“Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”
Romans 14:1-12
There’s a story about Ruth Graham, who was the wife of the famous evangelist, Billy Graham.
Ruth Graham, dressed and made up as it seemed fitting for any American woman in the 1970’s attended a luncheon with the wives of pastors in Germany.
These German Christians had different ideas about how a woman should look.
They didn’t believe that a married Christian woman should wear makeup or clothing that made them look too much like the rest of the world.
As a result, a German pastor’s wife, sitting across from Ruth Graham, became very upset.
She thought it was shameful and unchristian for Ruth Graham to look so worldly.
Why, Ruth was even wearing mascara!
The German Pastor’s wife became so unsettled that she started crying right into her beer.
Meanwhile, Ruth Graham couldn’t understand why the woman was crying, although it did bother Ruth that a self-respecting Pastor’s wife was drinking beer!
(pause)
The early Christian Church was made up of two distinct groups of people, the Jews who had converted to Christianity and the Gentiles who had converted to Christianity.
The Jews had been raised with strict dietary laws, especially concerning meat sacrificed to idols.
In Rome, most of the butcher shops were run by pagan temples.
The butchers would offer an animal sacrifice to a pagan god in the pagan temple and then sell the meat to the public in the temple’s butcher shop.
The money they made from selling the meat went into the pagan temple offering.
For practicing Jews, eating meat that had been sacrificed to pagan gods or idols was the same as worshiping that idol themselves.
So, in their minds, it was a BIG sin…a big no-no!
And since these Jews lived in Rome and the only meat available was non-kosher meat, the Jews were vegetarian.
They also lived by a strict, hard and fast rule that the Sabbath was the Seventh Day (or our Saturday).
It had always been this way.
It was part of what it meant to be obedient to God.
The Gentiles on the other hand were raised without any knowledge of dietary laws and most of them had no concept of what Sabbath was all about.
But when they accepted Christ, they began worshipping together on the first day of the week, or Sunday, because that was the day that Christ was Resurrected, and the hinge on which Christianity swings is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Every Sunday was seen as a miniature Easter.
It’s how we Methodists still understand Sunday.
And as far as Sabbath goes or a day of rest…
…well, most of us don’t really necessarily follow those rules too rigidly any longer.
Perhaps we should, but most of us don’t.
Some of us might rest on a Friday, others a Monday, others a Saturday, others a Sunday.
And as far as the day of worship goes, people who have to work on Sunday mornings might need to find a Sunday evening or Wednesday evening or other day to worship God.
Many churches offer worship services on other days of the week.
Most of us don’t tend to get real upset about it, as long as a person worships God.
So, in Romans Chapter 14, you had two groups of well-meaning Christians who were still all growing in their faith.
One group wasn’t necessarily trying to be mean-spirited toward the other group; they simply thought they were right!
But, this controversy over eating meat sacrificed to idols and which day was the Sabbath was getting out of hand.
So, Paul wrote our Scripture passage for this morning in order to address the issue and try and get the Christians to stop judging one another according to these things that don’t really have anything to do with being a Christ-follower.
“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters.”
“One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.
The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does for God has accepted them…
…One person considers one day more sacred than another, another considers every day alike.
Each should be fully convinced in their own mind.
Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord.
Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God.”
Paul says both groups are doing what they are doing ‘for the Lord.’
Therefore, it doesn’t matter, it’s all good!
What does matter is judging one another over such things!
What does matter are divisions in the Church over such things!
Jesus doesn’t require that we agree on every single issue.
With so many different perspectives and backgrounds, how in the world could we agree on absolutely everything?
So, we don’t have to agree; but we MUST love one another—that is the one non-negotiable in the Bible!!!
That trumps everything!!!
Think about 1st Corinthians Chapter 13…one of the best Chapters in the Bible:
Paul says, “I will show you the most excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing…
…Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.”
John Wesley, the Founder of the Methodist Church used to say, “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may.
Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.”
Let’s ask ourselves, how are we doing at this?
When I was over in Germany, I searched and searched for a coffee shop…any kind of coffee shop.
I couldn’t find one.
In America, they are all over the place.
In Germany, people don’t drink much coffee—they drink beer and lots of it.
They even drink beer at breakfast.
It’s just what people do.
It’s how they are raised.
It’s a part of their culture.
They don’t think a thing about it.
In America, most women wear make-up and sometimes dress nicely.
That’s how they were raised.
It’s just the way it goes.
What difference does it make when it comes to following Jesus?
At the same time, we are to respect one another’s differences of opinion.
We must respect that one person is not eating meat because they want to please the Lord, another person is worshiping on Saturday because that is what their conscience is telling them to do, and another is drinking a glass of wine because they see nothing wrong with it and the Bible says nothing about not drinking alcohol.
As long as love is at the center, and one is doing what they are doing with the love of God in their hearts, leave the judgment up to God.
A pastor writes, “One summer I went on a short mission trip to rural Guatemala.
I knew that men weren’t supposed to wear short pants, so on the first day at our ministry site—a Sunday—I was out in long pants, playing soccer with some village boys.
My team leader came out and said, ‘Mark, there are some pastors who are asking why you, a participant in this conference, are playing a competitive game like soccer on a Sunday.’
It turned out that the believers to whom we were ministering thought there was something wrong with competitive sports.
They would not think of playing soccer on a Sunday!
On that Sunday in Guatemala, I had to respect the sensibilities of the pastors who were there and walk off the field.”
This pastor, out of love and respect for the others, curtailed his freedoms in Christ for the sake of his brothers and sisters in Christ.
And we must remember, that is what we are!
If we are Christians we belong to Lord, as Paul writes in verse 8.
And we are all family.
We are brothers and sisters.
Brothers and sisters are to love one another, respect one another, and not do things that will cause problems for the other.
And brothers and sisters, in Christ at least, are supposed to above all love one another as Christ has loved us.
And Christ loves us with a forgiving, merciful, non-judgmental, and sacrificial love.
If, in order not to cause division or hurt, the loving thing to do is to give up my freedom for my brother or sister.
Christians are called to humble ourselves and not to demand our way.
Everything we do must be done in humble love.
As Paul says, “For none of us lives for ourselves alone…”
In the 21st Century, the issues that divide Christians are different from those of the first century, but divided we are.
Nevertheless, what Paul says in our text for this morning is for us as well.
Paul calls us to welcome those with whom we have differences—not to hold one another in contempt or to judge each other.
He calls us to recognize our essential connectedness as brothers and sisters in Christ and to acknowledge that each of us is accountable to God and are to trust God to do His work well.
Now, this is all easier said than done.
What Paul calls us to do is very difficult, and most Christians don’t do this.
It is very difficult not to believe that our position is right and the other is wrong—dreadfully wrong.
It is very difficult not to judge other Christians and hold them in contempt.
It is very difficult to welcome Christians from the other side as brothers and sisters—and to accept the possibility that God welcomes them too.
It is very hard to love them.
It is very difficult not to demonize those from the other side.
It is only through the grace and mercy of God that we are able to overcome these judgmental tendencies.
It is only through intentionality that we can be the peacemakers Christ calls us to be as God’s children.
The movie Coach Carter, starring Samuel L. Jackson, is based on a true story of a basketball coach who locked his players out of the gym and the game until they focused on their schoolwork.
But in the process taught them how to play, how to succeed and how to be champions on the court of life.
There’s one scene where, after quitting the team, Timo Cruz wants back on, but the price to rejoin the team is impossible to pay.
Coach Carter requires him to do 2,500 push-ups, 1000 suicide sprints within a week.
Committed, Cruz hits the deck and begins.
The is over and Coach Carter goes to Cruz to give him the assessment of his work.
Carter tells him, “I’m impressed with what you’ve done, but you’ve come up short.
You owe me 80 suicides and 500 push-ups.
Please leave the gym.”
Cruz is crushed.
He’s worked hard every day to try to complete the impossible task, but he failed.
Coach Carter turns to his team and says he’ll see them tomorrow.
As the Coach turns to leave the gym one of the players says, “I’ll do push-ups for him.
You said we are a team.
When one person struggles, we all struggle.
One player triumphs, we all triumph, right?”
He goes to the floor and starts doing push-ups.
A moment later, another teammate says, “I’ll do some. I’ll run suicides too.”
And then, one by one, every player but one has begun to do push-ups or run for Cruz.
And even though he is weary, Cruz continues to participate along with his teammates.
And finally, the last player chooses to join in as well, saying, “I’ll do some…”
While Carter is encouraged by their attitude, he doesn’t let them off the hook.
He tells his assistant Coach to “Keep countin’. Call me when its done.”
But as he leaves, you know he’s proud of the boys.
And you know they finally get what being a team is all about.
That scene teaches us a couple things.
One, like Timo Cruz, the task of standing accountable and blameless before God is impossible.
There is no way we can be perfect and not sin in a fallen world.
We can give it our best shot, but we will always come up short and alone.
But the Good News is that we don’t have to do it alone.
Christ Jesus stepped into the scene and said, “I’ll take his burden of sin.
I’ll take her burden of sin.
When they triumph, we all triumph.
Or as the Apostle Paul writes, “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.
If 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 Lord’s.
For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”
We need Christ and we need each other.
Not only can we not bring about our own salvation, we can’t live in the Lord without showing grace and mercy to our brothers and sisters.
That is how we “live for the Lord,” as Paul says.
Let us pray:
Dear God,
Each of us seem wired to judge those who think and do things differently than we do.
But this is not our job.
And this is not the work of the Kingdom.
When we fight and quarrel about our differences, when we separate over our differences of opinion, we break the body of Christ in two…
…we not only hurt ourselves…
…we hurt those who might come to know You through our witness of love for one another.
Help us to accept one another as you have accepted us.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
