Today's Sermon

 

"Fragile Flames: The Gifts of Paul 9"

 

Romans 14:1-4
             Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. ²Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. ³Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. ⁴Who are you to pass judgement 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.

Romans 14:13-21
             13 Let us therefore no longer pass judgement on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another. ¹⁴I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. ¹⁵If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. ¹⁶So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval. ¹⁹Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual edification. ²⁰Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat; ²¹it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.

“Fragile Flames:  The Gifts of Paul 9”

            Each week, we invite candle lighters to process in during the opening hymn, the symbolism being that we come here not only to encounter the light, but that each of us carries the light within us.  That’s the theology of the ritual.  There’s a practical side to it—walk too fast, and the flame goes out; don’t raise the wick enough and you don’t have enough to burn.  The flame is fragile. 

            As they say in seminary, “That’ll preach.”

            In a windy world, it’s hard to keep our flames going.  Think of faith as flame.  There’s is a lot that threatens to blow it out from time to time.  Like many parents this past week, my mind and heart were on the start of a school year.  How hard must it be to go to school and hold onto your faith, keep that flame burning? At the least, you might want to hide that light just a little.  Does anyone need a refresher on peer pressure?

            Adult life isn’t so different.  That’s one of the more eye-opening realizations of growing up.  You all face an enormous amount of pressure to live outside your faith. I say “you” and not “we” but I don’t have to fully live in your world.  I get to be your teacher, and yes I have a life outside of here, and yes a church is a nonprofit organization like many others with all that brings, but I don’t have to face what you do in nearly the same measure.  You may no longer be in middle school, but you still experience plenty of pressures to go against your faith.  I’m not talking about disavowing your Christianity.  I’m talking about the countless streams of pressure to go against your values as someone who takes the teachings of Jesus seriously.  Our society is not exactly set up to reward generous, selfless, humble, morally courageous, fair and honest behavior.  The profit motive, which simply is—we don’t have to judge it in this moment—can pull us in directions we would not otherwise go if we were following our true light. It’s easy for me to speak of ideals in here, but you do have to do your jobs out there.  I use the term “job” broadly meaning functioning in society, paid employment or not.  There are a whole host of alternative north stars competing to be our light.

            Then there are the mere hardships of life which threaten our flames.  Life is hard.  In April of 2022, when things were pretty tough, Dan Rather, who I grew up watching on the evening news, posted this on the platform I believe was still Twitter: “There's a lot of pain and sadness in the world. And Twitter can be an endless doomscroll. So here's a challenge. Share a picture of something that brings you joy – a place, a person, a pet, a hobby, a favorite book. The more diversity the better. How many pictures can we get?”[1]  In the responses, you could tell just how hungry people were for something a little happier, a little lighter than what we were taking in every day.  There were pictures of loved ones and happy memories. There were events captured in a snapshot that were inspiring to people.  There were places not only beautiful, but that carried special meaning for people.  And, most importantly, there were lots of pictures of people’s dogs and cats.

            As I scrolled down, it wasn’t long however, before mixed in with the uplifting were heavier messages.  People used the opportunity to take advantage of a space where they knew would have a lot of eyes.  They shared all manner of struggles, and while some made direct asks, many just seemed to want to share their story in a place they knew it would be seen.  They shared diagnoses, job losses, intensely personal challenges, things they feared, people they were worried about.  It was not unlike what we do here each week in joys and concerns.  Most people don’t have a church anymore.  It was as if someone trusted had opened a door saying, “Tell me how you’re doing” and a flood of people rushed in saying, “Not so well.” 

            We carry a lot.  I want to honor that here, now, for all you do to just keep that flame you’ve got going. It’s fragile.  Paul, the author of Romans, with whom we’ve been journeying now for 9 sermons of mine said something that may encourage you if your flame is feeling fragile.  Paul’s a mystic, remember.  He recognizes his direct connection to the divine.  He hears God say to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”  Therefore, Paul concludes, “I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me…I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).  As it’s often paraphrased, “Wherever I am weak, Christ is strong.” You might need to hear that today.

            That’s not from Romans but a collection of letters we’ve cobbled together and called 2 Corinthians (12:9-10).  You might be thinking, well, why didn’t we do a series on that? Today’s passage from Romans is about dietary preferences!?  Mine are pretty simple:  I like donut holes.  I don’t eat them much.  I try not to stumble, but I like them.  Paul’s message in Romans, which many believe was his last writing, is about so much more than what you eat before one another.  It’s about how we treat one another. 

            He grounds this matter in the very practical question of how we manage difference in faith and cultural practices.  Remember, or learn for the first time—there’s no shame in that—that the early followers of Jesus were all Jews.  These early communities had to wrestle with what parts of their Jewish identity and practices were they going to retain, or more precisely, what portions of the Jewish tradition were they going to require converts to the Jesus movement to adopt. Some were holding onto various laws around food.  Some believed everything had now been made clean, acceptable to eat, others’ faith hangs on only eating vegetables.  These differences became real sources tension, with all kinds of subterfuge taking place even after agreements were made, teachers infiltrating each other’s communities, condemning their ways.

            This is how Paul handled it, by placing at the top the needs of the most fragile, at the top the commitment not to put anything in the path of another that might cause them to stumble.  So, if eating meat might threaten someone else’s faith, don’t eat it.  Their walk matters, and your small sacrifice is the least you can do to support it.  Paul believes it’s perfectly acceptable to eat meat from a religious standpoint, but he says “Never put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another,” (Romans 14:13).  He centers, as does Jesus by the way, the importance of not judging another’s practice. We don’t know the road others have traveled, nor what they’re carrying, so let them do whatever helps.  “Do not, for the sake of food,” he says, “destroy the work of God” (v. 19). 

            Here is the simple, but critical, and somewhat challenging gift Paul gives us today:  It’s not just about you.  He doesn’t say, “You don’t matter.”  We have some people who have been conditioned to believe that.  That’s a lie of the devil and we’re not here to pile on that.  It’s just that it’s not onlyabout you. We are called to care about the plight of others too.  Paul’s focus is on what it looks like to build loving, faithful communities in the midst of contexts that don’t share the faith, whether they be indifferent or outright hostile.  He says, to use plain English, “Hey, be careful with one another.”

            How careful are we being with each other?  Are we full of care or more interested in condemning the other of being full of, well, something else?  Do you want a secular summary of the gospel?  Be careful with one another, and constantly expand the circle of who gets included in the “one another.”  Paul grounds it in his religious experience.  He’s experienced a God who was careful with him, forgiving and transformative, personal and transformational.  Out of that experience, the lesson he takes away is, “Be careful with one another.”  Everyone’s trying to keep their flame going.  

            We have only one week to go on this journey with Paul.  This penultimate treasure we discover today is the importance of honoring not just that our own flames are fragile, but that everyone else’s is fragile too.  We are called to tend the flames of one another as our own, because the other’s is our own.  Maybe someone’s faith/flame is flickering in the wind.  Maybe someone’s has gone out altogether.  Maybe someone’s wick is dangerously low.  Lend a hand, shield them from what threatens, rekindle what you can, and walk beside them so you can both burn brighter.  Amen. 

[1]https://x.com/danrather/status/1513200806870151168?s=12&t=pS0GLEVu4wzl8fRTws0PGQ