On Sunday - Past Sermon

Sermon Title: "Who Are You?"
Date: September 18, 2005
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  Philippians 1:21-30

(brief recording of “Who Are You?”)

If you are as devoted a fan of “CSI” as I am, you’ll recognize their title tune.  Actually, it was written and recorded by The Who in 1978, and was in the top 20 playlist.  Many times on the CSI television drama, the forensic team is not only charged with finding the cause of death and the motive, they must determine the identity of the victim.  ‘Who are you?’ becomes their mission as they encounter a dead body.

We could play out the same question here today.  Who are you?  How many of you are native Californians?  How about born in Long Beach?  I could ask who’s a Republican and who’s a Democrat, but we don’t need to get into politics.  We could ask how many were raised in the Congregational or United Church of Christ traditions, and how many came from other denominations or faith groups.  But here’s the real question for today:  if I were to ask you whether you would first identify yourself as an American… or as a Christian, which would it be?  I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but think about that for a moment, both now and later today.  Are you first an American, or a Christian?

The Apostle Paul was faced with a similar stand-off around the year 51 in the Christian Era when he wrote his letter to the Romans.  In the year 49, the emperor Claudius had temporarily banished a large number of Roman Jews, in part because of the considerable disturbances plaguing their synagogues over the issue of one they called “Chrestus.”  Historians generally agree that this “Chrestus” was indeed the message of Christ as it rippled through the Jewish community.  By the year 51, Roman Jews were once again invited back into the city.  The influx of a strong Jewish presence challenged the Jews and Gentiles who had already converted and become part of the Christian communities—we’d call them congregations—within Rome.  You’d have Jews who strictly practiced Jewish rites because they were still Jewish, and Jewish converts to Christianity who thought they should still bring their Jewish traditions with them.  Paul addressed this same concern on another level over the issue of circumcision.  Must Gentiles—that being anyone not identified as Jewish—be circumcised like the Jews before they could become Christian?  The answer was no, one did not need to become Jewish first before becoming Christian.

Paul’s message turns the tables on what we might generally interpret as “strong” and “weak.”  In this case, Paul identifies the “weak” as those who so rigorously adhere to Jewish dietary restrictions that they avoid any possibility of eating non-kosher meat by eating “only vegetables” (v. 2).  These abstainers, whom Paul brands as “weak,” were believers in Christ who remained fiercely dedicated to the traditions that had marked Jewish obedience by upholding the law and its dietary restrictions.  In contrast, the “strong” eat anything they want because they understand and stand under the freedom Christ's message of redemption has brought them.

Yet, far from lauding them, Paul denies these “strong” ones the right to look down and judge the continued abstinence of the “weak”—just as he denies the “weak” the right to pass judgment on the freedom practiced by the “strong.”  Though the position of these “weak” believers is no longer necessary for faithfulness, Paul refuses to give those who believe as he does some sort of upper hand here.  Both groups must admit that the right to judge is not theirs—for both groups are “servants” of the same Master.  Since God has seen fit to welcome both types of believers into divine service, they must accept one another's presence without passing judgment.

Paul’s second example—adherence to or freedom from all the restrictions of traditional Sabbath observances—further emphasizes his point.  The behavior of these two different groups must be genuinely dedicated toward honoring the Lord.  The main point is, Paul declares, “We do not live to ourselves.”  All believers, whatever their stance, are accountable to God alone for their actions.  Each must act according to the will of God as he or she genuinely understands it.  In life, or in death, our relationship to God remains constant.  So should our commitments.

You choose to come to this church.  There must be something here you find comforting, challenging, intriguing as you work out your Christian faith.  Yet there has been a judgmental tendency creeping into Christianity in the past decade that seeks to define as acceptable only what a particular group finds acceptable.  Take music, for instance.

Everything about our church—the interior of the building, the choir and the ministers in our robes, the hymns and anthems we sing, the pipe organ and other instruments we bring in, the order of our worship—says traditional.  My guess is that you are comfortable with that or you wouldn’t be here!

But that is not to say any church which uses a more contemporary style of music—be it rock or praise—is any less a worthy body of Christians seeking to live out their faith than we are.  Yet there are those who would deny that.

That illustration is the very same argument Paul makes to the Romans in the first century.  Paul stresses that the ongoing power of our life-and-death relationship before Christ, the only true judge, was in fact the “end” of Christ’s mission itself.  All of humanity—living and dead—are under Christ's authority and judgment.  It is therefore emphatically not the responsibility of each believer to be a judge.  Judgment will surely come—but Christ will bring it, not the whims of one group of believers or another.

Paul cautions both the “weak” and the “strong” within the early Roman churches to accept one another’s differences and respect one another’s needs.  To those bickering over issues of diet and Sabbath observance, Paul suggests this:  Since God, their common Master, has seen fit to accept both types of believers as true servants of Christ, then perhaps they should find it in themselves to do the same.

Let us be clear:  Paul is not suggesting that “anything goes.”  The key for Paul is whether an individual is genuinely striving to honor God with his or her actions.  Though some of our actions may be questionable to others, if they are performed with a thankful heart turned toward God, others must simply learn to live with them.  Just because we find someone else’s behavior or convictions unfamiliar or uncomfortable doesn’t mean that they are “wrong.”  Just because someone else’s interpretation and understanding of scripture, stance on a particular issue or preferred style of worship doesn’t match ours doesn’t mean one of us is right and one of us is wrong.  Wouldn’t it just be wonderful if Jesus and Paul could come to us in person now and say just what they meant back then, and how that might apply to 21st century living?  Talk about a relevant Bible study!!

At the end of this day, at the end of your life, and at every point in between, I hope you can clearly and joyously affirm the answer if you are asked, “Who are you?”, even if others answering the same seem different from you.