Readings:Romans 14 (NIV)
Church: Trinity on the 17 September
Minister: Rory Grant
14 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister[a]? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”[b]
12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.
- Morality vs ethics
- What is clean and unclean in our day?
- How does this apply to our politics at election time?
- What is the heart of our faith?
- Reference point is God’s love and acceptance x3:
- 3: the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them.
- 8-9 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
- 15: 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love.Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.
- Tolerance vs. Love
- Last few weeks we’ve been working through Paul’s vision of what it means to live a life where we are no longer conformed to the pattern of htis world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds.
- Sometimes the Bible is portrayed as a moralistic manual for life – a list of do’s and don’ts to get you into heaven and keep you out of hell
- Pau is not so interested in morals – what is right and what is wrong, but in ethics – how we behave towards one another and towards God.
- Right and wrong certainly feature, but the main thrust is ethical, not moral.
- How then, should we live?
- At this point in his letter to the church in Rome, Paul dives right into a moral controversy, in fact he dives into two: Is it right or wrong to eat food that has been sacrificed to idols? And, should the Sabbath be observed by the church as sacred?
- Eating idol-food, at least, seems to have been a widespread controversy in the early church. Paul also addresses this in his first letter to the church in Corinth, you can read about it in 1 Corinthians 8. Paul’s response was exactly the same as it is here: Our call to love our brothers and sisters for whom Christ died outweighs our moral convictions about what is right and wrong.
- This is all a bit academic and dry. Why are we splitting hairs between morals and ethics? Who cares about whether or not people eat food that’s been sacrificed to idols? It’s not like the temple of Athena on Theodosia Street is handing out free bacon butties at lunchtime today. In fact I can’t imagine there being a theological or moral controversy that would divide our church in this day and age.
- Maybe I can.
- In fact I’d be willing to bet, if betting weren’t morally despicable, that every single one of us could name at least three moral and theological controversies that could split our church right down the middle.
- Paul’s vision of a transformed life, and its implications for dealing with division and dissent in the church are just as relevant today as they were 2,000 years ago.
- So what does he have to say?
- On first galnce seems to be preaching tolerance: “3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does,” “6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.”
- Tolerance is held up as the highest virtue on our society. “I’m OK, you’re OK.” “Do whatever you want as long as no-one gets hurt.”
- That’s all very well, as far as it goes, but the problem with tolerance is this: it only ever requires us to tolerate each other. “I don’t like you, but I’ll put up with you.”
- However, Paul does not stop at tolerance, instead he calls us to a higher standard: the standard of love.
- You could read vv. 1-12 and stop short at tolerance, but vv. 13-15 put us face to face with one another, face to face with love.
- “13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.”
- It’s powerful. It’s confronting. It’s anything but easy, but this is what it means to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It’s no longer good enough for us to put up with each other and get on with our own thing. Instead, every choice we make, every action we take must be made and taken with this question in mind: “Am I acting with love towards my brothers and sisters in Christ?”
- Not because they’re wonderful, not because they’ve got everything figured out, but because they belong to God in love.
- That love we are called to give for one another, again and again, is referred back to the love that God first had for us
- 3: the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them.
- 8-9 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
- 15: 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.
- The Presbyterian Church is a broad church. Even here in Timaru we are a diverse bunch. Some of us are right some of the time, all of us are wrong at least once a week, but we belong to God and to one another in love. Do not become a stumbling block to your brother or your sister.
- Unfortunately it is at this point that our defence mechanisms usually kick in. “I’m just living out my faith, and living it to the Lord. It’s that other lot who cause all of the trouble.”
- It’s hard for us as human beings to see that the things we do hurt other people, even when we do them in good faith.
- Jesus saw this, didn’t he? Matthew 7:3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
- So next time you find yourself thinking “You’d have to be gullible to believe that”, or “How could you believe something that is so contrary to the Gospel”, stop. Take a breath. Remember that Christ died for this brother or sister. Jesus lives that all of us might live. Jesus is Lord and not one of us fully understands the mystery of the love that draws all of us to this place to worship at his feet.
- Our Presbyterian church in Aotearoa New Zealand is at its very best when we are genuinely loving toward people who hold different interpretations of our faith.\
- Our church is crippled when we sink to mere tolerance
- And we as people are at our very worst when we dig the trenches and go to war over issues that have no effect on how much God loves each and every one of us.
- These are strong words, I know, but they are no stronger than Paul’s wrods in v. 15 “If your brother or sister is distressed because of your actions, then you are no longer acting in love.”
- And these words are nowhere near as strong as the love that our Lord and Saviour has for each and every one of us. A love that overwflows, and brims over, and bursts forth, transforming lives and renewing minds.
- That’s really all that I’ve got to say, but there is something that I’d like you to do. When the offering plate comes around, there will also be a plate full of stones that follows behind.
- I’d like you to take one, and use it as a devotional aid this week
- These are not your regular devotional stones – you know the ones – small, round, smooth river stones. No, these are more like the stones that get into your shoe.
- I want you to take a stone and put it in your pocket or your purse for a week, and every time your hand finds it, I want you to pray for someone in our church that you have clashed with in the past. I want you to pray not that they will see the light and change to be more like you, but I want you to pray that you will be changed. Transformed by the renewing of your mind. That you will catch a glimpse of God’s love for that person, and that God’s love will spill over into your life, and you can love that person for who they are, just as God already does.
- Now, I could relate all of this to the election next week, but I don’t think it would be fair to have the whole congregation using their prayer stones for me.
