Dearly beloved, behold one of God's more noticeable creative achievements, the raw onion. Now, hear the parable of the onion, and let those who have ears hear what the Spirit says to the Church.

Does everyone eat raw onions? Everyone does not, but the reasons for their abstention are more complicated and subtle than meets the eye, and in their various reasons for abstention lies the heart of this parable.

The first person might abstain from the pleasure of eating raw onions, because they will harm him physically. "I love to eat raw onions," he says, "but I can't. I can't digest them properly, and as a result they make me deathly sick."

This person watches the onions pass him by, and he is in one way being strong and in another way he is being weak. He abstains out of moral strength, because he would eat the onions if he could, but he shouldn't, and he doeesn't. On the other hand, he refuses them because he is weak. His digestive system just won't take it.

A second person might abstain from raw onions, because they make her offensive to other people. "I love to eat raw onions, " she says, "but I had better not. My bad breath would jeopardize my love life, my business ventures, and my social status on board the noon-time elevator."

Nothing wrong with her digestion. She is made of iron. But when she says, "No!" to the onions for the sake of other people, we would say she has moral strength in two ways. She is strong, because her digestive system can handle the onions, and also because she is willing to give up a legitimate pleasure for the sake of the people around her.

A third person might abstain from raw onions as an act of love for God. "I love to eat raw onions," he says. "It has always been one of the great pleasures of my life. But one of the ways I can show my love for Christ and share His sufferings is to give up this pleasure for His sake. So, I have chosen to abstain."

We would say this person has moral strength in both ways. His digestive system can handle the onions, and also he demonstrates moral strength by renouncing a perfectly legitimate pleasure in order to show love for God in this world.

And now we come to a very different kettle of fish. Our fourth group of people abstains from their onions, because they think it is a sin to eat raw onions. And they have an explanation for their conviction.

"We will not eat raw onions," they say. "It is wrong to eat them, hateful to God. Our spiritual mentors told us why. In the Garden of Eden onions were sweeter than honey. When the devil left the Garden after causing Adam and Eve to sin, he pulled up one and took a bite. He hated the sweetnes, spit it out and threw away the rest.

"But the damage had been done. All the onions after the fall of Man grew from the seed of the onion the devil had spit out. His evil breath had been on it and changed its taste and smell into the repugnant thing it is today.

"The reason onions make us weep is to remind us of the fall of man. It was devil's food and has been cursed by God. Therefore, it is wrong to eat it, hateful to God, and we won't touch, and neither should you."

These last abstainers, somewhat like those before them, show moral strength by renouncing a pleasure that all others would say is perfectly legitimate in and of itself. But we would say they are morally weak to call something God created devil's food and abstain from it on those grounds. Someone who knew this story of the Devil and the Onion and still ate onions with a good conscience would be morally strong.

Cutting Each Other Slack
With this parable turned loose in our souls we need to read Romans 14 and see if it helps us. We begin with verses 1-2. Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.

We know from our parable that the apostle was not talking about nutrition but faith. Some Christians in the Roman church had a sensitive conscience about eating meat that was sold on the open market, because it was meat that might have been consecrated in the worship of idols. THey believed it would dishonor Christ for them to eat that meat. They showed moral strength in refusing to buy and eat it. On the other hand, to refuse something God created as evil gave evidence of a weak faith. That is what Paul had in mind in verse 1-2, when he referred to those whose faith is weak.

Paul places this fraternal friction in a category that he calls in verse one disputable matters. They are matters that some Christians will embrace as good, and other Christians will reject as evil. Verse three illustrates how unedifying this friction can become. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. The strong in faith can become snobs, and the weak in faith can become prigs.

I don't really know how much of this goes on at BVBC. My sense is that we don't experience a lot of this kind of friction. We don't, I suspect, because our focus is not on rules telling people what not to do. Our focus is on how to give ourselves away to serve God and to benefit the people God sends across our paths everyday. We call that keeping in step with the Spirit, which means to love God wholeheartedly and to love your neighbor as yourself. That doesn't eliminate disputable matters from our experience, but it does blunt our natural tendencies toward snobbery and priggery.

It blunts those tendencies, because it is sensitive to motives Paul gives at the end of verse three for not looking down on the weak and condemning the strong. He says, Don't do it, for God has accepted him. If the person abstains, God has accpeted him. If the person eats, God has accepted him.

Verse four spells out the implications of the divine acceptance. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

It is important to remember here that the disputable matters Paul is talking about here have nothing to do with behavior that the Bible clearly forbids us to do. Stealing, for example, is not a disputable behavior. The problem is that people can become as passionate about disputable behavior as about behavior the Bible clearly forbids.

That's what gives verse four its bite. If Brother X abstains from alcoholic beverage, and Brother Y offers him a beer, his first response may not be that of verse four. He may take offense and think or, if he is a certain kind of person, say in no uncertain terms that Brother Y needs to clean up his act.

It takes a while to develop the ability to say, "I wish this guy didn't drink, but he's God's servant, not mine, and God will take good care of him." Brother Y, smarting from criticism, will need some time to develop the ability to say, "I wish this guy wasn't so sensitive, but he's God's servant, not mine, and God will take good care of him." In verses 5-9 the apostle gives another example of debatable behavior.

Verse five says, One man considers one day more sacred than another, another man consideres every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. You can multiply examples of debatable behavior, especially if you have been formed by a strict kind of Christian experience.

In verse 1-4 the apostle called on Christians in conflict with each other over debatable issues to cut each other slack by recognizing that each could serve the Lord on either side of the debate. In verses 10-13 the apostle takes that thought a step further.

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 judgment 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 judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way.

If you and I disagree on one of these debatable issues, I cannot speak for you before God. I will have to give an account to God for my convictions and my integrity. And it sounds like part of my accountability to God will be whether we looked down on each other for our weakness or condemned each other for our strength.

The Greater Issue
The apostle has a habit of pushing the envelope just a little outside our comfort zones. I mean, he could have gone all day without writing what he did at the end of verse 13. Instead, make up your mind to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. He gives a personal example of what he means in verses 14-16.

As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. Sensitivity to the sensitivities of his fellow Christians did not prevent Paul from stating his personal conviction about eating mead sold in the public market. At the same time he publicly affirmed every Christian that disagreed with him. He goes on to say, But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.

Verses 15-16, however, involve us in a much trickier situation. If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by you eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil.

Does this give the weak Christian veto power over a strong Christian's ability to enjoy certain pleasures? The answer is both yes and no. If my conscience allows me to enjoy a certain pleasure, and enjoying that pleasure risks harm to my fellow Christian, then that person's needs in that situation have veto power over my behavior. If, for example, you can enjoy an alcoholic beverage, and you knowingly offer one to a recovering alcoholic, you risk destroying your brother for whom Christ died.

On the other hand, that brother's weakness need not change your conscience or your behavior in other circumstancees. The apostle made it clear that he had no problem eating meat sold on the public market. The Christians who though it was wrong knew there would be times when Paul would do it. But they could take comfort in knowing that he wouldn't do it in a way that rubbed their faces in his freedom. If it was good enough for an apostle of the Church to think and behave that way, it is good enough for us. If abstaining under certain circumstances seems hard, Paul reminds us of our priorities.

Verse 17-19: For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edificiation. The kingdom of God is more important than my pleasures and my freedom to enjoy those pleasures. We can't forget who we are. We are the dark flesh in which the rule of God has secured a foothold in the old creation. We are the crocus that anticipates the coming of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Personal sacrificies are a small price to pay for that privilege.

The first statement of verse 20 also puts our personal freedoms in proper perspective. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. Every human being matters. Personal sacrifices are a small price to pay to protect my brother or sister's integrity and wholeness. All food is clean, the apostle goes on to say, but it is wrong for a man to eat anythign that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat and drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

The apostle now brings his train of thought to a conclusion in verse 22. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. I take that statement to mean that we shouldn't make a big deal out of our freedom or out of our abstention. If we are called on to say what we believe, well, of course, we need to say it.

In the meantime we might leave it where the apostle leaves it in the rest of the chapter. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
So, let's review what the scriptures have taught us. There is a range of behaviors, which the Bible doesn't forbid or enjoin. Individual Christians for many reasons do these behaviors or abstain from them. Those who abstain are strong in their ability to abstain but weak inthat they abstain from something good. These Christians come into conflict with each other. The strong must not look down on the weak, and the weak must not condemn the strong.

They must not, because neither is accountable to the other but to God, and both will account to Him for the integrity of their convictions and for how they treat each other. Further more, the strong must never use their liberty in a way that would harm the weak. At times, they need to abstain for the sake of a fellow Christian. These personal sacrifices are worth it, because they are done for the sake of a greater cause, the kingdom of God, and because every human being is worth more than the momentary pleasure we give up for that personn's sake. Generally speaking, be true to your convictions, don't make a big deal out of it, and be ready to make some personal sacrificies.

When our Lord was here on earth, He confronted the massive egotism and will-to-power of our world with love and humility, the kind of love and humility that Romans 14 is calling for. And in His case the crucifixion resulted from that confrontation.

The spiritual meaning of human life is whether this massive egotism and will-to-power or Christ's love and humility, reproduced in us, His people, will triumph. God has clearly invited us to join that struggle on the side with all the obvious, worldly disadvantages, but with the distinct advantage of being the side that has been permanently vidicated on Easter Sunday.