It's 2020 and We Gotta Talk about Meat Sacrificed to Idols

“But watch out or else this freedom of yours might be a problem for those who are weak.” (1 Corinthians 8:9, CEB translation)

The Holy Spirit can be a real jerk sometimes.

The very first time I met with the women who gather for Bible study at this church that I have just started serving, I asked everyone to share their soul hunger. As we went around the Zoom room, they shared two prominent struggles: they missed church and community, and they were struggling to get along with people in this highly polarized time. As I sat there absorbing their pain and frustration, I fully expected to propose to them that we look at the Book of Acts. Seemed like a good place to wrestle with such things. But just before I made that suggestion, I heard that whisper of the Holy Spirit.

“No. Look at First Corinthians.”

Well, that came out of nowhere. I have never studied First Corinthians in any depth. When it comes to my experience with the biblical letters, my dissertation included significant chunks of Romans, Galatians, and 1 Timothy. I love James. Hebrews was significant to my early encounters with God. Philippians contains verses that narrate my faith journey. But First Corinthians? Nah. 

And yet here I was, suggesting that’s what we should study. And there was a Zoom meeting full of women agreeing that was a good idea. I got off that call, pretty excited at having a plan. And then… then I sat down and read First Corinthians.

I furrowed my brow and looked vaguely upwards, like we do when we are looking in the direction of God, and said, “Seriously?!?!? I don’t know these people yet, and they don’t know me. And we are going to look at First Corinthians?!?! What’s up, God? Going for the shortest pastoral tenure anywhere? Testing me? Come on!”

In case you are unfamiliar, Paul is writing to the Corinthian church, a church he helped found. He is writing to them because they are struggling with all kinds of internal turmoil. For one, one of their members is sleeping with his (step) mother, the heart of the sexual immorality concerns Paul has for that community (though we are more concerned these days with what it may or may not say about homosexuality). The community is also divided about who they follow. And some members are acting as if they are more important than others. And generally they are trying to figure out who they are. After all, Corinth was one of the most important trade cities in the world at the time, and an incredibly multicultural place. The Corinthian church was culturally and economically diverse, and they were struggling with how to live the way Jesus calls us to live in such a divided context.

And one of the things that is dividing them is whether it is okay to eat meat sacrificed to idols or not. Now, I admit, I figured, as I scanned through this letter a few weeks ago, that this would be a section we would kind of blow past. Who cares about the debate about whether we eat meat sacrificed to idols or not? It is a non-issue today. But as I prepared for this week’s lesson, I could not help but notice that if I substituted “wearing masks” for “eating meat sacrificed to idols”, we had an incredibly applicable passage of Scripture here.

Stay with me for a minute.

First, let’s see what Paul is arguing in his context. Paul is saying that people who follow Christ know that there is no power to meat sacrificed to idols, because those are false gods. So really, it is an empty ritual. Eating the meat, then, has no impact on people who understand that. However, some among them do believe that there is power in that ritual. Paul recognizes that those people have a different understanding. He also recognizes that if some people choose to eat that meat in the presence of those people with a different understanding, it will do damage to those people. They will be deeply disturbed. And if they happen to ingest some of that meat too, then it will actually do physical damage to them, at least from their perspective. Their souls will be damaged. Paul does not try to argue logic with those people. Paul honestly does not care about making a sensical argument. Instead, he is interested in meeting people where they are. And when he does that, and pairs that with his primary concern in this letter, which is keeping the Body of Christ intact, then he points out that of course you are free to eat meat sacrificed to idols, but as long as doing so will hurt someone in your community, then you shouldn’t do it. You have that freedom, yes, but the right thing to do for the benefit of the health and wholeness of the community is to choose not to exercise that freedom. As he warns in the verse quoted above, “But watch out or else this freedom of yours might be a problem for those who are weak.”   

I like to give lots of room for a variety of perspectives when we study the Bible. But in this case, in this context, looking solely at this letter, I can’t get around it. As long as someone in our community can be hurt, whatever freedom we have needs to be put aside, and we choose to protect the weak among us.  So, my friends, yes, you have the freedom to choose not to wear a mask. That is your right. There are even a lot of us who do not need to wear masks for our own benefit: we are naturally immune or not likely to suffer serious effects from Covid. But as long as not wearing a mask can hurt one of us, like the ones who are elderly or have underlying health conditions, then we choose to set that freedom aside out of love for the ones around us. This also, I might add, lines up with the first of the Methodist General Rules: Do no harm.

And for those who will say, “What about people with asthma who can’t wear a mask? Aren’t you advocating hurting them?” No, not at all! I would advocate them staying home – they are part of the vulnerable population. But then if they have to go out, I would advocate the plastic face shields for them. And I would stand in solidarity with them and their need to be protected, and I would wear my mask to do my part to keep them safe.

You can choose not to wear a mask. You can choose to exercise that freedom. Or you can look at what Paul calls us to do, to set our freedom aside for the benefit of others. To exercise the freedom to love our neighbor and keep the community whole.

You have choice. Let me just make one suggestion, borrowed from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: choose wisely. And at least acknowledge that if you are choosing not to wear a mask, you are choosing to argue with the reasoning of the Apostle Paul. And good luck with that. It's about as useful as arguing with the Holy Spirit. They can both be real jerks sometimes. But they also both have a way of making us better than we are if we listen to them.