“A question of accountability”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Romans 14: 1-12 (Forward p. 86) CEV p. 1185

Now, here is a rather touchy subject, the question of accountability. Probably most of us are familiar with situations where elected representatives or senior officials in business, government and public institutions try to avoid accountability for their actions or decisions or evade public scrutiny of them. But have we considered that we too are accountable, accountable not to each other, but to God.

That is what the apostle Paul is talking about in today’s passage. He begins by stating the obvious, namely that we humans tend to assess and evaluate others using our own standards of what we like or don’t like, and thus to judge them or hold them accountable.

But here Paul asserts something very important, namely that those other people aren’t our servants, but servants of Christ, of Jesus. And so, it is up to them to check out what He wants and act accordingly. And so, if they feel led by God to eat certain foods and nothing else or to observe only certain days as holy, then it is up to them and their Lord. It is to Him that they must be accountable and not to us.

And so, this is giving each of us a great deal of freedom, freedom to be ourselves, and not feel that we always need to be looking over our back to see whether we are ‘measuring up’ or not. And it also means that we accord other people a great deal of freedom as well, knowing that it is not up to us to keep them on the straight and narrow but rather up to God. To Him, they are to be accountable, and not to us. Thanks be to God.

Forward notes: “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (verse 8).

“I have spoken these words aloud many times during funerals. Preaching at funerals can be difficult because people from many different faith traditions are often present, and they are all seeking consolation. I always share what I believe to be true about the faith that lies in my Christian hope: that God is love, and so love is the force that orders and rules the universe.

“Once, I officiated at a funeral and a wedding on the same day, and I decided also to preach that message at the wedding. That message was well-received at both services, and I was left with an uncanny vision of the arc of human love in our lifetimes, watching one married couple begin a life together and one married couple coming to the end of theirs. Even if I am wrong about God, I will never regret serving love because my heart tells me faith in love is never wasted.”

Moving Forward: “How can you experience living in God’s precious love today, no matter what today looks like?”