A map that created reality!
Paul the Rabbi (teacher), was often asked to give directions; not driving or walking directions, but directions for Christian behavior. This is reflected in the first verse of I Corinthians 8. “Now about food sacrificed to idols…!” It was a controversial subject, apparently. And Paul had been called upon to give the rule, the directions, to map out the way to be a good Christian in a pagan context. Paul’s job here was difficult and controversial.
I grabbed my map of the heavens last night. I had heard there was something called a “black moon,” the unusual occurrence of a second new moon in a given month. So, I wanted to see it. Then I had one of the “well duh” moments when my star gazing app told me that the moon was positioned near the sun. So not only could I not see it since the sun had set a couple hours earlier, but I should have known this obvious fact! A dark or black moon is by definition one that is on the same side of the earth as the sun so that it does not reflect any of the sun’s light toward the earth. So, the moon had set with the sun. Duh. But I needed a map of the stars to remind me of what should have been obvious.
Maps are about relationships; the relationship of one geographical location to another, the relationship of our present location to our destination, and other spatial relationships. My mother always enjoyed looking at maps. But she wouldn’t use a phone. She had to have a paper map spread out in front of her as we drove. It gave her a better sense of her surroundings and where we were going. It was not about just getting from point A to point B. It was about knowing the land around us our relationship to it.
But even maps can be controversial. If you look up “Agloe, New York” on a map, you probably won’t find anything today. But in 1937, the folks who ran General Printing published a map that included a place called Agloe at the intersection of two dirt roads just North of Roscoe, New York. But Agloe was not real. Even the name was made up. It was a combination of the initials of the founder of General Printing and his assistant.
Decades later, Rand McNally published a map that included Agloe, NY. And it produced one of those “gotcha” moments in the history of cartography. You see, putting in a fake town was General Printing’s way of protecting their copyright. They could now sue Rand McNally for copying their map rather than doing the hard work of making their own. Agloe gave them all the proof they needed because they had made it up!
But, as it turns out, Rand McNally had the perfect defense. Agloe, they said, actually exists. And sure enough, in the intervening years, someone had built a business at that dirt road intersection called the Agloe General Store (something you can still find on Google Maps) and other developments had been made that amounted to an actual town called Agloe!
Usually maps are supposed to reflect the reality of the way things are. But in 1937, General Printing created a map that turned out to reflect a future reality. It may not have been their intent. But they demonstrated how maps not only reflect change but may even produce change as well.
But mapping change, whether intentionally or unintentionally, has always been controversial. And that is especially true when creating a map of Christian behavior. There’s a certain comfort in seeing things one way, doing things the old way, and standing by the landmarks.
Paul’s map of Christian behavior was, like all maps, about relationships. His was about our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with each other. And in his writings, especially in I Corinthians 8, he proposes a radical change to the type of map that both Christians and Jews had used. Instead of proposing more knowledge of the law, he proposes the principle of love.
We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God. I Corinthians 8:1-3.
In these verses Paul seems to acknowledge the controversial nature of the question he had been asked to answer. And he knew that many people had already offered their own wisdom on the subject, and some of it likely based upon thousands of years of laws, rules, and regulations. Even the recent General Conference recorded in Acts 15 had weighed in on the subject. “Don’t eat food sacrificed to idols!” the brethren had said. Which was good advice at the time considering the landmark decision on circumcision that had just happened. After all, the Gentile converts had just come out of pagan environments where eating food offered to idols was considered actual worship of the idol.
But Paul doesn’t even reference the conference decision. Neither does he call upon the rich heritage of Mosaic law, or the ever-developing tradition of interpretations of the law. Instead, he provides a new approach. A different kind of map of the kingdom if you please. Instead of turn by turn directions, he gives a simple, yet profound principle: Build up with love.
Teaching is a difficult, and certainly rewarding, occupation. One reason for the difficulty is the incredible variety of human learners. No one learns exactly the same way. And different students excel and are interested in different things. Unfortunately, education often has to aim for the middle of the pack and hope the ones ahead of the curve and those behind the curve will also get something useful out of the process. Sometimes, however, we should take a lesson from students who disrupt the usual ways of thinking.
I saw a story on LinkedIn written by the father of a very precocious 5thgrader. One day Dad was called to the principal’s office to meet his daughter who was in trouble for disrupting her class. After taking a standardized text she had argued that she was right about a certain math question and that the teacher was wrong. The question: What is the highest number you can represent with 3 digits. The “correct” answer was obviously 999. “What was she thinking?” wondered Dad to himself. But then his young daughter, with angry tears still in her eyes, said, “Oh yeah? Tell me what 9 raised to the 9thpower raised to the 9thpower is then?”
At that point, Dad gave his daughter a high-five.
She was right. Everyone else was wrong. But because it had been a standardized test, that didn’t matter. What mattered was that “we haven’t covered exponents yet.”
Paul realized that what he was dealing with was not just a rule or a conference decision. He was dealing with real live people with individual experiences and varying amounts of spiritual knowledge. Some were obviously ahead of the curve. They were not following the traditional maps.
We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” 5For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
7But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. 1 Corinthians 8:4-8
I suspect that many of our church squabbles would just evaporate into thin air if we would remember this fundamental principle. There is only one God and Lord. All other so-called gods, powers, authorities, or rules and regulations can never supersede that. So just because some might think a certain behavior or thing is tainted with paganism, or worldliness, or even the devil himself, does not make it wrong for you! And we can apply that to everything from trivia like Christmas trees to more important markers of progress such as the ordination of women to gospel ministry. Sometimes the old ways of thinking hold us back and divide us. And they don’t need to.
But Paul is quite aware that good sincere Christians often disagree about things, even important things. So he not only honors individual conscience, he returns to the principle of building up with love.
9Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.10For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? 11So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.13Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall. 1 Corinthians 8:9-13
So, what is Paul’s roadmap of the kingdom? Simply this: Do the most loving thing possible. And as with eating food sacrificed to pagan deities, the loving thing can change with the situation. If you want to honor someone’s hospitality, and they invite you to eat food tainted with pagan worship; as long as it does not violate your conscience, do the loving thing and accept the invitation. But in a different situation, one in which you might encourage someone to stumble and actually start worshipping a pagan god again, that would obviously not be the loving thing to do.
In Romans, Paul makes his principle of doing the loving thing even more explicit. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. (Rom. 13:10).
What is the most loving thing to do? That is Paul’s spiritual road map of Gods kingdom.
