“Puffy Knowledge”
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 1 February, 2009
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
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 When I worked as a chaplain, my favorite term was “myocardial infarction.” It was just fun to say. Myocardial infarction. Does anyone here know what it means? ... Well, as fun a term as it is to say, “myocardial infarction” means something very serious. It’s a medical term for heart attack. I would likely not have known this if I had not worked in a hospital for a year. ...Some medical professionals have a habit of tossing around big words when talking to their patients or patients’ family members, and I could have been told that a loved one of mine had just had an “M.I.” (myocardial infarction) and not had the slightest clue what they meant.
I used to love playing with toy cars when I was a little girl. My dad and I would take my Matchbox cars on long “trips” through the family room, and I would spend hours “vrooming” them around the house. I even got to the semi-finals in a Matchbox car race in my sixth grade science class. But aside from checking fluid levels and changing a flat tire, I know very little about what’s beneath the hood of a real car. I dread going to the repair shop with a problem I don’t understand, because some mechanics are notorious for talking over people’s heads -- and a few unscrupulous ones especially enjoy telling women they need unnecessary repairs.
Of course, we do this in the church too -- use big words, talk over people’s heads, show off our vast knowledge at the expense of people who are new to the game. There are the theologians (a theologian is someone who studies God, by the way) who revel in writing sentences that last for two pages and using the biggest words possible. My favorite church word is “pneumatology” -- study of the Holy Spirit. It’s another one of those fun words to say. ...Hmmm...I wonder if someone could have a pneumatological myocardial infarction. That would be, I guess, a “spiritual heart attack”? Anyway, we theologians have our share of big words. I’ve even known some preachers to pepper their sermons with enormous words, probably enjoying the fact that most of the people in the congregation have no idea what they’re talking about. I have read some sermons from the 19th century that make no sense at all, and I don’t think this is only because the preacher is using the language of an earlier era.
Well, preachers (and medical professionals, and auto mechanics) who do this are not following the Apostle Paul’s instructions from this morning’s Epistle reading. (Epistle, by the way, simply means “letter.” We call 1 Corinthians an “Epistle reading” because we are reading the letter that Paul wrote to the church in the town of Corinth.) “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up,” he says.
The community at Corinth was clearly having some issues, between people who have been following Christ for a while (and therefore sort of know the ropes) and new believers. I share with you an explanation of this text by Rev. Sarah Buteux:
“Back in first- century Corinth, religions abounded, and a traditional rite of most faiths involved the sacrifice of animals and other foods to the various gods and goddesses. But food sacrificed to idols was still food that could be eaten. Rules varied, and most likely the person who offered the sacrifice at a temple would not partake of the food, but after the rite, the officials of the temple might eat it –for in most traditions, including the Israelite one, the food offered to God was the food the priests lived on – but that food could also be sold in the general market to raise money to support the temple itself.
Now apparently, there were people in this young community who believed that food sacrificed to an idol was defiled and should not be touched. But Paul argues that idols cannot defile food, because idols represent gods that do not exist. There is only one God in Paul’s mind, and that is the Lord. Therefore this food that is being sacrificed to idols is really food being sacrificed to nothing.”1 [End quote]
So, Paul thinks the food can be eaten like any other food. No spiritual problems will take place if one has eaten food that has been offered to imaginary idols. But Paul stresses that just because he (and the other enlightened Christians) know that it’s not a big deal to eat this food doesn’t mean the new folks will know. In Rev. Buteux’s words, “They would be confused. They would feel conflict that could become damaging to their faith.”2 Therefore, they should just not eat the food. They will save the new Christians from unnecessary confusion. What they know is not nearly as important as the spiritual wellbeing of their neighbor. Loving the neighbor is more important than knowing the truth.
What are some ways that we can follow Paul’s guidance today? Are there any ways in which we use our knowledge against our neighbor? I can think of some easy examples that don’t even involve the use of big words.
Those of us who have been coming to St. Mark’s for a while know exactly what to expect. We know what to do when we arrive. We take a bulletin (and we know what a bulletin is) from the greeter. Then we go sit down. We know what the different segments are in the bulletin. We know the right words to say and when to say them. But when a visitor comes to St. Mark’s for the first time they might not know all these things. I didn’t know what the “Candle of Hope” was when I came here for the first time. It took me a while to figure out what you really meant by that. When I saw “Lord’s Prayer” written in the bulletin, I knew what that was but I didn’t know what words to use. Should I say “trespasses,” “debts” or “sins”? I knew the rest of the words, so I was just quiet during that part of the prayer, but what if I had never been to any church before? What’s the “Lord’s Prayer”? What’s a “Call to Worship”? What about a “Benediction”? What does it mean to “Offer one another the peace of Christ”?
We become complacent in the way we do worship and in our lack of explanation, because we usually have the same group of people here every Sunday. We might have a visitor or two or three, but we figure that they will be able to follow along. After all, we know what’s going on, don’t we?! In the context of Paul, we eat food sacrificed to idols because we know it’s okay to do so -- since idols aren’t real. But the people who come here for the first time are confused, wondering what we are doing and why we are doing it.
Most churches do this. We don’t bother to explain what the worship service will be like every Sunday, because we figure people already know. But there have been times when I, who have been attending churches since the age of 3, have no clue what is going on in a church that I visit. I find it so helpful if someone is assigned to help me, the visitor, with any question I might have, or if there is some explanations written down somewhere, or, preferably both (since, as a visitor, I might not be able to read or even to see). By doing this, the church would be showing the visitor that it was more important to show love to the visitor than it was to avoid being redundant by explaining things at the beginning of church every Sunday.
I encourage St. Mark’s to give some more thought to how we welcome newcomers who enter through the door. Do we wow them with our amazing knowledge of how the church works...or do we reach out to them in love, as Christ -- and the Apostle Paul -- have taught us to do?
Think about it. Now let us pray.
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1 “Knowledge vs. Love,” sermon by Rev. Sarah Buteaux for Sunday, February 2, 2003. Cambridge Swedenborg Chapel, 50 Quincy Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 U.S.A. Accessed via http://www.swedenborgchapel.org/read_sa_sb2003_5.html on 31 Jan., 2009.
2 Ibid.
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