to help. I had asked him to help me set up the
fellowship hall one day for one of our dinners.
During our time working he said, “You know, it’s funny I’m helping you
set for a meal where they are not serving anything that I can eat.” Talk about being hit between the eyes with
the revelation of my arrogant sinful attitude.
I began to learn how to prepare vegan or vegetarian meals if he was going
to be part of our gathering…and developed a willingness to eat vegan dishes he
would prepare.
The call to try and live in peace with our
brothers and sisters goes far beyond what foods we eat and do not eat with
them; it involves all aspects of our lives as we seek live into our Life
Together. This is something that, in the past, we have had to do even within
our own family. Our family has listened to Contemporary Christian Music in all
its forms for the last twenty years or so. We have boxes of CD's. It’s on our computer, on our phones, on our
Pandora and Spotify Playlists. We keep K-Love and now Air 1 set on our car
radios. Most mornings we have K-Love blasting through the house. We really enjoy the music and feel that it is
a valid means of praising and worshipping God. However, not all people feel
that way. There are some, in fact, who consider that music to be sinful or
blasphemous.
Some churches even teach their members to
view contemporary Christian music that way. I know that because my sister and
brother-in-law used to be members of one of those churches. They viewed it as wrong
and taught their children that to listen to that kind of music was wrong. For
them, any music with a drumbeat was considered sinful.
Now the question became, on the three or four
times a year when we would all get together, what do we do? Davey would be
excited about a new song and want to share it with his cousin, but I knew that
it would offend my sister and brother-in-law and would be against what they
were teaching my niece. So, I would explain to Davey that while we were with
them, that he could only listen to that music through his headphones and that
he couldn't ask his cousin to listen. When he asked, "why not? What's
wrong with the music?" I would tell him, "Nothing's wrong with the
music. Uncle Jason and Aunt Angela just don't approve of it, and don't want
Erin listening to it." Was that a compromise of our faith? No. I still
felt the music was okay, but the style of music is not critical to our
salvation, and is not a point to argue about, and if Davey had tried to sneak
an opportunity for Erin to listen to the music, he would have been causing her
to “stumble.”
The good news is Davey and Erin are able to
share the music they listen to now, as my sister and her husband left that
church almost 10 years ago, and since have started worshiping in congregations
that are less about the legalistic laws and more about loving God with all our
heart and soul and mind and loving our neighbor as ourselves...and guess
what...most of those congregations use contemporary music…and my brother-in-law
has played the drums in many of them.
To the Corinthians, Paul says, “Everything is
permissible, but not everything is beneficial.”
In our reading from Romans this morning, Paul puts it this way: “For the
kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit...Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual
upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of
food, destroy the work of God.
Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall
by what you eat; it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that
makes your brother or sister stumble.”
My brothers and sisters, we are called to
seek to live in peace with one another as we build up the body of Christ...and
sometimes that means not getting our way...it goes back to humility and
love. We have to love one another and be
willing to serve one another. That may
mean giving in or giving up on things that are not crucial to our faith. Food, drink, music, carpet color, dresses,
suits, the time and day of worship, and the list could go on and on and on of
things that people will argue about but are not crucial to our faith. What is crucial to our faith? The acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord
and Savior...and as our Lord what does Christ tell us it is important to
do? The Great Commandments: “Love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind
and with all your strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.” The Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded
you. And remember, I am with you always,
to the end of the age.”
Anything other than these commandments and
this commission are extra. If someone
was to tell us that it was not important that we love God and love our
neighbor, then yes, there is a place for contention. If someone were to say that we should not
take the Gospel to a certain group of people, then yes, we might argue. If someone were to say that Christ’s life and
teachings are irrelevant and worthless, then we can draw a line in the sand and
not bend. However, on anything else, it
is not important enough to risk doing damage to the Body of Christ. Arguments do not build up, they tear
down. We are not gathered in the name of
Prince of Division, but in the name of the Prince of Peace, and we need to seek
to live our Life Together in that Peace.
My friends, as we prepare to sing our closing
hymn, I invite you to come forward, if the Spirit so moves you, and lay before
God any contentions we might have with one another, and when we leave the rail,
let us take with us a desire and commitment to experience, a Life Together in
God’s peace, a peace which passes all understanding...
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[i]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard
Version. 1989 (1 Co
10:23-33). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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