After the Rain: Acceptance – University Congregational Church

After the Rain: Acceptance

Romans 14: 10-19

The Serenity Prayer says, “God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr composed the prayer in 1932–1933. The prayer spread rapidly, often without attribution to Niebuhr, through church groups in the 1930s and 1940s and was adopted and popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs. The rest of the prayer goes like this:

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Niebuhr was a perceptive thinker. It is so important for us as adults to create room in our minds for understanding what we can and cannot control. We can waste so much time trying to make people love/like us; see us talk to us; understand us. Accepting what we cannot change is difficult indeed.

Acceptance isn’t rooted in trying to force others to be cognizant of their actions or demanding that they show up in ways they aren’t capable of. It is the practice of doing our own personal work when it comes to being in relationships with people. We may long for clarity as to why people act the way they do, but they do not owe us an explanation.

The early Christians in Rome had some difficulties that were real and troublesome! The Christians in Rome were a diverse group of believers. These Roman congregations were made up of two entirely different groups of people. They consisted of Jewish converts who grew up with the Law, and traditions of the Hebrew Bible. They also consisted of Gentiles, or non-Jews. The ethnic ratio of these churches is unknown, but it is thought that there are more Gentiles since the Jews had been expelled from Rome just a few years prior to the writing of Romans. But when you have Jewish converts with Gentile ones, a common question and problem always arises: what do you do with the old food laws and feast days? The Jewish converts grew up with those traditions and rules while the Gentiles did not.

The Hebrew laws had prescribed the dos and don’ts for food in places like Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. In those chapters, we see what is okay for the Israelites to eat, and what is not okay for them to eat. The people were not allowed to eat unclean animals like camel, eagles, reptiles, certain insects, mice, and rabbits. Not too bad so far, right? But this list also included other foods like shrimp, lobster, oysters, and crab. They could not eat pork either. So, no sausage, ham, pork chops, pepperoni, or America’s current favorite food, bacon! They also could not eat blood, so no medium to rare steaks. They could eat clean animals like fish, oxen, sheep, goats, cows, and deer though.

Others in the early church – probably the Gentiles, whom Paul refers to as “those who understood their freedom in Jesus” ate what they wanted and held all days as alike. As you could imagine, with two completely different views on this issue, problems arose, and they did. This led to quarreling and fights. It led the ones who ate to despise the ones who didn’t. The ones who didn’t eat passed judgment on those who did. You can almost picture Paul like a parent with fighting children who yells out: “Stop!”

As Christians, we can have quarrels and fights over similar things even though we are just Gentiles. That is why there are 700+ congregations in Wichita alone! We can find all kinds of things to disagree about. Here is the text from Romans:

Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.”

So then, each of us will be accountable to God.

Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval. Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Romans 14: 10-19

What Paul is saying here is that if shrimp is a problem between you and another person in the church, don’t eat shrimp. Shrimp isn’t as important as the love we share in Christ.

What Paul is arguing is that if you don’t like how the ushers are doing their job, don’t make it a problem because we need to pursue the things that make for peace and mutual upbuilding.

What Paul writes in this text is that if someone acts in a way that bothers us, or says something that annoys us, or wears something that doesn’t quite fit our image of appropriate or does something that rubs us the wrong way… we are not to pass judgement on them! Instead, we are to resolve to focus on our own actions.

What Paul tells the church in Rome is that the good of the community is more important than getting one’s own way. That accepting the common good is more important than following the laws. That peace and joy and love are better than passing judgment on another person. That disagreements and misunderstandings happen, but love, compassion and community always triumph in the church.

What Paul is saying in this text is that we are free to eat and drink as we see fit – we are now free from the strict laws. But we are not free to judge one another!

In fact, what Paul writes is, if you are so insistent on judging one another, judge this: how not to trip one another up! Because when you cause someone in the community to make an error in their faith, you bring the whole community down. Instead, Paul exhorts the people to take positive action to see how to make life easier for one another. How can those who are strong in the community make life better or easier for those who are not as strong?

Christians, Paul insists, are the very last people, who should be judging others. It is inappropriate. It is not just about preventing squabbles and bad feelings in the church. It is part of our essential Christian witness! Genuine Christians grow to maturity at different rates and during this process one cannot hurry them to accept positions their conscience cannot allow. Specifically, we must recognize that actual spiritual harm is caused to people when they are put in the position of being judged.

May God grant us the serenity

to accept the things we cannot change,

the courage to change the things we can,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

Resources Used:

Elle, Alexandra. “After the Rain; Gentle Reminders for Healing, Courage, and Self-Love.” San Francisco: Chronicle Books. 2020.

“The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary” vol. IX. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 2015.

wikipedia.org. “The Serenity Prayer”. April 8, 2022.

Sermoncentral.com. “Food Fight!” By Nickolas Kooi. Sept. 14, 2017.