For whom do you eat?

 This week's verses are Romans 14:1-9:

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not to have quarrels over opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but the one who is weak eats only vegetables. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

One person values one day over another, another values every day the same. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and the one who eats, does so with regard to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and the one who does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat, and he gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

 These verses are part of a long conversation the apostle Paul has with the Roman church, which I have broken up into smaller pieces for easy chewing. He's talking about the differences in faith which naturally arise when people are brought together from different backgrounds at different stages of life.

In those days, one of the big issues was the sale of meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Romans had meat that had been consecrated to their gods, which were actually demons. It's a question we don't encounter today, so it's easy to ignore it.

But imagine you're at the baseball game and someone is selling hot dogs and telling everyone "Come show your support for Satan! If you eat this hot dog, you can become one with the devil himself!" Would you buy the hot dog? What if you were really hungry? Would you actually believe you're having a lunch date with Satan by eating it? But even if you don't, would other people think you were into the devil's business if they saw you eating it? But if you didn't buy it, wouldn't that be saying that you're afraid of the devil and doubt the resilience of your salvation? And does worrying about it either way make you superstitious?

It was a hard question people couldn't agree on. Do I go vegetarian when I'm at the game, so I don't accidentally eat a demon dog, or do I buy the hot dog anyway and just pray over it and declare that God makes all things clean, even mystery meat? There were people in both camps, and both had good arguments.

We have similar impasses now. Do take Saturday as your Sabbath, and use Sunday as your busy day, as Jesus likely did? Or do you take Sunday as your Sabbath, despite spending half of it volunteering for the church, as the early church likely did? There are good arguments for both, and I've even known full time ministers who have taken Monday, because why not? But we bicker and point fingers and look down our noses at each other.

We have all kinds of divisions. Mask versus no mask. Alcohol versus no alcohol. Modern music or classic music? Tithing? Suits or tie dyes? I still remember my early days of being a Christian where our somewhat bohemian crew was looking down on the folks in suits as being Pharisees while they looked down on us for being libertines. Nobody wins in those situations. Except the enemy.

So, Paul breaks it down for the Roman church.

Main points:

1. Don't look down on people with different convictions

If the vegetarian is vegetarian because he's not entirely sure that the demon dog won't backfire on him later, that's where he is right now. If you think his faith is weak, accept him as your equal, not as someone to look down on and make arguments with in the hopes of converting him to your interpretation. He's your brother, not your project.

God has accepted him, so who are you to reject him? Did God appoint you as his HR director to sort through the applicants and tell him which ones won't make a good fit? No, both of you are being saved at the same time, so why make distinctions where none exist?

2. They're not doing it for you, so don't write them up as if they were

 Paul says that we should not judge another man's servant. And he's right! If your fellow Christian is not living out his Christian life to your liking, what is that to you?It's not like he came to you wanting to join your religion and asked you for ten commandments and then went and broke them just to spite you. If he messes up his Christian walk, that's an issue God will take up with him. God didn't pin a deputy badge on your chest so you could around writing citations for him.

3. We are all individually accountable to God

 Each of us is accountable to our own Master. That's already enough to worry about. Your brother's sin is not going to get you in trouble. His rebellion is not your fight. On the other hand, if the grace you believe you have received is really a thing, it's also a gift that he has received. So even if he's falling short in his walk compared to you, God will still make him able to stand proud in the end.

4. We are all rational actors. It's not "enlightened you" versus the ignorant bumpkins on "the other side."

This is the hardest point of all for us modern folks. Our media drives us to make caricatures of each other. Elephants think the donkeys are dumb animals and donkeys think elephants are dumb animals, when we're all dumb animals. But we are rational beings too, and if we are convinced of something, chances are we have good reasons for believing it.

If someone takes a different stance than you, it's not always because they're less intelligent, less educated, less spiritual, less compassionate, or whatever. Sometimes they're working with different information, or have the advantage of seeing the situation from a different angle, or emphasize different values than you among the ones we share as Christians. 

Or maybe they are weak after all, but it doesn't make them any lower than you in God's eyes. So you shouldn't make them that way in your eyes either.

5. If we're living for the Lord, that's the important thing. If we are Christians, our beliefs should center on God, not on ourselves.

If your brother is making an honest effort to follow God's will, and you're doing the same, God is still glorified in both cases. If your brother is being a ballpark vegan out of an honest expression of his faith, and you're devouring the enemy's territory one hot dog at a time, also out of a sense of obedience to your God, both of you are doing the right thing.

Paul says that we must each be convinced of what we're doing. We should live out our convictions boldly, and without compromise, but not past the point where we prevent our brothers and sisters from doing the same thing. 

Who are we looking to please when we decide whether or not to buy the pagan hot dog? Is it about the food? Or is it about being obedient to what you believe God requires of you and trying to live congruent with his values? The church we should be living out is the one in which both camps are free to answer the call without condemnation and strife.

As we go into the Lent season, and some people become vegetarians and others don't, or some give up this thing, and other give up that, let none of us have contempt or judgment of those who are living it out (or not) differently than we are. If you're eating meat, who are you eating it for? And if you're fasting meat, who are you fasting it for? Is it for you? Is it to impress your fellow Christians? Is it to prove a point? Or are you acting on conviction and living in gratefulness for God's gift to you like he asks?

And in that context, Paul's line will be my closing line: For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.