“Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road / Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go / So make the best of this test, and don't ask why / It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time. / It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. / I hope you had the time of your life.”
Never thought I would quote a song by Green Day in this space would you? Me neither. But there it is. The song is titled “Good Riddance,” oddly enough. And I can’t decide if it is supposed to be ironic or not. “I hope you had the time of your life” doesn’t seem like a good riddance kind of statement. But it is about moments and memories and ones you want to hang on to and ones you’d rather let go. And some experiences which might be something of both.
Like 9/11. Ten years ago the world, or at least our corner of it, was a different place than it is today. I know that seems like a “duh” kind of statement. In ten years all kinds of things have changed. It’s a fact of life and history. Still, it is not often that we can look back and identify those forks stuck in the road, those times when time grabs you by the wrist and directs you where to go.
The question I have heard asked over and over in the past few weeks in the lead up to the 10th anniversary of the events we have come to call 9/11, is are we safer now than we were then? The answers, as you might suspect are varied and hedged. Some argue that we are more alert to the threats and the dangers than we were before those events. Others point out that our protective forces and intelligence gathering sources are more sharply focused. Still others argue that we are chasing shadows and dealing with worlds and cultures we barely understand and are causing more damage with each passing uninformed foreign policy decision.
Which means “who knows?” But maybe that is the wrong question. Maybe our national, communal question should be about safety first. Maybe instead of “Are we safer?” the question ought to be “Are we more like who we want to be than we were ten years ago?”
At least I think that is Paul’s question from our passage for this week. Or one of his questions anyway.
Romans 14:1-12 Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. 2 Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. 3 Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 5 Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. 6 Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God. 7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God." 12 So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
OK, you are forgiven for wondering what this has to do with 9/11. The short answer is nothing, really. The longer answer is maybe everything. Paul is telling the church in Rome how to be the church. He is telling them that they shouldn’t make distinctions between those who live outside in and those who live inside out. Wait, what?
I don’t know why Paul uses the terms “strong” and “weak” when it comes to these different dimensions of faith. I really wish he hadn’t. Maybe he was just picking on the language that was being used by others - maybe it was sarcasm and we lost the “air quotes” in the translation. Or maybe he is revealing a bias here and from his perspective one method is evidence of a stronger reliance on faith than the other.
But if you look closely at what he says he is talking about the debate between those who live out their faith in observable ways, eating certain things or observing certain days and those who believe that faith is an inner reality and not an external one. Even though he uses the terms strong and weak, if you carefully he is saying there should be no hierarchy, no “better than” attitudes displayed. He is saying we are all one in Christ Jesus. He is saying in Christ there is now Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free, He is saying this looking down, or measuring up does not fit in the Kingdom of God and therefore does not fit in the church.
Then he tells us why. “If we live, we live to the Lord.” If we live. I don’t know how you can get a more all encompassing statement than that. If we live. Not, if we live right. Or if we choose to live in certain ways. No, he says, if we live. That kinda puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? There simply isn’t anything that should cause us to love less than Christ loved. There is no circumstance that gives us permission to treat another human being with contempt. There is no event that allows us to respond out of hatred or a desire for revenge. If we live, we live to the Lord.” We have given ourselves to Him, we are no longer free to react the way that feels good to us.
Which brings me back to the question I think this passage wants us to ask in the shadow of 9/11: Are we more like we want to be than we were ten years ago? Are we living as though we were the Lord’s? Have our choices and our attitudes, our prejudices and our fears reflected that light living within us? Or is there something else at work?
The truth is, says Paul, we get to choose. We don’t have to succumb to emotions and to fears. We don’t have to follow the crowd and check our brains at the door. We can choose how we might treat those around us, weaker and stronger. We can be hospitable, because Christ was hospitable. We can be trusting because Christ is with us. This could be the time of our lives
That’s what I hear in the Green Day song. A choice. An opportunity to be more, to love more, to live more. This fork in the road, this time that grabs us by the wrist, doesn’t have to control us. Doesn’t have to make us less than we are in Christ. It’s our choice. “So make the best of this test, and don't ask why / It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time. / It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. / I hope you had the time of your life.”
I don’t know that there are very many commentators who would say that remembering 9/11 is about celebrating the time of our lives. But then I’ve read Paul’s other writings, when he said that “all things work together for good for those who love God.” Not that all things are good. There was nothing good about 9/11. But that we can choose to work for good even in this. Because if we live, we live to the Lord.
Never thought I would quote a song by Green Day in this space would you? Me neither. But there it is. The song is titled “Good Riddance,” oddly enough. And I can’t decide if it is supposed to be ironic or not. “I hope you had the time of your life” doesn’t seem like a good riddance kind of statement. But it is about moments and memories and ones you want to hang on to and ones you’d rather let go. And some experiences which might be something of both.
Like 9/11. Ten years ago the world, or at least our corner of it, was a different place than it is today. I know that seems like a “duh” kind of statement. In ten years all kinds of things have changed. It’s a fact of life and history. Still, it is not often that we can look back and identify those forks stuck in the road, those times when time grabs you by the wrist and directs you where to go.
The question I have heard asked over and over in the past few weeks in the lead up to the 10th anniversary of the events we have come to call 9/11, is are we safer now than we were then? The answers, as you might suspect are varied and hedged. Some argue that we are more alert to the threats and the dangers than we were before those events. Others point out that our protective forces and intelligence gathering sources are more sharply focused. Still others argue that we are chasing shadows and dealing with worlds and cultures we barely understand and are causing more damage with each passing uninformed foreign policy decision.
Which means “who knows?” But maybe that is the wrong question. Maybe our national, communal question should be about safety first. Maybe instead of “Are we safer?” the question ought to be “Are we more like who we want to be than we were ten years ago?”
At least I think that is Paul’s question from our passage for this week. Or one of his questions anyway.
Romans 14:1-12 Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. 2 Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. 3 Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 5 Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. 6 Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God. 7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God." 12 So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
OK, you are forgiven for wondering what this has to do with 9/11. The short answer is nothing, really. The longer answer is maybe everything. Paul is telling the church in Rome how to be the church. He is telling them that they shouldn’t make distinctions between those who live outside in and those who live inside out. Wait, what?
I don’t know why Paul uses the terms “strong” and “weak” when it comes to these different dimensions of faith. I really wish he hadn’t. Maybe he was just picking on the language that was being used by others - maybe it was sarcasm and we lost the “air quotes” in the translation. Or maybe he is revealing a bias here and from his perspective one method is evidence of a stronger reliance on faith than the other.
But if you look closely at what he says he is talking about the debate between those who live out their faith in observable ways, eating certain things or observing certain days and those who believe that faith is an inner reality and not an external one. Even though he uses the terms strong and weak, if you carefully he is saying there should be no hierarchy, no “better than” attitudes displayed. He is saying we are all one in Christ Jesus. He is saying in Christ there is now Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free, He is saying this looking down, or measuring up does not fit in the Kingdom of God and therefore does not fit in the church.
Then he tells us why. “If we live, we live to the Lord.” If we live. I don’t know how you can get a more all encompassing statement than that. If we live. Not, if we live right. Or if we choose to live in certain ways. No, he says, if we live. That kinda puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? There simply isn’t anything that should cause us to love less than Christ loved. There is no circumstance that gives us permission to treat another human being with contempt. There is no event that allows us to respond out of hatred or a desire for revenge. If we live, we live to the Lord.” We have given ourselves to Him, we are no longer free to react the way that feels good to us.
Which brings me back to the question I think this passage wants us to ask in the shadow of 9/11: Are we more like we want to be than we were ten years ago? Are we living as though we were the Lord’s? Have our choices and our attitudes, our prejudices and our fears reflected that light living within us? Or is there something else at work?
The truth is, says Paul, we get to choose. We don’t have to succumb to emotions and to fears. We don’t have to follow the crowd and check our brains at the door. We can choose how we might treat those around us, weaker and stronger. We can be hospitable, because Christ was hospitable. We can be trusting because Christ is with us. This could be the time of our lives
That’s what I hear in the Green Day song. A choice. An opportunity to be more, to love more, to live more. This fork in the road, this time that grabs us by the wrist, doesn’t have to control us. Doesn’t have to make us less than we are in Christ. It’s our choice. “So make the best of this test, and don't ask why / It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time. / It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. / I hope you had the time of your life.”
I don’t know that there are very many commentators who would say that remembering 9/11 is about celebrating the time of our lives. But then I’ve read Paul’s other writings, when he said that “all things work together for good for those who love God.” Not that all things are good. There was nothing good about 9/11. But that we can choose to work for good even in this. Because if we live, we live to the Lord.
Shalom,
Derek
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