We need balance

In the story for today (1 Corinthians 8:1-13) from the letter of the early church leader, Paul, to a gathering of Christians in Corinth, we hear some advice about how to deal with a local issue and it isn’t a hot one for many of us these days - whether or not to eat meat that may have been sacrificed to idols - but it raises questions that are definitely part of our daily lives.

In that community, at that time, on this issue, some people felt comfortable eating whatever they wanted. They echoed the words attributed to Jesus about, “It isn’t what goes into a person that defiles them but rather what comes out in their words and actions.” Others were not so sure, especially given the traditional proscriptions in cultural dietary law, and the possibility that a platter of previously profane provisions might tip into a slippery slope, collapsing all that made the people distinctive, proud and connected to their God.

The advice given by the community’s pen pal, Paul, doesn’t come down on one side or the other, but rather suggests that the parties consider the relationship between rights and compassion, knowledge and love, and authority and integrity ... and the impact of these relationships on the relationships between community members. We could apply the same discernment to any issue we face together as a community that threatens to weaken or disrupt our relationships with each other; or that could strengthen our sense of purpose and identity together as a particular group of people in our time and place.

The key is to recognise that these are in relationship, not opposition. Rights can be granted out of compassion, and compassion can displace rights as when one sets aside one’s right to something in order to express compassion towards another. Brokenness in the relationship between rights and compassion results in broken relationships between people. Love compels us to know, and knowing deepens love. Love that is blind does not build up and knowledge without love “puffs up” as Paul put it. Integrity is it’s own authority, and authority requires integrity in order to be genuine and authentically granted.

So the relationship between these aspects of being human is reciprocal, although, I would argue that it has a definite starting point:
Rights, knowledge and authority is the ground or starting point for compassion, love and integrity. And compassion, love and integrity ensures that rights, knowledge and authority take on real flesh in the world.

The consequences of interrupting the flow of attention and energy, the interaction and checks and balances between rights and compassion, knowledge and love, authority and integrity can be desperately severe. We read of these examples in the news: tent city riots, anniversaries of asylum seeker deaths in detention, and on and on. When the balance of what we know, what we allow, and what we enforce together with what we feel, would wish upon ourselves and put our trust in is out of kilter, lamentable things happen in our relationships with other human beings. It happens on every scale, from interpersonal relationships to international relations.

When the balance is right, transformation is possible. I think of the shift in thinking about the focus and goal of Christian mission. Historically, mission was about proclaiming the authority of the church whilst dismissing the knowledge of the colonized people and disregarding basic human rights to self-empowerment. Now, and in some cases in history, the best of mission work is based on solidarity with fellow human beings, privileging local knowledge, deferring to the authority of the host culture and compassionately respecting the rights of Indigenous peoples.

How might we as individuals cultivate right balance in the relationships between rights and compassion, knowledge and love, and authority and integrity?

The delightful reality is that we come together here for this very purpose: to cultivate personal and corporate compassion, love and integrity. No other purpose! As a religious organisation, we have access to ancient - timeless - spiritual practices that ground our being; that touch us to the very ground of being; that dip us into the deepest wells of what is most essential to being human.

Jana

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