Reach Out to My True Self

Sermon on 1 Corinthians 9:19–23

“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. 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. 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. 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. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.” — 1 Corinthians 9:19–23 (NRSV)

When I began working as a camp counselor

During my college summer breaks

I was terrified that the campers

Wouldn’t like me.

So I looked to this passage

As the perfect strategy.

If I became like

The kids I worked for —

Acting like them,

Talking like them,

Agreeing with them —

Then they might like me,

And I might be able to impart

My wisdom to them.

For the first few weeks,

I seemed to succeed at making the kids like me,

But it was exhausting to try to be

Everything for everyone

And I never felt

Like the kids

Really trusted me.

Then, midway through the summer

The counselor I was closest with, Christian,

Sat me down for what we called a life chat.

He told me that while the kids definitely liked me,

They were wondering why I felt like I had to perform for them all of the time.

Apparently, the kids could tell that I was trying to win them over

And they were confused

About why a 19 year old college student from the suburbs

Was acting like he knew what it was like

To be a teenage boy of color

From a small, rural town

And some of them felt betrayed,

Like I was just pretending to like them

Because it was my job.

I was embarrassed,

But Christian told me that the best way to reach these kids

Was to stop trying to be everyone else

And just be myself.

And as obvious as this lesson was,

It was true.

When I started acting as myself

That’s when I was able to share

Christ’s love with all kinds of different kids.

And I think that Paul needs to hear this lesson as well:

That old truth that you can only be yourself,

And the Gospel truth that Jesus only asks us to be ourselves.

Paul writes about how he hopes to save people

By becoming like them

To convince them that his perspective of Christ’s saving gospel

Can work for them.

But he claims to take on the experience of people

Whom he cannot understand.

Paul doesn’t know what it’s like to be a slave,

Or a Gentile, or weak

Just as I will never know

What it is like to be a child of color

Or a girl from a small town

And pretending otherwise

Is not only an offensive appropriation of someone else’s experience

Is not only a manipulative way to “win” people for Christianity.

It is a harmful and ultimately ineffective approach to sharing Christ’s Gospel.

Because we cannot, and should not, become all things to all people,

We can only share the love of Christ’s gospel

When we share our authentic selves.

For when Christianity gives up a focus on sharing Christ’s love

Through our authenticity

We often resort to sharing Christianity

Through claims to absolute truth

That prevent people different from us

From feeling like they have a place in Christ’s Gospel.

The dangerous assumption in Paul’s strategy

Is that his interpretation

Of Christ’s Gospel

Is the correct one.

His approach assumes

That the people he reaches out to

Do not possess the truth

And he needs to become like them

To convince them to become like him.

In his book, When Religion Becomes Evil

Comparative Religions Professor Charles Kimball

Identifies that the first warning sign

That a religion is being corrupted

By human sin

Is the focus on absolute truth

Where one experience

One perspective

Is permitted,

And all other approaches to truth are rejected or suppressed.

I doubt that Paul meant to make a claim to Absolute Truth

But if we internalize the message

That we need to become all things to all people

To win them to our perspective of Christ’s Gospel

Then we risk building

A Christianity of exclusive, absolute truth.

And we’ve seen evidence of what happens when Christians

Believe that their truth is more important

Than the truth of those different from them.

Kimball reminds us of the crusades

Christians launched against Islamic people,

How American Christians advocated for Manifest Destiny

That forced indigenous people from their lands

And how we still see people use Christianity to oppress

People of color, and people of diverse genders and sexualities.

So if we reach out to people

By promoting absolute truth

At best we exclude and manipulate,

And at worst we oppress.

So we have got to think critically

About Paul’s strategy for multicultural ministry

Fortunately, Kimball suggests an antidote

To absolute truth claims:

Learn, don’t assume.

Learn that your own experience is subjective,

As he writes,

“The fact that I was born in 1950 and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the midst of the post-World War II baby boom makes a substantial difference in my religious orientation to the world. My background and worldview shape the way I frame religious questions. This is not bad or wrong. It does mean that my experiences and understanding of God do not exhaust all the possibilities.”

As Christians,

We do not claim to have all the truth,

We claim to have a saving truth

That Christ’s death has liberated us from sin.

And perhaps we can reclaim Paul’s guidance

By turning from becoming all things to all people

Toward learning how all people

Experience Christ’s liberating Gospel

In different, irreplicable ways

That have created our own unique, authentic faith identity in us.

For when we focus on sharing our

Authentic experience of faith

We can discover that the path towards

Multicultural and inclusive ministry

That is about meeting people where they are

And trusting in the love of Christ

To lift people up into new life.

For while I’ve been critical of Paul

His intentions for ministry

Reveal two essential truths of Christianity:

First, Christ’s gospel is for all people

Second, Christ’s gospel is incomplete

Until the love of God is shared and received by all people.

And if we look to our Gospel reading

Where Jesus heals Simon’s Mother-in-Law

We see how these two goals are achieved

When Jesus meets an old woman where she is

And lets the love of God lift her up.

Against the law of the time,

Jesus visits a sick and bedridden

Woman in her own home —

A Jewish man,

Would not be allowed

To touch a sick person, let alone a woman.

And yet, Jesus meets this woman

Where she is,

Not requiring any affirmation of faith

Not requiring any preparation

He bends down to meet her where she is

And lifts her up

Trusting that by this relationship of trust

God’s love will work through him

God’s love will work through her

And restore them both.

And sure enough, the woman is restored

Not only to health

But to a life of discipleship.

Jesus does not do this by becoming all things for all people,

Instead, Jesus brings his authentic self to this woman

So that she might share her experience of God’s love

With him.

Paul’s intentions for multicultural missionary ministry still work

When we rely on Christ instead of ourselves.

We can reach out

To all people of diverse identities and experiences

But we do not do this by becoming like them

To win them over to our absolute truth.

Rather, we share God’s liberating love

When we bring our authentic selves to people

Meet them where they are

And invite them to share their authentic selves

With us

So that the love of God

May lift us all up to renewed discipleship.

So Paul is right,

We need to reach out to people who are different from us

Because all people deserve to feel Christ’s liberating love

But we do not do this by becoming all things to all people

But by becoming ourselves

And trusting that Christ lives, saves, and loves through us.

But this is not a feel good message;

Because if Paul is right and we aren’t done with the Gospel work

Until all people share the love of Jesus Christ,

Then we have got a lot of work to do.

Paul’s goal was to make the gospel accessible to all people

Especially the marginalized or under-privileged in our society.

This means that we’ve got to figure out

How to accomplish his goals

In our modern context

Without falling into the trap

Of absolute truth claims.

We need to ask

Which experiences are missing

From this congregation,

And from the Lutheran church.

The late pastor and theologian Rachel Held Evans

Defined the Kingdom of God as

“A bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table, not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, because they said yes. And there’s always room for more.”

We need to make room for more.

We need to make the necessary changes to become a more inclusive space

For those who have experienced Christianity

As a religion of absolute truth

Where their truth is not welcome.

And to begin meeting people where they are

We need to know who we are.

Like Kimball’s faith exploration

We can begin thinking about why we believe

What we believe.

Where did you grow up,

What significant relationships have impacted you,

How have your experiences determined

What you believe?

We began by sharing our interpretations of Paul’s passage

Let us continue by sharing our stories

So we can begin learning from others,

By meeting people where they are

To learn from their stories

To learn how we can meet their needs

And trusting that by developing relationships

Of authenticity

Of shared stories

Christ’s love will work

Through all our relationships

Through every moment of learning

So that all people may be lifted up

By the gospel of Jesus Christ

Who is present in all of our experiences and truths

Changing and healing and liberating and saving

Our world

And all people in it.