Romans 14:1-12
September 14, 2014
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
There have always been food fights. And I’m not talking about the cooking shows on TV that we like to watch every week.
The fights we have today is with PETA–People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals with their members demonstrating that all animals—including humans—are made of flesh, blood and bone. PETA’s message is that eating meat is never okay. There’s one standing behind the pulpit.
But we also know people who put bumper stickers on their cars with the message: “I love animals. They’re delicious.” Maybe we have a few of those here today too.
Vegans versus carnivores. The battle can get pretty bloody. As a vegetarian as you know, I find myself in the middle of this battle. When I came upon this passage in Romans, I thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about food fights especially as we approach all of the seasonal food celebrations this year including today’s Emmanual Family Group’s anniversary luncheon.
Food fights are nothing new. Paul stepped into the middle of one as he was writing his letter to the Romans. In this case, the issue was not about the ethics of killing animals, nor did it focus on the health value of a low-fat vegan diet.
Instead, the fight was about judging people.
Roman Christians
The battle lines are drawn when Paul writes, “Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables” (v.2). Now I know where this belief of being a vegetarian may make you weak comes from—right out of the Apostle Paul’s mouth!
In the first century, those were fighting words and they remain so today. Imagine an announcement being made upstairs this afternoon at the EFG’s anniversary luncheon: “When entering the Fellowship Hall, those who are strong in faith will put their meat and potato dishes to the left, while those who are weak in faith will put their vegetarian dishes to the right.” I think that would cause a lot of food fights and division!
But here is the point that Paul makes. He is not really taking a stand on whether a person should eat meat or not. His personal conviction is that there are no food restrictions in the kingdom of God. Paul saw himself to be strong in faith and able to eat anything.
But his point to the Romans is that meat-eaters should withhold judgment toward those who are vegetarians, and vegans should welcome carnivores. “Those who eat must not despise those who abstain,’ says Paul, “and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat” (v. 3).
“Don’t put-down the vegans and vegetarians!” insists Paul to the meat-eaters. “Don’t criticize the carnivores!” he says to the vegetable-eaters.
Judgmental
What is the point here? We live in a world in which people judge and criticize each other all the time. Red state, blue state. Pro-guns, no guns. Liberals, conservatives. Democrats, Republicans, Fox News, MSNBC. Giants, Dodgers. Tea Party, Lanna Coffee Team (Just kidding here). Our polarized nation is full of groups constantly criticizing each other.
Similarly, the Roman church was divided. Paul writes, “Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions” (v. 1). Focus on welcoming instead of judging. Put your energy into connecting instead of quarreling.
Just last Sunday after worship, I was talking with our church people on the sidewalk and I noticed a couple, well-dressed and seemingly pleased to see what was happening on our sidewalk. I found out that they were Christians from Hawaii and the man’s observation was that he was happy to see the Lord’s work happening on the streets of San Francisco. I inquired a bit and he asked, “How do you fight the Evil One meaning Satan when there are so many Buddhist and other religions around you?” I said, “We put emphasis on equipping our people with the love of Christ in their hearts to love those who may differ from us or who have yet to know God.” We focus on welcoming instead of judging. We put our energy into connecting instead of quarreling over what we disagree.
And why should we do this? Because God has done it, that’s why. “For God has welcomed them” (v. 3).
So how do we live in a community of faith with those who are different from ourselves, even those we consider to be “weak in faith?”
Jesus the Judge
First, we make a conscious decision to let Jesus be the judge. “Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another?” asks Paul (v. 4). In the first century, servants were judged by their own lords and masters, not by other servants. In the same way, a vegan Christian is judged by his Lord Jesus, just as a carnivorous Christian is going to be assessed by Jesus. It is not up to meat-eaters to judge vegetable-eaters, or vice versa.
“Don’t judge,” insists Paul. “Just don’t do it. Let Jesus take care of passing judgment.” This is so tough for us, because we love to push back when someone hits us with a political opinion that we find objectionable. We have a hard time holding our tongue when a fellow Christian makes a claim that seems so wrong to us…theologically, biblically, ethically and/or spiritually.
But remember: “It is before their Lord that they stand or fall,” says Paul. “And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand” (v. 4). Paul is not saying that every servant of Christ is going to be perfect in word and deed, but he is predicting that they will be upheld in the resurrection by the power of their relationship with Jesus their Lord. Paul said, “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (vv. 7-8).
This means that whether we are vegans or carnivores, we are the Lord’s. Whether we vote Democrat or Republican, we are the Lord’s.
This does not in any way say that Christians should not have opinions. And it is certainly not to say that Christians should be reluctant to express those opinions. It is to say that when Christians encounter those in the faith of a divergent point of view, we must be very careful before we characterize them as immature in their faith or even outside the family of God. We can hold the opinion that they’re wrong; we should not hold the opinion that they are faithless, godless, backsliding, spineless or just simpleminded followers of Jesus.
Diversity in Christ
The second point is that God wants there to be a certain amount of diversity within the Christian community. The overarching narrative of the Bible is a story of ever-increasing inclusiveness. Beginning with the marriage of Boaz of Bethlehem to a Moabite woman named Ruth—a foreigner who ends up being the great-grandmother of King David (Ruth 1—4). It continues with God’s call for cultural barriers to fall and for people of all nationalities to be part of “a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56). This movement accelerates when Jesus begins his loving and gracious ministry to tax collectors and sinners, and when Paul takes the gospel to the Gentiles.
And we see this in our own church. The missionaries reached out to only Chinese men in San Francisco to start this church that was initially a mission outreach. We became more diverse when wives arrived and children were born in San Francisco. Our diversity expanded when we affirm the commitment to reach both English-speaking and Cantonese-speaking people, city-dwellers and suburban-residents, younger people and older people, singing spiritual songs with guitars and drums and with piano and organ. We see this in our larger denomination when we are now welcoming the thousands of Burmese Baptists who became Christian as the result of the historic mission of Adoniram Judson and Ann Hasseltine.
Paul encourages this diversity when he writes that some people judge one day to be better than another, while others do not, and the important thing is that each be at peace with his or her understanding. Neither eating nor abstaining is a superior practice for Christians, because both can be done, he says, “in honor of the Lord” (v. 6). A diversity of perspectives and practices can be embraced by the Christian faith, as long as everything brings honor to Jesus Christ.
Day of Judgment
The final point that Paul raises is how your own acts of judgment will look on the Day of Judgment. He says, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God” (v 10). Paul is telling us to reflect on how your own acts of judging and despising will look like when you receive your final judgment.
“Do not judge,” says Jesus according to the gospel of Luke, “and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (6:37). Jesus is telling us that we will receive exactly what we offer others in term of judgment and condemnation. The way to prepare for the Day of Judgment is to treat others exactly as you would like to be treated, replacing condemnation with forgiveness.
Instead of making fun of vegans and vegetarians, we should focus on welcoming them. Rather than criticizing carnivores, we should show them Christian hospitality. All of our words and actions should be done “in honor of the Lord,” and should strengthen our relationship with Christ. In the end, our goal is to build a community that fits the vision of the book of Revelation, in which there is “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages; standing before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands” (7:9).
All tribes. All people. All languages. When we stand before that Lamb of God, we won’t be thinking about whether or not we ate lamb chops. We’ll simply be thankful that we belong to Jesus, the Lamb of God. There will be no food fights there, but only worship of the one who is the Lord of the dead and the living, the liberals and the conservatives, the strong and the weak, the Giants and the Dodgers.
By the way, Joy is a carnivore and I am a vegetarian. And when we eat together whether at home or out, we don’t pass judgment on what each of us eat.
Let us pray.
Welcoming and accepting God, we thank you for your liberal generosity to include all of us to know of the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Teach us to not judge others that might demean and destroy their integrity and goodness that you have given but show us your way that bring respect and wholeness to each one of us. Whether you are a vegan or a carnivore, God loves us when we don’t judge others. In Christ, we pray. Amen.