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Corinthians 9:16-23
16
If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an
obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! 17 For
if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am
entrusted with a commission. 18 What then is my reward? Just this: that in my
proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use
of my rights in the gospel. 19 For though I am free with respect to all, I have
made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I
became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one
under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those
under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law
(though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might
win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, so that I might win
the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means
save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in
its blessings.
What
does it mean to proclaim the gospel? Is it an act of public pronouncement,
standing before a crowd of others and speaking about the great depths of divine
mystery, hoping others will hear and be convinced that something has to change?
How does that work if all the people in the room are exactly the same (or at
least pretty close to it)? Is it an audacious act of confrontation, wherein one
greets a stranger with a list of perfectly rehearsed reasons for seeing things
his or her way, a list of bible verses tailored for any so-called sinner to
prove their need for repentance and reformation? What does it mean to proclaim
the gospel?
Is it standing on street
corner with posters and picket signs, blaring through a bullhorn the coming
judgment of an angry God? Is it taking a stand for what you believe, of drawing
a line in the sand and saying, “this is as far as I’ll go, and you can come no
farther?” Is it sticking your chest out, wagging your finger and declaring to
the world that it’s going to hell in a hand-basket if it doesn’t get in line
with your way of thinking? Is it choosing sides and thus declaring that it’s
“us” against “them”? What does it mean to proclaim the gospel?
Is
it “loving the sinner and hating the sin,” all the while ignoring the present
sin in your own life and chalking it up to “the way I was raised?” Is it
turning a microscope onto the private lives of others and pointing out their
moral failings as in need of reform since such shortcomings are far greater (or
at least less acceptable) than your own? Is it looking through the telescope of
the television and commenting on the horrendous acts of those of other faiths,
then claiming that our faith is superior because we would never do anything
like that (never mind the crusades, the inquisitions, the colonization of the
Americas, or the slave trade)? Is it sharing stories and pictures on social
media with captions like “Click ‘like’ if you believe ____?” What does it mean
to proclaim the gospel?
I suppose that question
may be a bit more difficult to answer in time when the forms of communication
available to us are nearly as numerous as the ones doing the communicating.
Perhaps we should be asking what it means to “share” the gospel (in terms of
social media life Facebook), to “tweet” the gospel, to “snapchat” the gospel,
to text the gospel, to “vine” the gospel, to “hashtag” the gospel. However, I
doubt the answer is going to be found in contemporary, substitute forms of
communication.
In the text before us
this morning the Apostle Paul makes it pretty clear that proclaiming the gospel
is of the utmost importance. He says in verse
16: “If I proclaim the gospel, this gives
me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I
do not proclaim the gospel!” He calls proclaiming the gospel “an
obligation,” and says “woe to me if I don’t do it!” Pretty stout words, but
what does Paul mean when he says “proclaim the gospel?”
I suppose we could look
back over the storied accounts of Paul’s ministry through the writing of Luke
in the book of Acts or the letters written by Paul and those using his name. We
could point to the times when Paul stood before large crowds of people and made
grand pronouncements about the mysteries of God in Christ, and we could say
“that’s how you proclaim the gospel.” But to simply look at the apostle’s
preaching means we’d have to also see his failures (like those in Athens and
the various synagogues from which he was less-than-politely asked to leave),
the times when—regardless of his eloquent and well-crafted arguments—there were
few (if any) real converts. Besides all of that, to simply point to Paul’s
public pronouncements and declare them as exemplary in proclaiming the gospel
is to relegate gospel proclamation to gatherings like this one, where a single
individual stands before a gathered group and “proclaims the gospel.” Such an
understanding crams gospel proclamation into a single sliver of time, all the
responsibility onto a single somebody, and then, if there’s no one standing at
the “altar”, no one making “professions of faith,” no one confessing,
repenting, or seeking baptism, then we can chalk the fault up to the preacher
and hope that next week’s sermon will really “get folks saved.” If public,
ceremonious acts of declaration aren’t the only ways to proclaim the gospel,
then what does it mean to proclaim the gospel?
Well, let’s look at the
rest of what Paul has to say to us from the text we’ve read this morning. In verses 17 and 18 Paul is essentially
making a case for why he does ministry the way he does, with no sort of
contractual obligation hanging over his head from any hierarchy or
congregational mandate (Paul would have been a good Baptist!). Paul proclaims
the gospel freely, without allegiances, without drawing lines between “us” and
“them.” In fact, in verses 20 through 22,
Paul says, “To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under
the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so
that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one
outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law)
so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I
might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might
by all means save some.” Now, Paul isn’t making an argument for being
some kind of holy “people pleaser:” he isn’t concerned with making everyone
happy, making sure people’s feelings aren’t hurt (a particular issue I’m afraid
infects more churches than we care to confess). Nor is Paul promoting some kind
of “bait-and-switch” evangelism, whereby he casually pretends to relate to
others in hopes to gain their trust before really turning on the gospel swagger
in order to bring people over to his way of doing things.
I’m afraid both of these
misinterpretations of Paul’s words have crept into the Church over the years.
We have tried “to be all things to all people” by coddling those who are afraid
of change, by giving lip-service to those who hold the power (which itself
seems so often to be found in a checkbook), by trying to offer countless
programs and events aimed at every imaginable demographic, and perhaps most of
all, we’ve tried every way imaginable to avoid being honest with those within our
congregations who create toxic division by selfish actions all so we won’t
“hurt anyone’s feelings.” We’ve tried for so long to be peacekeeper that we’ve forgotten that
Christ has actually called us to be peacemakers.
On the other hand, we’ve
decided that the way to reach people is to pretend to be something we’re not.
There are congregations who have removed words like “Baptist” and “Church” from
the signs in front of their sanctuaries in order to seem less like a religious
institution. They’ve tried every trick from every book to appear “relevant,”
yet newcomers eventually find that beneath all the flash and a veneer of
meaning is the same old institution that values conformity over acceptance and
love. There are congregations whose sings, mission statements, and website
headers say “All are welcome,” yet if someone of a certain persuasion, skin
color, socio-economic or immigration status should darken the door or (heaven
help us!) decide to join the congregation, well…we quickly find out that “all
are NOT welcome.” We tell ourselves we want to bring others to be more like Christ, but too often it looks more like we’re
trying to bring others to a place where they are more like us—whether we are
more like Christ or not.
So if proclaiming the
gospel doesn’t always look like preaching, and it’s not about people-pleasing
or “bait-and-switch” evangelism, then what does it look like? What does it mean
to proclaim the gospel? I think the key to unlocking that answer is found in
Paul’s words in verse 19: “For though I am free with respect to all, I
have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them.”
This isn’t lip-service. This isn’t people-pleasing. This isn’t
“bait-and-switch” evangelism. Paul has made himself a slave to all. Paul hasn’t
merely lowered himself for a moment in hopes to make a few converts that will
eventually look like him. He hasn’t changed who he is so that he could talk in
the dialect of those he’s hoping to change. He hasn’t watered-down or fired-up
the gospel in the hopes of coaxing or scaring others into believing. He has
quite simply, quite powerfully, quite beautifully, become a slave to them—he
has put himself in the place of their servant so that he might know them, love
them, share life and the gospel with them, and he’s done “it all for the sake of the
gospel, so that [he] may share in its blessings.”
So, what does it mean to
proclaim the gospel? It means that we live out those wonderful words of St.
Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel always; use words only when necessary.”
It means we make ourselves servants to all, to those we like, those who are
like us, those in our communities, those who are hurting, those who need our
help. But perhaps even more, it means we make ourselves servants to those we
dislike most, those we believe (if we’re honest with ourselves) aren’t worthy
of Christ’s love (as if we are!). Proclaiming the gospel means doing more than
just saying we love everyone
and actually proving it! It
means getting over our hang-ups and hold-ups, letting go of what is truthfully,
deep-down, ignorance and hate. It means loving someone without judging them—ever! Proclaiming the gospel means we have to leave
the cozy, familiar confines of this building, this community, our
self-constructed bubbles of security, and our own ideologies to meet
people—God’s people—where they are, and not so we can bring them to our level,
but so we can serve them with the love of Jesus Christ, whose out-stretched,
nail-pierced hands have shown us just how much he loves us ALL!
It’s easy to ignore our
calling to proclaim the gospel this way. It’s easy to say it’s all up to the
preacher’s sermon, the ministry of the church, the persuasiveness of the
information we possess. It’s easy to hide behind proof-texts and claim that the
Bible says you don’t have to congregate with or serve “those people.” Can I
tell you something? If we spent half the energy loving other as we do looking
for Bible verses to judge them, friends, I believe we’d be a whole lot closer
to the kingdom of heaven!
So let us proclaim the
gospel. Let us proclaim the gospel always, and use words when it’s necessary.
Let us proclaim the gospel as we seek to serve all people. Let us proclaim the
gospel as we seek to live our lives together with those we might otherwise wish
to keep at a distance. Let us proclaim the gospel as we work to put an end to
ignorance, hatred and oppression. Let us proclaim the gospel as we strive to
end injustice, poverty, human trafficking, and hunger. Let us proclaim the
gospel as we work together to bring God’s kingdom to its full reality. Let us
proclaim the gospel as Paul proclaimed it, as Christ proclaimed it—by taking on
the form of a slave. Let us proclaim the gospel, and “Woe to [us] if [we]
don’t!” Amen.
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