How to Be Religious
Pastor Charles Ragland
Romans 14:1-12
Last week’s sermon was titled “How to Get Along” and the lectionary Scriptures for this week are about getting along in church, too. Last week from Matthew 18 we heard Jesus coaching his disciples in a practical strategy to care for each other, so not one would be lost. We heard Jesus command every Christian who is sinned against by another church member to go privately and confront the sinner, and if the sinner doesn’t repent, then a few other members are brought in. If the sinning member still is unrepentant, then the whole church is called upon to intervene—so the sinner would repent and not be lost to the sin. This divine commandment for peacemaking also is designed to prevent the one sinned against from being lost to Christ’s Church.
Jesus knew that people sin and he knew that people are members of His church. The very first Christians discovered that church folks are not perfect! By the way, imperfect church members is one convenient excuse some will give for not joining a church.
“Oh yes, I believe in God, but I don’t want the Church because there are hypocrites in there!”
Does the Church have a monopoly on the world’s supply of hypocrites? What group of human beings has not a single member who says he believes, but sometime acts like he doesn’t ?
The human imperfection of Christians is the excuse some use to avoid the Church. I think that distinguished philosopher Groucho Marx came closer to the truth about people when he said. “I would never join a club that would accept me as a member!”
That’s about membership standards. Who’s found and who’s lost. Christ’s Church does have membership standards and here are some.
The very first criterion for joining a church is that you have to be a sinner and you have to admit it. There’s really no other way. No perfect people are allowed in Christ’s church. If that troubles you, you need to take it up with the One in charge. He ate with sinners. He forgave sinners. He allowed himself to be crucified by and with sinners. He rose to rescue sinners. In Mark 2:17 he said, “I didn’t come to invite the good people to be my followers. I came to invite the sinners.” The good news is that citizens who want to live into God’s Kingdom on earth are people who confess we’ve fallen short of God’s will, repent, and ask God to help us be better people. Jesus gave you and me other imperfect Christians called “church” to help us be better people than we could by ourselves!
Sometimes though we get unfocused on what’s most important and re-focus on what isn’t. Sometimes we get off the track of helping God rescue the world by helping others. We start chasing rabbits.
We had sweet, honey-colored cocker spaniel named Freckles. He loved to play fetch. I could throw his ball and he would bring it right back. Throw it and he’d bring it. Throw and fetch, and throw and fetch. And he was just as eager to do it the twenty-fifth time as he was the very first! Freckles was focused and on the ball when it was just him and me. But if a four-legged, furry, buck-toothed bolt of lightning scurried across his path you could just go get that ball yourself. The dog totally forgot about the game. That rabbit became his whole new world! That’s something like what Paul is warning the Roman Christians about in the lesson—going off chasing church rabbits when we’ve accepted God’s infinitely more important assignment to help save the world.
Paul writes in Romans 14 about Christian distractions. He names some that were giving the Roman church members plenty to argue about among themselves. But what’s he talking about—“eat only vegetables,” and “judge one day better than another”?
From Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians we know that Christians in the Corinthian church had been arguing about eating meat that had been offered to idols. Here is the scenario. In first-century Rome, before the meat was sold in the marketplace, most of it first had been laid down on a pagan altar as an offering to a mythical god or goddess. There were Christians who had no trouble eating this meat because they knew idols are false. But other Christians in the Roman church believed Jesus didn’t want them to eat meat dedicated to a pagan deity. They practiced their religion by eating only vegetables.
Still another group in the church believed before they accepted Christ that some days were especially holy. And they continued to observe these special days as they believed God’s law commanded. Then they came into conflict with their sisters and brothers who knew that Christ had liberated them from their previous laws.
Now the church members whose faith freed them to eat barbecued ribs were not treating kindly the potato salad eaters. These “strong” Christians belittled their “weak” sisters and brothers in Christ and treated them with disrespect.
But the “weak” Christians were also breaking fellowship with their meat eating sisters and brothers. They passed judgment on them. They had strong principles about how to be religious. They could not see how God could possibly accept a person who violates what appears to be clearly God’s law. The “weak” Christians might have asked, “How could you claim to be Christian when you disregard the clear and plain word of the Lord?”
One group sees sharp distinctions while others see shades of gray. One sees unbreakable principles at stake; the others see principles as flexible guidelines. Small circles versus larger circles. Narrow boundaries versus wider boundaries. One group emphasizes obedience; another stresses freedom.
And how does Paul counsel these liberal and conservative church members to live and serve God together in the same church? How can such groups live and serve together in the one church of God?
Before we look at Paul’s guidance, let’s be clear that there is one solution Paul never offers. Paul never says: Let the liberals have their own church over there and let the conservatives have their own church over there.
Instead, Paul’s answer is “You do not have to understand how another person could be Christian according to your standards. Those with whom you disagree are servants of another, namely, the God revealed in Jesus Christ.” Paul’s point is: God accepts both!
All confess Jesus Christ as Lord and they are attempting to serve him in the church. The wedge issue is how to serve him. Paul says, the Lord is able to make them stand: whether or not others can agree with their practices.
I believe we in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) got Paul’s next point right. Paul’s closing message here is something that we have proclaimed as Church and have tried to practice in faith for a long time. All Christians do not have to agree or have the same religious practices but none may violate their own conscience. If they give thanks to God, then each group is doing what it understands is God’s will. The solution to the controversy in the Church comes when Christians see in each other a devoted servant of the Lord of all who has accepted all. Our devotion to the one Lord is the one power that can weld different groups together to become unified as Christ’s Church.
Paul closes his lesson with this point. That when conservative and liberal Christians stand before God at the last judgment, each of us will be accountable to God for no one else but ourselves. Then we will see that God vindicates and accepts both, for in Paul’s picture, none is condemned who confess and give God praise!
We are living today toward that picture of divine judgment to life! So let the Holy Spirit renew our minds and hearts as Paul’s picture awakens us to this truth: We may disagree about how to be religious and how best to honor God—but those disagreements are much less important than our shared devotion to the one Savior and Lord of all, Jesus Christ.
Surely that’s the way we will live in Christ’s Church?
Updated: Sunday, September 21, 2008
