Worship, January 29, 2021

A Call to worship from the 95 Psalm

Come, let’s shout praises to God,
    raise the roof for the Rock who saved us!
Let’s march into God’s presence singing praises,
    lifting the rafters with our hymns!

And why? Because God is the best,
    High Ruler over all the gods.
In one hand God holds deep caves and caverns,
    in the other hand grasps the high mountains.
God made Ocean—God owns it!
    God’s hands sculpted Earth!

So come, let us worship: bow before God,
    on your knees before God, who made us!
Oh yes, God is our God,
    and we’re the people God pastures, the flock God feeds.

Let us worship God!

A prayer to center you

God, it is you alone who knows our very hearts and souls.

It is you alone who knit us together in our mother’s wombs.

It is you alone who judges us and forgives us.

Help us turn towards you now.

Push away all the thoughts of worry and doubt

Of struggle and strife

Of everyday life

And help us to focus on you.

May your calming spirit fill our souls

And may you whisper your words of peace and love to us now.

Help us to be all yours for this time

And move us closer to you!

Amen

1 Corinthians chapter 8, verses 1-13

Freedom with Responsibility

8 1-3 The question keeps coming up regarding meat that has been offered up to an idol: Should you attend meals where such meat is served, or not? We sometimes tend to think we know all we need to know to answer these kinds of questions—but sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds. We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all.

4-6 Some people say, quite rightly, that idols have no actual existence, that there’s nothing to them, that there is no God other than our one God, that no matter how many of these so-called gods are named and worshiped they still don’t add up to anything but a tall story. They say—again, quite rightly—that there is only one God the Father, that everything comes from him, and that he wants us to live for him. Also, they say that there is only one Master—Jesus the Messiah—and that everything is for his sake, including us. Yes. It’s true.

7 In strict logic, then, nothing happened to the meat when it was offered up to an idol. It’s just like any other meat. I know that, and you know that. But knowing isn’t everything. If it becomes everything, some people end up as know-it-alls who treat others as know-nothings. Real knowledge isn’t that insensitive.

We need to be sensitive to the fact that we’re not all at the same level of understanding in this. Some of you have spent your entire lives eating “idol meat,” and are sure that there’s something bad in the meat that then becomes something bad inside of you. An imagination and conscience shaped under those conditions isn’t going to change overnight.

8-9 But fortunately God doesn’t grade us on our diet. We’re neither commended when we clean our plate nor reprimanded when we just can’t stomach it. But God does care when you use your freedom carelessly in a way that leads a fellow believer still vulnerable to those old associations to be thrown off track.

10 For instance, say you flaunt your freedom by going to a banquet thrown in honor of idols, where the main course is meat sacrificed to idols. Isn’t there great danger if someone still struggling over this issue, someone who looks up to you as knowledgeable and mature, sees you go into that banquet? The danger is that he will become terribly confused—maybe even to the point of getting mixed up himself in what his conscience tells him is wrong.

11-13 Christ gave up his life for that person. Wouldn’t you at least be willing to give up going to dinner for him—because, as you say, it doesn’t really make any difference? But it does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly, risking his eternal ruin! When you hurt your friend, you hurt Christ. A free meal here and there isn’t worth it at the cost of even one of these “weak ones.” So, never go to these idol-tainted meals if there’s any chance it will trip up one of your brothers or sisters.

 

Reflection:

I like to read different translations of the Bible to get different takes on the stories.  (Oh, if I had only kept my Greek up and could translate myself!)   For this morning’s Scripture I really enjoyed reading The Message’s translation of the story which is what I shared above.  It brings a newness to the old stories which, for me in this case, refreshes them.  This Scripture real spoke to me this week for where we are in the world these days.

While there probably is not a huge number of us struggling with eating food dedicated to idols these days, there is a good deal of people feeling as though they have a superiority of knowledge flying around and even more I have seen insensitivity towards others who are not in the same place theologically as others. 

There are several key points in this Scripture that stand out to me.

One: “We never really know enough UNTIL we recognize that

GOD ALONE knows it all!

Shew, what a relief.  In todays world, I see a lot of people claiming to know that they, and they alone (or those that think just like them) know exactly what God’s will is.  This comes in the form of stating absolutes.  Right/wrong according to them with not interpretation, empathy or grace.  I am not so sure that God sees everything as black and white as humans do.  Jesus sure didn’t.  The woman that people wanted to stone for adultery for whom Jesus intervened saying, “let him without sin cast the first stone!”  God seems to be much more forgiving than humans…much more willing to forgive and extend grace than most of us.  Aren’t you thankful for that?  I sure am! 

There is also something freeing in knowing that God alone knows it all.  It frees me from having to know all the answers.  We could worry ourselves over the absolutes.  We could concern ourselves with every little detail of knowing what is right and what is wrong, for us and for others.  We could spend our lives judging others for their actions.  But we don’t have to!  We don’t have to know everything.  We simply need to know that God alone holds all the answers.  We can let go of the judgement and work on the loving of others!  God can handle the judgement part.

Two:  Knowing isn’t everything

This one was a good reminder.  Even though we may know something to be true (in the case of the Scripture, it was that since there is only one God, the food dedicated to other gods did not hold any special power since the god it was dedicated to is not real) there is oftentimes a larger issue than knowledge (setting the right example for those that don’t know what we know).  We are not all in the same place on our spiritual journey and we must be sensitive to that fact.  Others may not be where we are theologically, therefore we must be aware of where they are and not hinder their development. 

Faith is a journey.  It is a journey best traveled with companions.  There are many mountains and valleys along the way and we need others to help us and we need to help others.  Some people are further down the path and we need them to reach back and help us sometimes to navigate the path before us.  Others are not to the point of discovery that we are and we must help them to walk their own path.  Real knowledge (and love) is knowing we are all at different points on our faith journey and helping each other along the way. 

My takeaway from these points is that we must first realize that we do not have all the answers or hold the power to judge all people.  That is God’s task alone.  Secondly, it is our duty to act in such a way not to judge those are in the same place that we are, but to help them by setting a good example and walking with them on their path.

In todays world where we are polarized by theology and politics, perhaps we should put aside a little bit of the judgement and the chastisement and walk side by side to see what we can learn together.  Perhaps we should lay aside our feelings of superiority, put off our quick judgements of others and show love, compassion and sensitive to others.  Then what a world we might have!

To get you thinking…

*When have you too quickly judged someone?

*Who is someone you turn to that helps you grow in faith?

*Who is someone you could reach out to help grow in faith?

*Grab a sheet of paper and draw your faith journey.  What have been some hills that you have faced (step parts that were hard to climb/challenged your faith)?  What were the high parts (places you could take a break and enjoy)?  What were some unexpected curvy parts?  Did they take you somewhere good?  Somewhere bad? 

*Look back over your journey, now add the names of the people that helped you along the way.

*Give thanks for those people and the journey!

Prayer of Sending

God of grace and mercy,

may we turn judgement over to you

that we may love others freely and with care.

May you open our eyes to others who are walking this faith journey

that we may support one another in our needs,

where ever we all are

what ever the need.

May your Holy Spirit bind us together

and may our walk with Christ Jesus be made

all the better have one another to help along the way.

Amen

Going out.

Now, go out to love the Lord you God

and in all that you do, may the love of Christ Jesus uphold you and the Holy Spirit guide you each step of the way

Let all God’s people say: AMEN