Vicar’s sermon: 13.9.26 Romans 14.1-12

‘No two people see the same rainbow.’ According to a commentator on a programme on the car radio the other week the ‘rainbow’ that we see changes according to our geographical location, our height (or the position of our eyes) and possibly (though I’m less sure of this) the particular makeup of our eyes. This makes a sort of sense to me. I suspect it is the same when it comes to our experience of faith. ‘No two people’s faith is the same.’ We have a great deal in common sat here in church this morning but your understanding of the faith, let alone your experience of prayer, your relationship with Jesus – is yours, not mine. People like me stand up at the front of church and talk about the faith as if it is ‘one’ thing, we smooth out the differences – but as you sit and listen you are agreeing (or disagreeing), measuring your experience against that of others. That figures too. Jesus calls us to be his church but he calls us by name – as individuals and we are all different.
Today’s epistle is the last out of our series on Paul’s letter to the Romans. On the surface it is about meat and veg, workdays and holidays but below the surface it is about unity and difference, about managing conflict within the church and about the importance of conscience.
So to start with the meat and veg. Hopefully by now you’ll have heard enough times that Paul is speaking to a church made up of all sorts of people trying to follow Jesus. Roman citizens and slaves, men and women, Jewish Christians, non-Jewish converts – a great hotch potch of folk united by …not a lot, other than their decision to follow Jesus. And whilst it may all seem very strange to us, one of the most pressing issues in these early Christian communities was whether to eat meat or not. The problem wasn’t the ethics of meat eating. The problem was that meat sold in the market had usually been sacrificed in a temple: ‘offered to idols’. So the issue was whether if you bought this stuff were you supporting the worship of gods who were ‘no-gods’, perhaps even hedging your bets about whether there really is just one God. Add to this basic problem the place of Jewish dietary laws within the Christian faith and our predecessors had a right theological meltdown as to a way forward. ‘Some’ says Paul ‘eat anything, while the weak eat only vegetables’.
Fine. You’d think it was all sorted. The apostle has spoken!… but notice how deeply this issue cut in the church. Paul mentions ‘quarrelling’ in verse 1: verbally having it out with one another…and not in a good way. People are ‘judging’ one another. There’s more: twice Paul mentions ‘despising’ others. This issue was dividing the church into us and them. . The words used suggest that the division was painful and bruising. Whilst trying to live as Christians the community was exhibiting wholly unchristian behaviour – the danger was that the church would split into fiercely opposed camps made up of likeminded folk convinced of how right they were who shunned their brothers and sisters who thought differently about matters.
Meat and veg: not such a small issue as it happens. And calendars? Workdays and holidays. Were you to look at the front of our Book of Common prayer or at the hardback version of our Common Prayer books you would find a table of feast days. Some churches – ours included- observe special days (last week was our Patronal Festival for example). Others do not. This too was a problem in Rome. We’re not yet at the stage of Christianity being the religion of the Roman Empire but even here, in the small house churches scattered across the city, folk were falling out over the observance of particular days. It’s still a problem. Occasionally there is a thought that the western and eastern churches might share an agreed date for Easter(light the blue touchpaper and stand back) ….or, back in history, was Oliver Cromwell undone by his decision to ban Christmas? (Discuss)
Diaries and diets are the surface issue that Paul addresses. Division in the church is the major issue. How should we deal with conflict, mistrust and the destructive tendency to judge those with whom we disagree? It’s at this point that this all becomes somewhat real. In a few weeks’ time elections will be held for the Church of England’s General Synod. The last synod ended its five-year term in the summer and, on the agenda, was the subject of Trust in the church. A report was received (which is well worth reading) which sought to address the erosion of trust felt both within the church and beyond following the harsh disagreements that recent years have brought. At our Area Deans’ and Lay Chairs’ meeting with the Bishop and Senior staff last week we had a really honest and constructive conversation about some of these issues of difference and trust within the church and how they are being experienced locally – because things have not been good.
The General Synod report outlines that over the last few years we have been dealing with three major issues. One would have been hard to address, two could have been managed with a struggle but three has simply been too much. The issues have been: 1. money (and attached to that the perception in the parishes that money is being targeted badly or inefficiently whilst clergy numbers fall and parishes are hard pressed); 2. Safeguarding: the resignation of the Archbishop, the divisions amongst the House of Bishops as calls for resignations were made, the declarations to do better whilst nothing changes quickly enough for those who have been harmed– these things have left us exposed to misunderstanding. And finally 3: the Living in Love and Faith process around the church’s stance towards those who are in same sex relationships: a process which left just about everybody involved hurt and frustrated. These issues are still unresolved – though we rarely explain the herculean attempts being made to address them -and they have left ‘folk in the pews’ wondering what on earth is taking place. There is a commitment to the local church but little trust in the national church.
Time does not permit me to speak much more about these things but can you see how Paul’s words this morning might speak into our situation? The issues are different but the felt experience may well be the same. A tendency to gather only with those ‘like us’ – those with whom we agree – rather than to recognise and stay in fellowship with ‘all of us’: which includes those with whom we fiercely disagree and who we think are just plain wrong.
Paul gives us a starting point for how Christians are to live together as people who do not think or believe in the same way.
Firstly, he has a high regard for an individual’s conscience. Whatever position you hold ‘Let all be convinced in their own minds’, he says. Conscience has a high place in Christian ethics. A person’s conscience can be formed (trained, guided by others, by shared values or by study of Christian texts); a conscience should be informed – we really do have a responsibility to think through our faith (which is why the lecture series here is so important) . A conscience can also be surrendered to others or damaged or twisted: ‘I was only following orders’ might fit that category. But we are to be ‘convinced in our own minds ‘as to how we are to live out the faith. This is messy. It’s why some vicars remarry divorcees and others don’t. It is why (far from preserving unity) we have so many denominations: ‘Here I stand’ said Martin Luther ‘I can do no other’. In conscience some Christians worship separately from others. But recognising this less than perfect outcome of respecting the dignity of each person and their conscience there is still hope. For Paul is clear that each of us ‘lives and dies’ to the Lord. He reminds us that it is not our job to judge others. ‘Who are you are to pass judgement on the servants of another?’
Some of you might remember the Vauxhall Meriva car that our family used to have: a dark blue small people carrier type vehicle. It went to the scrap heap in the sky because its oil pump failed causing the engine to seize up just a few weeks after its warranty ended. Metal on metal in a car is dangerous. Oil is needed throughout to remove friction and to deal with heat. Something for us all in the church to remember is that ‘we do not live to ourselves’. It’s not all about me and my opinions, its not all about you. We are the Lords. He is the bond between every Christian and He stands between every Christian relationship because like metal on metal we can hurt one another all too easily. He is the one to whom we are accountable.
Where to from here? Pray for grace – in this church community, between the churches of this town, within our diocese and the wider Church of England, for those to be elected to General Synod in the coming weeks. The disagreements haven’t gone away but a way forward will only be found where there is humility and grace. Which is why the prayer we use so often is so important despite its repetition:
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit indeed be with us, now and forever. Without the grace of Christ we are no different from a world that is tearing itself to pieces: we are called to a better way of living.