Table of Peace

CEB Romans 14:1-12 Welcome the person who is weak in faith—but not in order to argue about differences of opinion. 2 One person believes in eating everything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Those who eat must not look down on the ones who don’t, and the ones who don’t eat must not judge the ones who do, because God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servants? They stand or fall before their own Lord (and they will stand, because the Lord has the power to make them stand). 5 One person considers some days to be more sacred than others, while another person considers all days to be the same. Each person must have their own convictions. 6 Someone who thinks that a day is sacred, thinks that way for the Lord. Those who eat, eat for the Lord, because they thank God. And those who don’t eat, don’t eat for the Lord, and they thank the Lord too. 7 We don’t live for ourselves and we don’t die for ourselves. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to God. 9 This is why Christ died and lived: so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 But why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you look down on your brother or sister? We all will stand in front of the judgment seat of God. 11 Because it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God. 12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

INTRO

This morning, we are continuing our sermon series called Come to the Table. Each week, we are exploring different aspects of the Eucharistic Table and our call to live out the theology of the table as we offer Christ to the World. This week, we will explore the peace found at the Eucharistic Table.

In today's political and economic divide, it can seem like a daunting task to think about peace or unity. Bringing people together with distinctive worldviews, economic classes, genders, and even cultural differences across the United States and certainly in the church is not an easy task. As in Paul’s day, so it is today. We use our liturgical practices, theological opinions, and scriptures as a means by which we judge the other. We point toward the practices of others, and because they are not like ours, we condemn them. We hurl judgment at others and say things like, “You can’t work on Sunday. It’s the Sabbath!” Some folks proclaim that if you don't worship in a (methodist, catholic, baptism, etc.) church, then "you are not a real Christian.” Some proclaim that if you eat meat on Fridays in Lent, then your faith is not deep.

This doesn't even include the other controversies that we are passionate about…whereby we portray our “opponents” as confused or not faithful. These issues are considered so significant that they sometimes serve as the basis for rejecting or removing oneself from the fellowship of the other, such as abortion, homosexuality, evolution vs. creationism, the ordination of women, the authority of scripture, and so on. We believe that one must live, love, learn, and believe like us in order to be a true Christian.

I firmly believe that we see more and more division in our churches today because of the society we live in. Increasingly, in our nation, we have become more and more politically divided and more and more socially divided. Should we wear masks or not? Should we get vaccinated or not? Who are you voting for to be the next President? Heck, even school board elections have become a dividing factor in our communities. Somehow, it’s as if we forget that none of us are perfect. We truly believe that a certain belief, interpretation, understanding, or side is “right” and the other is “wrong.”

Interestingly, our text this morning indicates that Paul has an opinion, and it's that those who worry about their food consumption are of weaker faith. Yet, Paul is giving examples of division. He is not casting judgment on who is of weaker or greater faith. Rather, Paul is using his own opinion as a rhetorical literary device. His opinion does not matter any more than any other person in relation to God’s acceptance and love for believers from all cultures. One should not set one’s own understanding of what is a proper response to the gospel as the norm or standards by which one judges all other responses.

Paul is not saying that political or doctrinal beliefs or morality should be ignored or that we should stop advocating our respective views. Rather, he is saying that the judgments that we make against others do not have the final say. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if we are Republican or Democrat or Independent. It doesn’t matter if we are a “traditionalist,” a “centrist,” or a “progressive.” What matters is that by God’s grace, we belong to God. As one theologian points out, “We argue for the right and struggle for the good, not for the sake of ourselves or our own opinions or identity—or even for the sake of the church, justice, or the good—but because we are moved by love and concern for every particular other, which is to say because in life and in death we belong to God.”

Have you ever heard the phrase "Be Sweet”? It is a phrase a parent might use when their child or someone they know says something negative or hurtful…."Be Sweet, Honey.” We can almost hear Paul picking up that Southern phrase in our text - “be sweet.” However, his language is much harsher and said with a deeper urgency. Stop fighting, stop hurting others, stop causing harm to the members of God's family. You see, while Paul is using the rhetorical strategy of “weak” versus “strong,” Paul believes that there is room for a variety of responses to the Gospel. Paul believed that different people who had different ways of living will respond to the gospel message differently. Paul believes that there is room in the gospel message for a diversity of responses. Those who attempt to enforce uniformity will destroy the unity that we seek in Jesus Christ.

How do we know when unity is being destroyed? It is when we begin to use the phrase “hate the sin, love the sinner.” Once those words have been uttered on our lips, we have already stopped seeing the other person as a child of God. The “sin” that we say that they have committed has already defined that person in our book. The personification of sin makes it easy to express disgust, revel in our disdain, and sit on a high horse of self-righteous opposition. We then divide among ourselves.

In middle school, I had this teacher that I hated. I could not stand their style of teaching…I sat in their class every day disgruntled until I met my friend Sean. We bounded over our mutual disdain for the teacher, and our hatred is where the bonds of friendship began. Thankfully, our friendship outgrew that mutuality. Yet, we see this happen not just in our schools, jobs, and friendship circles but also in the church. We seem to form communities with those who are in complete agreement with us. They have to hold our opinions, see the world our way, and believe like we do. Yet, the gospel and our scripture lesson constantly challenge the status quo of what we believe community ought to be - especially the church.

The words for those of us who build community based on our judgments of others are stark: “Who are you to judge someone else’s servants?” - “We don’t live for ourselves and we don’t die for ourselves.” We are called to live in community with others in such a way that it pushes us out of our comfort zones. God in Jesus Christ invites us to joyful obedience, which is an experience that has significance and purpose for our lives, both individually and corporately. It means that sometimes we have to discover and or rediscover that joy requires us to move out of our comfort zones; we have to be willing to try new things, embrace new things, and find hope in newness. This means we also have to be tolerant.

While our spiritual practices grow out of our convictions, we must also embrace the beauty of God’s diversity and look forward to the new experiences that those new to our community bring…from rituals, traditions, songs, and practices for part of growing in community is growing to love others in all their diversity. Yet, the question must be asked: how can we do this when our convictions collide with the other? The fundamental reason that believers cannot lord their convictions over the other is that there is but one Lord. If Christ is the Lord of both the dead and the living, if we really believe the mystery of faith “that Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again,” then he who is Lord of all and who has broken down the barriers between those who live and those who die. Surely, he can break down the barriers of our convictions. No matter where we stand, all are subjected to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Paul addresses not matters that bind us, such as those found in the apostles’ creed, but “disputable matters” - these are religious convictions that often divide us and our different interpretations of the meaning of scripture. The reformers such as Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant movement, encountered these “disputable matters” when they attempted to remove certain aspects of doctrine and worship of the Roman Catholic Church, which they thought to be unbiblical, and they attempted to retain elements that they believed to be legitimate expressions of their faith. Debates arose about what clergy should wear in worship, the use of candles, statues of saints, and so on. Luther, like Paul, suggests there are things that are inconsequential to the faith.

It is not for us to judge, to label, or to reject; Paul writes it is not our responsibility to decide who is in and who is out of the family of God; that judgment is not ours - it belongs to God and as Paul reminds us - there will be a day of reconning; a day when we will stand before God for judgment and quite honestly, only God can judge because it is only God who knows who we are and our hearts and only God who knows the hearts of others.

One commentary rightly notes: “The unity of the body of Christ does not require unity on all matters of doctrine and practice. It demands love and acceptance of those who, in good faith, have become convinced in their own minds that their view is consistent with Scripture and God’s “good, pleasing and perfect will” for their lives.”

Don’t you see? The Table of God is a place of sacrifice. We name this in the Eucharistic liturgy: “We offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us.” I believe that the sacrifice of praise is letting go of our regrets, our resentments, and our hardened hearts towards the other in favor of peaceful and right relationships. Our communion liturgy requires us to be in right relationship; in fact, it demands and calls for justice.

The liturgy pulls from the books of Luke and Isaiah. Hear the words of justice and peace: ”Your Spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to announce that the time had come when you would save your people."

Peace begins by acknowledging your own beliefs and being strong in your own convictions while also caring about the other. The true mark of strong convictions is when you do not have to “win” someone over through arguments using theology, scripture, and so forth, but through love. It means that we reserve judgment for God rather than become the judger. It means we open ourselves to do the work of forming relationships with those who are different than us, just as Jesus did when he ate with sinners, the oppressed, the hungry, the outcast, and the marginalized of society.

You see, the peace we find at the table doesn’t come from uniformity. We aren’t at peace in this place because we all believe the same things. Rather, the peace we are called to comes directly from love. We love one another despite our differences. Christ’s love that moves in and through us brings us to a place of peace because while we might believe differently, we love one another because we recognize that we are all following Jesus Christ. We are all bound together in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We leave the judgment up to God, we live together in peace, and we seek to bring Christ’s peace to the world.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.