Our country has long been a champion of individual rights
and freedoms with the Bill of Rights leading the way. Individualism is a big part of American
culture. There is a growing sense that acting outside of socially acceptable norms will be corrected by those who come
into contact with this behavior. Of
course, sometimes the offensive actions are ignored. Those who are lazier more tolerant may
think, “Let someone else police this jerk!”
There are certain freedoms we curtail individually on behalf
of the common good. Probably the most
well-known example is yelling “Fire” in a crowded building. We set a limitation on our freedom of speech
and expression. Falsely setting off
panic among a group of people is not deemed acceptable!
So the common good is an important part of society as well.
A good society balances individual rights along with the
good of the community.
This is what Paul is trying to do when he writes to the
Corinthians in today’s scripture. We may
not understand the whole “don’t eat meat” concept. Basically, most meat purchased in large
metropolitan areas in Paul’s day had been gleaned from animals that were
sacrificed in pagan temples. Some who
were “weak” would have had difficulty eating this meat because they would see
it as participation in the worship of a deity other than God.
Paul’s solution?
Abstinence.
Some would argue that this actually penalizes those who were
strong in the faith – in other words, those who didn’t see pagan influence over
their dinner plans. Why should we be
punished for the ignorant? It is not
fair!
And yet, we abstain because we have compassion for those who
would struggle with it. Paul is
indicating that our relationships are more important than our diet.
Individually, I would have the theological rationale or the right
to eat the meat. But Paul is bidding us
to curtail our appetites for the common good.
In a church, we band together to help one another.
A modern look at this might be how United Methodists serve
grape juice for Holy Communion instead of wine.
Jesus did use wine and it was fermented.
However, we refrain from the alcoholic version of grape juice in
consideration for those who need to have total abstinence from alcohol.
For those who declare that it is a more spiritually
validating experience to use real wine, using the logic of Paul from today’s
reading, he would say, “Get over it!” To
be spiritually strong is to be compassionate toward those who are having
difficulty. We give up our individual
rights out of a position of strength rather than weakness.
So if we think about it this way, if we are complaining
about something in church, does that mean we are spiritually weak?
In Christ,
Sam
Photo by muffinn via Flickr.com. Used under the Creative Commons license.
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