A way to read Romans 14:1-12 engaging the congregation. The way the reading is set highlights the themes of diversity, unity and acceptance. Either divide the congregation into two groups (A and B), or have two individual readers for these parts. The first section returns as a kind of refrain.

Extract from the reading:

A: For none of us lives for ourselves alone,
B: and none of us dies for ourselves alone.
A: If we live, we live for the Lord;
B: and if we die, we die for the Lord.
ALL: So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

A: Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters.
B: One person's faith allows them to eat anything,
A: but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.
A: The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not,
B: and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does,
ALL: for God has accepted them.
A: Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall.
B: And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

A: For none of us lives for ourselves alone,
B: and none of us dies for ourselves alone.
A: If we live, we live for the Lord;
B: and if we die, we die for the Lord.
ALL: So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

A: One person considers one day more sacred than another;
B: another considers every day alike.
ALL: Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind...

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