Alan’s Attic    

  I love vacations. I love them for many reasons, but most certainly because I get a lot of sermon illustrations. I remember one vacation about 9 years ago when our family went to Niagara Falls and upper state New York for a wedding.  We stayed at what could only be described as a “mom and pop” motel in this little community of Geneva, New York. As do most motel/hotels today, this one promised a continental breakfast. The first morning I awoke early to go in search of the illusive first cup of coffee. As I entered the main lobby area I noticed a couple of packages of store bought donuts (still in the box). I scanned the room for the coffeepot. Ah there it is! Only, there was not coffee in the pot. I turned to the young lady at the front desk and asked, “Is there any coffee this morning?” “Oh no”, she replied, “I never make coffee”. “Well, you have a coffee pot and when we checked in you indicated that you have a continental breakfast”, I remarked. And then do you know what she said? She said, “When I was little I got sick and my grandmother would make me take castor oil in coffee in order to get it down. To this day I can’t stand the smell or the taste of coffee. The people who use to run this Inn had that coffee pot, but I don’t make it. You may be able to find a place in town that will sell you a cup”. I said, “as long as it is run by someone whose grandmother didn’t give them their castor oil in their coffee.” I did not know that the reason she didn’t fix coffee was because of her grandmother. You never know.

    Can you imagine someone like that in church? Read Romans 14:1-12. Did you know that it is possible to observe some beautifully wonderful Christian habits and to sour the whole thing by picking on people who do not do it the way you do it? Paul struggled with this and in chapter 14 basically said, “If you want to eat vegetables, just eat vegetables. If you want to eat meat, eat meat. But quit picking on each other. Stop forcing everybody else to fit into your preconceived pattern of eating meat, not eating meat, drinking wine, not drinking wine, keeping the Sabbath, not keeping the Sabbath.” So Paul told them to knock off the bickering and to do whatever they do to the glory, honor and praise of God and not in some self-righteous way to judge somebody else.  As in my opening story, we never know why people are different from us, or why they do things the way they do them. If we would only get to know those who are different, we might not be as judgmental.

    We should also realize that God is able to save people who are different from us. You cannot tell where people are coming from. You can’t tell what is in their background. You don’t know if their grandmother gave castor oil in their coffee or what. We do know, according to verse 12, that we will all be accountable to God.

Grace, Peace and Love,

Pastor Alan