Deeply Christian In An Age of Religious Plurality

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.