UCC Church of Charlotte

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Sermon, Feb 8, 2009
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Sunday, February 8, 2009 8:50:20 AM
From:
Phil Hobson   
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To:
Phil Hobson 


All Things to All People
I Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39

Grace and Peace to you this morning.  Grace and Peace.
    
There was a member of the church in Dallas who came in for a meeting one night.  She sort of collapsed into the chair, clearly exhausted, and said, "I have been trying to be all things to all people."  For her this meant trying to please everybody, putting everybody else first, to the detriment of her own well being.
    
On the surface, Christianity is the religion of giving ourselves away on behalf of our neighbors in need.

    Bear one another's burdens.

    If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.

    For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?

    And then we get Paul's phrase, that he is all things to all people.

    Even Simon's mother-in-law, sick with a fever, gets healed and gets up and serves the boys.  
(Of course, the word serve here is the same as the word we use for deacons.  Did she pour them tea, or become a minister, serving Christ?  Either one is possible in the passage.)
    
And this has caused no shortage of assumptions that get us into trouble.  There is the self-proclaimed martyr, who, doing all for everyone else, uses such moments as fodder for manipulation.  There is the "well, no one helped me, so why should I help anyone else," mentality.  There is the fear that getting involved means getting entangled.  There is the belief that the problems are too big, have been going on too long, so what good would it do anyway.
    
But Paul isn't advocating any of these when he says he is all things to all people.  He is not giving up who he is at the core of his being.  He would argue he is becoming who he is, through the work of his ministry, through the practice of his faith.
    
Doing it with integrity.  Integrity is just the half-a-dollar word for holding it together.  It means staying integrated, body, mind and spirit.  It means doing our best to accomplish our job without sacrificing our highest ideals, our best good, our deepest calling.
    
But I know I have let my concern about integrity sometimes keep me from risking myself.  It can become a high-falutin' reason for not putting myself out there, not being open to the Christ I meet in others (friend or family or stranger), not helping for fear of getting enmeshed with others' problems.
    
So what does Paul mean when he says being all things to all people, that by all means some might be saved?
    
To the Jews he is a Jew, to the Gentiles he is a Gentile.  He is walking in different circles, playing by different rules, fitting in with different groups.  It has something to do with having the appropriate answer, the appropriate action, at the right time, for the group he is in.
    
The appropriate answer for a church meeting may be different than the appropriate answer for a distraught dad at the scene of wreck.  The right words for a sermon may not be the right words for an intervention.  The way we pray after church is different from the prayers said while driving to a house fire.
    
Integrity in ministry, whether mine or yours, doesn't mean using the same words, answers and actions everywhere.  It means having the appropriate word or answer or action for the moment we face.  Not in spite of or indifferent to our faith, but out of our faith.
    
Just look at Jesus.  In one place he is sitting down at table with sinners and prostitutes and tax collectors, and elsewhere he is overturning tables.  (Some might argue he turned stuff on its head all the time, but you get the idea.)
    
Sometimes Jesus had calm words and healing touch, and other times he could flail the hide off a Pharisee with what he said.
    
But unless we are accusing him of not being in his right mind half the time (and even his family accused him of that!) then there are times when the right answer for this situation looks like the wrong answer in another one.
    
So how do we get the appropriate answer for the situation?
    
Experience helps.
    
But so does being open to inspiration.
    
Training helps.
    
And so does being willing to learn from what we are facing.
    
Paul's expression of "Being all things to all people" is not about doing everything all the time, or trying to please everybody - a sure path to failure, and he didn't really want to please the Roman powers.  It is about trying to be who we really are, and learning who that is, in the service of the Gospel, helping our neighbors, sharing the love we know in Christ, that hopefully some might get it.

Thanks be to God.
Amen.