“Do love” RUMC 1-29-12

Listening to this passage from I Corinthians I wouldn’t blame you if the first question that came to your mind was “What does that have to do with me?”  I’ll admit that it has been a long time since I have been invited to a banquet at which they served meat that had been sacrificed to idols.  I have to admit that I don’t do the grocery shopping, but I don’t remember ever seeing idol meat in the meat counter at Trunks.  At first glance this passage just has very little to do with 21^st century Americans.  We have to look deeper.

Traditionally I would tell you that Corinth was the sin city of its day.  It was the busiest harbor on the Mediterranean Sea.  Corinth was the stopping over place for sailors and  traveling salesman from all over the empire.  This transient population attracted- what shall we call it an adult entertainment industry.  It is said that one could buy every kind of sexual perversion in Corinth.  The diversity of the population also brought an influence from a great variety of cultures. The markets, and theaters and interchange of ideas were rich in cultural diversity.  But so was the religious culture.  There were temples to nearly any kind of religion you could imagine.  One of the common practices among many of the religions was animal sacrifice.  Animals of various kinds prescribed by the tradition or by the priests were brought in and ceremonially slaughtered. Parts were sometimes burned; other parts were left after the sacrifice was finished.  Those were often considered property of the priest or sometimes the family who brought the sacrifice.  Apparently some was sold at market and I suppose the proceeds given to the priests.

Often the meat that had been sacrificed to the idols was consumed in a banquet, sometimes right there at the temple.  It was also fairly common to invite friends, neighbors and relatives to these feasts.

Hence the question from some of the Corinthian Christians “Is it OK to eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols.”  Apparently they proposed an answer to their own question. “There is only one God and these idols are merely pieces of wood, or stone, or ivory, maybe covered with gold, maybe not.  There is no truth or power in idol worship. The meat isn’t any different from other meat, so there is nothing wrong with eating meat sacrificed to idols.”

Paul replies in this chapter 8, “That is absolutely right.  Eating meat sacrificed to idols is not going to hurt you. But it is also will not help you.”  He says “we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.”

So far so good.  Right.?

HOWEVER… Paul writes “Be Careful HOWEVER.”   “Be Careful that the exercise of your rights do not become a stumbling block to the weak.”

Paul is thinking about how our behavior affects others.  He says you are absolutely right that you will not be hurt by eating meat sacrificed to idols.  But what about the people around you?

·        What happens if someone who is on the fence about the faith sees you eating in a temple, and thinks you are just a hypocrite so all Christians must be hypocrites?

·        What happens if there was a great sale on idol meat, so the wife picked up idol meat? You invite someone over to a barbecue, and they see the meat wrapper says  USDA PRIME IDOL MEAT.  They wrongly conclude that you endorse the worship of idols as well as Jesus and they begin to worship idols as well.

·        What happens if the new family in the neighborhood is looking for a church?  They see you bring home your groceries in bags from the market attached  to the idolatrous temple and they wrongly conclude that that is where you worship.

o   You may be right that you can eat in that temple, but is being seen in the temple a loving thing to do to the person trying to decide about whether to follow Christ or not? NO

o   You  may be right that the idol meat that was on sale is no different from the more expensive non-idol meat, but is it loving to serve it at the barbecue where it might be misconstrued as an endorsement of idol worship? PROBABLY NOT.

o   You may be right that shopping at the market attached to the temple is a good idea because their meat is fresher than the other markets.  But is it loving to let the neighbors misunderstand that? NO.

Paul says “If I have the choice between being right and doing love, I’ll chose love every time, even if it means that I never eat meat again.”   That is what he means in the very beginning of the passage when he says

§  Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 

§  Being right builds your ego- doing love builds the church.

If you have the choice between being right and doing love, chose love every time!

If you have the choice between being right in your heart and head, and doing love with your hands, chose love every time!

Chose doing love every time because our behavior matters.

Friends, you live in what pastors call the fishbowl.  We talk about living our lives in a fish bowl because living in the parsonage and especially in small towns; it seems someone is always watching us.

Politicians live in a fishbowl because there is always someone watching them, for the purpose of tripping them up.

School teachers live in a fishbowl because they are held to a high standard of conduct whether they are in or out of school.

Parents of small children live in a fishbowl, because there are always little ears and eyes on them.  Remember the old, old, commercial when the father lights up a cigarette and the son starts to do the same, and the voice over says “like father like son?”  Do you remember the first time your kids repeated something you said and you wish they hadn’t?  Yea that’s the fishbowl.

Paul is reminding us today that we all live in a spiritual fishbowl.

You might have all the faith in the world.  You might know the Bible forwards and backwards.  You might grasp theological truth better than anyone else.  You might be able to teach or preach better than anyone in the church, but

§  If our behavior causes one of our youth to think all Christians are hypocrites, or liars, or cheats; and since they don’t want to be a hypocrite, liar or cheat, they pull back from the faith, you are wrong in more ways than you are right.

§  If our behavior causes to someone without a church relationship, to say I don’t think I want to be part of that church.  You are wrong in more ways than you are right.

§  If our behavior is seen by your neighbor and reflects badly on Jesus.  You are wrong in more ways than you are right.

§  If our racy face book picture or post is seen by someone who then says “if that is OK for them it must be OK for me.”  You are wrong in more ways than you are right.

§  If our children hear the language we use and decide that it is OK for them to cuss the way their old dad does.  You are wrong in more ways than you are right.

You all know what I am talking about.

Our behavior matters, look at the damage our behavior can do to others.

Let’s take a look at it from the other side. How does the behavior of others affect us.

§  Were you ashamed of Westboro Baptist Church when they expressed their opinion about the Iraq war by protesting military funerals?  Most of us were ashamed of them.  You might have agreed with them politically, but their behavior reflected badly on all Christians.

§  Do you remember when killing abortion doctors was all the rage.  I hated that, in part because they would always come out with some crazy rationale that God told them to do that in order to stop the abortions.  How many people were turned off from God by that?

§  When a pastor is accused of sexual misconduct or theft how badly does that make you question your trust in the church.

§  When someone comes to me broken in part because of the way they were treated in a previous church, it is 10 times as hard to get them involved in a church again.

You might think that this passage about eating meat sacrificed to idols has nothing to do with 21^st century Christians, but it does.  Whether the issue is eating idol meat, our language, the way we treat others, or the way we spend our free time; what we do and what other people see us do matters… a lot.  It is really hard to go back and make up for those behaviors after that fact.

But rather than trying to go back and make up for the damage we have done, let me turn this inside out.  Rather than beat ourselves up and talk about the things we can’t do….  What if we let this passage remind us that our behavior can makes a difference—for good as well as for bad.

What if this passage were to remind us that we have a power to influence the lives of those around us for the better.

What if this passage reminds us that we have a great power to show Christ to those around us- simply by doing love.

So do love. . .  share your ability with someone who needs help, and when they offer to pay you, tell them, “No that’s what Christians do.”

So Do love… Share what you have with someone who is in need.  It might be money, a lawn mower, a blanket at a football game, a ride to the store or a doctor, a meal or anything else  and when they thank you tell them that’s what Jesus would do.

So do love… take a young person under your wing.  Teach them about your hobby, take them to a ball game, cheer them on at their soccer game, write them a note including your favorite Bible verse, encourage them and let them know you are glad to know them.  And don’t forget to say God bless you.

So do love… Pray for the unchurched.  And then put your prayers into action.  Invite them to a barbeque so they can meet some of your church friends.   Invite them to a concert at the church.  Take them a prayer bear or prayer shawl.  Be willing to listen to their doubts and fears and tell them that you will pray for them.

So do love… Find someone who is lonely and take them a plate of sugar cookies in the shape of a cross.  Find someone who is recovering from surgery and take them some flowers from your yard and write a scripture on the card.  Find a single mother who works her tail off  and give her a gas card and a devotion book.

So do love… you don’t have to know everything.

So do love… you don’t have to understand everything.

So do love… you don’t have to be perfect.

You just have to   do love. . .  because your behavior  matters in more ways than you can imagine.

Do love. . .  because what you do matters.

<<< Let God be in every word. Let God be in every thought. Let God be in and every loving move you make. >>>

<<<and they’ll know you are Christian by your love >>>

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