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.”

ER HOST Is breaking one of his cardinal rules in this post: I try not to write this sermon on the weekly RCLs having heard a Sunday morning sermon at church. I say that exactly because I don’t wish this post to be a response to that one. But I admit today’s sermon kinda pissed me off. And so, I’ll start with the quote about St Paul, writing about meat, as found in the RCL for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany.

The sermon this AM began with the preacher lamenting the lack of a talmud-like tradition within Christianity – of story telling, commentary and expansion on the scripture from within the community and our focus on only the text of the Gospel. I wrote to him this evening and said that claim is simply just not true unless you are a sola-scriptura sort of liberal or conservative Protestant. The Church Mothers and Fathers wrote Mishna, as did various saints including Chrysostom and Augustine, Luther, Wesley… it’s only when you claim “only the scriptures” like Modern Folks, black/white, either/or sorts of meanings for the text that you get stuck in the corner. When the Jesus Seminar votes “this is Jesus talking, but that is not” we are trapped in Fundamentalism.

Paul’s text today (which is nearly never read at my church, for some odd reason) is exactly the sort of Rabbinic Commentary that the preacher was claiming wasn’t there.

See, Paul was writing before there were Gospels. All that the early church had was (non-writen) memories of Jesus’ words, the Old Testament (in Greek translation) and the writings of the Apostles, especially Paul. These last served as the early stages of our own Mishna: beginning the Christian Rabbinic commentary on the scriptures and, in the process, writing more.

Paul’s text today is such: on the one hand we have Jesus’ saying that it is not what goes into a man that poisons him, but rather what comes out of a man that is sinful. To this Rabbi Paul parallels the Jewish teaching that no idol is real at all. A legalistic reading of Jesus and the OT would leave us, ironically, in an antinomian place, eating any meat we might find without a care in the world. But the Rabbi, taking Jesus’ mind as well as his words, brings us to a different place: in our freedom each must avoid making anyone stumble. Others must come first. We must not use our freedom to condemn others in their weakness. Note that in this passage Paul clearly says these other parties are wrong. They have only an elemental knowledge of the faith and they need to be corrected. Given their childish faith, they still imagine the idols to be real. And Paul doesn’t say, “Let’s teach ‘em right!” Instead he says, “Let us bend our practice to these weaker folks.”

Imagine that applied now!

Even though we know the other side is wrong…

Those who ordain women and celebrate LGTB-affirmation would be refraining from these things for fear of causing the weaker brothers to venture into libertinism. Those who inveigh against these things would provide their blessings for fear of making their weaker brethren commit acts of injustice…

But no. Today we just file lawsuits against each other while we debate the “clear meaning” of the “literal words” of the Bible and ignore 2,000 years of development of meaning in the Christian community.

The Manifestation of God (Epiphany) in the story is Jesus healing of the Demoniac. The manifestation of God in the OT, however is hidden: God says rather than just show up all the time, I’m going to send you prophets. By his Holy Spirit, God continues to send us prophets to point out the place of God in our lives (there, in the eyes of your neighbour). But how many of us listen?

And how many, hearing something we dislike, go seeking a false prophet who well make us comfortable – but will only make us dumber?