Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Romans 14:1-9
Pastor: Pastor Berg

Sermon Date:  September 27, 2020

This might have been one of the hardest sermons I’ve ever had to write. Not hard in the sense that I didn’t know what I was going to write. But hard in the sense knowing how much I was going to have to leave out. I never could have predicted in the summer of 2019, when Pastor Schlicht and I decided we were going to spend the summer of 2020 preaching on Romans how important this last week of our series would be. I could never have predicted how immediately applicable these words from Paul would be for every single person who is listening. No matter your age, your occupation, your life experiences; these words from Paul are directed straight to your heart.

I heard a phrase recently that has resounded over and over again as I’ve struggled to navigate these past seven months of craziness. Maybe you’ve heard it before. “Dying is easy; living is harder.” And those words came flying back to me as I read these words from Romans 14 and as I contemplated this concept of Christian Freedom that Paul presents. Christian Freedom is not easy. It’s hard. That’s because Christian Freedom is not simply my right to do what I want. Let me say that again: Christian Freedom is not simply my right to do what I want. No, Christian Freedom is also my right to give up my rights for others. Christian Freedom deals in matters of adiaphora, things that are neither commanded nor forbidden by God, or as Paul says in verse 1: “things that are just a difference of opinion.” 

And isn’t that what is fracturing our country, even our church family today, by and large? Differences of opinion? Mask or no mask, in-person school or virtual, worship in the pews or worship on the couch? It used to be that we’d get all bent out of shape over the color of the carpet they put in the sanctuary, but it’s so much more now. These differences of opinion are threatening to tear our church, our communities, our country apart. And so there is perhaps no better time than the present to spend some time on this inspired Word of God. This is not a coincidence that these verses are placed before our hearts today. May we ever hear them, read them, learn them, and take them to heart that being strengthened by them in our love for our heavenly Father, we may increase in our love for one another.

And that’s really what Christian Freedom is all about. It’s about showing love for one another. Paul hammers that point home in chapter 13 and he continues that emphasis as we begin chapter 14. “Accept a person who is weak in faith, and do not pass judgment on things that are just a difference of opinion. One person believes it is right to eat anything. Another person, who is weak eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything should not look down on the person who does not do so, and the one who does not eat everything should not judge the person who does, because God has accepted him.” 

Can you hear the refrain Paul is repeating in these words? “Accept a person…do not pass judgment…do not look down on…should not judge.” Before we get too far, we need to remember what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about Christian Freedom. We’re talking about adiaphora. We’re talking about things that are not commanded nor forbidden by God. We’re not talking about accepting and tolerating sinful behavior. Paul never says that we are to accept a person who is living in sin as if everything is ok. In fact the Bible is pretty clear in the other direction, isn’t it; that we show a person their sin, just between the two of you, with the goal of leading them to repentance and changing their sinful behavior. We heard that in the Gospel last week. However, when it comes to difference of opinion, when it comes to Christian Freedom, there’s a difference. Accept, welcome, tolerate. And notice who Paul is talking to. He’s talking to the strong Christian. He’s talking to the mature. He’s talking to us. 

One of the major differences of opinion in the Roman congregation dealt with food. Some people recognized that all things had been given to us as food: meat, vegetables, fruit, and so on. There were some though, the ones Paul calls weak, who thought it was wrong to eat meat, specifically meat that had been part of pagan sacrifices. Let’s be clear here. Paul is not calling vegetarians weak! He’s saying they are weak in their understanding of Christian Freedom by insisting that it’s wrong to eat that meat. Whether you choose to eat meat or not is a difference of opinion. It’s not commanded or forbidden by God. But to insist that it’s wrong, that’s where the problem comes in. 

Paul continues: “One person values one day above another. Another person values every day the same. Let each person be fully convinced in his own mind. The person who honors a certain day does this for the Lord, and the person who eats does this for the Lord, because he gives thanks to God. And the person who does not eat does this for the Lord and gives thanks to God.” Is Christmas Day more important today? In some people’s eyes the obvious answer is yes. But to some, every day is the same. Does it really matter if you worship on Thursday or Saturday or Sunday or Monday or Tuesday? Is one day more valuable? For some the answer may be yes, for others no. It’s a difference of opinion. So what’s Paul’s point here? No matter where you fall, be convinced of your feelings and do it for the Lord. There’s no right or wrong answer here. Can one person feel one way and the other person feel exactly the opposite and still both honor the Lord? Yes! How is this possible?

“In fact, not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself. Indeed, if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. So whether we live or die we belong to the Lord. For this reason he died, rose, and lived, to be Lord of both the dead and the living.” Paul does something really interesting here linguistically. He reverses the order of his phrases here, for emphasis. He wants verse 9 to be the highpoint of what he says, which is gospel, the motivation for this whole section. But he puts it at the very end to emphasize how important this is. So really it reads like this: [Jesus] died, rose, and lived to be the Lord of both the dead and the living. Therefore, if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord, so whether we live or die we belong to the Lord. Which means not one of us lives for himself and not one of us dies for himself. 

But how often isn’t that exactly how we live, for ourselves? How often aren’t the problems that we face as a church, as a community, as a country a result of everyone living for themselves? Why would Paul have to say that we need to accept other people, not judge them, not look down on them if it weren’t happening every single day. And remember, he’s writing to the strong Christians here first! These were the upstanding church members. He’s writing to us. How many of us haven’t posted something on social media, assuming the worst about someone else because we were thinking only about ourselves, only about our self-interest? Why is it that we assume we know someone else’s motives? Because we are inherently selfish and sinful people. It is so easy for us to look down on others for how many or how few children they have, or how they discipline their children, or what they wear to church, or the home they keep, or how they spend their time or ministry. We are quick to break the 8th Commandment of not putting the best construction on other people’s words and actions. We are quick to judge people according to our standards – not God’s. That’s why St. Paul later scolds us: “But you, why do you pass judgment on your brother? And you, why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.” We take something that God has left free and turn it into a rule to measure others. Christian brothers and sisters, this should not be.

That is why Jesus had to do what he did. He did not live for himself, but for you. He did not die for himself, but for you. He did not rise for himself, but for you. Jesus has forgiven every single instance where you have lived for yourself. He has forgiven every single time that you judged someone else, that you looked down on someone else. Forgiven every single time you turned freedom into a rule for someone else to follow. Everything he did, he did for you and so you belong to him. No matter where you are or what you do, you belong to him. Because of what Jesus has done for you, you live for him, you live for your neighbor.

We took our oldest daughter to college back in August for her Freshman year at Martin Luther College. As you can imagine, things are different for the college student this year. They are being asked to make all sorts of concessions and sacrifices of freedoms to try and make the campus as safe as possible and to try to be a good neighbor for their community. For those of you that remember your college experiences, that’s a hard pill to swallow. As a campus family, however, they aren’t looking at it that way. Their motto for this year is one that we all could live by in these challenging times. Their motto is “I will 4 you.” Motivated by what Jesus has done for them, knowing that they don’t live for themselves, knowing that they live for the Lord, “I will 4 you.”  I will give up some of my Christian Freedom. “I will 4 you.” I will respect your views, even if they are different from mine.  “I will 4 you.” I will take your words and actions in the kindest way possible. “I will 4 you.” 

Can we make this our motto as well? Since we belong to Christ, we can  say, “I will 4 you.” We can give up some of our Christian Freedom and say “I will 4 you.” We can stop insisting things be done our way and instead say, “I will 4 you.” We can remember that when it comes to adiaphora, there isn’t just one right way. We can live in our Christian Freedom by serving Christ as we seek to serve one another. We can stop assuming we know people’s motives and take their words and actions in the kindest way possible. We can accept people and stop judging and stop looking down on when our opinions differ. “I will 4 you.” We can love one another. “I will 4 you.” It’s not going to be easy. But “I will 4 you.” Because Christ did for me. Amen