While Saint Paul has been urging us to go out and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ this quote seems to put a road block in our path. Inevitably we will encounter members of our Churches (Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike) who do not like the idea of bringing in “those new people” who will destroy the character of our parish. This xenophobia is nothing new to the Church. We saw in Acts and again today in Romans how Saint Paul was confronted with members of the Jewish elite who just didn’t want to allow Gentiles into the Church. Was it the same fear we find with founders in parishes today?
The challenge by Saint Paul to make sure our actions don’t cause the sin of our brothers and sisters is a tough cookie to swallow, for me anyway. “Resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.” (Romans 14.13) WHAT?! You mean to tell me that I am responsible for the sin of my brothers too? No, just read on…
Just before this admonition Saint Paul says, “So then each of us shall be account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another.” (Romans 14.12-13) It’s quite clear that we are only responsible for the sin WE commit, but Saint Paul suggests that when our actions knowingly cause others to sin then we will be judged for the lack of love because we have knowingly caused our brother to sin.
For me this issue is not so difficult when it comes to keeping the commandments of God. I don’t know of many people who would consider being a faithful husband or a loving parent as evil. There must be something deeper to this challenge. I suspect it rests in the mission of the Church.
Saint Paul was speaking here in the context of those who because of their weakness of faith wouldn’t eat of certain meats found in the market place for fear they had been offered to idols. In THAT context, if our strong faith allows us to eat the meat without fear AND this causes the weak to have sinful thoughts of judgment against us, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14.17) This is a very common debate within the Orthodox Church on this very subject because of the commandment to fast. I won’t get into that here since I have blogged about fasting before. You can always read that later.
The hardest part of this challenge from Saint Paul is when it comes to the mission of the Church to reach out to visitors. When our efforts to reach out to others and invite them into our Church is attacked and even sabotaged with statements such as, “Why are you spending so much time trying to get new people in the Church rather than working to get the people we lost back in?” This is a good question, and one that requires a response.
If Saint Paul were to refuse to preach to the Gentiles until every last Jew embraced Jesus Christ, not only would he have died in the process, but us non-Jews wouldn’t be Christian today. The reality is that Saint did everything he could to convince his fellow Jews to embrace Jesus Christ. In fact our reading today began with that reality:
“I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises, of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God, Amen.” (Romans 9.1-5)The sad fact is…some people just don’t want Jesus. The rest of us have to move on and continue to spread the Gospel to everyone who desires to hear it. Now if that action is spoken of as evil, turn to Saint Paul one last time when he says, “Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offences, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 16.17-18)
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