The Unnamed Idol--September 9, 2022

The Unnamed Idol--September 9, 2022

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. '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.  But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak." [ 1 Corinthians 8:7-9]

Sometimes I forget just how radical the New Testament really is.  I've sat in enough church services, been in enough Bible studies, and seen more than my share of other people's verse-out-of-context inspirational memes on social media that sometimes I can come to think I already know what the Bible has to say... and that it has no more surprises left for me.  And then I come to a passage I've read dozens of times in my life, and it hits me all over again, just how truly revolutionary, how counter-cultural, this collection of ancient stories, letters, and dreams really is.

Here, buried in the middle of this long letter that touches on a host of different subjects, Paul the apostle just comes out and says it: my personal freedom is not more important that the needs of the weakest among us.  To the ears of American civil religion that sounds like heresy, and an especially dangerous one at that, because it dethrones me and my ego from the center of the universe, and it questions the essential creed of that civil religion, which says, "Me and my interests first."

Even more subversive is that Paul moves beyond the realm of abstract principles to real life situations.  He doesn't merely say, "The needs of the weak outweigh the personal whims of the individual" as a hypothetical rule of thumb.  He takes the actual situation playing out in his congregation and he applies it directly there.

As you'll recall, the folks in Corinth had been asking Paul to weigh in on the question of whether it was permissible to eat meat from the market that had come from sacrifices offered at local pagan temples.  And to a point, both Paul and the Corinthian questioners were on the same page:  as Christians, they could all affirm that no other gods or idols were real, and so it was not a big deal to eat meat that had earlier been offered up on an altar to Zeus or Artemis or Mars.  The Corinthians, however, had wanted to use that common conviction as a license for them to whomp on the people in their congregation who thought differently.  They wanted Paul to say, "We're all free to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols, and so you had better rub that freedom in other people's faces.  If they are uncomfortable with it, they're wrong, and it's their problem.  Your freedom to eat whatever you want overrules their scruples about food."  But Paul doesn't.  In fact, he says just the opposite.

Paul is clear what "side" he's on in terms of the ethics of eating meat that had come from a pagan temple.  He doesn't think it's a problem.  And so of course, he sees folks who haven't arrived at that conclusion as being still immature, or struggling, in their faith.  But instead of saying, "You weak folks can't hold me back--I'm gonna do whatever I want, because it's all about my freedom!"  Paul does the opposite.  He zigs when we think he's going to zag.  He says that those who see themselves as in the "strong" position need to be willing to bear with those who are in the "weak" position--to put the needs and consciences of others above their own interests. And in a sense, Paul calls out the unnamed idol in all of this conversation--the idol of selfishness that clothes itself in the language of "freedom." In the Christian community, Paul says, we don't let the "strong" run roughshod all over the "weak," and we don't let the "winners" stomp on the ones seen as "losers." In other words, if your understanding of "freedom" gives you permission to ignore the needs of those without your advantages, you're doing it wrong. Rather, if you are in a position of strength, advantage, or privilege, you are called to use it precisely for the sake of those who have less strength, advantage, or privilege. 

And like I say, that thinking runs counter to so much of what American civil religion would teach us.  So many issues in our day, and in recent years, have been framed as matters of "personal freedom" that becomes some untouchable abstract principle.  And so often the same old tired boilerplate goes, "They're trying to take away your freedom to do what you want!  You can't be asked to accommodate to the needs of others, the safety of others, or the perceptions of others--it's more important that you be unrestricted from anybody else's request of you, no matter how reasonable it is!"  We lived through it in policies about wearing masks during COVID. We are still living through it when it comes to guns and who can have them where.  And there will be more controversies and culture wars fought over questions we haven't even thought of yet.  And it's all too easy in this culture to accept the thinking that "my personal freedom" has to be the highest value, at all times, rather than ever putting our own interests aside for the sake of someone else's well-being.  We've built a whole society around the refrain, "I did it my way," after all.  

So today, the challenge in front of us is quite honestly just to hear what Paul actually says, and to decide whether we will take him seriously or not.  Will we insist on repeating the same self-centered thinking that's been ingrained in us all our lives, that says, "My freedom to do whatever I want must be supreme and uninfringed at all times, and if someone else suffers for it, that's their problem," or will we dare to hear a different voice and give it our allegiance?  Will we, with Paul the apostle, care for the needs and respect of those deemed "weak" more than our own whims?  And will we see that Paul's thinking here moves in the same trajectory as Mary's song about the God who lifts up the lowly, and Jesus' announcement of blessing on the least and the last?  Could we dare to see that God's Reign has always been centered on lifting up the bowed down, and on giving special care and provision to the weak?

Maybe no one in your life is struggling over whether to eat meat from a shrine to Jupiter... but maybe there are folks who are struggling with how to keep themselves safe from sickness, or worried about their kids not being killed in a mass shooting at their school, or panicked over how to feed their families while we throwaway uneaten leftovers in our fridges that have spoiled.  And maybe those situations call for us to re-evaluate how we use our "freedom," and how we have been complicit in the past with letting it be an excuse for ignoring the needs of those we deem as "weak."

Lord God, you have looked out for our interests in our weakness rather than using your divine strength to your own advantage over us.  Shape us in the direction of that love to do the same for others when we are in positions of strength.