Sermon Title: “Is Contempt a Christian Word?”

Sermon Text: Romans 14:1-13

Sermon Date: September 27, 2009

Scripture: ¹ Accept those whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. ² One person's faith allows them to eat everything, but another person, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ³ 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 that person. ⁴ Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To their own master they stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

⁵ Some consider one day more sacred than another; others consider every day alike. Everyone should be fully convinced in their own mind. ⁶ Those who regard one day as special do so to the Lord. Those who eat meat do so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and those who abstain do so to the Lord and give thanks to God. ⁷ For we do not live to ourselves alone and we do not die to ourselves alone. ⁸ If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. ⁹ For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹⁰ You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat your brother or sister with contempt? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. ¹¹ It is written:
       " 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,
       'every knee will bow before me;
       every tongue will confess to God.' "

¹² So then, we will all give an account of ourselves to God.

¹³ Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. ¹⁴ I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.

100 years of Christian fellowship, spiritual love, Godly unity, and community growth ended last Tuesday in a fit of congregational discord not to be rivaled in this century. Holy Creek Baptist Church was split down the middle like the tabernacle cloth that tore at the point of our Lord's crucifixion. It is said that one could hear that rip a hundred miles away. Holy Creek Baptist was severed from the once stalwart cord of unity that bound them together. The fist of discord has pounded an army of Christian soldiers into two disheveled, unorganized factions of estranged members.

The source of dissension in this once Holy house of God, is a piano bench which still sits behind the 1923 Steinburg to the left of the pulpit.  Landover Baptist members who have friends or relatives at Holy Creek Baptist, say that the old bench was always a source of hostility. People should have seen this coming. "That congregation was getting ready to break for the last 10 years," some said. "It's just a shame that it had to be over a piano bench." One outside pastor commented, "However ridiculous it might sound, I'm sure the Lord is using this whole thing in some way that none of us can see or make any sense of at all or ever hope to comprehend."

At present, Holy Creek Congregation will be having four services a day. There has been an unspoken agreement mediated by Pastor Deacon Fred of the Landover Baptist Church. Each faction will have it's own separate service with it's own separate pastor. Since the head pastor is not speaking to the associate pastor, each will have their own service, which will be attended by factioned members. We are told that the services are far enough apart that neither group will come into contact with the other. An outside party will be moving the piano bench to different locations and appropriate positions, between services, so as to please both sides, and avoid any further conflict that could result in violence. (landoverbaptistchurch.org)

I’m hoping this isn’t a real story but from the website I can’t actually be sure. You see, I’ve heard of another church split over whether Adam had a navel or not so hey, a piano bench? Well, sure.

Did you know that we Baptists didn’t create the first church split? Paul was dealing with church disfunction long before Roger Williams was kicked out of Massachusetts and had to move to Rhode Island.

First Corinth, First Rome, First Ephesus, and even First Galatia were all dealing with divisions. All of Paul’s letters address conflict at some point or another.

His message in these chapters 12-16 in Romans is all about preserving unity in the church. He understands that to be in relationship can mean conflict so he isn’t necessarily out to eliminate, only to guide them and us in how we as Christians should deal with. How can we be sisters and brothers in Christ and love each other EVEN IN CONFLICT? In the passages leading up to this one he instructs them to “pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others. You can never finish paying that!”

Love, Paul says, is critical.

This time the division is about food. Not potlucks and who stole whose recipe but what should be eaten. Usually when we read about dietary laws we read that Jews were not to eat pork or shellfish. Later they were told not to eat meat sacrificed to idols. Now the subject is vegetarianism. Yes, vegetarianism.

Since we weren’t privy to the conversations that brought about this particular epistle, we have to assume that tempers were rising and things were getting out of hand. Condeming someone eating meat or not eating meat seems to us to be quite ridiculous, particularly when we have more important things to fight over – like piano benches or navels. I mean, think about it. Haven’t we more serious issues than that here? Issues we would just as soon not look at today. Haven’t we had issues that have ended friendships and caused pastors to be asked to leave? Hasn’t every church?

Paul is telling them to not judge each other by what they eat or don’t eat but he is also saying that if someone feels very strongly about it, one should not eat meat in front of them.

This reminds me of dinners we have with the Muslims students from the Holy Dove Foundation. We always have chicken of some kind and when I invited Metin and his wife and son over dinner I was sure not to have pork on the menu. I took my cue from what they serve when I go to their dinners and we had a lovely evening.

Paul says to them not to treat each other badly because some are vegetarians or not and he asked why they condemned each other, why they had contempt for each other…..because they disagreed.

Here is a perfect more modern-day illustrations that I found:

Differences in how we follow our consciences always have the potential to threaten our fellowship as believers in Christ. A story about Ruth Graham, wife of the famous evangelist, illustrates how differences can threaten our unity. Mrs. Graham, dressed and made up as would seem fitting for any American woman in the 1970s, attended a luncheon with wives of conservative pastors in Germany. These German Christians had more conservative ideas regarding how women should look. They did not believe that married Christian women should wear makeup or clothing that made them look too much like the world. As a result, a German pastor's wife, sitting across from Ruth Graham, became very upset. She thought it was shameful that the wife of this famous evangelist looked so worldly. Why, Ruth Graham was even wearing mascara! The German pastor's wife became so angry that she started crying right into her beer. Meanwhile Ruth Graham couldn't understand why the woman was crying, although it bothered her that a self-respecting pastor's wife was drinking beer at a meeting to prepare for an evangelistic crusade where Christians come together as the unified body of Christ. (Working Preacher.org)

I asked the question “Is contempt a Christian word?” as the sermon title. I think we all know that is it not. And yet we do it all the time. And we do it to the point that books are being written by younger people with titles like “Love Jesus, Hate the Church.”

Hateful words are being thrown around at town meetings on health care reform. Violence even permeates church business meetings. People leave their churches because they feel threatened. In fact, people in America are staying away from churches in droves. One study I saw says that 44% of America attends church but I suspect that is high. I’ve heard that people actually lie about their church attendance to researchers.

In this 14^th chapter of Romans Paul lays a lot on the line and it comes out of his realization of his own faults. He judged followers of Jesus to be worthy of contempt and may have actually led to the deaths of some. Now he understands what many fundamentalist believers have not grasped: Jesus didn’t come to make us agree on everything, like what to eat, whether to drink beer or wear mascara. Jesus came to love us and in response we love others. That’s why God became human. That’s why he came as a baby. That’s why he died on the cross - so that we would be loved and love. And anytime we feel contempt for another, that is not love. We hurt Jesus and we certainly hurt the person, the world and ourselves.

In fact, Paul tells whatever we do we will give an account of our actions or inactions to God. This is what we call confession. Not confession like many of us think where we confess to a priest, but…..to God, the one we can hide nothing from.

"Contempt is not a Christian word, but confession certainly is. It is very much the Christian approach to relationships. Paul reminds us: In any dispute, am I behaving as one who is making a confession to God? This single question will subdue contempt, erase violence, and lead to community."

A quote from the late William Sloan Coffin comes to mind as I close: “God loves us just the way we are but too much to leave us that way.”

God’s love is not to be earned but cherished.

God’s love is not to be ignored but valued.

God’s love is not to be hoarded but shared.

Cherish, value and share God’s love that has come to us through Christ Jesus and the word “contempt” will not even be in your vocabulary.