People Pleasers 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 And sang

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1 People Pleasers 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 At one time I thought Jake Spinner was about the neatest guy I had ever known. He was everybody s idol. He was good-looking, smart and talented. He was captain of the football, basketball and track teams; he made several of the all-state teams. He was president of the student body. He was valedictorian of his class. He dated the prettiest girl in school. And he sang. Not only did he have his own rock band, The Diamonds, in which he played lead guitar and did most of the singing, but he also did a bang-up job as Eliza Doolittle s drunken dad in our school s production of My Fair Lady. Although I am sure there must have been folk who were jealous of him, it seemed that everybody admired Jake Spinner. From ropers to nerds, from jocks to the band crowd, he could relate to anyone: He had the ability to instantly adapt to any situation. Yes, Jake Spinner was all things to all people. He was the quintessential people pleaser. Genuine people pleasers are few and far between, at least in my experience. Maybe you have known one or two. They are born leaders. Consequently many find their way into politics, especially national politics where in the past a lot of lip service

2 was given to the idea that adaptability and compromise were vital. Although the idea of compromise has been sidelined in recent years, I think our society still prizes highly the character traits of people pleasers. It was not so different in the world of the apostle Paul, a world dominated by Rome. Both Rome and Judea were driven by politics. So it is not too far fetched to imagine that people pleasers were a select, admired group back then, the same as now. From the look of today s text, Paul put himself into that category. I have become everything in turn to people of every sort, he says. All things to all people. He became like a Jew to the Jews, like a gentile to the gentiles, and like a weakling to the weak. Paul, the people pleaser. Has a nice ring to it, doesn t it? Imagine Paul, of all people, making such a claim. Do you know how may communities Paul was chased out of by Jews and gentiles alike? Do you know how many times this people pleaser was thrown into prison? Adaptability was not his long suit. He made a name for himself by being a constant nuisance. Not only was he afflicted with a thorn in his side, but he made himself a -2-

3 thorn in the side of society. He was constantly stirring things up, confronting, challenging, provoking. Not adapting. So what was he doing trying to pass himself off as a people pleaser? It might be helpful to remind ourselves that this is a letter. A letter. Paul wrote it in response to a communication he had received informing him of trouble in the church. Trouble in the church? Imagine that. The trouble in this case stems from a small group of people who are criticizing other congregation members, possibly including their present pastor. Apparently the disgruntled group has started lingering in the parking lot after services to hash over everything everybody else is doing wrong. There never seems to be a shortage of blame to spread around. Maybe the church isn t growing fast enough to suit them, so it is up to the little group to find a suitable target to blame for slow growth. Their unhappiness and dissatisfaction, their negativity and constant criticism are now bleeding into the larger congregation, causing others to line up on one side or the other. Yes, the church at Corinth is suffering from polarization. Finally the rift alarms someone enough to write to Paul: Help! -3-

4 According to the scripture leading up to today s text, the two hottest issues relate to eating food associated with the worship of idols something Sam talked about last week. And the other controversy targets the right of an apostle to receive financial support from the people being served. In other words, the Criticism Committee thinks the pastor among others is hanging out with the wrong kind of people and also they are paying her too much. Evidently they have used Paul as an example, pointing out that Paul refrained from eating meat left over from pagan temple sacrifices, and he also never accepted any payment for his ministry with them. Since his motives in both these regards have been misrepresented, Paul sets the record straight. With regard to the salary issue, Paul says simply that he preaches for free because he has no choice in the matter. He is compelled to preach, whether paid or not. The message of the gospel is so urgent and so marvelous that he cannot keep quiet. He goes on to say that he must be free to preach, which gets at the issue of control. Unlike other apostles, Paul has the luxury of being financially self-sufficient, thanks to his father s fortune. As -4-

5 some may recall, Paul s father was an extremely successful merchant in Tarsus, and Paul is apparently the sole heir of his family s fortune. So Paul never has to be dependent on anyone or any institution to the point that he could be coerced to preach anything other than the gospel. With regard to hanging with the wrong kind of people, Paul says that he adapts to his audiences, whomever they may be, in order to make the gospel more accessible to them. In other words, from Jews to Pharisees, from Sadducees to gentiles, Paul meets people where they are. He accepts cultural differences and customs, including eating habits, so as not to alienate anyone from the gospel by insulting their identity. He instinctively understands, as all people pleasers do, that the messenger is an integral part of any message. This is a concept that Marshal McLuhan, the guru of modern mass media, brought into the spotlight back in the late 60's. In a nutshell, McLuhan contends that if a messenger is not first open and accepting of an audience, the audience will question not only the authenticity of the messenger, but the authenticity of the message. By extrapolation, it means that the medium that relays the message -5-

6 must be easily accessible to and understandable by the audience. Hence was born the phrase which still drives modern theories about communication: The medium is the message, For Paul, the message of the Gospel is everything. It is his life. Spreading the Gospel takes precedence over everything else. Ideally, it should be the same with all disciples of Christ yes, including you and me. Sharing the Gospel with others is our reason for being. It is our mandate from God. Everything else is secondary. Everything. Our various nationalities, races and customs, our religious doctrines, philosophies and maturity of faith, our likes, dislikes and individual histories it is all secondary to spreading the gospel. And what exactly IS the Gospel? What exactly do we mean when we pitch the command to spread the Gospel? Is the Gospel the story of Jesus? His birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection? Or is it everything he, personally taught, what he said and the kind of life he modeled? Is the Gospel the result of all the foregoing: that is, our redemption before God bought with Christ s very life? -6-

7 I suppose the easy answer to those questions is yes, collectively. But what if we apply McLuhan s theory of communication to our definition of the Gospel? The medium is the message. In this case, then Christ is the Gospel and conversely the Gospel is Christ. If we consider that possibility, then how do we share the Gospel? How do we spread it? The answer is surprisingly simple, really. Not unlike a quote from yesteryear s, Pogo We have met the enemy and he is us here we may say We have met the Gospel and it is us. At every single baptism we say explicitly that the person is being baptized into the body of Christ. That is what the church is. The body of Christ. So it follows that anywhere the church goes, Christ goes. And since Christ is the Gospel, anywhere Christ goes, the Gospel goes. That means that as the body of Christ you and I serve as both medium and message. As the body of Christ, whenever we are open and accepting of an audience, whether one or one-thousand, our own sincerity, humility, honesty, and compassion reflect directly not only on the nature of our -7-

8 message, such as the style of our delivery, but on the substance of the Gospel itself. My, that is a sobering thought. But the good news is that you and I neither compose the message nor do we initiate it. That is God s work. And the message in all this for us is that we needn t expend one anxious moment worrying about how to do any of this. All we do is continue what was begun at the baptism of each and every one of us: that is, we let go of this world and allow ourselves to be immersed in Christ. What a timely message. What a useful thing for us to remember as we make our way through this time of transition. Although it has been a long time since Pines has been in the position of waiting for God to send us a new pastor, some of us have likely been through interim times with other congregations. Some of us have even had the blessing of serving as interim pastors. We can approach this time between as either a daunting challenge to be entered with fear and trepidation or as a blessed, freeing opportunity to explore all the possibilities God has in store for us. It is my hope and prayer particularly now, that -8-

9 we will strengthen our individual and corporate relationships with Christ, so we maintain the strong body Pines has always been. Pines: a worshiping community that pleases not only people, but pleases God. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Rev. Belinda C. Windham, D.Min. Pines Presbyterian Church, Houston February 8,