24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 14, 2008
Romans 14:1-12

Messy Business

Being church is a messy business. It’s a bit like making sausage, only less tidy. By the time Sunday morning arrives we’re usually able to put on a good show – but behind the scenes lurks a less-than-pretty picture.

When I was in college I held the high office of Tour Manager of the College Choir. It was my responsibility to schedule venues for the Spring Tour, arrange for housing, and keep the rosters of roommates. I was also the enforcer of rules and regulations. I was the one who made sure the men wore dark trousers, black socks, and well-polished black shoes with their choir robes. That was in the early 70’s when many students were still "into" hippie non-conformity.

I had that job for three years. I thought I knew everything there was to know about managing a choir.

Near graduation in my senior year I learned that several of the women in the choir had not worn regulation shoes for concerts. They had gone barefoot, but even more astonishing, I was told that under their choir robes several altos and at least one soprano had worn no clothes at all.

I was grateful to learn this after my responsibilities had ended. This knowledge would have constituted a tremendous distraction at the time.

At it turned out, this blatant lack of uniformity didn’t affect the music we made together. I remember we sang one Sunday morning in a grand cathedral, our voices amplified by all that stone and marble. We made glorious music that day. I trust that Almighty God, who hears and sees all, paid more attention to the music than the altos’ resemblance to Eve in the Garden.

Apparently some folks in the church in Rome back in Paul’s day were not happy with the messiness of church life. The tension seems to have arisen from the fact that the first generation of Christians were such a mixed bag. There were Jews who insisted on keeping kosher, some to the point of eating only vegetables. There were Gentiles who saw nothing wrong with sitting down at the local barbecue joint to eat pulled-pork sandwiches. And, no doubt, there were people somewhere in between.

Holy days were another issue. Some wanted to keep the old Jewish calendar and some didn’t. Some reckoned all days to be the same. Who was right and who was wrong?. Apparently someone wrote to Paul and asked him to settle the matter.

Paul’s response was not to set up a bunch of rules and regulations, but rather to remind the Romans how they got to be church in the first place. It wasn’t because they ate the right foods or declined to eat the wrong ones. It wasn’t because they observed the high holy days. It was because God had welcomed them into the household. "Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat, for God has welcomed (all of) them."

In other words, "Get over yourselves. None of you is so impressive that God just had to have you in the church. You’re here because God has welcomed you. And the same goes for the folks you’re quarreling with."

This ecclesiastical principle puts a different light on pious practice. The folks who observe dietary restrictions do so to honor God. And those who feel that God has set them free of those same restrictions vary their diet also to honor God. "Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God."

The point is not what you do or don’t eat, it’s whether you’re living your life eucharisticly – in thanksgiving to the God of grace. "We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s."

Notice, Paul does say "live and let live." That would keep God out of the picture, and ignore the fact that Christians are called to live in community. What he does say is that whatever we do should point to the God who claims us by grace.

Paul didn’t know the word "lifestyle," but I think it’s fair to apply his words to the challenge that you and I face today when it comes to making decisions about how to "live to the Lord."

I have in mind practical decisions that never used to have theological import. What kind of car should I drive? What kind of washing machine should I buy? What should be the setting of my thermostat? Obviously, Paul did not ask these questions, but Paul did tell the Romans to live to the Lord.

Take that question of eating meat. The realities of global climate change and environmental stewardship make that a relevant moral issue. Consider these facts:

And, at the risk of being indelicate, there is the matter of methane. If you’ve ever spent time around cattle, you will have noticed that they produce a good of gas. Ruminants account for 28 per cent of global methane emissions. An adult cow produces 80 to 110 kilograms of methane, and there are 100 million cattle in the United States alone.

That’s why scientists in Australia are hard at work perfecting "burpless grass" for cattle to eat. I can imagine what my granddaddy, a farmer in West Texas who raised a few head of cattle on the side, would have thought about that. He was an elder in the Coahoma Presbyterian Church. Can’t you just imagine the Session of that church debating the moral ramifications of burpless grass?

Other considerations drove the discussion in first century Rome. Back then Christians worried that eating meat might imply that they honored the pagan gods to whom the meat had first been sacrificed.

It’s safe to say that the first recipients of Paul’s letter were familiar with certain by-products of beef cattle (Folks did wear open-toed sandals back then.) but not with the impact of methane on the ozone layer of the outer atmosphere.

We can’t fault first-century Christians for not knowing such things. We can, however, expect more of modern Christians. Whatever we decide about eating meat, you and I can’t live as though we did not know that human activity contributes to global climate change. It’s immoral to pretend not to know. That goes for ordinary Christians, and it especially applies to Christians who are seeking high elective office.

Paul’s words to those first Christians in Rome remain surprisingly relevant. Don’t condemn one another. Don’t second guess the decisions your brothers and sisters make. Instead, see that you are living your life to the Lord, in fellowship with your brothers and sisters in this glorious but messy household called "church."

Our life together and our life in the world should point to the God who made heaven and earth and calls us to new life in Jesus Christ. "We do not live to ourselves . . ."

Granted, it’s messy, but there is no other way to be church.

　

 

 

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