Canadian Bacon

I'm late posting this, but I preached last Sunday on 1 Corinthians 8 (Paul's discussion about food sacrificed to idols:

Food. Meat. Thus the bacon...)

Per Allen's suggestion, I'm working hard to keep my sermons focused on ONE idea--which is hard since every text has twenty possible implications.  And even then I struggle over whether I'm faithfully preaching 'the text' or 'the theme'.And whether I'm picking the right theme for the needs of my congregation ...still struggling through all that, actually.

But last week week, there were two implications that stuck to the drawing board: 

1) faith isn't something we do alone. ("look beyond the bacon question and notice the person sitting next to you. Community is important.")

2) sometimes being right is less important than being love. ("we may have to sacrifice/inconvenience ourselves in order to welcome everyone to the table. You can have all the right answers and still miss the point. Community is important.")

The second idea is particularly relevant considering our church still has some fiesty divisions over worship etiquette (coffee refills during the sermon ruffle feathers at one service. Coffee at all would be a sacrilege at the other)--but I went with the first theme, because you have to SEE the person beside you before you're willing to sacrifice for them.  

--> full disclosure, my sermon still tried to straddle both themes a bit, but the similarity held then together. And the main idea was clearly the first theme. 

Images that resonated:

Pushing to be first. To be right. And causing others to stumble. Found online: http://www.gbcdecatur.org/sermons/Trippin.html

And my painted meditation:

In this case, painting was a LAST process (a reflection--not early exegesis) so it affirmed the direction and solidified the theme. 

"Notice the big picture. Don't get caught in black and white questions or 'choosing sides' because you'll miss the green spaces and areas of growth. Our call is to abide in Christ, the vine, and grow in faith together."