Monday, January 30, 2012

Reflection: Destroying the Weak (January 29, 2012)

Fourth Sunday After Epiphany
Deut. 18:15-20; 1 Cor. 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28
 
It's been said that the Church is the only army that shoots its wounded. That statement is simply not true. The killing of wounded soldiers by their comrades is a common practice. Sometimes it's done out of mercy because a soldier has been mortally wounded and is in great pain. Other times it is done for the sake of the survivors who can't attend to the needs of the wounded and continue to fight off or flee from an attacking enemy. So, the Church isn't the only army that shoots its wounded, but we do shoot them.

Today's Epistle describes one way of "shooting the wounded." It's focus on the issue of eating meat that has been offered to idols may seem as though it has no relevance to Christians today — until we get to the issue behind the issue. This passage actually addresses how we deal with those who are weak in faith. In Corinth, those who were strong in faith and knew that idols were false could eat meat without any concern over if had been offered to idols or not. But those who were weak in faith and still struggling with the control of idol worship were stumbling and falling because they were following the stronger Christians without the maturity needed to guard them from any harmful effects. To this day, the self-centered exercise of Christian freedom continues to destroy weaker believers. The challenge to those who are mature in the Faith is to freely curb the use of their freedom for the sake of others so their actions don't inadvertently destroy the weak.

"So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge" (1 Cor. 8:11) is an appeal to us to use our Christian freedom wisely. It shows us the consequences of being unloving toward the weak in faith and also reminds us of how we are to value them. Christ died for the weak, not the strong. No matter how strong we've grown or how great our knowledge has become, we were once weak and ignorant, captive to the false gods of our world, and in bondage to sin and death. But Christ came to destroy everything that made us weak. He demonstrated His power by teaching with authority and by driving out demons. He engaged what was strong and had enslaved us. He displayed His strength when He made a public spectacle of them on the Cross. He has destroyed the power of sin, death, and Satan and made them weak — and made us strong in faith, knowledge, and love.

Audio file of the sermon based on this reflection

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