A Better Extremism--September 13, 2022"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." [1 Corinthians 8:13]
"Isn't that a bit... much?"
"Aren't we getting a little bit dramatic, Paul?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not get carried away here, right?"
You can almost hear the muttering in response to Paul's move here--from both first-century voices and twenty-first century ones. Paul, who doesn't personally have a conviction against eating meat that had come from a pagan sacrifice, is saying that he's willing to give up eating meat altogether if it would prevent injuring the conscience or faith of someone else who isn't at the same place he is on this issue. He's willing, it sure sounds like, to become a vegetarian for the rest of his life, if need be, not because he has a hang-up bout eating meat, but because he wants to be considerate of the possible stumbling block it could be for someone else who is struggling with whether those idols are real or not.
And you just know that some folks who heard those words read aloud at the First Church of Corinth found their jaws dropping to the floor to hear Paul suggest such a dramatic move on his part. To their ears, Paul sounds, so... well, extreme, doesn't he? Why doesn't he fight back against those with the "weak" consciences and tell them that if they don't like how he does things in the church, they can pick another religion? Why doesn't Paul say, "I'm the authority, and my word goes: so love it or leave it" to the people who are struggling with the issue of eating meat sacrificed to idols? Why does Paul have to be so fanatical in his willingness to bend over backward for their sake?
Maybe reading these words from the Scriptures makes modern folks cringe and squirm, too, especially in our culture. In the empire in which we live, specially accommodating those who could be upset, hurt, or scandalized is often dismissed as being "weak" or acting like a "loser." The loud voices fighting culture wars take umbrage at the notion of going out of your way to avoid causing offense to someone else who has a different set of scruples, and they'll misuse the labels like "politically correct" or "woke" as insults for anyone they think is being too deferent to those sensibilities. And yet here is Paul, outdoing everybody and doubling down on his commitment to being considerate, saying he would be willing to give up eating meat for the rest of his life if it meant avoiding causing offense to someone whose fragile faith was in jeopardy over it.
What other word for that kind of radical empathy is there... but extremism?
Of course, now that I think of it, maybe extremism isn't so bad a thing. In fact, I'm reminded of a passage from Dr. King's powerful and provocative "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" where he reflects on his own experience of being branded as an extremist. King says, beautifully:
"But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . ." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists."
That's just it, isn't it? Sometimes it is not a question of whether or not to be extremists--perhaps the question is, as King puts it, "what kind of extremists we will be." In first century Corinth, there was the option of being an extremist for self-interest. Those voices that said, "Paul, you can't tell us what to do, and you can't make us take special measures to help the people we don't agree with. You're stepping on our FREEDOM, and we cannot allow that!" were there, and they were staking the territory of being extremists for self-interest. And on the other hand, Paul countered with an extremism of his own: "If it comes to it, I'll just give up eating meat if it will avoid harming the conscience of someone else who is struggling on this one."
Look, I can't stop the number of loud [often arrogant and entitled, too] voices who will try and tell us we look like "losers" or "weak" if we go out of our way to accommodate the needs of others. They are going to keep shouting around the clock as talking heads on TV screens and on our social media feeds regardless of what we do or say. But we can choose in this day what we will do in response to those voices. We can give into them and just settle for their kind of extremism for selfishness... or we can join up with the likes of Paul... and Martin Luther King... and Jesus himself, washing feet of his betrayer, in taking up the extremism of love that bends over backwards in the cause of seeking the welfare of others, even when it costs us.
I know I won't always get it right. And I know there will continue to be times when for all my best intentions I still give into selfishness. But I know which side I'm willing to risk being labeled an extremist over. Mark me down as a radical for the cause of love.
Lord Jesus, enable us to love as radically and completely as you have loved us, and as you have inspired your people for generations to do as well. Let us be caught up in your extremism of extravagant grace.
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