01/28/2024 ~ Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany ~ Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/908731680

The One, True God

“Hence, as to eating food which was sacrificed to idols, we know that idols have no real existence and that there is no God but the One, true God.” — 1 Corinthians 8:4.

I want to tell a story about something which happened when I was in my early teen years. But I need to remind you of a couple of things I’ve said here before about my personal history before I start.

I was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. My Dad taught at a Jesuit High School. My Mom went into the convent but left before taking final vows. When she left the nunnery my parents met and got hitched. With that brief outline of my parent’s history and given that I wound up as a pastor, I sometimes say I simply went into the family business.

Now, in order to tell this story I also need to presume many of you are not familiar with the practices in Roman Catholicism. So there are two things I need to explain, two practices in which Catholics engage called fasting and abstinence.

Both were often employed during Lent when I was young. They became largely optional for most Catholics in the 1980s. But these were not optional when I was thirteen.

So what are fasting and abstinence? Fasting has an obvious definition— the reduction of one’s intake of food. On a fast day one is not supposed not eat between meals. Also, a person should have a small breakfast, a small lunch but a normal dinner.

Following that regimen is probably not a bad nutritional practice for anyone. And mystics of many traditions say fasting which is even more strict than that simple discipline can even help someone be more aware of one’s own body which might lead to a sharpening of one’s spiritual focus.

Abstinence is different. Abstinence is abstaining, refraining from eating meat or meat by-products. This is not difficult for vegetarians but for us carnivores….

Both fasting and abstinence are pious practices with a long history and are not practiced only in Catholicism. Even today, many people in many traditions still find fasting and abstinence useful.

Here’s the paradox: for reasons beyond my comprehension, no one seemed to notice that making these practices mandatory transformed them into something less than pious. You see, once something becomes mandatory, a rule, it stops being a practice. It becomes nothing more than a demand, a closed box, a cell from which there is no relief.

Back before the rules changed a Catholic was expected to abstain from eating meat on all Fridays of the year. During Lent one would also fast for the entire season, all forty days and forty nights. By the way, Sunday’s do not count as days in Lent— never did. You could eat anything you wanted on Sundays.

Well, all that background leads to the story: I was a student at Saint Ignatius Elementary School in New York City. As the name implies, it operated under the patronage of the Jesuits. By the way it was run by the Sisters of Charity, not the Jesuits. One day in the late Spring I went with a group of guys from school to play soft-ball in Central Park.

When we were done we all said goodbye and split off and headed toward the Subway to go home. It’s what you do in New York City— you get on the Subway to go home, right? O.K.

I was famished the way only a thirteen year old can be famished. I would have eaten anything. Just before I got to the 86th Street Subway station I saw one of those ubiquitous rolling hot dog stands you still can see all over Manhattan.

I pulled out some money and got a hot dog and a Coke. I was about ninety percent done with the hot dog when a classmate who happened to be passing by came up to me, pointed and said, “What are you doing?”

I was not sure what he meant. “I’m hungry, so I’m eating,” said I.

He pointed to the small sliver of hot dog left in my hand and said, “It’s Friday. That’s a hot dog. That’s meat.”

I was totally chagrined and very embarrassed. I don’t know if I was more embarrassed because I had broken an obvious rule or because I had been caught breaking said rule or because I had simply forgotten it was Friday.

And the truth of the matter is I did forget it was Friday. And that’s when I haltingly stammered out to my classmate, “Oh, no! It’s Friday! I forgot it’s Friday! I just forgot!”

He smiled and said, “Don’t worry. I won’t report you to the meat police.” By the meat police I think he might have meant our teacher, the stern faced Sister Catherine Roberta, a person whose temper was even more stern than her countenance.

Perhaps more to the point, I felt awful, upset, even angry with myself. After all, a rule is a rule is a rule, right? And I broke the rule, right? (Slight pause.)

These are the words in First Corinthians: “Hence, as to eating food which was sacrificed to idols, we know that idols have no real existence and that there is no God but the One, true God.” (Slight pause.)

This passage may be one of the most convoluted sections Paul ever wrote. On the other hand, that’s just Paul. But there is a third hand here, another way to look at it. I think is this actually more simple than it sounds.

I also hope I just illustrated how simple it is with that story from my youth. Meat was forbidden. I unknowingly broke the rule. My classmate was kind.

But suppose he decided that my Dad was a teacher in a Jesuit School— and do note, the school in which my Father taught was just across the street from the elementary school and my classmate knew that— so suppose my classmate felt he could break the rule too? His reasoning might be that guy with all those holy connections did it! So how could breaking that rule not be all right?

Or suppose he was not kind and had reported my transgression to the meat police, in this case the stern Sister Catherine Roberta? Would punishment have been (pardon the pun) meted out? (Slight pause.)

I want to and need to point out the obvious. This passage is not about the meat police, Paul’s meat police or the meat police who might have reprimanded me. (Slight pause.)

Now, earlier I said this may be one of the most convoluted sections Paul ever wrote. But as convoluted as the Apostle often tends to be, this passage is merely trying to illustrate a very central truth by telling a story about what was actually happening in Corinth— people eating meat that might have been forbidden. And the message Paul is sending them and by extension sending us is quite simple: meat means nothing. God and God only God is central in our lives.

Not everyone knew that then. Not everyone believed that then. Not everyone knows that now. Not everyone believes that now. And clearly, some people think if one person breaks a rule everyone has a free pass to break any rules they care to break.

Other people actually think the rules, all rules, any rules, are to be followed no matter what and that rules are central to our lives. And never mind rules about things like meat. Some people think rules, all rules, are central and intractable. Put another way, some people think rules are God. Some people make rules greater than God.

And so Paul, as complex as the Apostle is, understands the basic theology here. Idols are a fantasy. Idols do not really exist. Paul says this (quote:) “…we know that idols have no real existence and that there is no God but the One, true God.”

And to close the deal Paul says this (quote:) “…anyone who loves God is known completely by God.” You heard me say this couple times today: Paul can be convoluted.

So, I want to offer the short version of what Paul says— my version, rather than Paul’s: God loves us. We need to recognize God loves us and we need to recognize the love of God for us must be central to our lives. We need to recognize the love of God for us is the only thing that really matters. Case closed. Amen.

01/28/2024
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE— It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “Tradition has it that a Rabbi whose name was Hillel was both a contemporary of Paul and a teacher of Paul. There is a story which gets told about Hillel and an encounter with a Roman Centurion. The Centurion went to the Rabbi and said if you can teach me everything there is to know about the Hebrew Scriptures while I am balanced on one foot, I will convert and become a Jew. Hillel stood on one foot himself and said, ‘Love God; love neighbor; the rest is commentary.’ And yes, it is not convoluted. It is that simple: Love God; love neighbor.”

BENEDICTION: People of light, turn toward God with joy and be free and open to the empowerment God offers. People of unity, be one in Christ. People of commitment, dare to run the race with courage. May the Spirit dwell with us and may the peace of Christ, which surpasses our understanding keep our hearts, minds and spirits centered on God, this day and forevermore. Amen.