Day 82: Little Children, Love One Another

....and keep yourselves from idols.

That is the last sentence in the first letter of John.

Someone told me once (perhaps my uncle, the amateur theologian) that in Jewish literature, often the most important thing was left for last.  This last sentence carries a lot of freight.

Keep yourselves from idols.  What does this mean?  What is an idol?  What are the idols we should keep ourselves from?

I think the right answer to this is, "What do you think?"

In the meantime, the other theme of this letter is:  Love one another.  Over and over again, we hear these simple words:  Love one another.  Love one another in truth and action.  Don't just talk about it.  Do it.  Show it.

Not that there aren't some things to wrestle with (though the basic premise is easy for figure out).  John seems to think that once we come to faith (and have God's DNA residing in us), we don't sin any more.  I would like to talk with Martin Luther about this, because he is the one who said that we were always 100% saint and 100% sinner.  And it is my experience as well that even though I have God's Holy Spirit residing in me, I do still sin, and need to be "born again from above" every day.

Then there is the part about antichrists.  Please notice that there are "antichrists" and not one Antichrist, with a capital "A".  This is not about a prediction about end times, but it is about every enemy and opposite of Christ, in every time.

So children of God,

Love one another.  In word and deed.  But mostly, in deed.

Believe that you are, indeed, what God has called you:  children of God.

And, keep yourselves from idols.

Day 56: Eating and Drinking and Appropriate Dress, in Worship and Out

Paul continues speaking about the issue of eating and drinking, circling back first to remind his readers of the unfaithfulness of some of the Israelites back when they were wandering in the wilderness.  Don't grumble or complain or wander away!  He warns them.  Be vigilant! he says.  Everyone in the wilderness had come through the Red Sea, but that didn't stop them from losing their way later on, forgetting their freedom, and focussing on idols instead.

Eating and drinking is connected with relationships, right relationships, and with our neighbors.  So Paul says, it's not that eating meat sacrificed to idols is either good or bad, but it's the effect it has on our dinner companions that makes a difference, and reveals our own hearts.  If you eat meat sacrificed to idols it won't harm you.  But if someone tells you, "Hey, this is meat that was sacrificed to idols," then maybe you shouldn't, because that might cause your dinner companions to stumble.  It's all about what is harmful or good for your neighbor, and for your neighbor's faith.

Perhaps that's what is going on in Paul's convoluted arguments about women praying with their heads covered.  Paul says women should pray with their heads covered because "a woman has authority over head head."  I'll just come right out and tell you I don't know what that means.  And though Paul says that a woman should keep her head covered because "man was created first, and then woman" and that "man is the image of God and woman the image of man", later on he admits that now "men come from women" (biology).  (by the way, in Genesis 1, both men AND women are made in the image of God.  Wish I had Paul right here with me so we could have a talk about that.)

Then Paul returns to the subject of eating and drinking, but this time he is talking about the fellowship of Christians, and the Lord's supper.  In the early church, oftentimes the community would share a meal as well as the Lord's supper, and it appears that in Corinth, the community meal has become the occasion for some to be gluttons and other to go hungry.  There is no sharing going on, and this is part of what bothers Paul.  So, later on, when he talks about eating and drinking worthily, and discerning the body, I don't think he is just talking about the "Real Presence," but he is talking about discerning the Body of Christ in the community, and eating and drinking honoring one another as bearers of Christ.

Again, for Paul, it's all about relationships, about how we treat one another, and how we treat one another reveals the condition of our own soul.