Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

1 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.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), 1 Co 9:16–23.

Speaking of the Gospel

In the text Paul does something strange to our times.

Joni Mitchell wrote and performed a song in 1970 called “For Free”. The song is about a clarinet player she spots playing on the corner of a busy city street. He’s not some mediocre musician playing for small change from passer buyers. “He played real good on his clarinet, for free.”

She compared him to herself, a professional performer, with a black limousine and two gentlemen escorts driving her to lavish music halls where she played to make her fortune.

The lone clarinet played without intent to earn reward, playing from the soul, playing for free. He played because he must, for the music held him captive, and this clarinet player had totally submitted himself to it. f

Similarly Paul says to the church in Corinth - look I proclaim the gospel because I must, not because I want to, not to earn a reward.

Growing up, were you taught find a career or a job or a hobby or a sport that you like to do? Did any teach you to do what you must do, that you are compelled to do, to do what you are committed to doing?

In our society we are told don’t tell people they must do something, the say tell them to do something they would want or like to do.

Paul says that is the not the way of the kingdom. In the kingdom those given the gospel must proclaim it out of obedience to his Lord. He had a commission. He was sent, he had a mission, to tell others of Jesus - which is the substance of the gospel story.

Paul came to tell them things can change. He knew that he was changed by an encounter with Jesus through the gospel story. Paul the persecutor, bitter and angry and violent, now was a new person. He owed it to the Messiah to be obedient to that same gospel.

Galatians 2:19-20 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Paul responds to Jesus’ love.

Let us remember Paul is not speaking to individuals. He’s speaking to the church or churches of Corinth.

Out of that I thought what are the questions this text are to answer for the body of Christ, the ecclesia or what we call the church today.

Think about this over the coming week, and even months of 2021. Do we church have an obligation like Paul? Should the church be compelled to proclaim the gospel, to tell the story of Jesus, and not only to proclaim it but embody that story as a community living in a kingdom away in contrast to the world.

And do it for free - without seeking a reward. Do it because we are faithful, which is to say we are obedient.

This year, 2021, I will speak often of the gospel, of repentance, the kingdom, and most of all what God is doing. I will also speak of being a missional church. Over the past decade or two our society, our culture in which we swim has changed. It has changed how people see faith and the practice of faith, it has changed what the church should be. The pandemic has sped up those changes, and I think that what the church will not be something we might know, but I think it will be something that will be more true to the church as Paul and the apostles knew. It will be a missional church, one that is obligated to speak out our obedience to Jesus whose Spirit is taking us into a new land. We will be like Meriweather and Clark who explored the Louisiana Purchase of Jefferson and Congress. (Todd Bolsinger: Canoeing in the Mountains) It will be land for which we have no map, but we will have the Spirit with us, and it will reveal to us where and what God is doing that we might join into his work.