Sermon Series: Our Summer in Rome
Romans 14:1-12
We Belong to the Lord”
We’re considering installing an answering machine in the church office like one I heard about in a major department store. It answered like this:
“If you are calling to place an order, press 3. If you are calling to register a complaint, press 576-296-047-320-573-030-650 followed by the pound sign. And have a good day.” I’m exaggerating, of course. Most of the calls we receive folks are kind, gracious and supportive. But there’s always that one.
A couple of weeks ago Cathy got a call that went like this: “I see you aren’t parking on the sidewalk anymore, were the police involved? I see you have thousands of dollars’ worth of stained-glass windows yet you’re planning to baptize in a cattle trough.” Cathy was polite with him and said, “I’m just an employee of the church; I can’t answer your questions.” Lucky for me I didn’t take that call. We did a star-69 to get the number the call was made from, and I was this close to placing a call to see what this guy’s problem with us is; but I threw the number away.
There are two basic attitudes toward life—one of hope and one of dread—one of trust, the other of fear—one of optimism, the other of gloom.
A misprint of a weather forecast read like this: “There is a five percent chance of…today and tomorrow.” Wouldn’t you hope that the odds were better than that!
You may know that the great comedian W.C. Fields died with money in hundreds of bank accounts which were never located. Wherever he went he opened a bank account. Often, he used fictitious names and kept no records whatsoever of his deposits.
At one point, Fields told a friend in confidence that he had over seven hundred accounts and knew exactly where they were. Unfortunately, he died without telling anyone else the locations of those accounts or the name in which they were held. He had one account in Berlin that alone was said to have $50,000 in it. During the bombing of that city, however, all traces of that bank and the money were destroyed.
Fields attributed this strange behavior of storing money in all these cities to a dream he had repeatedly in which he saw himself stranded in a strange city without money or friends. The dread which this dream produced in Field’s heart caused him to open these strange, anonymous accounts in every city in which he performed.
There are some people who live with such a feeling of dread and doom about their lives that they dismiss the possibility of joy. Even when life is being good to them, they just know that it can’t last. Somewhere—sometime—somehow—something out there is going to happen to them that will wreck their best-laid plans—that will frustrate their fondest dreams—that will crush everything they hold dear. Kind of like that of our sidewalk caller.
That is one attitude towards life. Fortunately, it’s not the Christian attitude. It wasn’t Paul’s attitude to be sure. He knew that we live in a difficult world. He had experienced more than his share of sorrow and suffering. But he knew that somewhere—sometime—somehow—something good was out there waiting for him. He knew that tomorrow would be a better day than today.
Christianity, in the time of Paul’s letter to Rome, was taking in new believers in a rapid fashion and was experiencing some growing pains. Some of these new believers came from the ranks of orthodox Jews. But many of them, particularly those who came in through Paul’s influence, had been pagan Gentiles. Just like in a marriage, each new convert brought into the Christian family their own traditions, their own values, their own preferences. Sometimes Paul had to play referee. Some of the new believers were still attached to the Jewish Sabbath. Others sincerely believed that all days are holy and that one day isn’t lifted above others. Some of them fasted. Others saw no need for fasting. Some were meat eaters, and some were vegetarians. The disagreements within the early church were manifold. But worse than that; these disagreements became personal. People were passing judgment on others who didn’t follow the same customs as they did. The church was becoming divided. So, Paul felt obligated to say something about it. He wants them to “chill.” The church was big enough for all kinds of opinions. The important thing is that whatever their beliefs, their lives were to give glory to God. And this is where our lesson takes us this morning.
This is our tenth and final week in Rome. Next week we will make our way to the city of Philippi in northeastern Greece, famous for its rich gold mines, Roman history, and significance as the birthplace of Christianity in Europe. We’ll be spending four weeks in Philippi and the letter from Paul to the Philippians.
The Roman followers of Jesus had probably been waiting for this 14th chapter of their letter since they broke the seal on it. They had read and studied carefully through the first thirteen chapters, looking for clues as to how Paul was going to handle what could be considered, “the $64,000 question.” How will Paul deal with arguments that were leading to division.
What would Paul say about eating meat, drinking wine, and keeping Sabbath laws? In one corner were the Jews who had brought with them the Law and all its requirements of circumcision, dietary restrictions, and the observance of the Sabbath.
In the other corner were the gentiles. They were the newcomers to the faith. They had no problem with food and drink—meat and wine—and they weren’t about to be circumcised and keep Sabbath.
The Jews were regarded as the “weaker” in faith because they seemed to struggle with letting go of their Jewishness. The gentiles knew they didn’t have to become Jews to follow Jesus and wanted nothing with their laws, rituals and culture.
These are the arguments that were causing division in the little church of a hundred in the midst of one million souls in Rome. This is why Paul wrote the letter to begin with.
Paul begins to deal with some of these issues in Romans 2. “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” [vs. 24]. A text that points us back to Isaiah 52:5 and Ezekiel 36:22. He’s speaking of course about his fellow Jews and their self-righteous and hypocritical behavior toward the Gentiles. He’s trying to convince the Jews that the deeper purpose of the Law is to make us deeply aware of our need for God.
Paul assumes that the church will have differences of opinion on disputable matters. He says we shouldn’t quarrel about issues that are matters of opinion. Differences shouldn’t be feared or avoided but accepted and handled with love. We can’t expect everyone, even is the best possible church, to agree on every subject. [Shipwreck story – that’s my old church] Through sharing ideas, we can come to a fuller understanding of what the Bible teaches. Accept, listen to, and respect others. Differences of opinion need not cause division. They can be a source of learning and richness in our relationships.
You need to understand something. This argument with eating meat or becoming a vegetarian is over meat that has been dedicated to idols, not just your everyday hamburger you would pick at the store. The ancient system of sacrifice was at the center of the religious, social, and domestic life of the Roman world. After a sacrifice had been presented to a god in a pagan temple, only part of it was burned. The remainder was often sent to the market to be sold. The Christians had no idea they were buying meat sacrificed to an idol so instead of taking the chance they just didn’t eat meat. There were others who carefully checked the source of their meat but not everyone had this ability. Paul dealt with this problem in Corinth; with a letter he had written three years prior to this letter to the Romans and there may have been some who were familiar with it. [1 Corinthians 8]
We are all accountable to Christ, not to others. While the church must be uncompromising in our stand against activities that are expressly forbidden by Scripture, we should be creating additional rules and regulations and give them equal standing with God’s law. At times, Christians base our moral judgments on opinion, personal dislikes, or cultural bias, rather than on the Word of God. When we do this, we show that our own faith is weak, and we don’t think that God is powerful enough to guide His children. {Is anything too hard for the Lord? – Genesis 18:14] When we stand before God and give a personal account of our lives, we won’t be worried about what our Christian neighbors have done. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad [2 Corinthains 5:10].
“Mother, what do Christians talk about” asked John. “Everything! But it is the way they talk that makes them Christians,” said his mother.
Conversion implies a change in one condition to another and may hold also the meaning which changes human life to Godly living. Christians are engaged in the business of God which brings about conversion.
Conversation may be of such a light nature and of unimportant speech as to leave no impact. Nevertheless, the words are related.
The conversation of a Christian, no matter how light its subject matter, can well reflect the love of God and fellowman. And that conversation ought to reveal nothing which is detrimental to man’s faith. Thus, the hearer of Christian conversation may be impressed with the joy of living under God, whether deeply engaged in matters of conviction or lightly engaged in the pleasantries of daily experience.
We live by the Word, the Word of God. Our communications to one another are by our own words. Our words have the power to cleanse, to love, to heal, to direct, to correct and to bless. Therefore, let us choose our words that we may be God’s children. Let the Spirit of His Word be in our words bringing joy and understanding and fellowship with one another and with God.
Thus, conversion and conversation may fill the needs and the moods of life in harmony with God.
Let’s give Paul the final word today: “Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith—to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Eastman First Methodist Church 