Sermon Tone Analysis

Start at the end - the three crowns

This morning we’re going to go backwards.

That is, we’re going to start at the very end of this passage, the prize, and then work backwards from there.

Because everything that Paul writes is leading up to that, and if we don’t really know where we’re going and what it’s all for, we’re going to find the journey unnecessarily hard.

In the second half, Paul is using a metaphor from athletics.

He describes a runner, running not just for the sake of it, but to win.

In the Greco-Roman world, of which Corinth was a part, athletics and racing was, quite literally, a national sport.

Philippides was the first marathon runner in the world.

He ran from Marathon in Greece to Athens, announced victory, and fell down dead.

The furthest I’ve run is a half marathon, and that first time I did that I lay on the ground thinking I was dying, so I resonate with Philippides!

And if anyone tries to convince you to run a marathon and you want an excuse not to - there it is.

Corinth had its own famous event, the Isthmian games.

My favourite thing about the Isthmian games is the prize.

In our era, we give out medals.

Here’s one I won for simply participating, very slowly, in a race.

Show medal

In the ancient world, the prize was a crown, made of plants.

Sometimes Laurel.

In the Isthmian games, it was often pine, but there was a brief and wonderful era when the crown was made of celery.

Show and tell celery crown

So in a race, the prize is a crown of leaves.

And glory and honour etc, but those things fade too.

Most of you hadn’t even heard of Philippides before today, and even those who had, had probably forgotten his name.

The Bible tells us of another kind of crown.

It’s the crown that Jesus wore in His moment of triumph.

Show and tell crown of thorns

Jesus wore a crown of thorns as He was crucified.

The soldiers intended it as a mockery - they were making a pastiche of honour, to someone they were shaming.

If you’ve ever felt shame, the image of Jesus, dying on the cross, bearing on his body the marks of the flogging, and wearing on his head the crown of thorns - let that sad, terrible picture be an encouragement.

You see, we don’t ever wear the crown of thorns, the crown of shame.

I’m an expert in shame, at least in feeling it, and so my ears prick up every time the Bible promises that those who trust in the Lord will never be put to shame.

That promise is in there multiple times, and in his letter to the church in Rome Paul echoes it:

So this is the crown that Jesus wore.

Is this the prize that we’re aiming for?

NO

Jesus didn’t stay dead.

That image of the saviour on the cross is a precious one, but it’s not the only one.

Jesus rose to resurrection life, and the Biblical picture is of another kind of crown that waits for those who trust in Him.

The crown of life.

Now I did not have the skills or vision to make a crown of life, so you’re going to have to make do with this crown that is made of a grapevine.

Show and tell crown of life

The crown of life will last forever.

It won’t go floppy, like the crown of celery.

It’s also described elsewhere as a crown of glory, a crown of righteousness, a crown of joy.

It’s life, forever, with God in the new heaven and on the new earth.

It’s no more tears, no more sickness, no more death.

It’s resurrection life, begun in Jesus, and going on forever in those who wear that crown of life.

So now as we work our way through this passage, I want you to keep these three crowns in view.

Eyes on the prize.

What’s Freedom?

What comes to mind when you hear the word Freedom?

Braveheart - (I’ve never seen it)

Guns under the bed

A lawless society - sounds like ultimate freedom to some, and utter terror to others

Freedom to be who you are

So what does freedom mean to you?

In a lot of Paul’s writings, the freedom that he is talking about is freedom from the Law.

Not the law as in the police, but the law that marked out the boundaries of the Jewish people, of whom Paul was one.

We’ve talked about that a fair bit in recent weeks, and if you missed it, it might be good to go back and listen to Luke’s talk on it from June.

Paul uses a strong metaphor here, and it’s one that some of us will feel uncomfortable with.

It’s estimated that between 20 and 30% of people in the Roman world lived as slaves.

A slave is someone who is completely under the authority (and also, at least in theory, dependent on), another person.

Slavery still shapes our world today.

People live with the legacy of the enslavement of their ancestors.

Here in Limehouse, we’re so close to the docks where goods were brought in that had been harvested by enslaved people, or even exchanged for those people.

Just this week, Sir Mo Farah shared his story of being trafficked to the UK for domestic servitude.

Slavery is not ancient history.

Slavery was, and is, an ugly reality In most times and in many places.

Paul isn’t writing casually here.

We know from his other letters that he was friends both with enslaved people, and with at least one person who enslaved others.

He had seen slavery from the inside.

We know that the earliest churches were really attractive to enslaved people - they worked hard to carve out a space where the social hierarchies of the outside world were suspended, and ultimately the message of the gospel resonates with people who found themselves enslaved.

So why does Paul use such a shocking, ugly image to describe how he views his life on mission for Christ?

Maybe there was nothing else that would so strongly convey what he was teaching.

I think Paul has a role-model in mind as he writes this.

Here’s what Paul wrote in a letter to another church:

The translation there in verse 7 is servant, but the Greek word used is the same one that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians.

Jesus, who was and is God in very nature, made Himself a servant, a slave - one who is dependent and unfree, and humbled himself even unto death on a cross.

The gospel was a radical challenge to the prevailing worldview because, instead of trampling on the weak, they worshipped a saviour who had embraced weakness.

This was a worldview where honour was everything, and while someone could die an honourable death for others, not a death like Jesus’s death.

Publicly flogged, stripped, taunted by Roman soldiers, wearing a crown of thorns.

Still today, the very fact that Christians claim that Jesus died such a shameful death is a stumbling block to some - how could God be humiliated?

Is that not blasphemy?

But in being shamed, Jesus made common cause with those who the world rejected.

So Paul uses this freedom-slavery language to highlight the stark contrast here as he tried to imitate Christ.

He is free from the religious law, yet:

And then, having started, he goes on.

What does he mean by ‘becoming all things to all people’?

That phrase can be a bit of an insult - we might use it to describe someone who says what people want to hear.

No-one could accuse Paul of being like that.

Simon read this passage last week but it bears repeating in this context.

Here’s Paul outlining some of the consequences of how he has spoken and acted:

2 Corinthians 11:23–25 (NIV)

23 I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.

24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.

25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones...

That’s not the CV of someone who goes around changing his demeanour to please people.

Paul is not a pleaser of all, but a servant of all.

At times that means confronting people, and at other times it means laying down his freedom so as not to put up barriers.

We’re talking in the context of food sacrificed to idols, a really big issue for some people.