Feb. 5, 2012 - Who brought you here?

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

¹⁶If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! ¹⁷For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. ¹⁸What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.

¹⁹For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. ²⁰To 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. ²¹To 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. ²²To 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. ²³I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

Imagine for a second what it must be like to walk into our sanctuary and worship alongside us, or to go to a Bible Study here, or in any Lutheran church, without having a history of being Lutheran.  We have a whole language that we understand but for whom those who have not been around the church would have no chance of understanding.  How does our service open?  With “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”  The communion of the Holy Spirit?  What is that, especially for someone who doesn’t know what communion is or has no understanding of the Trinity.  I mean, at least we are not talking about the Holy Ghost, where people might think about Casper flying around during the service, but what does this mean?  What does it mean to pray for salvation?  What feast are we talking about when we sing “The is the feast of victory for our God” when the only thing that even resembles food is the bread and wine, which we call body and blood, as if they wasn’t disturbing at all. 

There is a reason that the Roman world saw Christians as cannibals.  No one outside the church knew what communion was, except that they heard the Christians were drinking blood and eating flesh.  There is all this confusion, and we have barely even gotten into the service, the Lessons, which sometimes are stories, sometimes lectures, and sometimes something else completely but hardly ever how to do math or take the form of such a lesson, haven’t even been read yet.

            Or think about the phrases that we use flippantly that make no sense to those who have not been taught, such as “we are saved by grace through faith.”  These are all vital parts of our tradition, they are a way for us to express our faith and our understanding of God, but for many it would lead to confusion and tuned out ears if we used them to evangelize, to tell people about the wonderful work of God in this world.  In order to speak to people we need to understand the language that they are speaking, the way in which their lives are lived, and understand what is important to them.  Each life is different, each person has different motivations and different understandings of the world, and each person needs to hear and experience God in a different way.

            Why is it that you are here?  What brought you into faith and to believing that worshipping together with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ mattered, that it was a way of defining your life?  I would bet that in some way it was someone coming and talking to you, someone who understood your life and your thoughts and your hopes and your dreams, what it was that you needed out of life.  Perhaps it was your parents who taught you to come to church, who helped form you into the person that you are today and who values your faith.  Perhaps it was a friend, who took that step to invite you to join them on Sunday morning for worship or invited you to a youth event or in whom you saw trust in God and a faith that gave them strength. Or perhaps it was your boyfriend or girlfriend, who out of care and compassion for you and in desiring to be closer, asked you to join them.  Or perhaps it was someone else completely.  But each of us has a story, each of us has someone who brought us to church, who helped us to understand our faith once we did get here.  And each of us had a reason for coming and has a need that keeps pulling us back here each week.  And each of us had someone in our lives who brought us here originally.

            When Paul wrote that he was a slave to all, in order that he may win more of them, and when he says he was weak to the weak and that he had become all things to all people, he was meaning that he was meant to serve all people and that he would do what he could to understand and relate with all people in order that he may be able to speak with them about God and help them see God in their lives.  After all, we do not listen to those who we cannot relate with and whom we do not trust.  Its highly doubtful that it was a complete stranger or your worst enemy that brought you to church for the first time.  Rather, it would be someone that you cared about, that you respected, and that you knew cared about you.  Otherwise we would not be here.  Likewise, when we go and speak to people about God, it will be with those whom we respect and care about, and with whom we have a relationship and a shared language.  And by shared language, I don’t mean “we all speak English,” I mean a shared understanding and vocabulary.  I’ve already mentioned the language of Lutheranism, but each community, each group has their own language, their own way of communicating.  Whether it be giving directions to someone in town versus someone who has never been here before, or discussing sports or music of video games, there is a different language, a different way of seeing the world and its interactions.  When we understand these languages, we can begin to truly communicate with one another and share our passions and work with the same metaphors and images, much like when Paul talks about the idol to the unknown god and proclaims that it is our one True God. It is through these relationships that we are able to both teach and to grow in our faith.

            It is through these relationships that we are able to figure out what our faith means.  We are only going to be able to open up and discuss things with people that we trust.  None of us enjoy looking stupid, so when we ask questions about “Why does God matter” and “What is this whole eating the body and drinking the blood thing about?” we are not going to ask strangers, we are going to ask people that we know care about us and who will not judge us.  And these questions are important to ask.  Growing up my pastor told me that “Faith is something that you have to question.  You can’t just accept what people tell you, you can’t just accept what I tell you.  If you do, your faith will not be your own and it will be so thin that whenever trouble comes, you will lose it in an instant.”  It is with people that we trust that we have these conversations and we are able to own our faith.

            Paul understood this.  He didn’t go around proclaiming to everyone the same message nor did he try to bring every conversation back onto God.  Instead He found that he needed to understand the people he was talking to and show that he respected them by learning about them.  He tried to enter their world and speak in their terms in order to show the love and the grace of God.  He did this because he cared so much for people and wanted them to experience the good news of God in their lives.

            We are called in the same way to evangelize, to go out and proclaim the word of God.  Not by standing on street corners with billboards and not by telling every person we meet that they should go to church or by trying to guilt our family and friends into it, but by forming relationships and by being open to people.  Sometimes this means that we are not going to say a word or do anything except listen and hear that person’s story and begin to understand where they are coming from.  We spread the message of God’s love not through judging others for their actions or constantly bemoaning the former glory of the church, but rather through understanding one another, by seeing how God is active not only in our own lives and sharing that story, but also by showing how God is active in another’s life as well.  Faith is not found in logic, but rather it is found within the heart and in the lives of those around us.  When we begin to see God’s activity in our lives, we can begin to understand our worship services and how they help us to grow in our faith.  When surrounded by friends who care about us, by this great family of faith, we have the support necessary to question and to grow and to understand.  And when we show that love and support, when we help one another to grow, and when we proclaim that Gospel to one who hears it and who comes to see God’s activity, we shall know all the reward that we could ever hope for.  So may we join together, in trust and respect and love, so that we may grow together.

Amen