At the Dinner Table

Written 11/23/2010.

It is neigh sacred tradition in the Shull house to hold devotions after dinner, a practice I hated throughout high school. But for the moment, forget my immaturity. The other night we had a fascinating discussion during devotions, and as per normal when my mind gets rolling, I felt the drive to write it down. Here you are.

I'll ask this: when criticizing Christianity, where do people instantly point? To the hypocrisy of its believers. Just take our treatment of each other in the church - why are there families painfully torn apart by the "body of Christ"? Why all the denominations, the infighting, and the squabbling over a verse or two?

Narrow the focus: drinking. There's some Christian dynamite for you. Put that word out in a church meeting and feelings will arise. I brought up some recent thoughts about this, and things started to become passionate at the dinner table. Then Dad whipped out his old leatherbound, highlighting two passages: Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 13. Romans 14 attacks this subject head-on, and is a fantastic read as a whole. Some highlights:

"As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him…why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God".

Hold on to that for a second while we throw one more color into the mix - 1 Corinthians 13:1-6. Everyone's heard verses 4-7, that "love is patient, love is kind" bit that's read at every wedding (even though that's speaking of a more universal than romantic love). However the first three verses here are what Dad pointed out:

 "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. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing".

You can do everything there is in the world - be the smartest, the most accomplished, the wisest, and still fall short. In summary: you can be so "right"…but without love, you're still wrong.

A clarification - yes, truth is unchanging and rooted in the nature of God, and love is not rolling over sin blindly. What did Jesus say to the girl caught cheating on her husband? "Go and sin no more". He forgave her, yet still acknowledged the action as wrong, as a deed worthy of punishment and ultimately His death. There is a time for speaking truth in love. But Romans goes on to describe three examples of conflict for the church: drinking, eating meat sacrificed to idols, and holy days. Instead of a contextual analysis, I think there's a question that better gets to the point: why did God give us these gray areas anyways?

Dad had a theory: to test our love. To watch and see how we'll love each other in these "disputable matters". Examples? Predestination. Creation. Revelation. Baptism. Women in the church. Speaking in tongues. War. Alcohol. Prozac. Contraception. Music. Movies.

Church is community, one  in which many of us have grown and matured. Therefore, we link our personal history our personal churches and their beliefs, which in comparison inevitably lead to heated scuffles and hurt feelings. My dad's point: in moderation this is healthy and normal, yet when the dust settles, is the issue essential? Often - no…yet it is important. When the essential gets confused with the nonessential, chaos and hypocrisy spread. Yet why are we surprised - is not the bride of Christ Satan's biggest target?

St. Augustine had something fantastic on this:

"In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. In all things, charity."

I love that - it applies to so many aspects of life and our treatment of others (charity here meaning love in old English, rather than the act or mindset of giving something away).

"By this they will know you are my disciples...by your love for one another". Are Christians defined by their understanding and love for others, especially in difficulty, and moreso with each other in "nonessentials"?

Are you?