A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at
“JUDGMENT AND THINGS ADIAPHOROUS”
(Homily texts: Romans 14: 1 – 12 and Matthew 18: 21 -35)
“Adiaphora.”
I know this
is a word that is constantly on your lips and in your thoughts. Perhaps, right now, as you sit listening to
the opening of this homily (or are reading it in hard copy or online), you are
saying to yourself, “I wonder if that concern I had this morning is adiaphorous or not.”
OK, I’m a
realist….I know you probably weren’t thinking about the word adiaphora at all, but, no doubt, you’ve
concerned yourself with the issue of what falls into this category or not, as
you’ve walked the faith walk with our Lord.
So, with this clear understanding of what the word means, let’s venture into the matter of essentials vs. non-essentials in the life of faith, and let’s examine as we do our Lord’s teaching about forgiveness and judgment.
For today we hear His words, “So my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother (or sister) from your heart.”
Chilling words, those.
They were spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ in response to Peter’s question, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?”
From the wording of Peter’s question, we can tell that his question is posed in direct response, in direct connection to last Sunday’s gospel reading (which immediately precedes today’s), where Jesus teaches His disciples about sinning and forgiving.
In that gospel text, (recall with me) Jesus says that, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.” I can’t resist saying, at this point, that the beginning of Jesus’ teaching here and the wording of Peter’s question show that last week’s and this week’s gospel texts are tied together.
As Jesus unfolds His teaching last week, we see that He indicates that by going to the offender, one-on-one, you have the opportunity to regain that offender. If the offender doesn’t listen, then take others with you as witnesses. Finally, if that doesn’t work, then the matter may be brought to the attention of the Church.
In last week’s text, Jesus then says that the purpose of bringing the matter to the entire Church is so that the offender may be to the Church as a “Gentile and a tax collector.” Although one approach to treating someone like a “Gentile and a tax collector” is to shun them, or to kick them out of the Church (excommunication), there is another approach to Gentiles and tax collectors, one that we see in Jesus’ own example: He sought them out, continually offering them the chance to repent and to come into the fullness of life that He alone offers.
One key reason for Jesus’ teaching – both last week’s and this – is to foster unity within the Body of Christ (the Church). Consider what would happen if people harbored grudges and bitterness, one toward the other. Quickly, the Body of Christ would splinter. That was precisely a major problem with the
So today Jesus says that we are to forgive our brother (or sister), not seven times, but seventy-times-seven. Essentially, He is saying that we are to have an endless reservoir of forgiveness available.
But there’s an aspect to last week’s teaching and this one: judgment.
For sin to be detected, there must be a standard against which to judge behaviors. Implicit in the case of sin is a recognition of what constitutes sin.
But wait a minute….how can we reconcile the need for judgment (in order to know what is sin and what isn’t), and Paul’s proscription of passing judgment?
All of these things are adiaphorous, that is to say, they are non-essential part of the Christian faith and life. They do not affect a person’s spiritual health or the welfare of their souls. (Practices such as keeping certain holy days or refraining from eating or drinking may act as valuable spiritual aids for some believers. That is important to acknowledge and affirm.)
Now, let’s return to the matter of judging others.
This matter is one of serious concern to the contemporary Church. How often do I, as a priest, hear people say, “Well, I can’t judge that person,” or “It’s not my place to judge.”
Sometimes, in this connection, people will quote part of Jesus’ teaching about passing judgment on others by repeating what He said in Matthew 7: 1, which reads, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”
But what is
left out is the second part of Jesus’ teaching, which reads, “For with the
judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will
be measured to you.”
So, taken together, Jesus’ two comments don’t proscribe passing judgment at all. What they do is to say that, if we judge others, we’d better be aware that we will be judged by the same standard that we apply.
Put another way, it indicates to us that we’d better be willing to “walk the walk and talk the talk” if we are to assess whether others are doing so, as well.[1]
Considering all that Jesus had to say about judgment and passing judgment, I think it’s safe to come to the conclusion that we are not barred from making judgments about what is right and what is wrong in God’s eyes, no, not at all.
For if we refrain from assessing what standards apply to the Body of Christ and its members, then we run the risk of dropping our standards entirely. When that happens, then, the body ceases to have its core identity, and, like purely secular groups, ceases to have any purpose for existence.
Even a cursory review of the state of much of the Church today will show that this is an enormous problem. What is essential to the faith is compromised in the name of “not passing judgment.” Pretty soon, the Church becomes some sort of amorphous, spiritual blob, lacking in standards, lacking the ability to mirror the holiness and righteousness of Jesus.
So the key issue here is the matter of determining what is essential and what is not.
I would be remiss in my duty as a preacher and as a priest if I didn’t offer some sort of indication of what is essential for a Christian to believe in order to be a truly worthy of the name. Here’s a short list:
· The Holy Scriptures, which are the word of God, written, and which contain “all things necessary for salvation.”[2]
· The faith as it is expressed in the Creeds (Nicene, Apostles, Athanasian).
· The moral teachings as the Church has received them from our forebears in faith.
These things, I maintain, are essentials.
Much else
that affects our lives as Christians is adiaphora,
non-essential.
So let us be wise in our discernment of what is central to the faith, and maintain that in fidelity to the deposit of faith which was “once for all delivered to the saints” (see Jude 3). About these things, we are called to judgment and discernment, in order that the faith “once delivered to the saints” is recognizable from one generation to another, maintaining fidelity in beliefs and in moral practices that spring from God’s indication as we have it in Holy Scripture.
About all else, let us be charitable and let us be loathe to pass judgment on a Christian brother or sister.
AMEN.
[1] Jesus further illustrates this point in His
teaching about plucking the log out of one’s own eye in order to be able to see
the speck in someone else’s (see Matthew 7: 3 – 5).
[2] This phrase comes from the vows which are
taken when a person is ordained. See the
Book of Common Prayer, 1979, page 526).
