Sermon Tone Analysis

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable to you, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer."

"Watch How You Walk"

(1 Corinthians 8:1-13)

 

*INTRODUCTION:  *

*            *It was a Sunday just like this, Super Bowl Sunday.

In the worship service it was time for the offering.

The Pastor, who was a big sports fan, called the ushers forward, pulled a quarter from his pocket, flipped it in the air, caught it, slapped it on the back of his hand and looked at it.

Then in typical referee fashion he joyfully announced: /"The ushers will receive!"/

/            /You don't know how tempting it was just to pull that instead telling it.

Especially since I know how many football fans we have in the Church.

Just in case you've been asleep all week or out of town or simply zoned out and didn't know,  this *IS* Super bowl Sunday.

This is the Sunday when the two teams with the best records line up against each other and do battle for the title, *WORLD CHAMPIONS.*

This game decides it all; one game, not the best out of seven like in Baseball but ONE game.

A game filled with head to head, hard driving, hard hitting competition.

*I.

COMPETITION:*

*            A.*

And for some strange reason, it seems natural that the season should end this way with all the hype and glitz and glitter.

It seems natural because to us, much of life is like the regular season of football and the playoffs.

The American philosophy of life seem to be built around the idea of head to head competition and keeping that competitive edge.

We ALL want to be #1.

We ALL want to be the BEST!

So we compete in every arena of life.

We do it with our spouses and our kids.

We do it with each other at work and in fashion.

We want to know what's hot and what's not so we don't get behind.

We want to know what's in and what's sin so we can keep ahead of everyone else.

Sometimes our competitive spirits spill over into the sports our children play.

We compete vicariously through them in little dribblers, flag football, soccer and little league.

We can even see the competitive spirit between the denominations and in our own churches.

There is within us a natural drive to be Numero Uno, to be the best, to be on top and be recognized.

There's nothing wrong with being the best you can be.

That is part of God's plan and purpose for us.

That IS what God wants of us and for -- to reach our full potential.

But sometimes being our best and being number one, being top dog isn't very Christian.

There's a world of difference between a team holding their coach or captain up in the air or on their shoulders because he is the best or because he helped lead them to a championship victory; and somebody standing on top of the heap, the top of  the pile that  they've clawed and kicked and fought their way to get to matter who they stepped on or hurt.

They are alike in that both people are on top but one is being held there out of shared love, respect and joy in the experience of winning and success.

The other is fighting to hold their own out of the arrogant pride of having made it to the top and out of the fear of being pulled down and losing it.

There's a definite difference between being a team leader and being the king of the hill.

*B.*

Being and doing your best is commendable but not at the expense of others.

As Christians, we're called to take the thoughts and feelings of others into consideration as we pursue our goals.

A couple of years ago, in the comic strip Peanuts, Linus is watching football on TV.

He's really into the game, cheering, /"Go!

Go! Go!" / He jumps up hollering, /"Fantastic."

/And then runs out to tell Charlie Brown that he witnessed the most unbelievable football game ever played.

He says: /"What a comeback.

The home team was behind 6 to nothing with only 10 seconds left to play.

They had the ball on their own one yard line.

The quarterback took the snap, faded back behind his own goal and threw a perfect long bomb to the left end who magically whirled away  from three guys covering him and ran all the way for a touchdown!

The fans went crazy.

You should have seen them!

People were jumping up and down and when they kicked the extra point with only two seconds left on the clock, thousands of people ran out onto the field laughing and screaming.

It was fantastic!"/

/            /Charlie Brown turns to Linus and asks, /"How did the other team feel?"/

/            /That's a pretty sobering thought isn't it?

How WILL the Super Bowl losers feel?

It's a sobering thought, but it's very Biblical.

And very Christian.

*II.

TEMPERED BY LOVE:*

*            A.*

As Christians, the competitive edge is tempered by love.

It is not self-seeking.

Sometimes it's even self-denying and self-sacrificing.

That's what Paul is telling the folks at the Church in Corinth in our lesson this morning.

Now to us, the issue that brought all of  this to a head seems rather trivial.

The people of Corinth wanted to know if it was Okay to eat meat which had been given as a sacrifice to idols, to the gods that everyone else worshipped.

They had worked themselves into frenzy over this issue.

To us it seems kind of silly  but it was a *REAL* problem because most of the meat sold in Corinth and every other major city was the product of animal sacrifices.

The temples each had kind of a business on the side.

In essence, they each ran their own butcher shops.

You see, the sacrifices really entailed only the blood.

The blood held life.

They thought it was life's force.

So when they sacrificed an animal, they were really giving the life's blood.

Along with every sacrifice, a choice portion of meat was burned.

Other portions were used by the priests to feed themselves and their families.

*B.*

The problem came up because some of the Corinthian Christians were eating that meat without even thinking about it.

As Paul says,  /"for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist."

/ In other words, there ain't no other God but God, the Father of Jesus.

The more mature Christians knew this.

However, the young Christians, the  new Christians, the ones who had been converted, still carried some of the fears of living in a polytheistic system.

Even the concept of monotheism was new to them.

For the new Christians, the power of the sacrifice and the power of the gods, even though they were empty idols, was still very real.

And they were having some real spiritual problems.

They were having trouble reconciling everything, especially the meat sacrificed to idols.

To us that's not much of a problem.

The worst discussion we might get into is whether beef or chicken is better for you.

But to them it was like telling a Jew or a Muslim that it's Okay to eat pork.

*III.

WATCH YOUR WAKE:*

*            A.*

We don't go down to the pagan temples to get our meat, unless you consider Krogers, Food Lion, Minyards or any of the other Grocery stores a pagan temple.

Come to think of it, they might be.

I've seen a whole lot more people worshipping at the pastry counter at Minyards than an any Church anywhere.

The problem that the Corinthian Church faced isn't a problem for us, so what do we do?

Do we just dismiss it and the Bible as being outdated and antiquarian?