Sunday September 14, 2008

Rev. Robert L. Clark II

Romans 14:1-12

Romans 14:1-12

(14:1) Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling
over opinions. (14:2) Somebelieve in eating anything, while the weak eat only
vegetables. (14:3) Thosewho eat must not despise those who abstain, and those
who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed
them. (14:4) Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before
their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to
make them stand. (14:5) Somejudge one day to be better than another, while
others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds.
(14:6) Thosewho observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who
eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who
abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.(14:7) We do not live to
ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.(14:8) If we live, we live to the Lord, and if
we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the
Lord's.(14:9) For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of
both the dead and the living.(14:10) Why do you pass judgment on your brother or
sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand
before the judgment seat of God. (14:11) For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord,
every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God." (14:12) So
then, each of us will be accountable to God.

For several weeks now we have been carrying on a conversation with Paul concerning the living

of the Christ Life. The question Paul has been addressing is, ‘How are we, as Christian, to live

well together?’ What we have learned is that the Christ life is the life of love and it is guided by

one absolute uncompromising command, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all

your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ We call this the

love commandment.

It is the command to love without an ‘if’. It is ‘Love your neighbor’ not ‘Love your neighbor if

your neighbor is a nice person’ or ‘if your neighbor loves you in return’ or ‘if your neighbor
looks and behaves in a way that you find acceptable.’ and it is ‘Love the Lord your God’ not

“Love the Lord your God if your life is going the way you want it to.’

Under this command are many‘if this then that’ rules. For example: “If your enemy is hungry

thenoffer him or her food.” The Bible contains manyexamples of this sort of rule. They are

there to help us understand what love looks like in a variety of situation and under a variety of

conditions and they are only binding under those conditions and in those situations and then only

in as much as they are in line with the love commandment.

To help us understand this let’s take a closer look at one of these rules. Let’s take for our

example the rule that says, “Thou shall not kill”. As a sort of general principle no one would

question the validity of this rule. Most Christians will quickly agree that life is sacred and

therefore to be preserved. But is this always the case? There are many cases in the Biblewhere

taking a life is put forward as the right thing to do. Examples of times when the taking of life

might be justified include a soldier who takes the life of an enemy in battle, or the taking of a life

to preserve the moral order of the community as in Leviticus19:27 which says, “A man or a

woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be stoned to death, their

blood is upon them.”

Now as to that last example, how many of you sitting here today really believe thatmediums and

wizards should be put to death? Should we also put to death our children if they talk back to us?

How about those who commit adultery? Clearly something has changed. The conditions that

brought about the need for such harsh punishments no longer exist. We no longer live in small

homogeneous bands in which individualdifference poses a grave danger to the survival of the

entire community. Stoning a disobedient child can no longer be interpreted as the most loving

thing to do.
Does this mean that all of God’s laws have been abolished? Certainly not! God’s laws have not

been abolished but they have been fulfilled. This means the conditions which necessitated the

Laws of Moses have been fulfilled and a new condition has come into being. Through his life,

death and resurrection JesusChrist has liberated us not only from bondage to sin and death but

also from bondage to the Law. The perfect liberty that we enjoy in Christ is the result of the Law

which was once imposed from outside; now being written in the heart of each human being.

From God we now have one command , “ Love God with your whole being and love your

neighbor as yourself”. How we are to do this is largely a matter of conviction.

This being true, Paul tells us that we are to “Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the

purpose of quarreling over opinions.” There are some people who believe it is better not to eat

meat; others allow only certain types of meat, while others will gladly eat anything that is placed

before them. Who is right? The answer depends wholly on whom you ask. What is important is

that each believes that his or her choice is pleasing to God and that each honors the

commandment to love in dealing with the other. That means the vegetarian has no right to

criticize or judge me on moral grounds for eating pork chops and I have no right to judge my

beef eating friend whose stomach turns at the very thought of eating the flesh of a dead pig. God

has welcomed vegetarian and meat eater alike into the Body of Christ, how therefore can you or I

do otherwise? In a similar way different people have different ideas about what day is the best

day to worship; what kind of music should be used in a church service; or how and when one

should fast. Paul answers all of these questions with the same answer. It all depends on what

you believe is most pleasing to God.

His advice “Let all be fully convinced in their own minds.” Now this is a very important point,

one which is all too often overlooked. Moral decisions, decisions concerning right and wrong

are not to be made lightly. The living of a Christianlife requires careful consideration be given to
the basis of all moral convictions. We must examine our own conscience to be certain that we

are fully convinced that all of the convictions found thereare in line with the love commandment.

The question I must pose to myself in considering any action is as follows. “Is the action which I

am about to undertake one which demonstrates my love for God and neighbor?” Or “Is this the

most loving choice I can make?” Having asked the question we must then use every means

available to us to ascertain the answer. For a Christian the primary guide for making any moral

decision is scripture. As I said earlier, the Bible is full of examples of ‘ifthis than that’ rules.

Like, “If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat [then] you are no longer walking

in love.” (NRSV Romans 14:15) or “If another member of the church sins against you, [then] go

and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.” (NRSV Matthew 18:15). These and

other such ‘rules’ provide a good starting point but taken individually and out of context they are

not sufficient for the task of living a moral life. Basing our choices about how to live on a single

verse of the bible is like using a map of Massachusetts to plan a trip from Boston to Los Angeles.

It is not that the map is bad it is just that it doesn’t contain enough information to get us to

California and it won’t help much if we throw in maps of Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Colorado.

Planning a journey from Boston to Los Angeles requires using the full map of the United States.

The Bible is a road map from the life of sinto the life of love and if one wishes to make the

journey it is best to use the whole thing. To carry the analogy a bit further,remember that a map

is only as useful as one’s ability to understand it. The same is true of the Bible. It is not enough

to read the Bible; we must also endeavor to understand what we are reading. In the eighth

chapter of Acts,Phillip is directed by the Holy Spirit to approach the chariot of an Ethiopian

eunuch who as it happens is reading from the Prophet Isaiah. Doing as the Spirit directs Philip

asks the Ethiopian, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ to which he replies, ‘How can I,

unless someone guides me?’ (Acts 8:30-31) In order to understand the Scriptures and by
extension to understand how to make moral choices we need the help of other Christians. We

need to know how others have understood and lived out the love commandment. Still this is not

enough. To be fully convicted of our moral choices requires the application of two more means.

After consulting scripture and listening to the way scripture has been understood by others we

must then test whatever conclusion we draw from these sources against reason. In other words,

we must ask ourselves if it makes sense that this or that is the right course of action, the most

loving thing to do; is it an action which honors God and demonstrates our love for one another.

Then finally we must test our conviction against experience. As it plays out in the real world is

this a loving act? Some things sound great in theory but turn out badly in practice or as my father

was fond of saying, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” Having tested them by

means of scripture, tradition, reason, and experience one can become fully convicted of the

rightness of one’s actions and one can form for oneself rules for the living of the life of love.

What we cannot do is apply our rules to others. You choose to eat only vegetables. I chose to

add a few pork ribs to my diet. It is not my place to judge your choice nor is it your place to

judge mine. God has welcomed us both into the body of Christ. In Christ we have perfect

liberty.

Does this mean that for a Christian there are no moral rules? Are we to adopt an “if it feels good

do it” rule of life in which anything goes? God forbid! That is not what Paul is saying and it is

not what I am saying. There is one essential and unchanging rule for the living of the Christian

life that being the commandment to love and the first rule of Love is ‘do no harm’.