Vegetarians for Jesus!

(Author's note: As often happens, this coming Sunday has more than one great text assigned for reading in worship. Since I can't preach on all of them, what follows is something close to what I would preach if I were using the text from 1 Corinthians.)

At first glance, chapter 8 of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians sounds a little bit like a primer on pagan picnic etiquette. He talks a lot about food, idols, and "weak believers." Should you eat this food? How much? What kind? The whole passage can sound strange to modern, Western ears because Paul is addressing an ancient controversy. At the heart of his words, though, Paul offers pastoral and practical advice for a church working to live their faith daily. (That's actually most of Paul's intent in 1 Corinthians. One of the reasons I love it so much.)

The controversy at the heart of this passage is meat that has been offered to idols. Corinth was a religiously diverse city and most of the religions sacrificed animals in their ceremonies. Leftover meat from these ceremonies was usually sold in the public markets. The question Christians had was, "Are we offending God if we eat food that was first offered to idols?" Since many of the local church had converted from these religions, the question could be even more personal: "Can I eat dinner with my pagan relatives/friends if they serve meat?" (This same issue is behind Paul's comments on meat and veggies in Romans 14.)

Paul's answer is simple. "We know that 'no idol ... really exists'" (v. 4). Since there are no other gods, the meat was sacrificed to nothing and it doesn't have any spiritual or magical properties. It's just meat. And eating it doesn't harm us or God. Christians are free to eat whatever we want. 

But there's a "but."

Yes, we know this is just meat, but others may not. If someone sees you eating idol meat, will they think, "She must worship Jesus and Apollo. Maybe they're the same thing" or "I thought these Christians were different, but maybe not." Out of love for others, we must think about how our actions affect them. If eating meat keeps someone from knowing Jesus, then we should be vegetarians. Yes, we are free, Paul says, but what we do with that freedom matters. 

And it's on this point that this passage about an ancient controversy is still profoundly relevant for today. In the 21st century, individual rights are more common, expected, and celebrated than ever before. For those of us who are Christian and American, we have the freedom to live, think, say, and do pretty much whatever we want, both civically and spiritually.  But what we do with that freedom matters.

As a secular example, just because our freedom of speech means we can say or write something cruel or unfriendly, does that mean we should to prove a point? How does being mean in the name of freedom forward our democracy? In the same way, how does using our spiritual freedom to flaunt God’s generosity forward the Kingdom? Using Christian freedom to serve my own personal desires is just another form of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace."

After all, to act and live as if our freedom trumps any consequences is the same as saying, “Nothing we do matters. My actions make no difference.” And I’ve never known anyone who has told me they want their life to be meaningless or they want to leave this world having not done anything that matters. 

Part of what Paul is teaching is that the very thing that sets us free from needing to prove ourselves is also what makes our actions meaningful because we are part of a community. God's love sets us free, but our efforts to imitate that love bind us to each other, because love cannot exist in a vacuum. 

Years ago I heard a story of an American entertainer (Will Rogers, maybe?) who was at a social event and reaching for a beer when he saw some kids and thought, "They look up to me. What will my drinking mean to them?" He put the beer down, the story goes, and never drank publicly again. That story and Paul's advice to Corinth are often forefront in my mind as a pastor because I realize how I speak, act, and live affects how people see me, my faith, and my profession... and, in part, how they see God.

Like the Corinthian church of old, we are free to eat/say/do what we want, but we are also called to act with love in all we do. That can be a narrow or even hazy line to walk sometimes and I don't always know what is best in every situation, but as Paul points out, sometimes having the right answer isn't as important as having love in the attempt.

From the Gray,

Pastor Ari

“Give us days to be filled with small rebellions; senseless, brutal acts of kindness from us all.” -Jars of Clay, “Small Rebellions”

Always Being Made New (Pastor's Annual Report to Martin Luther Church)

(Note: This is the annual report I wrote for my congregation's annual meeting on January 26, 2014. I share it here for members of my community to find online and with the hope that others may find it useful in other congregations.)

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ: new creation! The old has passed away; the new has come to be.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, translation mine)

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) our national church body. To mark the occasion, this year’s triennial national assembly was convened under the theme “Always Being Made New.”  The theme was meant not just to celebrate our past, but to highlight that we are a church born from the Reformation and are always looking to the future and asking, “How is Jesus making us new now? What is the Spirit shaping us to be tomorrow?”

While these questions are always before us as Christians, they are especially apt for us at Martin Luther Church as we begin this new year. Our council and other leaders have been hard at work this past year in exploring new ways of being the church. We’ve moved to make Cross+Generational themes the center of our Christian Formation and VBS programs, successfully held a worship service at La Fuente Restaurant for Christmas, and are preparing to start a new worship service at 6pm on Sunday evenings. At the same time, our financial projection for the coming year continues a downward trend and the available resources to continue ministries (let alone plant new ones) are stretched to the limits.  

Our council is putting together a bold and broad agenda for the coming year of looking at everything we do as a church through the lens of our identified values and the 5 Cornerstones. Given the limitations before us, we are already asking some difficult questions about how to prioritize and possibly reduce certain areas in order for new fruit to come forward. These conversations are not easy, but they are a part of our constant renewal.  

The quotation I shared above is from the same passage that gave us the language adopted when we chose to become a RIC congregation, welcoming all people, and council has been using this passage as a focal point this year. Note how it speaks not just of new creation, but the passing away of old ways of being. This is core to the Christian life. Being alive in Christ means dying to our own ways. Being baptized into eternal life means drowning the “old creature” within us. There is never Easter without first confronting Good Friday. I read of a church that holds this before their members annually by asking, “What are we willing to give up in order to gain something new?”*

There are many exciting opportunities before us and I and council remain very positive about our long-term prospects. God has promised us new life eternally—which includes this year!—and I see that new life both in where this church has been and in where we are headed. As we seek that new life, we are challenged with these two questions: “How is Jesus making us new now?” and “What are we willing to give up in order to gain that new life?”  May God’s grace guide us always as we live as God’s new creation.

In God’s Amazing Grace,

Pastor Ari

*To be clear, not everything “old” is bad, nor is something good just because it’s “new.” But as Jesus says in John 15, healthy branches bear fruit. Renewal is asking, “Where is there fruit? Are there once-healthy branches that are no longer growing?”

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.” -Semisonic, "Closing Time"