I Corinthians
10:23-33
“Whenever
the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk
nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport,
recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave
him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we
try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: do
not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me
not to.”
“It
is better to think of the church in the ale-house than to think of the
ale-house in church.”
“Whoever
drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever
does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!”
“Thus,
let us drink beer!” These quotes are not from who you would expect; royalty
such as Henry VIII or from an ancestor of Anheuser Busch. No, these quotes are attributed
to Martin Luther. Martin Luther, whose image can be found on the insert in our
bulletin today; who’s posting of his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg
Castle Europe
and around the world.
Martin
Luther was a theologian, teacher, preacher; he wrote hymns, prayers and
committed his entire life to calling the church back to its true vocation of preaching
the gospel and being disciples of Jesus the Christ. He also seemed to like beer.
Actually, that is no surprise to me. He was German, and I don’t mean this to be
a generalized stereotype in anyway, but good beers come out of Germany
and Germans are known for liking beer.
Again,
that’s a stereotype. But I come from a long line of Germans. In saying that you
would think that I come from a long line of beer drinking Germans, but I don’t.
Actually, I do. I don’t but I do. I just didn’t know that I do until my
adulthood. My Grampa Busse was a Lutheran pastor, raised in a German household
who brewed its own beer. Beer was a common part of their lives apparently. However
I grew up knowing only my tee totaling grandfather. I never saw him drink a
beer. My parents do not drink beer. There was no beer in our home. I do not
know if my grampa railed against drinking in his preaching, but it wouldn’t
surprise me. I do know that he did not partake… until he was older. Then he
seemed to return to his roots. He would have a beer now and again. That does
not sound like a problem or an issue, except as I have heard the story, he was enjoying
one at a restaurant and a parishioner saw him. The parishioner was not just
upset at witnessing this, the parishioner felt betrayed. This must have seemed
the ultimate hypocrisy. Pastor Busse, who did not drink, was drinking a beer.
“’All
things are lawful,’ but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful,’
but not all things build up. Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the
other.”
Paul
was not writing about drinking beer in this passage from his first letter to
the church in Corinth . He was
writing about what people were eating: specifically meat that may or may not
have been sacrificed to idols. Jewish dietary laws would have restricted buying
meat from the common marketplace because one would not know the origin of this
meat. Was it from an idol sacrifice? Was it slaughtered properly according to
the Law? For an orthodox Jew, buying and consuming meat from the marketplace
would have been too risky. You might break a dietary rule without even realizing
it or intending to do so.
But
Paul, who was once a zealot for Judaism, had reversed his thinking completely.
“All things are lawful,” he wrote. I understand that to mean that he saw all
food as being given by God, and because he was saved through grace in Jesus the
Christ, those strict dietary laws to which he had once adhered bound him no
longer. So he could eat … and drink … whatever he chose. It was not a sin nor
sinful. But Paul did not place a period after the word lawful.
“All
things are lawful, but not all things are beneficial. All things
are lawful, but not all things build up.”
It
was absolutely fine for a follower of Christ to eat meat from the marketplace,
even if that meat was offered to an idol. It was completely okey dokey and hunky
dory for a believer to go to the home of an unbeliever and eat whatever was
served. But it was not okay if doing so caused offense to another believer. It was
not okay if it harmed the faith of another. I don’t mean to pick on my
grandfather. I am certainly a bundle of hypocrisy myself, and I do not have a
problem with the fact that he drank a beer. But I wonder if drinking that beer was
akin to Paul’s example of eating meat sacrificed to idols. If drinking a beer
or eating suspect meat was not beneficial to another, if it did not build up
another, then it was not the right thing to do. It was not breaking a law, but
it was causing harm to another believer. While what you eat or drink may not
bother your conscience, if it bothers the conscience of another, then don’t do
it.
Yet
even with this, Paul knew that his liberty to eat what he chose was sure, and
what was more important was that whatever he consumed, he did so with
thankfulness. But whatever you eat or whatever you drink, Paul told them, do so
giving thanks to God. In fact, do everything for the glory of God. All we have,
all we eat, all we drink, all we are comes from God, therefore whatever we do,
do it for God’s glory.
To
God alone be the glory is the fifth and final sola or emphasis of the
reformers. As I understand these emphases, they were a reminder to the
reformers and to the church about what was truly important, about what truly
mattered, what truly saved: grace alone, faith alone, scripture alone, Christ
alone, to God alone be the glory.
It
seems to me that what Paul wanted the Corinthians to understand was that what
truly mattered was not what you ate or drank, but that you ate and drank in a
spirit of thankfulness. The substance of your meal was not what was important;
it was that you ate giving glory to God. In fact, that was what mattered all
the time. Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you say, you do it with
the full understanding that our glorious God is the foundation of it all, and
you give thanks and praise to God alone.
What
truly matters: while I know that the Reformation was not predicated on that one
statement, certainly that thought was at its heart. Luther was aghast at some
of the practices of the Church: selling indulgences as a means of salvation
being a primary one. I would not be a good protestant or a Presbyterian if I
did not mention idolatry in the course of this. Idolatry is not just a
worshipping of a false god; idolatry distracts us from God. It keeps us apart
from God and separate from God. Idolatry makes us forget what truly matters.
When Luther nailed his 95 debating points to that door, he wanted to debate and
discuss what truly mattered to those seeking to follow Jesus. He wanted the
church to get back to what was important, to worshipping not its human made
practices and traditions, but instead giving glory to God alone.
I
read an essay by Christian ethicist and theologian, Stanley Hauerwas, which
stated that on its 500th anniversary the Reformation is over. It is
done. The reforms which needed to happen in what we now know as the Roman
Catholic Church have happened. What are we protesting? What are we reforming?
The sharp differences that once marked the chasm between Catholics and
Protestants are no longer so sharp. The chasm is being bridged. To some, it is
not so much a chasm but a shallow dip in our common ground.
I
guess this means that both Protestants and Catholics alike now fully get what
matters, what is important. We aren’t just talking the talk of the five solas,
we are walking the walk. Yet I wonder if a new reformation needs to happen; not
between Protestants and Catholics, but between Protestants and Protestants;
between American Protestants and American Protestants in particular. Regardless
of what denomination we claim, our lists of rules and regulations are numerous,
and our dogma is strong. Yet, is that dogma a distraction? Have our rules, our
differences in worship and sacrament, become idols? Do we need, require a new
reformation because we have forgotten what matters, and we are not doing
everything to the glory of God alone?
I
do not have a specific answer to these questions, and I am not the first to ask
them. But I do believe we need to wrestle with them, pray about them, and pray most
fervently for one another – especially those with whom we radically disagree. I
wonder if in these strange and trying days, we are being called to reconsider
and remember what matters and what is important. Perhaps we have forgotten.
Perhaps we have lost our way. But the good news is that our glorious God is the
God of unconditional love and another chance. The good news is that we never
run out of chances or opportunities to turn around, to change course and
recommit ourselves to doing everything for the glory of God alone. Thanks be to
our glorious God! Let all of God’s children say, “Alleluia!” Amen.
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