Sunday Sermon, 13 September 2026
The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, St Andrew’s Church, Sedbergh
You can read the sermon below, or listen here:
A reading from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans
Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honour of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God.
We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 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. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God. For it is written,
‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.’
So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
Romans 14.1–12 NRSVA
Over the summer I took our two daughters walking for a few days in the Lake District. We had a wonderful time, although we did get a bit wet.
However, I made a big error with our provisions on our first day. I had taken some bananas for us to eat in the morning, but had forgotten to bring anything to put the peels in. Now the golden rule of walking in the fells is to leave them as you found them. And I couldn’t put the banana peels at the bottom of the bag because they’d go mushy. So I put them into our lunchbox, along with the sandwiches, thinking nothing of it.
However, when we stopped a few hours later for lunch, I realised my mistake. The funny thing about banana is that its flavour gets into any food it is in close contact to. And it turns out that banana and tuna do not make for a good sandwich combination. The girls were not impressed, and on future days they made sure I packed a separate Tupperware box to isolate the bananas and prevent the contamination!
In our reading from Romans this morning, St Paul addresses head on the number one issue that can get into churches and contaminate them. Just as a banana skin can ruin a perfectly good tuna sandwich, so a judgmental spirit can ruin the life of the local church. It’s like a bad smell that gets into the atmosphere, and seeps into everything. It drains the church of life, of fellowship, of joy, and of tolerance. No wonder St Paul takes the whole of chapter 14 to warn his listeners about this problem!
St Paul teaches the Romans that instead of being judgemental, they should accept that there will be a diversity of belief and practice within the local church. The two examples that Paul addresses in this passage are especially important for a community that regularly gathers to eat together and shares table fellowship, as in the early church in Rome. Some prefer to avoid meat, probably because it is not kosher, or has been sacrificed to idols. Others are happy to eat meat, and do not have a troubled conscience over it. Similarly, there is disagreement over which days are holy and require special observance.
Instead of coming down on one side or the other, St Paul reminds his listeners that they are not to judge one another. They ought to have a spirit of acceptance and toleration, and recognise that these issues come down to individual conscience. “Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister?” he asks them penetratingly. (Romans 14:10 NRSV)
In some ways, this might be surprising. After all, it is commonly assumed that Christian unity is based on the fact that we all believe the same thing and share the same rituals. But what St Paul is teaching here is quite radical, and allows for a great deal of diversity within the Christian faith. Our unity is not found in the fact that we all believe the same things, but rather that we all worship the same Lord.
In fact, St Paul is simply building on and expanding Jesus’ own radical teaching that we are not to judge one another. To do so would be like taking a speck out of our neighbour’s eye when we have a plank in our own. Rather, the church should be marked by a radical humility and acceptance of diverse beliefs and practices under our one Lord Jesus Christ.
There are many areas in the church today where we are tempted to pass judgment on one another.
In worship, some prefer traditional hymns with an organ, whereas others prefer contemporary songs led by a band. Some appreciate a liturgical style of worship, whereas others like a more informal approach. Some value silence and contemplation, while others find that a more lively atmosphere helps them to worship.
In our lifestyles, Christians may make different choices about matters such as alcohol, smoking, gambling and other aspects of everyday life. Christians may have good and faithful reasons for taking different positions in these areas.
When engaging with culture, there is a great diversity of opinion. Some feel their faith compels them to resist elements of the culture, whereas for others their faith encourages them to participate in and share in cultural life. For some the church is to be separate and distinctive, and for others the church is to roll its sleeves up and engage with culture.
In the realm of ethics, there is a wide variety of ways that Christians think through their faith, and plenty of areas for difference of belief. Whether on issues of human life, sexuality, politics, and economics, you can find well meaning and sincere Christians on every side of the debate.
Throughout Christian history, it has been recognised that there are some areas where it is possible to have good disagreement. These have have traditionally been called ‘adiaphora’, or the things not essential to faith. It is not that these things do not matter, but that the Christian must be permitted to follow their own conscience before God. After all, it is Christ who is our ultimate judge, Paul reminds us.
The difficulty, of course, has always been on agreeing what classes as ‘adiaphora’. We all draw our lines in different places.
St Paul suggests a different approach. Rather than working out where we draw the lines, we should instead look to our Lord Jesus Christ. When we acknowledge that it is Christ who is the judge, not us, we are freed from the need to put up firm boundaries and regulate who is ‘in’ or ‘out’. Rather, we can see Christ as a kind of centre of gravity that we all share in common. If someone professes Christ, however different they may be from us, St Paul instructs us to welcome them as Christ, without passing judgment.
This can lead to a beautiful and precious culture of Christ-centred diversity. If we open the windows of our hearts, and our churches, we can let out the bad smell of a judgmental attitude. Instead, we can invite in the fresh breeze of the Spirit of Christ, who helps us to let go of our own insecurities, and gives us eyes to see Christ in the other.
The key is that this is a work we must each do in our inner hearts. The greatest irony would be to point at another and exclaim: “look at how judgmental he or she is!” Rather, we can pray for the grace and humility to examine our own hearts, to discern where that spirit of judgement is lurking within us, and to invite Christ to heal us, make us whole, and help us to embrace and love the wonderful diversity of the body of Christ. That, says St Paul, is the true path to freedom and joy in the community of the Spirit. May we blessed to walk in it in our churches and community life.
Amen.