Love not Knowledge

Epiphany 4 – January 28, 2024

Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm 111
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28

The message from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is a familiar one. In fact we have talked about it several times in the past weeks. It seems that many of the Christians in Corinth took to heart Paul’s message so much that they knew there was only one God and that the idols around Corinth were just stone dedicated to made up gods. They seem to take advantage of this knowledge and ate meat that had been dedicated to the god knowing that it is just meat. Why they were eating meat that had been offered to idols is not known. Most scholars assumed that it is because meat was not readily available to most of the Christians because of their social and economic status. In this argument only the elite had regular access to meat. Although recent scholarship has placed much doubt on this assumption. Using modern technology there is a growing understanding that most of the Roman citizens had access to meat-based protein. With this new understanding then why were some of the Christians in Corinth eating meat sacrificed to idols? I might suggest old habits and friends. If that is so, Paul’s message here is not just about setting an example, it is about community. They might have been using their knowledge that the meat offered to idols was just meat as an excuse to continue on in their old life-style and Paul saw through this sham of a reason.

If those early Christians were continuing in the same life-style that they had before becoming Christian and spending their time with their old friends and in their old communities, they were shirking the new community they were baptized into. It is partially understandable that they would want to continue their old relationships. They were comfortable with the old ways. The new community was unknown with people they had never been around. Some of whom they did not want to be around. The Christian community was different than any that the early Christians had experienced. A community that was based not on the similarity of the members but a community stitched together by faith. It was an essential character of the community then to gather together and learn each other’s histories and gifts and to show the world the drastic change Christ made in their life.

So where does that leave us? Maybe in the same place as the early Christians. We must admit we like to be comfortable and that usually means doing the same things that we have done in the past with the same people. When new situations arise we tend to ignore them or react unfavorably to them. Not that everything that is new is good. Sometimes it is not. But that is why we gather in community. We worship together and socialize together and within the community we grow in faith by sharing our faith journeys. It sometimes is not easy. Faith can be difficult work. That’s why we gather together on a weekly basis. It is in community that we share and show our faith and are strengthened for the coming days wrapped in mutual love for one another. A love, by the way, that is not ours but God’s. 

That is why Paul is hard on those who were eating meat offered to idols. They should have been eating meat with other Christians. As you all know when people gather we gather around food. Think of all your holidays and celebrations. And then think of the food prepared here today at this altar. Not food offered to an idol but food given by God. Take and eat for here is the gift of life. A gift we share with each other so that we can take Jesus out into the world.