Year B, Epiphany 4 1 Corinthians 8
Often times we read scripture and it’s
easy to see how it relates to our life.
But today’s readings seem completely irrelevant to us. In the Gospel reading, Jesus exorcized a
demon from a man…not something we encounter much today. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, Paul
addressed the big argument over meat sacrificed to idols. Now, I have had a few people tell me they
thought they were possessed. It’s rare,
but it happens. But I have never once had
someone express concern over meat being sacrificed to idols.
Yet, like so much of the Bible, there
is more to these stories than meets the eye.
In fact, I would venture to say that this part of Paul’s letter to the
Corinthians is probably one of the most relevant things that Paul tells us for
our lives today.
To understand why that is true, it is
helpful to know a little about Corinth and the Corinthian people. At the time when Paul was writing his letter,
Corinth was a diverse and cultured urban center. Most of the people were not Jewish. Thus when they became followers of Christ,
they were converting to a very different way of life. For the Jewish converts, it was an easier
transition.
Corinth
was an epicenter of pagan worship. You
go to Hampton to sail and eat crabs. You
went to Corinth to be in a community of people who worshipped multiple gods and
did it in a fairly big way. While the
Christian community was growing, it was still a small community and one that
was fairly new. These people were just
learning about Jesus. It was unlikely
that there was a central place for Christian discourse. The various small groups of Christians most
likely lived in different parts of the city and then came together once a week
for common worship. The new Christians
(and they probably did not even call themselves Christian at this point) were
very different from one another. Some were wealthy and well educated. Some were not.
The issue that Paul was addressing was
meat that was offered to idols as a sacrifice.
You might wonder how big of an issue this could possibly be. If you don’t want to eat meat sacrificed to
idols, don’t go to the temple. However,
it was not always clear where meat came from.
After an animal was sacrificed, some of it would be burned, but the left
overs were often sold in the market. And
unlike our grocery store, there were no packages or signs telling you where the
meat was coming from. It didn’t say:
“grass fed”, “organic”, “local” or “sacrificed to idols.”
Some
people thought it would be safer to avoid all meat together. That way they could be sure that they were not
inadvertently part of any idol worship, which kind of makes sense. But there were other people who ate whatever
meat they wanted to. They would even
attend pagan ceremonies and eat the meat they knew had been sacrificed. They
figured that since these gods weren’t real anyways, what difference did it make
if they ate meat offered to these fake gods—these false idols? This created
tension between those who were eating the meat and those who were not.
The issue itself is not relevant to
us. The way Paul addressed the issue and
encouraged the Corinthians to handle it is absolutely relevant. First of all, Paul never pretended to be
unbiased or neutral. He agreed with the argument that since there was only one
God, then it was pointless to worry about what food is or is not sacrificed to
those fake gods. He even complimented
the people who had used that argument- for their knowledge and religious
understanding. But he then added that
there are some people who simply aren’t there yet. They might not have the same
education. They might have a different background where they were more attached
to pagan rituals-- making it more difficult to completely ignore where the meat
came from. For those new Christians, it would have been deeply distressing to
see other Christians doing something that seemed un-Christian to them. He concluded by asking, is it really worth it
to eat meat if you are going to destroy your sister or brother in Christ?
What is interesting is that he didn’t
dismiss those who felt they could not eat meat. It’s true he labeled them as
“weak,” but I don’t think he meant it as an insult. Because in the end, he chose to associate
himself with the weak by promising not to eat meat. While he didn’t agree with them, he felt that
it was more important to love them and support them, rather than prove he was
right. He did this because he thought it
would help them become better Christians instead of encouraging them to return
to their idol worshipping ways.
It’s easy to read this and conclude
that Paul was simply trying to keep this fledgling community together by
convincing people not to offend one another.
But that’s not the case. If he
simply didn’t want to offend, he would have encouraged them to stop talking
about it, or to stop eating together.
That would have solved it, right?
Just stop eating meals together and you don’t have to worry about what
everyone is eating. But Paul knew that
sharing a meal was critical in a Christian community. It’s what Jesus did with
his disciples. And it’s one of the last
things he asked of his disciples. And
let’s not forget, Paul never worried about offending people. He said some
terribly offensive things. Paul’s
letters were consistently encouraging the church to be a place to talk about
hard things.
That is something I fear we have
lost. We have a really hard time talking
about hard things. We do it when we have
to. But we also avoid it as much as we
can. And if the church isn’t a place to
have difficult conversations, where are we having them? Social media?? The
News? We all watch different news
channels. There are rarely differing
opinions unless it’s the token conservative or token liberal. There is no real
conversation happening in the places where we often turn for news and
information. Instead community is torn
apart by bickering and misunderstanding one another.
If the church doesn’t talk about hard
things like racism, homophobia, sexism, government, mask wearing…then who
is? We are leaving these important
conversations to social influencers on Instagram who are far more interested in
selling us something than creating or maintaining a community.
Paul wasn’t worried about offending
people because he knew the Christian community was strong enough to have
arguments and disagreements. What he was
afraid of was alienating people which might lead them back to idol
worship. In the church, when we alienate
people, they don’t usually turn to idol worship, not literally at least. However it’s still something we try to
avoid.
How do we have these hard conversations
without alienating people? I struggle with this, especially lately. But I have seen it happen. I saw it with our Sacred Ground series where Democrats
and Republicans talked about politics.
Some people’s feelings got hurt and that was regretful, but to their
credit, no one walked away from the conversation. Right now we have a commission of people
talking about the confederate memorial. There is a wide array of opinions, yet
they listen and speak respectfully and they are going to find a compromise. I
have no doubt about that.
This can work—but you have to stay at
the table, even when you are hurt and irritated, even when you think, “How
could a Christian possibly say that?” Because I can guarantee you, whatever
side you are on…there is some merit on the other side as well. We are called to love our enemies. That’s hard.
Let’s start by loving our friends or acquaintances who disagree with us.
Jesus doesn’t care who is right. He only
cares about how we love those we think are wrong. One way we do this is to stay
at the table.
Photo by Elliott Stallion
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