For the Sake of the Gospel

Year B Ordinary Sunday 5—Sermon—Armidale Uniting Church—090208
1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Since it’s “The Peter Allen Festival” this weekend in Armidale, I’ve been pondering some of Peter’s lyrics.

Time is a traveller
Tenterfield Saddler, turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
Think I see Kangaroo up ahead

Now, granted the rhyming scheme in “Tenterfield Saddler” is somewhat forced and a bit kitsch, but I can’t help misting over whenever I hear it. The story is just so poignant: it brings to mind my forebears who had nothing to do with Tenterfield or saddlery; and it makes me wonder what I would seem like to them just as the song witnesses the changes in the generations following the saddler. The saddler’s son “went off and got married and had a war baby” and, the song implies, shot himself; while the saddler’s grandson “has been all around the world and lives no special place”. It makes me wonder… It seems to ask me who I am and where I stand in the heritage that has been given to me. And that is also what the epistle reading for today does, although not so much in relation to my family (although there’s a strong Christian heritage there), but in relation to the community of Christ across the centuries and the globe, when Paul says, “I do it all for the sake of the gospel.”
“I do it all for the sake of the gospel.”
“I do it all for the sake of the gospel.”
…for the sake of the gospel.

It’s just such a little phrase… such a tiny, little phrase… and it holds so much. And it is misused so badly … for the sake of the gospel?

The apostle Paul is on the defensive once again or perhaps it’s the offensive. He’s trying to explain to those poor, confused Corinthians why some things are important to observe and others aren’t: why sometimes he depends for his basic needs on the goodwill of the people with whom he is sharing the gospel; and why sometimes he works as a tentmaker to earn his living alongside his primary call to proclaim God’s message, and that that variation is okay. He’s defending his authority as an apostle and he’s defining the parameters within which he, as an apostle, may work. He’s probably also offending a few people while he’s at it; but he’s actually trying to show how inoffensive his behaviour is in the light of the offence of the gospel.

“I do what I need to do in order to proclaim the gospel,” argues Paul.

Now if your experience is like mine, you will have heard many people use the same kind of line to justify doing just about anything and everything in the name of God and of God’s church: “God called me to do it!” “I just believe that this is what we need to be doing.” “I’ve had a word from the Lord...” And sometimes what is being justified has nothing to do with the good news of God’s miraculous justification of our very existence in Christ. And the claims leave me as sceptical as many Australians used to feel about Peter Allen’s “I still call Australia home.” So, is this what Paul is doing here?

If we take this one passage out of its context and out of the context of Paul’s apostolic ministry, we might be tempted to hear the text in that way. We may hear Paul saying: “I do what I like for the sake of the gospel, and I will keep on doing it whether you like it or not”, but… there is that little phrase, “for the sake of the gospel”. And, for Paul, that really means something. It is not just a justification for whatever it is that he individually wants to do. It is the good news! And it must be the good news! It’s not just about claiming a heritage, be it Australia or saddlery or Christianity; it’s about living it.

The sharing of the gospel, for Paul, is not an optional extra. It is not an extracurricular activity. You don’t get extra credit or kudos for doing it. It is not even a right that you have by virtue of a privileged place in God; and it’s certainly not a right that you can earn. No, for Paul, proclaiming the gospel is an obligation, a duty, a constraint, a solemn trust, a responsibility… Like where you come from, you can’t just ignore it, or give it away.

Now those words about obligation and responsibility are not ones which we hear emphasised in our world. And when they are even used, there is generally a sense that with obligation and responsibility come burdensome and onerous work. So, I don’t know about you, but Paul hasn’t quite got me convinced yet! But… there is that pesky, little phrase… “for the sake of the gospel”.

And it is this phrase that is not only at the heart of Paul’s case for his behaviour, but it is also at the heart of what he is on about.

The good news of the new life given to us in and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is good news! It’s the sort of news that demands response in the sense that it evokes response. God loves us so much that at the point we are really able to accept that love as directed towards us, we discover that we cannot but share that good news with others. It outflows and overflows from our very being, made new in Christ, by the power of the Spirit. It infiltrates our thoughts and our actions. It fills our very being as we are oriented in grateful thanks towards the God who has given this wondrous and precious gift, this utter blessing. This good news is good news! It is our inheritance.

This good news is so good that we don’t need to cajole or manipulate or threaten or seduce people in order to share it effectively. In fact, if we were to do so, it would not be the good news that we would be sharing.

This good news must be shared as good news. This good news can’t be shared by cajoling or manipulating or threatening or seducing because the medium, the means of communication, would not then be consistent with the message; the proof of the pudding would not be in the eating; and the wrapping would not befit the gift. You can take the boy out of Oz, but you can’t take the Oz out of the boy.

It’s ironic really: Paul is arguing his case for not being consistent in the way that he operates in different communities, because he is claiming that this inconsistency allows the consistent proclamation of the gospel message: “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. 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.” (vs 19-22).

In order to proclaim the same message to different groups, Paul is saying that he must do different things. For those who find God’s message in Paul being able to accept their hospitality, Paul accepts their hospitality. For those who find God’s message in Paul’s free offering of the message without a plea for support, Paul pays his own way. For those who trust God’s message in the Jewish Law, Paul will make use of the Law; and for those who receive God’s message outside of the Law, Paul will operate outside the Law. But this is certainly not anything goes, because the obligation, the responsibility is ultimately to the gospel, the good news of new life in Christ and therein lies the boundary, the parameters, the restrictions. If what we do supposedly to share the gospel is not consistent with the gospel then it is not proclamation of God’s good news; but if it is good news we are sharing, then the way in which we share it will be good news. What we have inherited, we are enfolded in, and we will proclaim.

So, in Paul’s defence of himself, we are invited to really listen to and really hear the good news of Jesus Christ to us. We are invited to really discover where our home and heritage lie. We are reminded again that God loves the world so much that, in order to rebuild relationship with us, God entered the world to experience what it means to be in the world; God, the Creator, acts in utter solidarity with the Creation, by becoming a part of it and enduring its very depths; God gives up God’s very self in order to give us new life in God.

When we really hear that news as the good news that it is; and when we really accept that good news for ourselves, then we will discover the freedom that comes with knowing our place, our home and our heritage in God. And it is this good news that will govern how we share it with others as we are impelled to embody what we have accepted for ourselves as the gospel—God loves you; God calls you; God keeps you; and God charges you … to share the good news!
 
Glory be to you Source of all Being,
Eternal Word and Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now and shall be forever. Amen.