Epiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
January 30, 2015

 Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling-block to the weak. For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall. — 1 Corinthians 8:9-13

 We do not have to deal with the question of whether food offered to idols was in some way wrong. We do have to face the fact that the way we live says probably more about how others interpret Christ through us than all the words we may utter. Our actions or more often our lack of actions do speak louder than words.

I enjoy the special segments on the evening news that attempt to introduce some of life’s positive moments. Some person goes out of their way to help a stranger. Those stories tell us that there is still good in the world. Truth is such actions should be so common place that they are considered news at all.

Our scripture today is taking this idea one step further. We are called to not temp others in areas of their weaknesses. Paul essentially said that the meat offered to idols is just meat and it was OK to eat it, unless our eating it impacted someone negatively for whom the meat still held some connection to the idol. What about serving wine for dinner to guests who include a recovering alcoholic? What about saying to someone trying to control their weight, “O, you can have one of these cookies, I took the calories out?’

Prayer: Lord, give me the strength to enter into the weakness of others with empathy and accompany them in their quest to overcome whatever is separating them from you. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.