We Are Family

1 Corinthians 7:17-23
1 Corinthians 8:1b-13

Last week’s epistle lesson was from the 7th chapter of 1st Corinthians. Remember it? No? Ok, let me give you the Cliff’s Notes version: It was about circumcision.

And what Paul says about it, is by the way, a pretty big deal.

It’s a big deal because in Genesis chapter 17 we find these words:

“This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."

Circumcision became a huge issue in the early Christian Church, because while some of the first Christians were circumcised Jews, others were uncircumcised Greeks. Did the Greeks have to be circumcised like the Jews were, and like Genesis chapter 17 said?

Well, there were several answers to that question. Paul’s answer in the 7th chapter of 1st Corinthians was this: no, Greeks don’t have to be circumcised. You can be circumcised, you can be uncircumcised, it really doesn’t matter to God. Paul says that what does matter is listening to God, and having faith in Jesus.

Very interestingly, the Book of Acts tells us that Paul sent his fellow apostle Timothy to minister to a Jewish congregation, and before he sent him, he had him circumcised. . . isn’t that interesting. . . and even more interesting is the fact that Paul absolutely hammers the Galatians for thinking they needed to be circumcised. . . but more Timothy’s little surgery in a minute . . .

This week’s epistle lesson is from the 8th chapter of 1st Corinthians and it deals with another hot-button issue from the ancient world: can you eat meat that’s been sacrificed to idols?

Of all the things that the Bible hammers over and over again, it’s that we cannot, under any circumstances, acknowledge other gods or worship them or idols made to them. After all, the first two commandments of the ten commandments are: 1) I am the Lord your God: you shall have no other gods before me, and 2) you shall make no idols/ graven images.

Pretty clear, huh?

So, here’s the other problem in the early church: in the pagan world people would take animals to their pagan temples and sacrifice them to an idol of some little god. Then, because only the best animals was offered for the pagan sacrifice, the precious meat from that animal was taken to the market and sold.

The problem came in the question: can a Christian go to the market and buy and eat meat that was sacrificed to a pagan god?

Some early Christians were doing just that, and other Christians were jumping up and down screaming that you couldn’t do that.

So, what does Paul say in the epistle lesson today?

He says that it really doesn’t matter. You can eat the meat, you can stay away from the meat. It’s not a big deal because the little god doesn’t exist anyway, so if some poor schlep wants to butcher his meat in front of a little silly statue, that’s not our problem - we don’t believe in the idol.

But, here’s the kicker: what Paul says IS important, is that if the eating of meat sacrificed to an idol causes trouble for someone in the community, then the whole community is supposed to stop it. Because there might be some people in the church who can’t fathom the thought of eating such meat – and for them it might damage their ability to have faith in One God to do such a thing.

For Paul, it’s all about the community: which means that it’s all about the good of the community. Eating meat just isn’t important enough to drive a community of Christian believers apart. Circumcision just isn’t enough to drive a community of Christian believers apart.

Which, by the way, was why he had Timothy circumcised. Paul knew that it didn’t matter in God’s eyes whether or not he was circumcised (what mattered was what was in Tim’s heart), but Timothy’s Jewish-Christian church might have a hard time accepting him if he wasn’t more like them. So, for the good of the community, Paul had Timothy go through that awfully painful surgery.

A few things about these two ancient-world problems:

First, don’t minimize them. These aren’t just petty little problems, insignificant in comparison to our own – for the first several generations of Christians they went right to the heart of biblical authority, salvation, and righteousness before God. Could you be a Christian if you weren’t circumcised? If you WERE circumcised? Would you go to Hell for eating that hamburger? Was eating that hamburger saying that you believed in other gods besides the One God who created us, redeemed us, and sanctifies us? These issues were no smaller, and no larger than the issues the contemporary church is wrestling with. The wisdom we can take from how the early church dealt with it’s problems is wisdom we can certainly use today.

Second, notice that these two issues, aren’t black-and-white right-or-wrong – at least not for Paul. Don’t get me wrong, Paul knew when to lay down the law (pardon the pun) when he needed to. Paul certainly taught that there were things that were right, and there were things that were wrong. These two issues just didn’t fall into those categories. It didn’t matter whether or not you were circumcised, and it didn’t matter if you ate a hunk of meat that was sacrificed to an idol. Also, don’t get me wrong by thinking that people weren’t driven by rage and concern over these issues. But, just because they evoked emotion, didn’t make them right-or-wrong problems.

And finally, see the major value lifted up in how Paul deals with these two problems: it’s all about the Church, the community gathered for prayer, worship, spiritual growth, and evangelism.

I don’t want to toot our horns too much, but I think we should feel a good sense of accomplishment in Paul’s words in 1st Corinthians, because we do community pretty good. We not perfect – in fact far from it – but in general we are a community of people who love God, who love each other, and who put our church high on the priority list.

It’s why when I ask people to describe this church, one of the first things that comes out of their mouth is: we’re family.

We’re experiencing a lot of success right now: we’re growing, our budget is growing, we have lots of good programming going on, we’re getting our physical plant in ship-shape order – and let’s face it, we know how to eat good!

Paul, in good days and in hard days wants us all to remember that we aren’t – and can’t be – Christians alone. We can only do this together, as One Body. For Paul, the first thing is to make sure that our One Body is ‘in Christ.’ After that’s settled, it’s up to us to live in love, live in support of one another, and reflect to the world God’s love and grace.

As family we can try, and as God’s family we can rest knowing that God will help.