1 Corinthians 8
1Corinthians 8 (NRSV)
Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that all of us possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; 3but anyone who loves God is known by him.
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. 5Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— 6yet 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.
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. 8Food will not bring us close to God.’ We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling-block to the weak. 10For 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? 11So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. 12But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.
The Bible often has a word for us today even if the original context is no longer relevant in modern society. It’s the case with the Scripture above, which is our second reading for the upcoming Sunday. When Saint Paul wrote this, he was concerned about wise folks turning ignorant folks to sin and away from the Lord. In that day and age it was common for animals to be sacrificed to the worship of idols and then the meat to be sold in the marketplace. Many believed that buying and eating that meat was the same as participating in the worship of the idol to whom the animal had been sacrificed. Paul knew, and knowledgable, sophisticated Christians knew, that sacrificing to idols was ridiculous nonsense, and that eating the meat was meaningless. But Paul also knew that many ignorant, innocent people, including many naive Christians, still believed that eating the meat was the same as worshiping the idol. And Paul knew that such naive people who were Christians were being scandalized that their more sophisticated Christian neighbors thought nothing of buying and eating such meat, and took it to mean that they were still worshiping idols and that it was right to do so. Paul’s command -- it’s an exhortation actually, not a command -- is that knowledgable people must be mindful of the effect they are having on naive people, and careful not to scandalize others or lead them to sin. Even though “sacrificing to idols and eating the meat” seems to us a silly thing to be concerned about, Paul’s caution about scandalizing others is as relevant today as it was when he wrote it twenty centuries ago.
When the Reverend Canon Gene Robinson was elected bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, I was quite vocal about my strong opposition. My opposition was not that a gay person was to become a bishop, gays have served God, Family, Church and Country since the beginning of time and it’s a non-issue with me, what my old friend George Chapel used to call “a non-event.” My opposition was based on 1 Corinthians 8, knowing as I did because it was obvious to anyone with good sense, that this ordination would offend and scandalize not only many Episcopalians but a large part of the worldwide Anglican Communion; and it was clear that there would be schism locally and internationally because of it. Robinson’s ordination went forward and sure enough, people were and are scandalized and there was and is schism.
At the time, I felt that our doing this to Church and Communion would be a sin. Today though, nearly ten years on, some other things have surfaced and become clear to me, of which I was ignorant, innocent, naive when Bishop Robinson was elected and consecrated. Among some Americans, and even among some Episcopalians, and especially among several major Anglican groups in different parts of the world and in different cultures, there is vehement hatred of gays; and in some places and cultures, unspeakable persecution. Seeing this has caused the lightbulb to come on in my head, my own discovery and realization, my own -- epiphany -- that I would not in any event wish to be in the same Church and Communion with folks for whom hatred is a basis of their Christianity.
This I say though God love them and me alike; and all the while trying to be mindful of my own sins known and unknown, things done and left undone; and that I have not loved God with all my heart, nor my neighbor as myself; and that in ways unknown to me, I myself may be leading others to sin in disobedience of 1 Corinthians 8; and that as a priest I am, more than anyone else I know, susceptible to this sin of leading good and trusting folks astray. To live humbly in that tension is the hardest part of the whole thing.
TW+