First Lutheran Church
Epiphany 5B; February 4, 2018
Sermon “All Things to All People”
In the 6th Century BC, the Israelites were defeated by the Babylonians, removed from their homelands, and forced to live in exile. In the midst of their captivity the prophet Ezekiel offered the people these words of hope. “For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. … I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, …” (Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-16)
“I Will Come to You”
I will come to you
I will seek you out when you are lost and alone
I will lead you home
I will come to you
When the clouds grow dark and you have gone astray
My love will show you the way
In the valley dark
Or mountain high
Somewhere in between
I will hear your cry.
God promises to come to us - this is the fullness of the promise of the Gospel. And in the fullness of time God did just that, God became incarnate in the person of Jesus. God does not remain distant, untouchable, unattainable, unrecognizable, but rather God comes to us in the very form of us, God becomes human, that we might know that we are loved, that we might know how to love, that we might be saved, that we might be brought into, and made part of, the Kingdom of God.
And this is no small thing, this notion that God comes to us. God does not demand that we seek God out, that we climb the holy mountain, that we somehow make ourselves presentable before God’s throne. No, God chooses to leave “the glories of heaven” behind, to become that humble shepherd that will seek us out, to find us in the brokenness of this world, even in the brokenness of our own doing. This is the grace that is so amazing, the grace that breaks into our life, the grace that transforms us, and the grace that invites us into lives of meaning and purpose. St. Paul writes in the second chapter of Philippians, “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:4-8)
So it is that in today’s appointed epistle St. Paul writes, “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 9:22b-23)
“All things to all people,” but wait a minute that’s not right, that’s not what we’ve been taught. That’s not the popular cultural wisdom that’s been passed on to us from teachers, counselors, and friends. That’s not what my mother taught me, I remember her very distinctly telling me just the opposite, she told me that you can’t be “all things to all people,” and that I just had to “be myself.” Do you remember this old song …
But it's all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself
“To thine own self be true!”
Well of course my mom was right, mom is always right, but that doesn’t mean I always get to do everything my way, it doesn’t mean that I have the right to be selfish, it doesn’t mean that comprise is a bad word, it doesn’t mean that there will be times when I will be called to be selfless and even accommodating for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of witnessing to grace that is amazing. It strikes me that sometimes Christians, that even Lutherans, that sometimes you and I, can be so inflexible with our faith life, the way that we understand church, doctrine, and service, that we forget it was God’s great flexibility, God’s willingness to come down to us, that first brought the gospel in our life. Instead of being all things to all people, at times we refuse to be anything else but our own particular limited understanding of faith, not of, but despite the gospel!
So a few thoughts …
First, it’s important to remember what God chose to do for humanity. We need to remember that God chose to give up the “glories of heaven,” to become human, to become extremely vulnerable, in order that we might know that we are loved, that we might learn how to love one another, that we might be set free, and brought into the peace of God’s kingdom. This is no small thing, this is the greatest story ever told, a love story unlike no other. And each of us is “in” this story! And for this we should pause, remember, and give thanks!
Secondly, how might you respond? How does being involved in this story impact you? What does it stir up within you, and how does it want to come out? St. Paul decided that he wanted to pass the story on, that he wanted to share the good news about God’s amazing grace. And in order to do that he would strive to become “all things to all people,” just as God did for him, and in doing so make connections and enter into relationships that might embody the message of love, hope, peace, and faith. Paul would be Jewish to connect with the Jews, he would be as a Gentile to relate to the Gentiles, he would become weak to understand how to speak of God to the weak. Paul humbled himself, as Christ humbled himself, for the sake of the Gospel. How might you humble yourself, allow yourself to become “all things to all people,” for the sake of the Gospel? Who is God calling you to reach out to, how can you enter into their world, so that you might better speak of God’s love?
And Thirdly, how might we respond as a community of faith? What about our gathering and serving, what about our worship, what about our faith witness - might be opened up if we made ourselves more accessible, more inviting to others? How might we better become “all things to all people” for the sake of the Gospel? What’s holding us back, what makes us inaccessible, what limits the ways that God might be able to use us? This past year we have been struggling “and” rejoicing with changes. We’ve made exciting changes and we’ve made painful changes. And yet, still, there are more changes before us! I wonder what else we might do to become all things to all people? How might God “come to others;” how might God seek out the lost, broken and forgotten; how might God be that Good Shepherd; - in - with - and through - us? How might we respond as a community of faith?
I will come to you
I will seek you out when you are lost and alone
I will lead you home
I will come to you
When the clouds grow dark and you have gone astray
My love will show you the way
May God’s love show us the way, the way to faithfully be "all things to all people;” In order that the love we have experienced in Christ might be experienced by others, those we have been called to love and serve, those we have been called to feed body and soul
Amen.