BEpiphany4 Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28 February 1, 2009 This week we saw the movie ‘Gran Torino’ starring Clint Eastwood. If you’ve seen it, you know that the main character, Walt, is an angry, cold, bigoted, bitter old man whose wife has just been buried. He seems to thrive on staying alienated from everyone. He can hardly tolerate his sons and their families; His neighbors, who are every ethnic group except white; and his church, which he put up with as long as his wife was living. Walt has lots of guns. It seems there is a gun in every room in the house, every drawer he opens – and he knows how to use them. He is ready to shoot at any time. He intimidates the teenage gang members who have taken over his neighborhood. He’s a one man vigilante. Walt also has lots of tools. His garage is filled with every kind of tool a man could need. Through the events of the movie,Walt comes to mentor the teenage boy next door and to pass on to him the use of tools and the pride of having skills. He helps him get a job. Walt carries dark demons from his time in the Korean War. Not only does he have the memories of carrying out orders to kill, But he also killed when not ordered to out of his own revenge and anger. Those are the demons that continue to haunt him. When the teenager from next door wants revenge against the gang that has harmed his family, you expect Walt to mentor the boy in the way of guns and anger and revenge, too. And Walt is certainly capable of this and would be justified. And you get the idea that Walt has what it takes to outsmart the gang members and blow them to bits. But, in the end, Walt chooses not to use this prowess, this skill, this freedom. Walt gives up his skill born out of anger and revenge and the freedom and power he has derived from it for the sake of this boy he had come to care about. This is the point Paul is making to the Corinthians. Freedom that is from God is defined by love, not by knowledge or power. In Corinth, there were new Christians. Some had converted from Judaism. Some had worshipped pagan gods. We read about ‘idol meat’. In the pagan temples, meat was sacrificed to the idols, and then sold to the public or served in what were somewhat elite dining rooms located right in the temple. Some Christians felt it was okay to eat this meat, because as our reading quotes them: ‘All of us possess knowledge’ meaning the knowledge given them in their Christian faith: In Christ, we are freed from the law and now live by grace. Knowledge that there is only one God, the God revealed by Jesus Christ. And, because we now know this, they write, we know that an idol has no real existence. So why were some other Christians among them so scandalized by the eating of meat that had been sacrificed to idols? Why would these weaker Christians, if they knew these things, still associate the meat with their old beliefs and practices and feel guilty about eating it? Because for them, to do so felt like a turning back to old ways. A turning away from the one true God. Since this ‘idol’ meat was so prevalent in the dining rooms and market, many of them even became vegetarians, just to be safe. Paul agrees with the ‘strong’ Christians. There is great freedom in Christ. And if there is only one God, then it is mere superstition to be afraid to eat meat that was sacrificed to a non-existent god or idol. BUT, Paul asserts – they were using their knowledge to justify themselves, to puff themselves up and to assert that they were more enlightened, more mature in their faith than their brothers and sisters who would not eat this meat. Paul admonished them that their knowledge could put pressure on those whose consciences weren’t so free. To conform and eat this meat, would cause those with ‘weak’ consciences to feel as though they had sinned, as though they had turned their backs on God. If a brother or sister is injured by what you do, Paul instructs, you are no longer exercising the freedom you’ve been given in Christ. – for the freedom in Christ is the freedom Christ himself exercised – the freedom to build up another, to strengthen another, to give life to another. The freedom to do whatever it takes to love another person so that his or her faith is strengthened, not tested. Jesus had all the knowledge necessary to prove himself. In our gospel story today, in the synagogue, the people are astonished at the authority of his teaching. Then, as he commands the demons out of a man, they are amazed again at the power of his words and actions. Jesus had astounding knowledge. But, there came a time when he knew that love was what was called for. He exercised his freedom, his power by NOT insisting on his freedom, his power. The powerful, authoritative freedom we know from him is not about the freedom to eat and drink what we want, or the freedom to assert the knowledge we’ve gained, It is the freedom to give up whatever we find in ourselves that is overriding love for the weakest one among us. It is the freedom not to exercise the knowledge or skill we possess, if it injures another. Freedom’s just another word for ‘nothing left to lose.’ And we have nothing to lose if love is our aim. We have everything to lose if we cause harm to someone else, for whom, like us, Christ so willingly gave up his freedom. Well, that’s what Clint Eastwood’s character Walt was able to do. He finally found the freedom to give up his freedom – to live and die in a way that gave up his smarts and his power, and his demons, so that his young friend could be built up, strengthened, given life, and be shown a way of life that frees him from the cycle of fear he’s lived in. Jesus put it this way: Just as you do it to the least of these, you do it to me. So, when we’re making decisions about how to live our lives Let’s ask ourselves, Am I considering how my actions and my words affect that person least likely to understand them? That person most likely to be hurt or confused by them? That is how we will know that we are indeed free.