In today’s epistle we hear Paul’s
iconic line about “being all things to all people.” Concerning his strategy for
sharing the good news of Christ, he says, “To the Jews I became as a Jew, in
order to win them… And to those outside the law (meaning everyone else) I
became as they are. I became all things to all people, so that I might share
the gospel’s blessings.” From this we can conclude that Paul experienced
something powerful that he saw as worth sharing… and that he believes context matters.
For he took steps to reach out to people in ways they would understand… unique
to their concerns.
Taking our inspiration from Paul, we
are challenged to go and do likewise—to find evidence of that same transformative
and reshaping presence of Christ in our own lives, then share that with others
in ways that actually connect with what people care about… with the lived
challenges people face. So today I'd like for us to take a look at our context,
so we can respond with faithfulness.
Now, there are many ways one could
approach this topic, for context has many layers. We could talk about class, gender,
geography, race, and more… But, for today’s purposes, I’d like to zero in on
just what it means for us to carry the gospel of Christ out into a world filled
with so many other Christian denominations and religious traditions. For, in my
experience, navigating the sheer number of faiths out there is one of the most common
hurdles holding people back from getting more deeply involved with a faith
community. And this makes sense because never before have people lived amidst
such a wash of creeds, philosophies, and faiths. And all of this lends today’s
moment in history a unique and exciting flavor… But also it presents some new
and formidable challenges.
This wash of choices extends far beyond
matters of faith… for think of how complicated a trip to the grocery market can
now be. Some stores carry over 150 types of salsa! There’s a psychologist by
the name of Barry Schwartz who studies the effect all these choices have on our
thinking… and I’d like to share some of his findings, because I see them as
relevant to understanding today’s context. As an illustration of our
predicament, Barry likes to show a cartoon depicting a mother goldfish in a
fishbowl with her baby goldfish. And realizing that her baby is growing up, the
mother says, “Now that you’re getting bigger, I want you to know the world is
your oyster. You can go anywhere you want or do anything you want to do.” The
irony of course is that, inside the fishbowl, they’re trapped and actually
rather limited.
This, however, is not so for us! For
as Barry points out, our fishbowl has been shattered! Never before has humanity
had so much access to so many products or possibilities. The world truly is our
oyster! And this is something that conventional wisdom celebrates, but Barry
sees as actually detrimental. He claims when people are given more choices, we
often respond by freezing up; as if we’re waiting to understand all our options
before making a decision. He cites a study that shows how employees at
companies with fewer retirement plan options actually make use of their
benefits, while those with more possibilities put off enrolling and wind up
losing out. Barry calls this phenomenon “choice paralysis…” And I can’t help but wonder if this somehow plays into the landscape
of today’s religious trends.
Even when we do finally make a
decision… we’re less satisfied with it. Barry tells a story of how he went to
buy some blue jeans and the clerk asked, “Well, do you want straight fit,
relaxed fit, skinny fit, boot cut, stone-washed, acid-washed, button fly, zipper
fly, and on and on he went…” After all this, feeling dazed by the myriad of
choices, Barry responded, “I just want the kind of jeans that used to be the
only kind you could get!”
That day he left with the best fitting
pair of jeans in his life… But he says he also felt less satisfied with his
purchase! He explains that with so many customizations and possibilities, his
expectations had been raised… and he wanted nothing less than absolute
perfection! And while his new jeans were great… they still could have been
better…
This is our context—a shattered
fishbowl—a world of daunting possibilities that are ultimately unsatisfying… if
we don’t narrow our focus! And this… is the mission field that we live in and
are called to serve. We’ve all heard the statistics about how fewer people are
involved today in churches and faith communities. And as insiders, we’ve even
felt some of the anxiety surrounding this. But, at the same time, how many of
you know someone who is genuinely hungry to encounter something transcendent
and life changing… and life giving... and yet they hesitate to act… and avail
themselves to what God has for them? Like a college freshman who has yet to
declare their major, we wonder spiritually without direction...
But, in the story of the church at
Corinth, we find hope… For today’s words about “being all things to all people”
– which I see as about knowing our context and responding according – these
words were not spun in a vacuum. For Corinth knew struggle. They had known
conflict. And one could even say that it was precisely in those hardships that they
acquired their deeper knowledge of God.
Remember in last Sunday’s epistle we
heard that there had been an ongoing controversy about whether or not it was
okay to eat meat that had been sacrificed to pagan gods. Remember some in the
community, those from Jewish backgrounds, were okay with it. Because from their
perspective, since the meat was offered to gods that didn’t exist, it was fine…
and not tainted. But, for many of the Gentiles who’d grown up worshiping those gods,
it didn’t feel right. It didn’t sit well with them, now that they followed Jesus.
So, in steps Paul, who reminds them
that, as members of one unified body, whenever matters should arise that
threaten their harmony, their first allegiance was to one another. For Christ
calls us to lay down our wants and wills for the good of another—just as Christ
modeled for us and did for us.
Here I see the age old lesson “be
careful for what we wish for.” Because, if we truly want to encounter God, we should
be forewarned that change will be required us. For change is the currency of transformation... For those of us
wondering how we can share stories of our faith with others, we need only to
look back as far as the last time God called us to change… and to share that
experience.
You see, Corinth’s real lesson for us today, and for our surrounding
culture, is that knowing and encountering God happens in committed community…
and not when roaming around like so many spiritual Lone Rangers. Pardon me for stating the obvious,
but church life is messy… But it’s in that mess that we most encounter
ourselves, our brokenness, and become awakened to those places that we most
need to invite God into.
And so I see the antidote for today’s
cascading choices and hunts for perfection is commitment… and the acceptance
that God doesn’t need perfection to work in our lives… God only needs
willing hearts. Hearts that will bind themselves together in a world of Lone
Ranger pilgrims. Or as Barry Schwartz’s puts it, “we need to put ourselves back
in the fishbowl… willfully.” For by spreading ourselves a mile wide and an inch
deep we avoid the possibility of encountering anything of great depth.
In Paul’s context, he found it
necessary to “be all things to all people.” But in ours, perhaps the greatest
gift we can give this world is the example of our willingness to persevere
together, in spite of all the possibilities, our imperfections… and messiness,
and even our limitations… Our commitment to each other and the God made known
in Christ can stand like a beacon in this world… for there is a hunger for
depth that only dedication can satisfy. And like our Christ who poured himself
out for this world, we are called to give ourselves over more fully to God and
each other with each passing day.
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