Rector's Sermon - Sunday, August 24, 2003

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Joshua 24:1-2,14-18	34: 15-32	Ephesians 6:10-20	John 6:56-69

    In the first decades of its existence as more and more people of diverse gentile background joined the church, controversies concerning food began threatening to divide it. These issues were not petty things. Particular diets and ways of preparing one’s food were part of one’s cultural identity and heritage handed down from generation to generation. The slaughter and dressing of meats were usually under the supervision of religious authorities. In the Jewish tradition all life was recognized as a gift from God, and the kosher requirements were an assurance that animals were raised and prepared in a humane manner. Hence these dietary issues were not over personal preferences but were bound up in one’s identity and larger issues of respect for life itself. Where one bought their meat said something about who they were.

    The Book of Acts suggests that Stephen the first martyr was killed over these issues. Both the Book of Acts and Paul in his many letters realized that if the church was going to accept people of non-Jewish background as full members, it was going to have to work through these issues of diet, and that the ancient kosher requirements would have to be significantly modified.

    Now Paul, as well as the editors of the four Gospels, interpreted Jesus’ message according to their different perspectives and the people they initially were writing for. Paul was also not reticent to express his own personal observations about how the ministry of the church should be conducted, some of which most of us today would take exception. Paul believed that woman should have a subordinate role in certain roles in the church.(cf. 1 Co. 11) Paul does not’t seem to have objected to a church leader leading the life style of a slave owner.(Cf. Philemon) There are plenty of other passages in Paul’s writings, that in varying degrees over the past two thousand years, different people would sincerely dispute as the definitive guidance from the Holy Spirit.

    But while we might take exception to some of what Paul wrote, I suggest he was very wise and very much in keeping with the spirit of the Gospel and in understanding and articulating a way out of the conundrum of the traditional dietary laws of a particular culture.

    Paul has reminded people of faith again and again that we are called to be the body of Christ. We are not conformed to the patterns of this world. In Christ we are called to be a new community and it is living as a community that the seemingly Gordian knots of the day, will eventually be untangled. Paul knew very well that any change or modification of the dietary laws was going to cause heated debate . Yet Paul gave us the gift of those beautiful words, “In Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus". (Gal.3: 28). Paul emphasizes that people of faith are a new creation. We are now Christ's body. In community, controversies and differences are worked out. It is in recognizing that we are called into one body,, that we are able to live out the words of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians "love is always patient and kind, it does not take offense, it is not resentful. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. (I Co. 13:4-7)

    In contrast, then as now, the world likes to handle controversies and difference of opinion by reaching into its bag and pulling out targets, pinning them on people, and letting the projectiles fly. Then the news media like to report on how many bullets have hit their target. But that is not how the church is called to work things out. We don’t have targets in our bag. In the church's bag, we pull out a loaf of bread and say come, let us break bread together. We who are many, are one body and individually are members one of another. (Ro. 12:5) In breaking the bread we discern again and again that we are part of Christ's body, and we are given strength to endure and to quench all the flaming arrows sent to wound us.

    The big debates in today's church are not over dietary laws, they involve complicated issues relating to human sexuality. I don’t know how long it will take to work through them. But I do have faith that in Christ, in the context of living in community, as we discern that we are called to be Christ's body in the world, we will.

    And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.