Devotion for January 25 (LCMS Daily Lectionary)

Above:  Peter’s Vision of the Sheet with Animals, by Henry Davenport Northrop

Scrupulousness

JANUARY 25, 2024

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Zechariah 1:1-21/1:1-2:4

Psalm 86 (Morning)

Psalms 6 and 19 (Evening)

Romans 14:1-23

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Do not wreck God’s work for the sake of food.

–Romans 14:20a, The New Jerusalem Bible

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TECHNICAL NOTE:

Zechariah 1:-21 in Protestant Bibles equals Zechariah 1:1-2:4 in Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox ones.

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Was it lawful to eat meat once offered to imaginary deities or to consume food impure by the standards of the Law of Moses?  Paul understood the answer to that question to be yes, although he chose to abstain from certain culinary options for the sake of others.  It was difficult to find meat not sacrificed to idols, so one might have become a vegetarian to avoid even the appearance of something considered improper.  On the other hand, since those gods did not exist, why let good food go to waste?

Scrupulousness is good, but it can go too far.  A lack of scrupulousness, in Zechariah, had prompted God’s anger.  Yet there would be mercy for the punished Hebrews.  Once again judgment and mercy came in proximity to each other.  Paul’s personal deprivation aside, I feel no need to deny myself proper pleasures which others might interpret wrongly.  The truth is that anything I do might offend someone of a certain rigidity of attitudes.  I refuse to permit such rigidity dictate my lifestyle choices.  Yet neither will I confront them about their choices.  Their business is theirs, as mine is my own.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 9, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF DIETRICH BONHOEFFER, MARTYR AND GERMAN LUTHERAN THEOLOGIAN

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/scrupulousness/

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