Knowledge Versus Love / Based on 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 / Delivered on January 28, 2018 to CCH

20180128Knowledge versus Love

Knowledge Versus Love / Based on 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 / Delivered on January 28, 2018 to CCH

Hymns: Help Us Accept Each Other, Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, The Gift of Love

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

8:1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

8:2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge;

8:3 but anyone who loves God is known by him.

8:4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really exists," and that "there is no God but one."

8:5 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as in fact there are many gods and many lords--

8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

8:7 It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

8:8 "Food will not bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

8:9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

8:10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?

8:11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.

8:12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

8:13 Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.

Good morning.  My name is Darci Strutt McQuiston, one of the Lay Speakers of the United Methodist Church up on the hill, and it is my honor to be here with you.

Our scripture today deals with a topic that seems a little foreign to us here in Hudson Wisconsin in 2018.  We don’t need to question if our meat has been used to honor an idol when we buy it from County Market or Family Fresh.  We may want to check if it is organic or grass-fed, but sacrifice-free isn’t normally a topic on the label.  I think there’s a deeper message that does apply to us within this scripture so hang in there with me.

The three ideas I am pulling from the scripture are:

Knowledge and freedom

Me versus Us

Knowledge versus love

Knowledge and freedom

In chapter 8 of 1 Corinthians Paul is dealing with a question brought to him by members of the congregation.  Those that were more mature in their faith felt their knowledge led to the freedom to eat meat sacrificed to idols but wanted Paul’s full OK. 

8:4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really exists," and that "there is no God but one."

Idols were created by man, not by God, and as such were not sacred because “no idol in the world really exists”.  Therefore, logically, there’s no harm in buying meat that’s leftover from sacrifices because the meat is meat nothing more.  Eating meat with that belief did not mean you were honoring the idol, it just meant you were hungry for some meat. 

Sin was linked to your thoughts.  The “Why” you did something is what made it right or wrong.  If you were strong enough in your belief to know the meat as just meat then you were free from being called an idolater because nothing about the meal had anything to do with the idol for you.  You were free to shop wherever you wanted.  Or were you?

Paul reminded the Corinthians that it wasn’t just a question of what they did themselves.  They needed to be concerned with more than their own salvation.  They were part of a community of believers.

Me versus Us

8:7 It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

8:8 "Food will not bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

8:9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

8:10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?

8:11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.

8:12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

Paul had agreed with them that it wasn’t a sin to eat meat sacrificed to idols, but causing a member of the community to stumble was a sin. 

Jesus dealt with this idea of causing someone to stumble directly in Matthew 18:6.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

The Christian journey is not a solo one.  Christ told us that plainly when he said the second great commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself.

We are in community.  We are a body of believers.  We are called to be our brother’s keeper.  Paul agreed that eating meat privately may be OK, but if they caused a less mature member of the community to eat such meat while feeling guilty and sinful then that was not OK.  Such guilt would separate him or her from a closer relationship with God.

Knowledge versus love

8:1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

8:2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge;

8:3 but anyone who loves God is known by him.

Knowledge can make you feel proud, or puffed up, but love is what supports the community – it builds others up. 

Later on in 1 Corinthians Paul will teach which is more important.

1Co 13:8-10 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

And verse 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Knowledge didn’t even make the first cut.  In the Garden of Eden, it was eating from the tree of knowledge that caused the fall of man to begin with.  Knowledge isn’t as important as we think it is.

So what can we glean from this scripture?  We don’t have problems with meat sacrificed to idols but there are other things within our culture that divide us as Christians.  Whether or not women should have a place of leadership beyond the kitchen committee, whether or not parents should allow their children to be pulled away from Sunday worship by traveling sports, whether or not gays or lesbians should be allowed in worship, or whether or not women should be allowed to wear pants is still in question in some local churches here in Hudson.

I have strong beliefs about some of these, and they may differ from yours.  I was trained in debate in High School, but need to temper that tendency.  A new Christian brother doesn’t need to believe all I believe to begin his relationship with God through Christ.  Convincing a person to act like me, on an issue they are not secure is OK, may hinder their relationship with God because in their mind they feel they have sinned.  It could cause them to stumble in their faith.  In our scripture today, the weak would be defiled not because of what they ate, but because they believed it was wrong and ate it anyway due to peer pressure.

God’s command was that we love one another for love is of God and when you love you are like Him.  If the person beside you has accepted Christ into his or her life, then the spirit of Christ has entered into them and when you hurt them you are hurting Christ.  God wants all of his children to be in relationship with Him.  We go against God’s will when we hinder their relationship from building.

We will continue to debate the hot issues of our culture and struggle with what is before us.  This scripture encourages us to let love triumph over knowledge.  My ideas of truth have altered as I’ve grown in my faith.  What I believed to be absolutely true in my youth has softened and sometimes changed to the point I now believe absolutely the opposite!  If in my passion I caused someone else to follow my lead when they felt it was a sin, then I am sorry.  I vow to do better.  Their relationship with God is far more important than my claim to know something.  Salvation is through relationship not knowledge.

Care for those in your community.  Let your words and actions be tempered by love, as God loves, with patience and with the understanding we are each at different stages in our journey.  Help build up each other with this love so all our relationships with God can grow.  Strengthening another’s relationship with God strengthens our own.

This is a tough lesson.  May God be with us as we consider what it means.

Amen

God With Us / Based on Luke 2:22-40 and Galatians 4:4-7 / Delivered on December 31, 2017 to CCH

God With Us / Based on Luke 2:22-40 and Galatians 4:4-7 / Delivered on December 31, 2017 to CCH

Hymns:  O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

              Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

              Blessed Assurance

Luke 2:22-40

2:22 When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord

2:23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord"),

2:24 and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."

2:25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.

2:26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah.

2:27 Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law,

2:28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

2:29 "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word;

2:30 for my eyes have seen your salvation,

2:31 which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

2:32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."

2:33 And the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.

2:34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed

2:35 so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed--and a sword will pierce your own soul too."

2:36 There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,

2:37 then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.

2:38 At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

2:39 When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

2:40 The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

Good morning and Happy New Year to you!  My name is Darci Strutt McQuiston.  I am a Lay Servant from the United Methodist Church up on the hill.  I’m happy to celebrate this first Sunday after Christmas with you.

 

I’m leaning heavily on the scripture from Luke that I’ve already read, but I will be reading a short section from Galatians that is also assigned to this Sunday.  The three ideas I plan to touch on from these scriptures are:

To desire

To listen and act

To believe

To desire

Scripture had promised from the beginning that there would be a redeemer.  It was promised from the first introduction of sin while Adam and Eve were in the garden. 

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.

The scripture from Isaiah we hear at Christmas is:

Isa 7:14  Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel

Isa 9:6  For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Immanuel means God with us.

Our two main characters from the passage spoke of this desire.

2:25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.

Verse 38 includes Anna speaking about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.  That tells us many had the desire.

They both knew of the promise of God and had let that desire take hold within their lives.  They had claimed the promise as their own.  Because of the Holy Spirit’s leading Simeon lived in expectation it would be fulfilled in his lifetime.  I believe they both lived with a strong knowing that they would see this promise fulfilled.  Their desire for the promise aligned their will with the will of God.

To Listen and Act

Simeon and Anna also paid attention to the Holy Spirit within them.

2:26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah.

2:27 Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple

Anna was named as a prophet in our scripture.  She listened to God’s voice and taught what she learned.  She came “at that moment” because of an inner knowing the time had been fulfilled.

The Holy Spirit can guide and teach but it takes our willingness to listen and act on that communication to have the desire fulfilled.  Simeon listened to the Spirit’s guidance.  God didn’t lay Jesus in his lap in his home.  He needed to meet him in the temple.  They both arrived at the meeting place in the right time because of their ability to listen and act.

To Believe

They not only lived in expectation of their desire being met and listened to the leading of the Holy Spirit, but they also believed the fulfillment of the promise when it came.  They recognized their desire had been answered by God.

2:28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

2:29 "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word;

2:30 for my eyes have seen your salvation,

2:31 which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

2:32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."

Anna praised God and began to teach everyone that was there.  Her prophet’s heart knew this child was the desire fulfilled.

Simeon and Anna aligned their desire to the promise of Jesus.  We can take it one step further after His coming.  Here is the short passage from Paul’s letter to the Galatians which is assigned to this Sunday.

Galatians 4:4-7

4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

4:5 in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.

4:6 And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

4:7 So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

God sent his son.  He is Immanuel – God with us.

As we start this new year many of us have resolutions; things we want to improve in our lives.  One I tend to add is to grow in my faith and relationship with God.  The example of Simeon reminded me of the importance of aligning my will with God’s will for my life.

God does not go against our free will.  Step one is to claim the promise and desire it to be fulfilled in your life.  In that way you align your will to the will of God.  Simeon took the promise he would see Jesus before he died and desired it. 

The verses from Galatians are life changing if we take them seriously.

4:7 So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

This is a verse we can claim.  It is God’s will that I call him Daddy.  It is his will that we love each other as closely as a parent and a child.  To claim that relationship I will set my desire in alignment of that promise.   

Simeon called Jesus, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.”  It is this light of revelation that will help us realize who we truly are.  There are times I feel I keep my eyes tightly closed in fear of this light.  What will it change if I truly accept and believe that I am fully a child of God?  That fear may keep me from the promise.  It is important to trust in faith, put fear aside, and firmly desire the outcome.

Next is to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit and act on that inner knowing.  It was that leading that brought Simeon and Anna into the temple.  Verse 6 of Galatians tells us the Spirit of Christ is already within our hearts, crying “Abba!  Father!”  That tells me there is already a voice within me that has accepted the promise that I am God’s child.  I need to take time to be still and listen.  Rev. Dawn, from the UMC, wrote an article for the paper this past week.  In it she spoke of setting aside 15 minutes each morning to read scripture and listen for the leading of the Holy Spirit.  This daily ritual of listening strengthens her in times of struggle and helps her stay connected during times of joy.  I know in my heart it would do the same for me.

The final step Simeon demonstrated was accepting and believing the promise had been realized.  The Holy Spirit is within us to remind us who we are.  He is our guide to help open our eyes to the light of revelation.  My prayer for each of us is we can fully embrace that Christ came to be God with us, Immanuel, and through his light of revelation accept who we truly are; sons and daughters of God.  The promise has been fulfilled!

I wish you blessings as we continue the journey together into 2018!  Happy New Year!

Amen