4th Sunday after The Epiphany

The Rev. Tommy Thompson

1 Corinthians 8

4th Sunday after Epiphany

29 January 2012

“Knowing and Being Known”

In the Epistle lesson for this Sunday, we get to listen-in on a correspondence the Apostle Paul is having with parishioners of the Corinthian church. Based on this passage and those that surround it in previous and subsequent chapters, it is plain to see that there was a “spiritual elitism” that caused a splintering in the Corinthian church, placing disciples into different classes based upon their perceived level of spiritual enlightenment, or shall we say “cleanness of conscience” concerning various things. 

Those who understood themselves to be in the elite class elevated themselves above others in the church.  These were likely the wealthier parishioners...those who were invited to various dinners and feasts in pagan temples where there were restaurant-like rooms set up for various cultural celebrations.  When these parishioners attended these banquets, etc., they had to eat what was put before them...it was a cultural no-no to say, “No thank you; i won’t have any”--that would be an insult to the host of the banquet, feast or celebration!   

For many 1st century Christians in the Roman empire who were once believers in the culturally dominant polytheistic understanding of the divine, eating meat offered to these so called gods would be very problematic on this side of their baptism.  But these Christians who were attending the feasts--they had their way of making the eating of meat that had been offered to idols a spiritually indifferent issue.  Since they’ve become Christian, they’ve learned what Jesus had said when he said it’s not what goes into the body that defiles but that which comes out...they’ve taking seriously the radical belief of their day -- monotheism--that there is one God and not a plurality of gods.  They believe that the God revealed in and through Jesus is God and He alone.  They know if this is the case, then no other so called gods really exist.  If food was offered to a so-called god who is not really a god, then for them, it is a non-issue.  So the privileged few parishioners of the Corinthian church attend the feasts and banquets in the pagan temple restaurants and they eat and enjoy with a clean conscience.  

But the problem is...there are those Christians in the church who are not privileged enough to be confronted with this issue...these don’t eat meat nearly as much...they certainly aren’t invited to attend these festivals the wealthy attend ...these remember their previous life before their baptisms...and all they think of when they are confronted with the idea of eating meat that was sacrificed to idols is that old life that bowed down to the gods of the Hellenistic world.  To eat this meat, for these that the elite call “weak,” carries with it the temptation to be drug back into that old life of idolatry.  

The spiritually elite--those who are “enlightened” or “possess knowledge”--want Paul to settle the issue for the weak.  They likely wrote Paul, advising him to affirm their ‘exemplary knowledge’ and encourage the weak to join them in their idol-offered meat eating extravaganzas so they too, might be enlightened.  

The time and situation of the Corinthian church is separated from us by many miles and many many years...it’s easy to write it off as a situational issue Paul addressed to a particular people...because it is and they were.  But Paul’s letter still speaks to the church today. Our issue may not be about whether to eat meat offered to idols...but we have our issues that directly correlate.   

For example, after I became a believer, i had a lot of trouble joining in on many cultural activities that to me only reminded me of my life before Christ...but at the same time, there were Christians who had been following Jesus for much longer than myself who partook and did so with a clean conscience.  Some of these very disciples treated me as a “weaker believer...” they made clear their being ‘in the know’ known to me and made me feel inferior to their spiritual awareness.  They used their liberty...their knowledge as a way to put themselves above me...while there were others who, even though they were in a different place than myself, did not hold their freedom over me but patiently led me to healthier and holier understandings on the journey toward God redeeming many things and activities in my life.

Another example...I remember a man i worked with when I was an electrician...he could not be around coffee...he was once addicted and he understood it as a demon at the time.  There were people who would drink it in front of him just because they could...because they were at ‘a different level,’ so to speak...and it seemed their only motive was to make this clear...they couldn’t understand that something as ‘harmless’ as coffee could be harmful to him...(of course they never took the time to know his story...so how could they know him and his struggles?)  He was afraid it would drag him back to where he was before he was delivered from it...he knew it was an idol to him--he was aware that it could easily become that again.  Yet Christians laughed in his face about it!  But there were others of us who knew him well enough and the severity of his past experience of coffee that led us to be much more patient with him...even avoiding coffee when he was around because he was not yet ready for it.  Today he enjoys coffee and thanks God for it...he has been healed in such beautiful ways!  

There are many situations like this in the church’s present situation in life...  Some come from a background where alcoholic beverages are enjoyed but not abused--where it was always enjoyed with gratitude and for the glory of God...some once abused it but have been on a healing journey and now enjoy it appropriately...others only remember the way their father abused it or even how it caused him to abuse them...for others alcohol is symbolic of the demonic--the way it had or still has possession and control of their lives...If you were to interview every person in this parish on their position concerning alcohol or anything else, you’d find that our various journeys have caused us to be shaped in different ways.

Alcoholic beverages are but one example of many...really anything could be the equivalent of the Corinthians’ “meat offered to idols” issue.  Anything in creation can be received in thanksgiving and appropriately used for the glory of God just as well as it can be abused and become to us an idol.  We have many things that are equivalent to the Corinthians ‘idol meat.’  

And Paul has something to say not only to the Corinthians but to us gathered today concerning our understanding, enjoyment or avoidance of these things:  

“Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”  and later, “Take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block [to those you understand as] weak.”  

It is not what we know that is important, Paul says, but .... (pause) .... who knows us.  Paul says it like this: “Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him.”  

Paul has turned the tables on those who likely wrote him, believing he’d agree fully with them...yes, he may have agreed that there is no inherent harm in eating meat that was sacrificed to idols, etc. etc.  But Paul is aware of a larger spiritual issue here-- these “spiritually elite” disciples whose self-avowed knowledge is nothing more than sinful pride.  Rather than remembering that deliverance and the freedom and liberties that come with it, begins with God’s knowledge of us--His initiative--these believers have given themselves the trophy of the ‘spiritual elite’ based on their own perceived superb knowledge of spiritual matters.  So Paul goes back to the basis of our faith--it’s not what we know, it’s about who knows us and, yet, still loves us unconditionally.  It’s all about being known by God, not what we know!  

Imagine that for a moment.  God knew us before we knew ourselves to even be a self.  God knows us more than we know ourselves.  He knows everything about us...all our weaknesses, our sins, our quirks (and even though each person has different ones, Lord knows we all got em)...and yet He loves us and has given himself for us!  “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly,” says Paul in Romans 5.   The initiative resides with God and his unconditional love for us. He knows us fully and yet loves us fully even though we are SOO messed up!  Any cleanness of conscience concerning various issues comes not from the disciples’ initiative--his possession of knowledge--but from God’s grace demonstrated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  So the point of this spiritual journey we are on is not to demonstrate our superior knowledge--to be ‘puffed up’ as Paul describes it--but to love from a realization that we are known by God and yet loved and adored!  

When we consider this, we are reminded of how much we really know--and how weak each of us really are...we are confronted with the truth that every ‘liberty’ and ‘cleanness of conscious’ we experience rests in God’s gracious initiative in loving and redeeming us while we were still sinners!  Being aware of our being known in such unbelievable ways leads us to know, not for our own gain, but to know and love the “other” wherever he or she is on faith’s journey for the sake of his or her being known and loved by God. The Gospel calls us to become a visible sign--a sacrament--of our Shepherds patient leadership from error into truth...to lovingly lead others even as others lead us to embrace all things with gratitude as gift from God and for God’s glory.

So God challenges the church of Corinth and any and everywhere else: instead of flaunting your freedom to be or do this or that, what if instead you allowed the Holy Spirit to make knowing and loving those in your community as priority number one.  Because so and so is dealing with this and that, i realize this party will not include ________.  Love builds up...it does not cause another to stumble...it makes us aware that all of us have those places where growth is still needed so there’s no use in making myself a spiritual elite just because his issue is not my issue...because there’s gonna be another situation come along where my issue is not his issue and i hope he loves me/puts his knowledge on hold for the sake of me being gently led closer to truth concerning this particular issue, whatever it may be.  I like the way St. John Chrysostom gets at the heart of issue when he said, “Although you may know something more than your neighbor, if you love him you will not set yourself higher but lead him also to the same.”

So don’t let your freedom make you too big for your britches, but let your joyful gratitude for how God has led you to that knowledge or that clean conscience lead you to gently love others toward the same--no matter how big or small their “issues” may seem to be.  

To wrap it all up, I’ll close with Chrysostom’s words:

“Knowledge stands in extreme need of love.” 

Amen.