1Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. 2Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. 3Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. 4Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 5Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. 6Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God. 7We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 8If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” 12So then, each of us will be accountable to God. Romans 14:1 - 12 (NRSVA)
An Admiral was visiting on the deck of a U.S. Navy ship; he was chatting with some enlisted men. “What would you do if another sailor fell overboard?” A sailor promptly replied: “I would raise the alarm and toss him a life preserver, sir.” The Admiral asked a second question: “What would you do if it were an officer?” The enlisted man thought a minute, then asked, “Which officer, sir?” We choose the ones we save; we choose the ones we’ll love – which ones we deep worthy to get our life preservers. [1]
Paul’s main thrust in this text leads us to a conclusion: the church is to have (wide) open doors; we must accept all comers! The Apostle’s rationale is since God accepts (forgives) everyone, we should too!
I. IT IS HUMAN NATURE TO JUDGE OTHERS
“Don’t you judge me!” You hear it pretty regularly these days. People are pretty free to speak out when it comes to judgmental attitudes; especially if you’re the judg-ee, not the judg-er!
It wasn’t much different in Paul’s day. Let’s face it; nobody enjoys having someone else criticize him. But it’s our nature – we make judgments all the time. Pagans…those outside the church…are particularly adept at criticizing those inside the church. Hypocritical and judgmental, I believe is the terminology! Funny – that sounds just a little judgmental; might even qualify as hypocritical to judge somebody else for being judgmental!
Now, that would be kind of humorous if it were not for the fact that pagans’ judgment of the church pales in comparison to the judging that’s flung around from within the church. Christians judge other believers. We tend to brand ourselves, liberals, conservatives, moderates, open-door, closed communion – it gets my mind boggled to try to figure out where I stand. I was a new pastor many years ago, and they held a reception so we could get to meet everyone. One dear fellow came up to me – didn’t even say “hello” but launched right into the interrogation: Preacher, what do you think of ordaining women? It didn’t take long to find out there wasn’t much compassion or open-mindedness in that brother!
The kind of judging that we fling around within the church walls kills moral and spiritual health in a congregation. Children and teens watch the so-called “mature” adults with our backbiting, gossiping, rude and unkind ways and then we wonder why they start doing the same thing.
We are quick to hold the homosexuals and abortionists at arm’s length – we certainly don’t want their ilk in the church. But why is it just fine for church members to politic and scheme to steamroll over one another – to control the way the church does this or that?
It may be our human nature to judge…and we certainly cannot keep our minds from entertaining judging thoughts….but we certainly can keep our mouths from spilling those beans! It is un-Christlike to sit in judgment on your brother.
II. IT IS CHRISTLIKE TO REJECT OUR NATURE AND EMBRACE ALL PEOPLE
Paul’s word is that we should “welcome” others. That word is literally to embrace…to draw someone near and treat him kindly. Believers all have two natures…the nature of Christ who is transforming us back into the image of God, and a sin nature that wars against whatever Christ tries to do with us. I have likened them over the past few weeks to junkyard dogs that go to battle over territory. You are the territory!
Which dog wins (the sin dog, or the Hound of Heaven Christ nature) depends entirely on which dog you feed. When you feed on reading Scripture, sharing Christ, giving wherever you can, the Christ nature (dog) in you gets strong and dominates the sin dog.
When you feed the sin dog with backbiting, gossip, scheming and selfishness he grows stronger each day. The Scripture tells us that as we think (feed) from within our own hearts – that’s the kind of person we’re becoming. Which junkyard dog is your favorite?
There was an elderly man who lost his wife of 70 years. He was blind and could barely walk with assistance. He was being moved to a nursing home because his bride was no longer able to care for him. As the nurse led the old gent down the hallway to his new room, he started smiling and saying, “Oh, I love it already.” The nurse replied, “You haven’t even set foot in the room.” “I know,” he answered, “it doesn’t make any difference; I decided I was going to like it before we left the house.”
Now, if we were to apply that kind of attitude towards all the people we already know, and even those we haven’t even seen yet – THAT would be Christlikeness. That’s what Jesus did when he went to the cross for you; you weren’t even born, and he was already forgiving you.
Jesus has always been the forgiver. Scripture tells us that He came into the world without intending to condemn us, but that we might be saved. [2] But someday He will judge everyone; and everyone will respond by kneeling in front of Him to give account for our deeds done in this life. And, to a great degree, it is this issue of how well we have loved each other that Jesus will use to judge us on that day.
III. WE WILL BE JUDGED BY OUR CHRISTLIKENESS, NOT OUR CORRECTNESS
You can dot all the “i’s” and cross all the “t’s” and still misspell a word. Earlier in this service we did an exercise of centering. We did it for several reasons, among which is the fact that facing center, placing Jesus in the middle of our world makes the bold statement to us about just Who is being worshipped in this service. It isn’t about us and our correctness, or our power, or our intelligence or accomplishments – this is about us coming near the throne to report for duty, and to report for inspection. There is only ONE LORD, and His name is Jesus!
We’ve come here to get a good look at our goal once again: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13: 34-35 (NRSV)
Do you recall the wording of Lady Liberty’s pledge?
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command the
air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!"
cries she with silent lips.
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
This is the spirit of the Spirit; this is the spirit of loving your neighbor as yourself. It is the place where self takes a back seat, and service takes the lead.
Paul said that Jesus said every knee is going to bow, and every tongue confess his Lordship. I say to remind all of us that we are going to bow together – the church people and pagan, straight and gay, abortionist and pro-lifers. We are all going to bow together. Judging is only going to come from one direction – the center of the universe – the throne in the middle of the glassy sea, the place from which lightning and thunder emanate and demons tremble and flee to their hiding places.
This week I had the extreme privilege of praying at a ceremony honoring the memory of Sandra Waugh Bradshaw, one of the heroic flight crew of 9-11’s Flight-93. Sandy went to Grays Chapel, had ties to this community. I want to suggest to you that in the moment that brave bunch of people decided to attempt to take back the aircraft from the hijackers, there were no gays or straights – no black or white – no question of who’s qualified and who’s second-class…there was no thought of rank or privilege – that diverse group of people had one thing in mind – survival!
Today we are on another flight, and the good ship of time and God’s providence is not going to stay in the air forever. God has mercifully allowed each of us to live until this day. His one command above all others is for us to love one another. The question is ever before us – will we do that, or will it be like the floor of the NY Stock Exchange….shouting, grabbing, getting and keeping….buying low, selling high – always for me, always me first; is THAT our legacy?
Or shall we get a life?
How about eternal life?
How about unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?
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ENDNOTES
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1] Anywhere Goes, HomileticsOnline.com, 9/15/1996
2] John 3:17
