All Things to all People
To listen to Sunday's German service with Erwin Strempler, click on the link below:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46934662/2-5-2012%20Ger.MP3
To listen to Pastor Ed's sermon, click the following link. It begins with a skit entitled "Got Any Time For Evangelism" written by Ron VandenBurg.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46934662/2-5-2012%20Ser.mp3
Or you can read the text below:
All Things To all People
February 5, 2012
I Cor. 9: 16-23
I must warn you that I am going to use what some people consider a dirty word in my sermon today. So I’ll say it right here at the beginning and then you won’t be startled by it later on. “Evangelism”, there, I’ve said it. We all have our own views and images of evangelism, whether from experience or from images we’ve seen or heard.
I recall going to Brunk tent meetings at one point growing up and listening to George Brunk, Jr. thunder from the pulpit in front. I’ve seen Billy Graham crusades on TV where thousands of people gathered. I’ve passed out tracts on street corners, and given away Bibles door-to-door during Key ’73. As a kid I played my accordion as part of the worship service my congregation provided at a “rescue mission”, where the people had to sit through our service before they could get a meal provided by the mission. And all those were seen as evangelism.
But what about other things that don’t get identified as evangelism? I volunteered for several years at the Partly Dave coffee house in Elkhart, and many nights sat and talked with young people who were struggling with drugs, or parents. What about the week I spent cleaning up people’s homes after Hurricane Camille, with MDS? Or what about the couple from England who sat at our table on a cruise and who said they had gotten a different picture of pastors and church people after meeting us? Was I also doing evangelism then?
Our opening skit poses the same kinds of questions. What is evangelism? Is it a dirty word or have we simply gotten the wrong impression of what evangelism means? And is evangelism something we choose to do, or are we evangelists whether we like it or not? Our assigned Scripture text from I Corinthians 9 may, I think, give us some answers to these questions. So let’s look at it.
Prior to the passage we read for today, Paul discusses his rights as an apostle. We know from elsewhere in Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church that there were those in Corinth who either disputed Paul’s authority, or simply ignored it and asserted their own authority. Paul, elsewhere rails against false teachers and people who preach to get rich. (II Cor. 2:17) It seems some were setting up shop and preaching and then passing the hat. In doing so, Paul suggests, they are tailoring their sermons to get the best results, much as a politician might do.
I recall when I first began as a pastor, the congregation took up one offering a month for my salary and it was tempting to use that offering as a gauge as to how I was doing – even though I was on a set salary, unlike my predecessor. And while Paul denounces those who do this, he also defends the rights of the apostles to be supported for their work. “Do we not have the right to our food and drink? Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?” (I Cor. 9:4-5) “But,” Paul says, “I have made no use of any these rights, nor am I writing this so that they may be applied in my case.” (I Cor. 9:15)
Rather Paul feels that it is important for him to preach the Gospel freely, at least in Corinth. One commentator titled this section “Preach or be damned.” And while Paul doesn’t use those words, the sentiment is there. “Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel,” he says in verse 16. Paul “relinquishes his rights in order to reach as many people as possible. He adapts his strategy to the people among whom he works,” says Jake Elias in his book Remember the Future. Thus we have this more familiar passage which we read this morning. (vv.19-23)
19For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them.20To 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.21To 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.22To 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.23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
So what is Paul saying here? Does he mean that anything goes; that the ends justify the means? Will he do anything in order to win people to Christ? Well, not really. But it is clear that Paul has one clear goal in mind; namely, to win people to Christ- to evangelize. For Paul, there are really only two kinds of people here. There are those under the law, namely the Jews, and those outside the law, the Gentiles. Those two categories take in everyone. And Paul has been called to preach to them all.
So if that means meeting them on their own terms, Paul is willing to do so for he is no longer bound by the Jewish Law, but rather only bound by the law of Christ, namely to love your neighbour as yourself. And if you truly love your neighbour, you will do what you can to bring them into the kingdom. As someone once said, “If you aren’t concerned about your neighbour’s spiritual life you are basically telling them to go to hell.”
So what does all this mean for us? How would Paul answer those questions I posed at the beginning of this sermon? And how shall we put together this idea of being all things to all people with the current notions of being true to one’s self?
I think one of the first things to recognize is that evangelism, as Paul conceives it, has to do with relationships. The goal is reconciliation with God, as he states in II Corinthians 5. And you can’t really call people into a good relationship with God, unless they have a good relationship with someone who represents God – namely you, the Christian. As Paul also reminds us, we are Christ’s body. We are the ones that people can see and hear.
For those of us who have grown up in the church, we have seen examples of Christ-like behavior in people around us. And if we haven’t, as is unfortunately also sometimes the case, then we have probably left the church or become inactive. But for people outside the church, and that is becoming more and more of society each year, the only examples they may ever see are you and I. And if we want them to have a relationship with Christ, or God, then they will first need to establish a relationship with us. Surveys show time and again that most people don’t just walk in off the streets and start attending church. They come because they have a relationship with someone.
And establishing that relationship often means meeting people where they are, or to use missional language, to accept the hospitality of strangers. And I think that is what Paul is talking about. The Jews had strict dietary and other laws, and to disregard those laws would have meant immediate dismissal from their circles with no chance to share the Gospel of Christ. And so, when Paul was with them, he was careful to observe those laws.
But the Gentiles Paul associated with had no such laws, and so Paul felt no compulsion to abide by those laws when meeting with Gentiles. And, here as elsewhere, Paul is also subtly saying to the Jewish Christians that they needn’t be bound by those laws either. Was this being inconsistent or two-faced? I don’t think so. It is identifying with the people we are trying to reach, meeting them on their own turf, rather than imposing our turf and rules on them.
Douglas Webster, in a book entitled, What is Evangelism, writes,
“Evangelism of this order means getting inside situations and entering into real, as distinct from superficial, personal relationships. For the truth of the Gospel is embodied and demonstrated in relationships rather than propositions or formulas. But the Christian must cast off every feeling of superiority or his evangelism will be ineffective. We can give only as we are prepared to receive.”
We learned this over the years in relation to missionaries in foreign countries. We no longer erect missionary compounds and create little islands of home, expecting the natives to come and become like us. But somehow it has taken us a long time to translate that back here to where we live and work. We still tend to think that we can do our own thing and pass out a tract or create a committee for evangelism, and that will take care of it.
But evangelism is what you do every day as you meet people and talk with them. It is the relationship you build with your neighbour or your co-worker, or the person you meet at the hockey game. There may be a place for mass meetings, or even for passing out tracts, but those will only bear fruit if there is some kind of ongoing relationship that is built out of those activities. And meeting people on their terms sometimes puts us in strange situations where the “Jews” among us might wag a finger. And obviously there are limits. Even Paul would have said that.
We are called, even compelled, to share the good news with those we meet. It may seem like it’s a hopeless cause and we may never see the results. But we are certain that God can change lives and that is what is most important. We are not called to change lives, only God can do that. We are called to plant the seeds, to build relationships, to be all things to all people, in order that some may be saved. I don’t know what happened to all those young people I talked with at the coffee house, or whose houses I helped clean up in Mississippi, or to Clyde and Grace, our cruise tablemates. But I am glad that they experienced at least one relationship, however brief, with a Christian who could meet them on their own terms.
We’ve talked a fair bit over the past several weeks about light, and sharing God’s light. Jesus came as the light of the world. May we reflect that light to all we meet, becoming all things to all people, in order that we might save some.