Some
believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who
abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for
God has welcomed them. (Romans 14:2-3)
Paul is writing to the church at Rome. He has not yet visited Rome, he hasn’t met these
people, but he has heard that divisions have developed among them – between
conservatives who want rules to prevail, and others for whom the rules may be
unnecessary or even a hindrance to real faith.
Of course the problem may be between Jewish and Gentile Christian
believers, but in Rome I would think it was rather more complex than that. Some in the Roman church feel free to eat
anything they like, while others want to prohibit meat.[1] Interestingly, Paul refers to the abstainers
as “weak in faith”[2]. Undue reliance on rules and prohibitions, he
thinks, is actually a weakness, something we can grow out of. He had a furious argument with the Galatian
church about the same issue – in Galatia it concerned circumcision or
uncircumcision.[3] Back in Rome it was also about the keeping of
holy days… whether that was compulsory or not.
Paul’s passion about this issue is that the
divisions and disputes simply miss the point.
God has welcomed them, he
writes – that is the point. God has
welcomed the ones you think are out of order.
Would they be, more likely, in the 21st century, the couple
living in a same-sex relationship? God
has welcomed them. The divorced person…? The person with a criminal record…? The psychiatric survivor…? God has welcomed them. In some places… the woman minister or
bishop…? God welcomed her. In hearts of mature faith these disputes are
settled. Informed both by the Bible and
by the Spirit of Christ, we don’t have time or energy for them anymore.
In contemplative life and the prayer of inner
silence and stillness there are no discriminations between people because our
own status and importance and ego have ceased to be the agenda. Moreover, creating space for God inevitably
means space also for our writhing, hurting world. The Spirit of Jesus, as we are consenting to
God, opens us gently into the widest hospitality to difference and need. Most of all, we are surrendering our fears. This has suddenly become more pointed in
apocalyptic times. We may fear for
others and what may happen to them, but love casts out fear for our own
possessions and survival. We acquire an
inner freedom, and an instinctive regard for truth. Jesus was notorious among the respectable
classes precisely because his inner freedom and truth, the grace he received in
prayer, took him as a practising Jew across the boundaries of Jew and Gentile,
slave and free, male and female, good and bad, black and white. And that is what hospitality means in faith –
welcoming whom God welcomes.
[1]
They refused possibly because the meat supply came mainly from animals
sacrificed in Roman pagan rituals.
[2]
Even if they are not weak in haemoglobin.
Also see Acts 11:1-18.
[3]
Galatians 5:1-7… but indeed the whole epistle.
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