For Sunday, Februray 1, 2009

Scriptures:
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm 111
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28

In summary, Moses promises that God will raise up a prophet like him; the psalm praises God and concludes that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (though, a better translation might be "awe of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"); Paul wrote, "knowledge puffs up, love builds up" in response to the Corinthians' dietary conflict; Jesus in Capernaum teaches in the synagogue, commands a demon to come out of a man, amazes the congregation, and becomes famous.

Sunday Bulletin Service Theme: "Power to Do"

What is a Christian to do, when at a dinner party, when the entree has been ritually slaughtered in the worship of a pagan God? It's not a question I have had to grapple with, personally. Or have I?

Steve Patterson (New Testament professor at Eden Seminary, and author of Beyond the Passion, among other numerous other books and articles) taught me a few things about ritual sacrifice that clarify the context of this letter from Paul to the church in Corinth.

First of all, meat was a rare treat. Most people ate bread every day, but little else. Second, when an animal was butchered, it was always butchered as part of religious ritual. There was no such thing as a meat processing plant. The priests were the ones who did all the meat processing. Therefore, all the meat available to the first urban Christians in the Roman empire would have been ritually sacrificed.

Furthermore, the meat was distributed by the priests according to social status: The best cuts of the meat went to the priests themselves, then to the people of highest standing, and so on down the line until the feet and tail were given to the slaves.

So, to accept your allotment of the ritually sacrificed meat was to accept your place in the culture of the empire.

When we are baptized into Christ, we become equals. Neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female, as Paul wrote elsewhere. The Christian table was spread with bread and wine, which was shared by all. The shared meal was an experience of the "kingdom of God," a participation in God's paradise.

So how can a person share a meal in God's paradise one day, and accept a place in Caesar's Empire the next? If we eat the emperor's food, we accept it on the emperor's terms, and one of those terms is that we accept that some lives are more valuable than others.

When have I found myself seated, awkwardly, at empire's table? Every day. Every day some of God's children go hungry while I eat my fill. Every day some of my brothers and sisters wander without shelter, while I live in a fine house with central heating. Every day. How about you?