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"You Are What You Eat!" - Pastor Nieting |
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You Are What You Eat! January 29, 2006
1 Corinthians 8: 1-13 Pastor Mark Nieting
Four quick questions: How many of you love broccoli? (?) Is it good for you?
How many of you love fatty foods?
Are they good for you?
You??ve
heard the expression ?´you are what you eat.?? It??s as true for entire
countries as it is for individuals. Take the Pilgrims, for example.
They quickly found out that wheat?ñthe staple for proper English
families?ñ would not grow in Massachusetts. Corn grew just fine, but
back home in England, corn was what you fed to pigs. So the Pilgrims
copied the Pequot Indians and began to grow and even like eating corn.
But when their leader went back to England and made the case that corn
was good to eat, the English looked at him like he was recommending
eating dog food. It??s when Winthrop realized his people weren??t as
English as they used to be. It was one of the realities that fed
independence!
What you eat and how you eat it can define a
person. It??s as true today?ñ.when we struggle with junk food and
trans-fats as it was in Colonial America and in the Corinthian church
of the first century. 1st Corinthians is a New Testament book that
focuses on keeping a Christian community together and working in
harmony. While chapters 1-4 have general doctrinal remarks, chapters
5-12 deal with some very specific issues of how Christians live and
work and worship together.
Paul knows that he cannot be the
lawgiver and decision-maker for the disputes in every Christian
community in Greece, Asia Minor and Rome. For Paul, the natural law of
God??s creation and the Jewish laws of the Torah have been fulfilled in
the love of God through the coming, the life, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ?ñ.and ultimately, in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says that love
is the force that guides everything that we as Christians do. He
focuses much of what he says on the tension between individual
Christian freedom and the considerations of the entire body of Christ
AND how their decisions and practices reflected on the non-believing
community around them.
In today??s text, Paul addresses the
critical question of whether or not Christians should eat meat that has
been offered to idols. It??s important for us to realize that idol-food
was a big deal in first century Corinth?ñ.and actually most of the
ancient Mediterranean area.
The Corinthians were doing what
was done by people everywhere at the time. Meat from animals was
considered by pagans to be the pre-eminent gift from the gods and so
animals were offered in sacrifice and thanksgiving TO the gods by
different forms of ritual slaughter. Some of the animal was burned on
the altar (for the god) and the rest was distributed among the
participants or to the local community, mainly through the local meat
markets. It??s kind of gross, but it was very economical. You could get
much better deals on ?¨slightly used idol meat!?Æ
The practice
posed a tough problem for the Christians of Corinth. They didn??t want
to be associated with meat that had been sacrificed to Greek gods.
Given the choice, most of them would rather not have touched the stuff.
But it was tough to avoid since it would pop up at the local market or
at a neighbor??s barbeque or in a church covered dish supper. It was by
far the most common way people acquired meat. So, some of them didn??t
want to be identified with the pagan practices, and yet quite a few of
them believed that they had the freedom to do whatever they wanted?ñ.so
they bought it and ate it.
I suppose that a fairly close analogy
today would be that as good German Lutheran Christians we should be
free to have an October-fest with all the brats and cold beverages
Augie Busch can provide. We are free to do so, but does it reflect well
on us in the community in which we live and minister?
What??s a Christian to do?
From
what we can deduce from ?¨reading backwards?Æ into the text, some of the
Corinthian leaders must have written to Paul about the situation. Their
argument went most likely like this: There is only One God?ñso therefore
these Greco-Roman idols aren??t actually gods, so what should it matter
what we do with the meat offered to them, since there really isn??t a
?¨them!?Æ
I absolutely love how Paul begins dealing with this.
He agrees (verse 4) that idols really don??t exist?ñ.that they are
nothing but blocks of wood or stone and therefore, meat that is offered
to an idol is really offered to nothing. ?¨There is no God but one,?Æ
Paul says, and Jesus is Lord over all that is, so He has the power even
over food sacrificed to idols. In verse 8, Paul says, ?¨Food doesn??t
bring us near to God. We are no worse if we do not eat it and no better
if we do.?Æ Sounds like a done deal, right?
Wrong.
Problem
was, not everybody in Corinth had the knowledge Paul talks about. Like
British aristocrats who looked at corn and thought ?¨pig food,?Æ there
were Corinthian Christians who looked at idol-meat and thought ?¨pagan
poison.?Æ If they ate it, their consciences would be defiled. There were
also Christians who worried about their Christian witness: that the
world would not see them as differentiated from the pagans.
The
best course?ñthe best advice?ñ according to Paul to the Corinthians...was
to avoid eating it at all. Paul knew there was nothing really poisonous
about the stuff, but as a compassionate Christian brother, he didn??t
want to do anything to cause a brother or sister to stumble in their
faith. It??s right there, crystal clear, in verse 13: If what I eat
causes a brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again.
What
does Paul mean by this? You are what you eat. Or, in this case, you are
what you don??t eat. Paul??s refusal to eat meat shows that he values
love over knowledge. More than anything, instead of asserting his
freedom and showing his independence, which a more immature Christian
might do, Paul wants to behave in a way that nourishes, strengthens,
and builds up the entire Body of Christ.
Most of us modern,
Western Christians do not encounter the exact same conundrum faced by
the Corinthian Christians, but the principles are still the same.
Here??s
an example. About 25 years ago I had an uncle by marriage who was a
Lutheran pastor (not LCMS). Periodically he enjoyed meeting his friends
for lunch in an establishment where the sign on the door said ?¨No
shirt: No shoes: No service?Æ but the sign didn??t apply to the female
employees?ñ.if you catch my drift. He said he enjoyed wearing his
clerical collar and watching the expression on their faces. Now he may
have been ?¨Free in Christ?Æ to engage in such behavior, but was it good
for the body of Christ? Was it a good witness?
That story
reminds me of the difference between two of the visual arts, one being
in the ?¨good for us?Æ category and the other not?ñ..art and pornography.
As the old saying goes, it??s art if you can look at it with your
mother. Art won??t cause anyone to stumble, but pornography will. You
are what you eat?ñ..and sometimes it doesn??t hurt to go on a diet! And
how many of us ever believed the people who said they were buying one
of ?¨those magazines?Æ just to read the articles! You are what you eat!
?¨Knowledge
puffs up, but love builds up,?Æ says Paul to the Corinthians (8:1). By
focusing on the way of love, we can become a community in which people
who do have differences can get along. Paul himself focused on the
local community of Christians in Corinth, helping them to get along
with each other in love and helping them to present a unified message
to the community around them.
In today??s culture of global media
and global economy, followers of Jesus Christ have to pay attention to
much more than just our own neighborhoods. We love buying lettuce for
next to nothing, but do we consider who might be suffering so we can do
that? And a simple comment like that can divide us right down the
middle: some taking up for the cause of the sweat-shop farm workers and
others defending free-market economy and free trade.
In our
world today, Paul??s words in 1 Corinthians 8 means that we have to work
hard to develop a Christian community of love and care so that we can
work at developing such strong bonds with each other that we wouldn??t
think of creating any stumbling blocks for one another, no matter what.
It means placing the needs of others ahead of our own needs. It means
praying to understand those who think differently than we do, not just
praying that they will change their minds and come around to our point
of view. It means turning the other cheek rather than throwing another
stone. It means developing strong personal relationships with each
other and sharing Christian principles among ourselves, all so that we
can survive and grow as a family of faith.
You are what you
eat?ñ..God knows that and we do too. The devil, the world and our own
sinful flesh are happy to dish up a daily diet of junk food, some of it
physical, which is bad enough, and much of it emotional and spiritual.
God wants us to be well nourished and well balanced as the Body of
Christ. That??s why He gives us Jesus, the Bread of Life. That??s why He
offers us the ?¨Fruit of the Spirit: (Let??s see if we can remember the
Fruit of the Spirit. We??ve learned it before.) Love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. Now that??s a diet we can LIVE ON together!
We??ll
close on this. The Sunday School teacher asked, ?¨Now Johnny, tell me,
do you say your prayers before eating??Æ ?¨No, ma??am,?Æ the boy replied,
?¨We don??t have to. My mom is a good cook!?Æ
So is God?ñ.. let??s eat what HE SERVES!
Amen.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 April 2007 )
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