Article xxxiv
“It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, and utterly like; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word. Whosoever through his private judgement, willingly and purposely, doth openly break the traditions and ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the Word of God, and be ordained and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked openly, (that others may fearto do the like,) as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church, and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate, and woundeth the consciences of the weak brethren.”
Romans 14:5-13
One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgement seat. It is written:
‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘Every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.’
So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgement on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.
John 4:21-26
Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”
What we do on a Sunday morning is changeable as long as it is in line with the Bible, but is not so changeable that it causes people spiritual challenges.
On July 2013, at his very first press conference, the last Pope, Pope Francis, threw the cat among the pigeons, as it were, in the Roman Catholic world. When asked about his views on LGBTQ plus relationships, Pope Francis answered, do you remember what he said, "Who am I to judge?” And that was interesting, because it exemplified the kind of controversy that was going to mark his whole reign. And of course, it had more progressive Roman Catholics cheering and saying, "Yeah, that’s brilliant.” It had more conservative Roman Catholics shuddering.
Perhaps the Pope had in mind one of the verses from our Romans reading. In verse 10 of that reading, Paul said, "Why then do you judge your brother or sister?" And again, in verse 13, “therefore, let us stop passing judgement on one another.” Because being judgemental is something that we are often told to avoid in our culture today. So the pope was right in line with what we sense to be a good and gracious attitude when he said, "Who am I to judge?” And judging others is indeed the theme of this reading that we heard from the Book of Romans. And the word judge in the original means to split in two. And here, it involves conceiving of a fundamental moral difference between someone in the right and someone in the wrong. And Paul is thinking about this kind of thing going on in the church.
But before we proceed, it’s also worth considering the words from our gospel reading, where Jesus is in conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. And speaking of worship, he says to her, "You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know for salvation is from the Jews.” Jesus is saying here, when it comes to worship, I’m making a judgement call. The Jews are in the right, and the Samaritans are in the wrong.
But hold on a sec. I thought Paul said not to make such judgements. So how can we resolve this apparent contradiction? When it comes to the way we respond to others who say they are Christians or to other churches we know about, are we always wrong to judge, or are there some occasions when it is okay to make a moral judgement?
Well, as we think about that question, let’s return to Romans chapter 14. The subject of this section of Paul’s letter is precisely this question: when is it okay to make a judgement; when is it not? And Paul spells out the kind of things, which many in the Roman Church were making too much of a fuss about. In this chapter, he gives the example of food. There were some in the Roman Church who were avoiding meat. Not because they were some kind of early animal rights activists, but rather it was because almost all meat in Rome in those days probably passed through a pagan temple and was involved in pagan sacrifice. So these early Christians didn’t want anything to do with paganism, probably because many of them had converted from it, and so they avoided all meat. However, there were others who said, "that’s silly, you don’t kind of catch paganism, like you catch a disease: you won’t get it from eating meat." Jesus himself said, "It’s your heart, you’re inmost desires what you need to watch, not what goes into your mouth, since it leaves your body again soon enough.”
The problem came, though, when such people started saying, "You know those people who avoid meats? There’s something wrong with their faith.” Paul used the words in our reading, “looking down on them.” Their faith in avoiding meet is somehow defective. Maybe they’re dishonouring God by that weak faith. We should enforce meet eating to stop this silliness.
And as I was thinking about this, I was reminded of the situation during the pandemic when churches were given the choice of whether to open or to remain closed. I wasn’t here at the time, but I expect that churches, including Bledington, had a conversation about this. And I remember vividly the Zoom meeting that our staff had back in Burford. Like meat eating in the Roman Church, there were strong views on both sides. The temptation was either to think if you reopen, you’re committing a terrible sin by spreading the virus. Or to think, if we stay closed, we’re committing a terrible sin by denying people’s right to gather for worship.
So let’s return to our question when it comes to the way we respond to other Christians, to other views within the church, and indeed to other churches and their way of doing things, are we always wrong to judge? Or are there some occasions when it’s okay to make a moral judgement? Let’s think of three examples. It’s kind of test cases, if you like. So, example, one, going back to the pandemic, do you remember that during the pandemic, lots of people were up in arms and still are about Justin Welby doing a communion service from his kitchen. Do you remember that? People thought, "Gosh, that was awful. How dare he?" Exhibit two, I remember that when my father was a vicar back in Wales, local people were up in arms, that he refused to do a joint service with the local Unitarian Church. For those who don’t know, Unitarians are those who don’t believe in the Trinity, they don’t believe that Jesus is God. That’s case number two. Then number three, more close to home, there has been a bit of controversy in our benefice about the common cup. Should we go back to sharing the cup, or should we be conceding to people’s consciences and dipping the wafers?
So, let’s return to Paul. Why could he say, “don’t get worked up about meat?" But Jesus could say, "you Samaritans are involved in false worship." Well, to help us with the answer, I’m going to use a medical term, and that’s “triage”. Now, correct triage, of course, especially in A&E, is very important. You can’t be taking somebody into surgery if they’ve got a case of mild food poisoning. And on the other the end of the scale, you can’t deny surgery to someone whose appendix is about to burst. So the most fundamental question a triage nurse can ask is this, “is it life threatening?”
So spiritual triage is just the same. When confronted with an issue of disagreement with another Christian or a church, we must ask, is it life threatening for one’s faith? Is it faith threatening? Can a person or group hold to this view and still be within the definition laid out by the Bible and the creeds that we just said, of what it means to be a Christian? Well, let’s do that triage with our three examples.
So, first of all, Justin Welby in his kitchen communion. Is there anything about the Bible about doing communion in your kitchen? Not that I know of. Was he denying anything in the creeds? No. So, yes, it was a PR own goal, but Paul would say, "Don’t judge him for it." It was a bit silly, but it’s not faith destroying.
Number two, when my father was a vicar in Wales, local people were up in arms, that he refused to do a joint service with the Unitarians. So, is there anything in the Bible or the creeds about the Trinity and the Divinity of Jesus? Most definitely there is. They’re both very clear that Christianity itself is defined by belief in the Trinity, in the deity of Christ. Unitarianism isn’t a different kind of Christianity. It’s a completely different faith. Like Jesus said of the Samaritan religion, even though the Samaritans could say, "Well, hold on, we share bits of the Bible with you, we expect that Christ is coming, like you do." Jesus still said, you Samaritans worship what you do not know. So in this case, we’re right to rank it as a first order, faith threatening issue, that it would be sinful to treat as unimportant.
And thirdly, how about the controversy in our benefice about whether we use the common cup in communion or not? Well, the Bible does refer to “drinking from the cup.” So clearly it’s important, but there’s nothing about it, or in the creed, about exactly how the cup should be shared. So again, I think Paul would say, it’s important that you think about it carefully, but don’t judge others for doing it differently.
And we could give other examples of secondary issues, which Christians can disagree on; like using incense in church, whether you use guitars in church, the kind of things you wear at the front. About these things, we should probably be right to say, “who am I to judge?” And we could also give examples of primary disputes, which it would be wrong to agree on; how it is that we’re saved, whether Jesus was really raised from the dead, and why he died on the cross. About these things, we would be right to say, you worship what you do not know. But in all these things, may the Lord help us to see the difference, to know how to respond with gentleness and grace, and like Paul’s advice in the Book of Romans, not to look down on others, because we will all have to face the judgement seat of God.