“Christian Freedom”
A sermon by Sid Burgess for Edgewood PC, Birmingham, AL
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, 02.08.09
Text: 1st Corinthians 9:16-23
In today’s epistle lesson St. Paul boldly proclaims, “I have become all things to all people.” In the presence of Jews, watch me make like a Jew. When in the midst of rule keepers, I can split hairs with the best of them. With the “anything goes” crowd, I can go any direction, any time. In our time Paul might write, ‘With the liberals I’m code blue, with the conservatives I’m code red.
Were the great apostle to make such a testimony today before our
local Presbytery I am certain he would be sent for psychological
evaluation, maybe even drummed out of the corps. But before we do
the same . . . . Before we dismiss these assertions as some off hand
comments, not germane to the larger context of Paul’s otherwise
sound teaching,
perhaps we should give these comments a second hearing.
That will require backing up a bit to see that Paul considers himself as under enormous obligation to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “Woe to me,” he says, “if I don’t (do this)(v.16).” For Paul, becoming an apostle is not a career choice--‘could’uv been a doctor, could’uv been a lawyer, but think I’ll be a preacher.’ No, this vocation is to St. Paul a “sacred commission.” What’s more, St. Paul is so determined to get it right that he won’t accept a salary from the church, lest he be tempted to water-down stark biblical truth in order to please the congregation. So far, this does not sound like someone who is going to be vacillating. “For . . .I am free with respect to all . . .,” Paul writes (v. 19a). In other words, I am under no obligation to any mere mortals.
But then here comes the radical turn, the dramatic contrast. Free and independent, beholden to no one, “I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them”(v.19b). Is the same guy? I am free, but I have surrendered my very freedom to get the job done.
Reminds me of that Toyota, TV pitchman from Jasper, who loudly proclaims, “We’ll do whatever it takes.” And we smile, knowing Mr. Crump doesn’t really mean it. “We’ll do whatever it takes,” short of losing money on a single, solitary deal.
But apparently St. Paul does mean what he says. He’ll make like a religious militant among the religious fanatics. Make like a libertine among the religious liberals. To the weak, Paul will surrender his advantage of strength. In fact, the apostle says it’s “a done deal.” “I have become all things to all people”(v.22b).
One of my sources pointed me to the 1983 movie entitled “Zelig,” where Woody Allen plays a character whose overwhelming desire for acceptance is manifested in his ability to take on the facial and vocal characteristics of whomever he happens to be around at the moment. The movie purports to be a documentary on the life of Leonard Zelig, the “human chameleon.” To establish a sense of authenticity the movie features vintage newsreel clips from the 1920 and 30’s, alongside film made to look like those same, jerky, black and white films. When Zelig is thrust between a pair of Orthodox Jewish rabbis, he immediately sprouts a beard and side curls. In a Chinese laundry his features become Asian. Among African Americans he quickly changes skin tone. But there are problems with trying to be all things to all people. The booming voice of a narrator from one of the old newsreels points out that Zelig as Jew, Negro, and American Indian is a triple threat to the Ku Klux Klan. The movie climax comes when lawyers discover the vast potential in someone who could be held accountable for the behavior of so many different personalities. Zelig is sued for bigamy, adultery, automobile accidents, plagiarism, household damages, negligence, property damages, and performing unnecessary dental extractions. Like I said, there are problems trying to be all things to all people, to please all the people all the time, to conform to everyone’s expectations.
So, I seriously doubt Leonard Zelig is what St. Paul has in mind. But think about this. Instead of trying to be like another person, instead of trying to conform to the expectation of another, instead of trying to please all the people all the time, how about just trying to understand the perspective of the other, become sympathetic, perhaps, even to your “opposite number?” How about using the freedom we have in Christ-- the freedom from convention, from conformity--as the freedom to “identify fully with others. . . .” How about earnestly trying to understand their mindset, their needs, their hurts and their hopes.
We need not wear moccasins and feathers to sympathize with the shameful plight of Native Americans, who have the highest rates of poverty, unemployment, and disease of any ethnic group in the country.1 Israeli Jews need not switch from synagogue to mosque in order to understand the hopelessness and despair of 1.3 million Palestinians in the war-shattered Gaza Strip. A “straight” Presbyterian need not swap pews with a gay Presbyterian to understand the hurt that comes from knowing our church polity would make some of our sisters and brothers “second class citizens” in the kingdom of God. A man need not switch pay checks with a woman to imagine what it would be like to try to pay bills with a salary reduced by one quarter--25%--the average disparity in pay between male and female workers.
But we can use our Christian freedom to inform ourselves and others of injustice and inequity wherever they exist. We can use our Christian freedom to speak up and speak out on behalf of the “least of these our sisters and brothers.” We can use our Christian freedom to proclaim to all with ears to hear the divine intentions expressed in today’s psalm (Ps. 147) God’s intention to gather up the outcast (v.2), to heal the brokenhearted (v.3), to lift up the downtrodden (v.5), and to strike down the wicked (v.6).
Closer to home, we can use our Christian freedom to ease the tensions, to reduce the friction in our personal relationships. We can and we should take the time, make the effort to understand and appreciate our spouse’s concerns, our partner’s perspectives.
Think about this. After what may have been years of contention, you have the freedom to try it his way. After what may have been a lifetime of conflict, you can exercise your freedom in Christ to give her way a chance.
“I have become all things to all people,” Paul claims, not for my sake, not for my benefit, not for my convenience, but “all for the sake of the gospel”(v.23). I have exercised my Christian freedom to leave pride and prejudice, ignorance and suspicion, hatred and hostility behind. I have exercised my Christian freedom to embrace friend and foe alike for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In so doing, St. Paul is experiencing a genuine transformation of the self. For St. Paul, the incarnation is not just an historical event-- when God became flesh and dwelt among us. It is for St. Paul and for the Church a mission challenge: to enter into the life of of the other, to walk in his footsteps, to examine life from her perspective all for the sake of reconciliation in the holy name of Jesus. Reconciliation between male and female, black and white, liberal and conservative, immigrant and native born, Arab and Jew, you and me.
A wiser theologian than I explains St. Paul point this way:
What (Paul) asks is that those on each side identify with those on the other side, in order to become as if they were the ones with whom they disagreed.
Paul’s point is that the gospel envisions freedom as the right of individuals, not to do as they choose, but rather to relinquish their rights for the sake of others. True Christian freedom therefore expresses itself in service.2
To Jesus Christ, who loves us
and freed us from our sins by his blood
and made us to be a kingdom,
priests of his God and Father,
to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Rev. 1: 5,6
1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_poverty
2Rigdon, Bruce V., “Pastoral Perspectives,” 1 Corinthians
9.16-23, Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, FEASTING ON THE WORD, YEAR B,
vol. 1, p. 330.