Concerning Food...

 Concerning Food…

 

1 Corinthians 8:1-13
8:1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

8:2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge;

8:3 but anyone who loves God is known by him.

8:4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really exists," and that "there is no God but one."

8:5 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as in fact there are many gods and many lords--

8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

8:7 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.

8:8 "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.

8:9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

8:10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?

8:11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.

8:12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

8:13 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.

 

 

Food has become a sort of preoccupation with me since last Easter. You see, I like to eat (don’t we all?), and since COVID invaded, I have been learning how to cook—something I had initially planned to do as a retirement activity. I never thought I was  “big” eater, as some might say, given I’m married to a dietitian, who has tried to give me good “food” vibes over our 46-plus years together. But as a pastor, with a more sedentary lifestyle that comes with this calling, I had slowly added material to my body that gravity seem to really appreciate. Over the past few years, at each of my annual physicals, my Doc would say something like, “You could stand to lose a few pounds,” to which I would smile and respond, “No, I CAN’T stand it!” I went several years resisting his suggestion, buoyed by the evidence that I had not gained weight between those office visits. Then came 2023: I was up four pounds. I had been noticing that my ties seemed to be getting sorter, and my suit jackets were “shrinking,” and those four pounds set off an alarm. I started “being more careful” with what I was eating in the days following, and then we were off to Louisville to spend Easter with our daughter and her family.

 

At our first meal together, I made a comment about how I was “trying to cut down.” This prompted a response from my daughter, who reported that she had lost almost 25 pounds of “baby fat” she had been carrying around after having her children. She DID look good, so I asked if she had a secret—of COURSE she did. She told me about a free app she used to keep track of her daily calorie intake, demonstrating how it had a convenient database of most foods (making this easy), and settings that one could dial up a goal of like losing a pound a week. Dara always said that weight loss was best done gradually like this, and that any resulting loss would be more sustainable, if this was the method used. I downloaded the app, and began my anti-blimping journey,

 

The rest is history, as they say. I was able to stay with the app, was painfully honest with each food item entry over the following months, and by Thanksgiving, had reached my target weight, which was over 40 pounds less than what I had weighed at my Doc’s office in February. My target weight was decided by consulting the BMI/health charts readily available on the Internet. A “healthy” male my age, height, and weight should weigh between 155 and 165 pounds, with a BMI of 25 or less. I settled on the upper number (165), given that I do a bit of weight and resistance training, with the help of our “Silver Sneakers” gym membership and a Bowflex unit here in my study. After reaching this target weight, I set the app to “maintain,” but only have added in half the calories it suggested, as I know myself, and how my body handles food. So far, so good! I’ve been several weeks now, right at 165. By the way, the app I used is called, “MyNetDiary.com” It is free, although they do offer a “premium” edition that performs all kinds of “food contents” analyses, such as levels of carbohydrates, fats, sugars, etc. I was personally never interested in these things, as I just wanted to track basic calorie consumption in the food I was consuming. My favorite dietitian always preached moderation—eat whatever you want, just don’t eat as MUCH of it, and stay away from routinely eating “seconds” (or thirds…). 

 

How do I feel? Great. I DID have to buy several new pairs of pants, new blue jeans, and a few new shirts. My ties are suddenly longer, and my polo shirts are no longer making me feel like a breakfast sausage. At retirement, I donated several of my best suits to Goodwill, only keeping two that were too tight, with the hope they would encourage me to engage a weight-loss program. Now, at the successful conclusion of one, I pulled out the “tightest” of those two suits to wear to a funeral service this week. Believe it or not, it was WAY too large on me, not even wearable, honestly! I guess my recent “battle of the bulge” is what triggered my interest in this I Corinthians 8 text from the lectionary.

 

Weight loss was not what was troubling the folk the apostle is addressing in this scripture. In question was meat that was from animals sacrificed to idols by one of the pagan groups that were common in the Greco-Roman culture. Since Peter and Paul had both “heard” from the Lord through the “kill and eat” vision and the big sheet coming down from heaven, the “doctrine” of the faith was that there was no longer anything that was restricted, in terms of cuisine. Paul would argue, however, that if eating meat that had been sacrificed to pagan idols would cause some to “stumble” or otherwise be disillusioned in their faith, one should refrain from doing so in their presence. Note that Paul doesn’t have a problem with eating this meat, per se, but only when it may produce a negative witness to those for whom it would be anathema. 

 

In our day, this might be like refraining from drinking alcoholic beverages in the presence of those who could be negatively affected by its consumption, or by the temptation it may offer. A majority of committed Christians have come to believe that persons who are attracted to those within their same gender is a perfectly normal manifestation on the spectrum of human sexuality. However, there are those for whom this “sin” is counter to their understanding of scripture. Might this be the same kind of thing? Some think so. The problem with this comparison, however, is that what is “caught in the middle” are human beings and their lives, not alcohol or meat. Is it appropriate to ask persons in the LGBTQ community to disregard what is normal or natural for them—for the rest of their lives—just to placate other believers, or to affirm their interpretation of scripture and moral “law,” especially when how to interpret scripture is a much debated and varied science? Might it be prudent for LGBTQ individuals and their allies to be more sensitive to the faith and related “beliefs” of those who struggle with their “acceptance?” Probably. As is often the case in human affairs, one of the great “equalizers” is a close affiliation with a person who has publicly stated their LGBTQ status. It may be a close friend, family member, or even a sibling, child, or grandchild. This may be a good example of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “life together,” where such a close relationship breaks down our prejudices and necessarily causes us to rethink what we at one time believed to be immutable principles. 

 

Throughout the history of religion, new vistas discovered by human knowledge required such a rethinking of doctrinal positions. Galileo was excommunicated by the church because he dared hypothesize that the Earth revolved around the Sun, and not vice versa. It wasn’t until 1992 that Pope John Paul II stated that Galileo “may have been unjustly treated” by the church. Medical and psychological science have affirmed that human sexuality is on a continuum, not merely and “either/or,” as some believe. They have taught us that whether a person manifests a heterosexual attraction or a homosexual one—or anything in between—is normal, and should be accepted as a very personal and life-long orientation. Laws, too, should fairly allow for normalization of personal human sexual orientation as an individual right, protected BY the law. Fifty years from now (hopefully MUCH less!), this will be the case, as science and medicine continues to learn and society evolves, but for now, members of the LGBTQ community suffer harassment and alienation, at the least, and legal persecution or even a death sentence (in some countries), at most. About this gap in knowledge—or at least the acceptance of it, Paul would say, “It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge…” Like Galileo’s heliocentrism, it may take a while for the church to come around.

 

In our politically polarized and charged time, those with a greater degree of emotional intelligence are appealing to us all to be in dialogue about our differences and stop the name-calling and labeling the “other side” as just plain wrong, or proclaiming them “ignorant.” As one of my reading group partners said the other day, the dialogue will only be fruitful if our goal is not persuasion, but relationship fostering and nurturing. Like it or not, we ARE in this together. If we just keep choosing sides, nothing good will come of it. History will record that “final solutions” such as the mass-disaffiliation movement that has crippled the United Methodist Church will not ultimately serve the Body of Christ. Deciding to end dialogue and “taking their ball and bat and going home” will cost money, sever precious relationships, hurt our Christian witness, but will eventually cause us to eventually wind up right where we are now. Some wise souls have already predicted this, and have tried to build into the “permissions” that made disaffiliation possible, the seeds of reconciliation. Only time will tell if these will bear fruit.

 

The issue of meat sacrificed to idols didn’t plague the church for very long, as we don’t hear much about it beyond this text in Corinthians. The church seems adept, however, at finding other issues over which to fight, split, and reconcile, although there have clearly been fracturing issues that still haven’t “matured” to the reconciliation stage! (Witness the continued existence of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches.)

 

One wonders what Jesus Christ must feel about these squabbles and divisions? Is it not true that he CAME to absolve us of the sins that fracture us, and to heal and restore the love (agape) originally gifted to humanity by our Creator? Of course, it were these very issues that took him to the cross at the hands of persons who feared his efforts to exorcise our hatred and lust for personal power, wasn’t it? I’m guessing Jesus understands the cross was just a launchpad, not a final winner’s platform, and that his efforts to reconcile humanity to God and to each other are still ongoing and current. We can pray so. We can hope so. And we can work like we believe it to be the will of God, that this reconciliation is the end game.

 

May we be guided by what Paul tells us in verse one of today’s passage: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” Amen!