Sermon: The Fifth Sunday after Trinity

Preacher:

Date:

Sunday 8th July 2012

Service:

Evensong

Readings:

Jeremiah 20:1-11a

Romans 14:1-7

The letters page in this week’s Church Times contributors spoke of the need for pragmatism, grace,  generosity, and support of the vulnerable; concern was expressed about theological convictions, mutual commitment and integrity; there was hope for healing amidst fear, and a plea to trust in God.

I wonder if this evening's portion of Paul's letter to the Romans would have been published by the Church Times' editor.  He grapples, as we do today, with theological disagreement within the church. He is writing to a community made of a vocal majority and a fearful minority. 

For Paul, the issue at stake concerned whether or not Christians should keep the Jewish dietary laws and observe the Sabbath. Tensions have arisen within because the predominantly Gentile congregation believed they were liberated from those practices; but others sought to uphold patterns of traditional observance.

His response is to rebuke both the strong and the weak saying – neither despise nor condemn one another. Such judgments weaken the bonds of commitment in Christ; they hinder the proclamation of the Gospel; and detract from the work of building up the Kingdom of God.

It sounds all too familiar.  In each generation, we have wrestled with issues regarded as being definitive for Christian identity; finding our own stumbling blocks to the life-giving Gospel.  The Church has debated its understanding of the sacraments, authority, scripture, ethics, liturgical practice, gender, race, and sexuality.

Paul's response to unresolved differences is to focus on faith in Christ and to consider Christian conduct in that light. We are to be mindful of one another – seeking not to cause injury to the other, but to walk in love.  And we are to do this for the sake of the Kingdom of God – characterized by righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

It is a hard and demanding task to be united in a common purpose, whilst also holding onto convictions discerned with integrity. I have sat in meetings where joy and hope has been stifled by hurt and injustice; At the recent clergy conference, I have wrestled with disagreements in a spirit of genuine warmth and curiosity over a bottle of wine.  In every generation we have to find a way of deepening our faith and trust; whilst not letting our disagreements consume all the energy that ought to be directed to proclaiming the Gospel amongst those longing for hope, love and healing.

Paul recognizes the corrosive effect of censorious judgement and condemnation, or ridicule and contempt. Both parties are challenged over their failure to love their neighbour. He says: let the one who eats not despise the one who does not eat; let the one who does not eat not pass judgement on the one who does.

The fundamental issue for Paul is one of faith. As human beings, we run the risk of attempting to define faith so narrowly or to set out boundaries of Christian conduct so tightly, that we exclude anyone who has a different theological conviction and anyone who expresses their faith differently – in worship, or ethics or tradition.   Paul asks  one question: do  you trust in God through Christ?

For Paul: the vision of faith is larger that particular practices.  If we live and die in the Lord, we cannot deny the status of Christian to those we don't like, who don't conform, or with whom we disagree. We belong to one another in Christ. All need to seek forgiveness – from patterns of speech and action which dehumanize the other in scathing or mocking remarks.

The words of Frederick Faber's hymn  There's a wideness in God's mercy are familiar to us, but hard to embody. The love of God is broader than the measure of our mind; but we make his love too narrow by false limits of our own; we magnify his strictness with a zeal he will not own.  God's justice  is kind; his welcome brings grace mercy and healing.

Those are exactly the values of God's kingdom which Paul is seeking to encourage amongst the community in Rome.   In order to build up relationships of trust and mutual understanding, the weak and the strong have to think and act differently.  If impatience, mockery and contempt lead to defensiveness, and increasingly entrenched views; respect, understanding and engagement enables conversations that may be hopeful and transforming. His advice is subtly different in each case.

Paul first addresses the weak,  who are quick to condemn those who sit lightly to their traditions.  He invites them to accept the strong as brothers and sisters in Christ; to see them as accepted by God.  This is a generative starting point argues the New Testament scholar Jimmy Dunn: if each can accept the other as Christian, fully, then the foundation of shared worship and mission is set.

Time spent together in worship and conversation deepens understanding and begins to effect change; it enables honest and transforming encounters. It does not happen automatically; it demands prayerful discernment, and scrutiny of our own positions. Responsible thought and conduct occurs when we stop taking things for granted on the basis of convention or superstition, but to decide prayerfully for ourselves. 

There will always be issues which are a matter of personal conviction or conscience; but we are to hold those views in Christ. Doing so then shapes our conduct. We find ourselves seeking to honour God in what we do and say, rather than arming ourselves with better arguments to challenge the other.

This is not an acceptance of individualism or anything goes, nor does it deny a voice for justice. It is a recognition that we need to expand our horizons – knowing where we stand whilst seeing the other as loved by God too. Knowing that ultimately, we each stand under that divine judgment.  Conversation is transformative when each party has the trust to speak out of their difference, to grow in understanding of self and other. 

The challenge to the strong is equally robust. It could be said that those who see themselves as free from the constraints about keeping certain laws have an even greater responsibility.  As Jimmy Dunn puts it: those who recognize the scope of Christian liberty on matters of disputed conduct have to extend that same liberty to those who feel constrained. This is for the sake of God's kingdom; it is based in a relationship with God that reshapes our conduct in relation to others.

The welcome extended by the strong to the weak must be genuine; it is about building relationships of understanding and affection – it is not an opportunity to put them right.  Paul sees shared faith in Christ as the basis for flourishing relationships and mature Christian conduct. Flowing from that is hope for agreement.  The praxis of conversation is not the responsibility of the Archbishop of Canterbury alone; but rests with all in the Church.

Paul is proposing a way forward based on acceptance and respect  as characteristics of the church.  Christian conduct is grounded in faith and love of God.  He is bold in his assertion that on the matter of food laws nothing is unclean in itself.  He roots his authority about this in Jesus' teaching, not on a personal whim.  He grounds his thinking 'in Christ' – he wrestles with his conscience before the Lord, and commends others to do the same.

Such theological thinking is always for the sake of the Kingdom (the letters in the Church Times were full of such language) and for the building up of the Church. For the Church only exists for the sake of the Kingdom. Neither the logic of tradition nor the principles of liberty suffice. We are to love God, growing in faith; we are to love our neighbour, rather than seeking personal advancement. As a church our growth in trust is fragile. We depend on God's grace.

Conversation, attentiveness and hospitality take time; our strength and weakness serve a common end, the furtherance of God's kingdom. As majority and minority voices debate in our own communion, may there be generosity and patience, faith and trust, hope and healing:  Let us therefore no longer pass judgement on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another... for the kingdom of God is... righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.