Today St. Paul is “preaching to the choir”.  Have you heard this term?  During these Summer months, this term  is especially appropriate – so many people are traveling that there have been Sundays when we literally have more folks in the choir loft than down here in the pews.  St. Paul knows his audience and their great faith – so he shares a lesson with them that will challenge them where they are; a challenge that is equally appropriate to us here today.

The primary theme of Paul’s message is how the strong should relate to the weak.  Of course, this is not about physical strength, but about how those who are committed Christians, dedicated to salvation through Christ and the Sacraments of His Church, should think of those whose faith is not as well developed.  Today we heard the beginning of chapter 15, which builds on the presentation St. Paul began in chapter 14.  I do not assume that you remember how this went, so let me share the general flow of his lesson to this point.  He begins by telling us (the choir) to “accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters” (Romans 14:1).  “Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way” (Romans 14:13b) [so that everything we do might lead] to peace and mutual edification. (Romans 14:19).

He then uses the example of food to make his because that was something that the “cradle Christians” [i.e. the Jews who accepted Christ as the fulfillment of their Scripture] often judged the gentile converts on, thus running the risk of turning these converts away from Christ based on something that was not important to their salvation.  For the Jewish Christians, one of the main points of contention was food, for Orthodox Christians today, it is probably something different.  I know that in some Orthodox parishes, it is head scarves for women and beards for men.  It may take us some serious reckoning to figure out what it is here, for us. But figure it out we must, because Christ the God-man told us with His own mouth, that it would be better for us if a millstone were put around our neck and us be thrown out into the sea than for us to cause one of His children to stumble. (St. Matthew 18:6). 

So how do we know what is essential to Salvation (and thus required) and what is at risk of becoming a stumbling block?  The Jewish Christians had a hard time figuring this out because their faith – that which is essential for salvation – was so intertwined with their culture – a culture that  supported their faith but was not required by or for it.  For the Jewish Christian, some of the very things that strengthened their faith (e.g. eating kosher and the rite of circumcision) were stumbling blocks to people coming to the faith from the outside.  One of the constant themes of the Book of Acts is how the early Church solved this problem.  One of the themes of the life of our Church, and one of the signs of its health, is how we address this problem.

But there is an even more basic question:

Why should we care about the weak?  Why should we be willing to sacrifice anything, especially for those who cannot worship as well as we?  Why should we put up with people who do not sing, who do not follow our customs, who misbehave?  Why should we accept those who neglect their daily prayers, who do not tithe or even pay their dues; who refuse to participate regularly in the Holy Sacraments, or even come to Church as often as us?  Why should we please people who are mean and spiteful, who so clearly fail to live as Christians ought? Why should we lower ourselves to put up with those who do not work or contribute as much or pray as hard as we do to build up the church?  In his homily on this scripture lesson, St. John Chrysostom answers this by reminding us that the Holy Orthodox Church is a hospital.  Wouldn’t it be perverse if a hospital refused to treat someone for the very reason that they were ill?  What better signs of illness are there than the aforementioned symptoms! 

The bottom line, as St. Paul reminds us in today’s lesson, is that when we offer up and sacrifice our strength to please those who are weak, we are simply following the example of Christ.  We are strong in Christ.  Let us do as He did, and sacrifice our strength so that through this, the weak  may be saved.

[I hope you note St. Paul’s irony/sarcasm in calling the Roman Christian’s “strong.”  This follows Christ’s own tact in dealing with some of his detractors when He told them that He did not come to save those who are perfect, but rather those who sin.  There is no one strong or sinless except Christ God.  St. Paul calls his audience “strong” so as to gain their confidence and ear.]