Trinity 9
1
Cor 10:6-13
8/17/14
This past fall I had the opportunity
to go to Madison, WI and speak at the South Wisconsin District pastors’
conference. I was asked to speak to the
two hundred pastors who were there about the Gospel of Matthew, and especially
about this Gospel with a view towards preaching on it.
It was a great experience as first,
I had the chance once again to work more closely with Matthew in preparing for
the four hours of presentations that I had agreed to do. And then, the conference itself was a lot of
fun. The pastors there were very
interested in learning new things about Matthew as they prepared to preach on
the Gospel once again. I enjoyed having
the opportunity to meet in person for the first time pastors in Wisconsin that
I had gotten to know on Facebook. And
let’s face it, who doesn’t enjoy being the “expert” for a couple of days? This was
the first time I had been a speaker in a setting like that. And while in
Madison, I had another experience that was a first. Several pastors took me out to a steakhouse
that was unlike anything I had seen before.
The restaurant was laid out with a very large – probably ten feet long
and six feet wide – charcoal grill located in an area near the salad bar.
It turned out that the unique thing about
this steakhouse is that you chose your own cut of meat … and then you prepared
and grilled it yourself. There would be
no one to complain to if you didn’t like your cut of meat, because you chose it. Right next to the grill they had a large
refrigerator with glass doors, similar to what you see at the grocery
store. It was filled with every cut of
steak that you can imagine – and let me tell you, if you wanted to you could
have some rather pricey beef.
And then, if you didn’t like how
your steak was prepared and cooked, there would also be no way you could
complain because you were the one who had done it. They had all kinds of
seasoning that you could put on the steak, and then you grilled it yourself and
took it to the table and ate it. It was a fun experience and a delicious meal.
And the best part, was that since I was a speaker at the conference, I didn’t
have to pay anything for it.
My experience at the steakhouse
illustrates a fact of our lives that we take for granted. We eat meat – and lots of it. We assume that
people are going to eat meat, and that there are whole industries dedicated to
providing all the beef, pork and chicken that we want.
Things were very different in the
first century Greco-Roman world in which Paul wrote our text. People in the lands surrounding the
Mediterranean Sea like Greece ate very little meat. Their diet was basically
grain based. Most people got the fat
their bodies needed from things like olives. They might have a little
fish. But when it came to meat – beef
and pork – they ate it very infrequently. And when they did it came from
basically only one source. It was the
meat of an animal that had been sacrificed in a pagan temple.
The person making the sacrifice
could invite family and friends to share it with them. Temples also had attached dining rooms where
meat that came from the sacrifices of the temple was served in social
gatherings that always retained some kind religious flavor. So, you want to
celebrate your son’s birthday? You invite your family and friends to dine with
you at the temple. And then the meat
that you could purchase in the market, almost all had its origin in animals
sacrificed at a temple.
Such a setting presented real
challenges for the first Christians. What was ok and what wasn’t ok to eat?
What was just a matter of food, and what was participation in paganism?
In 1 Corinthians chapters eight to
ten, Paul is addressing all of these questions. And he does so because there
are two different groups of people at Corinth.
On the one hand, there are the “strong.”
They boasted, “We know that we all possess knowledge.” They said, “an idol has no real existence,”
and that “there is no God but one.”
These people said that false gods
aren’t real because there is only the one true God. Armed with this knowledge, they believed that
because they had been baptized and received the Sacrament of the Altar, they
were protected from paganism. They could
do whatever they wanted and participate in the setting of a pagan temple in any
way they wished.
On the other hand, there were the
“weak.” They saw the pagan connections
in everything, and for them, to take part in any of it was to abandon the
faith. Paul wrote, “However, not all
possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat
food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is
defiled.”
In these chapters, Paul primarily addresses
the “strong.” He warns them about how
their behavior will impact the weak Christians, and tells them to put the
welfare of the other Christians ahead of themselves. He writes, “And so by your
knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.
Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is
weak, you sin against Christ.”
On the other hand, there is also the
matter of the “weak.” They are failing
to recognize the victory that Christ has won for them. In their timidity they are failing to
understand what it means to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
In our text, Paul is taking up the
fact that the “strong” Christians think that because they are protected by
Christ, they can do whatever they want. They can go to pagan temples and
participate however they want. After all: they are baptized!; they receive the
Sacrament of the Altar! Paul has just described how Israel had the miraculous
experience of passing through the water of the Red Sea, and of being fed by God
in the wilderness. But in spite of this
fact, Paul goes on to say, “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not
pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”
Then Paul says in our text, “Now
these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as
they did.” In spite of experiencing
God’s miraculous saving work, the Israelites still perished in the wilderness
as they craved the things that violated God’s will. And Paul says that this fact has been written
down for the instruction of Christians.
He wants the Corinthians to know that the sacraments are not some kind
of magic protection. If they choose to
sin like Israel, then they too will perish.
Paul says therefore: “Do not be
idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat
and drink and rose up to play.”’” The
apostle warns the Corinthians not to take part in pagan idolatry, like the
Israelites did when they worshipped a golden calf. He says, “We must not
indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand
fell in a single day.” Paul warns against using sex outside of marriage –
something that was promoted by pagan practices. He says, “We must not put
Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor
grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.” The Corinthians are not to act as if they can
do whatever they want. And they are also
not to be like Israel who constantly grumbled and complained against the Lord.
All of these things happened to
Israel and were recorded in Scripture. So Paul tells the Corinthians – and us:
“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down
for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” Paul wants us to know that these things are
recorded in Scripture to guide us as we live in this new and different time –
the time in which all of God’s saving plans have found their fulfillment in the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Paul’s conclusion from all of this is in our text is clear: “Therefore
let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”
You may not have any trouble with
meat and pagan temples. But the apostle’s words speak directly to you as you
live in what is becoming a post-Christian world. They warn you about the thing, that frankly,
you don’t really believe. They warn that
your choices have consequences. They warn that faith can be lost; that salvation
can be lost; that the Christian faith is not a matter of once saved, always
saved.
We hear a warning about every false
god that we would enshrine in our life – everything in which we would put our
trust and consider to be most valuable.
And the world around us has kicked into high gear encouraging us to
think in these ways. The world says that
the only thing that matters is you and your personal satisfaction. You
are the measure of what is good and true, because there is no right and there
is no wrong. I won’t belabor the obvious
ways that sex is treated as a god and you are told that there are no
limitations on how you can use sex in order to find enjoyment.
Paul’s words strike home when he
says, ““We must not put Christ to the test.”
Yet there is another side here as well.
Paul tells the Corinthians not to grumble like the Israelites. Much of the Israelite grumbling took the form
of whining about their situation. They grumbled and complained about life in
the wilderness – about the food, the lack of water and the discomfort.
We are guilty of this too. We see the Christian faith being pressed in
on every side. We see the Church being persecuted around the world. And we act
like the “weak” Corinthians. We say “woe
is me” and we whine about how hard things may become. We grumble and complain about
the job God is doing taking care of his Church.
And so Paul reminds us this morning
that we are those upon whom the end of the ages has come. We are the
ones who live in the knowledge that the Son of God has entered into our world
as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. We are the ones who know that he died on the
cross to win forgiveness. We are the ones who know that the Last Day has already
begun because Jesus defeated death when he rose from the dead. Don’t forget, we know the very first
Christian confession: Jesus is Lord.
He is the risen and ascended Lord
who will bring the “not yet” in which we live to a close when he returns in
glory. And make no mistake about it: he
will rule all. He will destroy the enemies of the Gospel and his people. He
will give rescue and relief and peace and eternal joy to all who have believed
and trusted in him.
Paul says in our text this morning: “God is faithful, and he
will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he
will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Our faithful God promises support that we
need to face every temptation in the present.
And we can be assured that the final escape of Christ’s return is the hope
that will not disappoint us.
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