Pentecost 5 (NL4) John B. Valentine
1 Corinthians 8:1-13 June 28, 2026

“YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!”

Let’s get this started a little differently this morning ... with four quick questions.

And let’s play the “thumbs up / thumbs down” game so as to encourage a bit of audience participation!!

• Question Number 1 .... “How many of you love broccoli?”

• Question Number 2 .... “Is broccoli good for you?”

• Question Number 3 .... “How many of you love french fires?”

• Question Number 4 .... “Are french fries good for you?”

I suspect that maybe ... just maybe ... somewheres along the line ... you heard that time-worn statement “You are what you eat”???

Dare I ask whether or not what you choose to eat is actually good for you???

No ... I won’t ...... because that would be a fifth question! (Ha!Ha!)

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Actually ... “You Are What You Eat” wouldn’t be too shabby a title for this week’s sermon.

You see ... whereas last week’s lesson was about how the sex wars were subdividing this Corinthian congregation to whom Paul is writing ...

This week’s lesson is all about a food fight subdividing that very same group.

• You got some people in that congregation who think that it is wrong to eat food that has been bought at the butcher shop or the snack bar attached to ... say ... the big ol’ temple to Apollo in the smack dead center of town ...

• And you got some other people in that congregation who say that its no big deal.

Now the party of the first part ... the folks that think that it’s not okay to eat food from the Apollo meat market ... their logic reads thusly:

You CAN’T eat food that has been sacrificed to idols because doing so would dishonor God!

If you’re buying your meat from the Apollo meat market:

a) You’re eating food that has been actively sacrificed to a god whom we know not to be a god at all. Maybe a demon .... but certainly not a god ... and certainly NOT our God! And ...

b) You’re spending you’re hard-earned money supporting the Temple of Apollo ... which is basically aiding and abetting the competition!

To those folks ... eating meat offered to idols makes about as much sense as a Democrat buying a new pillow from that ‘My Pillow’ guy ... or conversely a Republican making a campaign contribution to Nancy Pelosi’s superPAC.

That camp is the “You Are What You Eat” crowd ... and they feel that eating ungodly food makes you an ungodly person.

On the other hand ... the party of the second part ... the folks who think it’s just fine to shop at Apollo’s meat market ... would say:

You absolutely CAN eat food that has been sacrificed to idols because we know that those idols aren’t real in the first place!

Sure ... there’s folks who think that Apollo and those other gods do exist ... but we know better. Those so-called ‘gods’ aren’t gods at all. They’re simply idols and fictions.

Shopping at the Apollo meat market is no different from buying fish down at the docks ... or vegetables over at the farmer’s market.

We might fairly say that these are the “You Aren’t What You Eat” crowd

Betwixt the two of them ... there’s this irreconcilable divide.

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Now here’s the weird thing ... the letter we call “First Corinthians” isn’t the first letter exchanged between Paul and the church in Corinth.

No ... Paul had spent quite a bit of time in Corinth ... working to establish the community of believers there ... and then he left to go spread the gospel-message elsewhere.

And the folks at the church in Corinth had run into a whole bunch of issues after Paul’s departure ... one of which is this food fight ... and they’d written a letter to Paul asking him how to deal with these issues which perplexed them.

So this thing we call “First Corinthians” is really at least the second letter in a chain of correspondence between Paul and his friends and followers in Corinth.

And when Paul writes these folks back ... he makes two points abundantly clear.

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The first of them is that ... as regards the “food fight” ... the party of the second part ... the “You Aren’t What You Eat” crowd ... the folks who think it’s just fine to shop at Apollo's meat market ... are the ones who are right.

“After all” ... Paul writes ... “we know that ‘no idol in the world really exists’ and that ‘there is no God but one.’

“Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth — as in fact there are many gods and many lords — yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”

Eating food that had previously been offered to idols isn’t sacrilegious because those idols aren’t really gods at all ... at least not like our God.

So if it doesn’t bother you to eat meat that has been offered up to idols ... go right ahead!

But ... BUT! ... as regards this “food fight” ... the party of the second part ... the “You Aren’t What You Eat” crowd ... the folks who think it’s just fine to shop at Apollo's meat market ... are also absolutely WRONG!

“Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. And if THEY ... the folks in the party of the first part ... are bothered by your behavior ... why would you do it in the first place?”

“You DO have liberty ... but take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to your neighbors.”

These folks were so insistent that they were right ... that they actually end up being wrong!

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Any of you ever met anyone who was so insistent that they were right that they were wrong???

ANY OF THE REST OF YOU EVER SEEN THAT PERSON IN THE MIRROR ..........

I mean ... it’s nice to be right ... isn’t it?

When you’re watching Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune or Family Feud ... it’s fun to be right.

When you’re watching election returns on the nightly news and you see that they’re going your way ... it’s comforting to be right.

Being right can make us feel smart ... or superior ... or satisfied.

But insisting on being right may come at a pretty big price.

You see ... insisting on being right can cost us what???

• Friendships?
• Relationships?
• Respect and mutuality?
• A sense of community and collegiality?

In this case ... Paul seems to be telling the folks that are the party of the second part ... the "You Aren't What You Eat" crowd ... the folks who think it's just fine to shop at Apollo's meat market ...

That their insistence on being right was going to cost the community of believers there in Corinth its sense of unity ...

That their insistence on being right was going to cost their neighbors their seat at the table ...

That their insistence on being right could well cost the whole of that little faith-community its very existence ...

That their insistence on being right was just wrong ... because it meant they’d lost sight of Jesus’ call to love God by serving their neighbors!

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It wouldn’t be too tough these days to come up with some real-world examples of people who insist upon “being right at all costs”.

After all ... there’s plenty of people in our nation’s capital right now ... and one in particular ... who seem pretty insistent in always being right ... no matter what the cost.

But ... this being the weekend before our nation’s 250th birthday ... and in hopes on making some small effort to re-weave the fabric that holds our nation together ... rather than just tear it further apart ... I’m not going to go there.

Rather ... lets look at “the price of being right” as being seen through the eyes of one of our nation’s most profound scholars of human psychology ... a fellow named Theodor Geisel ... i.e. “Doctor Seuss’.

You see ... one of my all-time favorite Doctor Seuss stories is the one called “The Zax”.

And it features these two characters ... a north-going Zax and a south-going Zax ... who encounter each other one day while out on the Prairie of Prax.

One day, in the wilds of the Prairie of Prax,
Coming different directions along the same track,
Came a North-going-Zax and a South-going Zax.

And, suddenly, both of them came to a place
Where they bumped! And they stood.
Foot to foot. Face to face.

And the North-going-Zax snorted, “Look here! I say!
You are blocking my path. You are right in my way.
I’m a North-going-Zax, and I always go north.
Get out of my way, now, and let me go forth!”

Then the other replied, with a very sour mouth,
“I’m a South-going-Zax, and I always go south.
So I’m NOT in your way. You are standing in MINE.

And, so, I command you to step out of line…
Just a foot to the east or a foot to the west…
And then I’ll continue my journey, you pest!”

Spoiler alert! The story ends some time later ... fifty-nine years later ... if I’m not mistaken ... with those two Zaxxes still insisting on being right ... and the world just passing them by.

Doctor Seuss’ point is also Paul’s point ...

Which is that ... at least sometimes ... it is better to compromise ... better to listen to the concerns of your neighbor ... better to consider things other than just being “right” ...

Because ... sometimes at least ... insisting on being right is wrong!

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So what does this all mean??? And what does it all mean for us???

Maybe just this ....

• That “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”

• That ... only by focusing on the way of love can we become people who ... despite our disagreements ... aren’t disagreeable.

• That ... only by focusing on the way of love ... can we become people who ... despite our disagreements ... aren’t disagreeable.

• That ... only by focusing on the way of love ... can we become people who turn the other cheek rather than casting the first stone.

• That ... only by focusing on the way of love ... can we be the Body of Christ and bread for the world.

After all ... folks ... we are what we eat.

Remember that the next time sometimes says “The Body of Christ given for you.”