May the mumbling commence!
“While we are waiting, come.” These are the words of an Advent hymn that were sung in worship this morning at Community Church of the Brethren. These words may have been sung in many other congregations around the world. I welcome you to the season of Advent, when we prepare for welcoming the Christ child into our hearts. We prepare knowing that a newborn babe will change our live dramatically.
In Advent, we also prepare and wait for the Second Coming of Jesus. We wait and wait. Those who wrote some of the Scriptures of the New Testament were sure the Second Coming would be in their lifetimes, but now they are long since dead and gone. As Christians, we take up the baton of waiting. I wince every time someone predicts the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ. The people from the outside probably think Christians are in denial. Christ has not come again in over two millennia. Do we still hold out hope that Christ will return?
YES!
And how we wait is important. The waiting is active. We work and play and live our lives, keeping one eye on the Scriptures and one eye on the daily newspaper. We interact with one another on difficult issues fraught with danger and causes for division – the greatest weapon of our enemy, Satan. Read as Paul writes to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians chapter 8:
So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall. (Verses 4-13)
So, you or I may think we have a controversial topic figured out – and maybe we do. Even so, we cannot allow our freedom gained from the truth of Christ to become a stumbling block for one who does not understand the truth. The weaker conscience eats and erodes the other person in Christ. Over time, that brother or sister in Christ will be destroyed by our knowledge. And this sin is not against them alone. This sin is first and foremost against Christ Jesus.
So, when I decide in my heart to be an omnivore, I will not pass judgment on a vegetarian. I will not offer a vegetarian meat. If I were a vegetarian or vegan, I also would expect someone else to choose my lifestyle and faith choice. If I choose to live simply and my Christian brother or sister does not, I will not pass judgment on their Christian walk. If I choose to welcome with love those who live outside the heterosexual norm of the Bible wishing to follow Jesus, I will not pass judgment on those who choose not to.
Our underlying attitude must be one of love and servanthood. This attitude must saturate all our relationships. Let us not crush one another as we wait for Christ to return.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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