NONE OTHER GOD

Did I ever tell you about the time I met a Leprechaun? Go ahead, pinch me if you think I'm dreaming! Many years ago, there was an evening social that I attended in Dubuque, Iowa. In the course of the evening, I met a diminutive young lady with a curious accent. Her accent did not accord with her apparent ethnic appearance, so I asked her about the obvious discrepancy. She started by asking me if I would laugh if I found her explanation strange? I agreed not to. She continued by telling me she was Irish. Because of her dark complexion, I immediately assumed that she was Black Irish. That small group of the Irish is descended from the numerous shipwrecked sailors of the Spanish Armada of 1588., which had tried to escape home by going all the way around Ireland back to Spain.

No, it wasn't that simple she said. She explained that her small tribe had persisted in living on the edge of civilization in the forests and fields of Ireland. They had been mostly vegetarian and sometimes "borrowed" clothes and other items from the local Celtic population. They would even sample the milk of the cattle in the fields at night. Because of this life on the edge of civilization, the group as a whole suffered from stunted growth and in time, this became their common appearance. While they never took a tribal name, the local Celts who seldom if ever saw them, began to tell tales of a wee race who lived in the forest and field for generation after generation. When I traveled in Ireland, an owner of the local hotel where we stayed insisted upon putting a bowl of milk on the back porch for the wee people. Her Leprechaun turned out to be a fat white Tom Cat who took advantage of her generosity. My Leprechaun was about four and a half feet tall, and her family had come in out of the cold several generations before they came to America.

Now, everything that I have told you could be pure blarney, as the Irish call a specious story. Yet, there is also a small possibility that such a story could explain the rise of Irish legend? At least grant me this, on the surface, my little Leprechaun tale is almost feasible. To this day, I am not certain if my leg was being pulled.

Also, when I was in Dubuque, I met a third generation Christian from Alaska, whose Grandfather had been converted from paganism before he went on to become a Presbyterian elder. This young man's grandfather remembered when the spirits of stream and wood were more real than after the Holy Spirit and understanding of the Christian God penetrated the tribal memory and dissipated the old "spirits" into the mists of time. I do not mean in these introductory statements to suggest that the late New Age guru, Joseph Campbell has any credibility in recreating a panoply of gods and goddesses, or even life forces if you will. The point that I am trying to make is simple. The scriptures have always taken seriously the threat of false religions and throughout the Old Covenant especially, the surrounding pagan gods and goddesses are mentioned time after time. So much so, that like Solomon and many others, their names and their rituals can and have been taken more seriously than they deserve. Just because I speak of an apparent Leprechaun and the Alaskan grandfather spoke of apparent "spirits", doesn't mean they really and truly exist!

The first lesson that we must learn and apply from this commandment is the natural and spiritual fact that there are in no way and shape any other gods or goddesses in the present, future or past life of this planet earth. "None other gods" the scriptures declare, and God Himself tells us plainly that He knows not another:

"There is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me" (Isaiah 45: 21)

By the time of Christ, even the civilized Greeks and Romans had major doubts about the realities of those they worshipped. The humanistic "Spirit of Rome" easily replaced the carved images of the generations before. And when the Christian testimony was spread abroad, there was pretty much a wholesale abandonment of the false gods within a short three centuries. More sophisticated mystic and mystery religions arose in their place to challenge the growing power and witness of the Christian Church.

In the first centuries after Christ, the idols hung on for a while, partially because the animals sacrificed in the temples accorded a plentiful supply of meat for the local markets. Much in the manner of the tourist trade and national taxes which support the great and grand landmark cathedrals of Europe in our day and time. Or even as in some of the larger cities in America, the tourists who crowd into certain churches to enjoy the choir performance rather than the God who was once honored and praised! I sometimes wonder if the music ministries in some churches were scaled back, if there would still be a congregation?

But, we have to be careful, very sincere and saved Christians might disagree with the austerity of our worship, even though we carefully order the service to give to the Lord the praise and honor and glory He desires and deserves. In our passage from First Corinthians this morning, Paul is making a point that while there are different opinions about using the sacrificial meats, those who worry not about meats sacrificed to nonexistent gods, should be careful in their relationships with other Christians who have compunctions about eating such fare.

I remember talking to a person who had visited in Japan and stayed for a short time with a Japanese family. In her guest quarters she was pleasantly surprised to find water and bread set out on a shelf. The next morning when her host was startled to see the sacrificial elements to the stone carving gone, the guest realized her mistake and apologized profusely. The host was not offended since the food had never ever disappeared before, so obviously the idol was not hungry. Momentarily the guest wondered if she had erred in eating the sacrifice. In the sense of Paul's argument before us, the obvious answer is no.

Now within the Christian community, I sometimes get questions about participating in communion in other Catholic and Protestant congregations. As you know there are many and varied methods and means of dispensing the means of grace. At one Presbytery, one of our congregations ritualized the Lord's Supper that was uncomfortable for us. Should we have participated, in the sense of Paul's argument here I do not see any problem. Obviously, the communion service was within the limits of Christian charity on our part and even though we might order things differently, we chose not to offend our hosts.

Some parts of the Church are currently arguing that the fruit of the vine must contain alcohol in order for that element to be appropriately understood. Other congregations worry not about the yeast content of the bread. As you well know, we normally use an unleavened bread from a 150 year old recipe and use Welch's grape juice when it is available. My thinking on this was described recently in an article where the author suggested that if the Passover meal was celebrated without yeast, it was also very probably celebrated without alcohol as well. In the last century, the Welch's company was established specifically to produce the fruit of the vine without alcohol so that the Lord's people might use a contemporary product as close as possible to the likely fruit of the vine used by the Jewish community for their great annual Passover supper.

We have not always been able to attain the specifications that we hold dear. My local grocery was out of Welch's red and blue grape juice yesterday. The cranberry mixture was obviously not appropriate and the Welch's white juice lacked the appropriate color to represent the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of sickness and travel, it was also impossible to have the ordinary bread as well. So let us remember that it is not the bread and wine which must be divine, but the Lord God Himself who is to be worshipped.

Years ago in the church where I grew up, a substitution was arranged one Sunday morning such as I have described to you. One of the elders went into a fit of rage because everything was not right. I never saw him again at a worship in that congregation. I thought of him the Lord's Day that our five year supply of communion cups ran short and I had to explain that fact to you and suggest that we would imitate an old southern custom by using Dixie Cups instead!

The point that I want to get at is the fact that the Lord our God can indeed be worshipped when all of the elements are not perfectly arranged and the Church not perfectly administered. We must learn to see through the elements to perceive His spiritual presence. When He says, we shall have no other gods before Him, this includes the perfections of our understanding in these particular matters. Look again at what Paul suggests in verses five and six:

"For even if there are so-called gods, ... yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came for whom we live; and there is but one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live"