Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany At-Home Service for February 7
Last week we heard how Paul warned the church at Corinth to “take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” Those words were Paul’s response to the controversy concerning whether Christians should eat food that had been used in pagan idol worship.
To summarize his approach Paul wrote, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” The passage read today from First Corinthians was a continuation of those thoughts. Again, Paul wrote about the rights related to liberty and freedom. However, he set those things as well as the debate about food in a broader context that can only be discerned by a Christian.
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Pastor Rike’s Sermon
There is a parallel to the relationships between those concepts in something I learned about in the first congregation I served. Sue Smith was a member of that congregation, Trinity Lutheran Church in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. When her children were young she was a full-time homemaker. She was shocked when she received a notice in the mail, telling her how much she owed for the Occupational Privilege Tax. To no avail, she insisted to the tax authority that she didn’t have an “occupation;” she didn’t get paid to be a housewife. Frustrated that her appeals changed nothing, Sue did what every good American would do. She demanded her rights! She insisted that even though she did not get paid for being a homemaker, if the government considered it a job then she had a right not to work and, therefore, not to be taxed. Her case made the front page of the York Daily Record newspaper with a headline stating, “Housewife goes on strike!” She created a picket sign which she held in the picture that appeared in the newspaper article. Sue stopped doing all of the day to day hactivities associated wit keeping her household running. She exercised her rights. She was free to do that. Alongside her freedom and rights, however, was the household of which she was a very important part. Sue’s husband and children never shared how the family or household fared while she was on strike. I suspect that, while they all survived, it was not an experience they wanted to repeat.
Click here to read Pastor Rike’s entire sermon
Video Options
Follow along with the service on video led by Pastor David Rike, with music performed by Randy Broker.
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The Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany Service for February 7 includes:
Hymn: Oh, Worship the King, performed by Randy Broker
First Reading 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Gospel Mark 1:29-39
Sermon by Pastor David Rike
Hymn: Arise, Your Light Has Come! performed by Randy Broker
Prayers & the Lord's Prayer
Blessing