CONFAB 2004 Worship Messages
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
Wednesday, April 28, 7:30-9:00 PM
No Choice as Slaves to Proclaim the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:19)
When I was ordained in January 1975, my preaching professor gave the sermon. I invited him to preach because I liked him and he gave me a pretty good grade for his course. In this very special event of my new career, he preached a sermon entitled, “Coolie for Christ!” I was shocked and embarrassed that in front of all my family and friends, that Dr. Eddie O’Neal was calling me a “coolie.” For almost 30 years now, I have remembered this and slowly coming to understand that to be a follower of Jesus Christ, I am indeed a coolie for Christ and to all as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, we are a slave to Christ.
When we are able to become a Jew in order to win Jews or to become one under the law to win those who are under the law or to become one outside the law to win those who are outside the law or to become weak to win the weak, we are practicing radical empathy. For us to become witnesses of God’s gospel in Jesus Christ, we would need to have this deep radical empathy for others especially those who are different from us.
Sometimes we think that we must always be absolute and certain about who we are and what we may do to believe that we would be faithful to the gospel. In Paul’s amphibious-like inconsistency of identity, he is saying that in order to really know how God’s message would be relevant to and shaped by the different populations to whom he was in ministry, he would have to give up control of how he has received the message to let himself understand God’s message to others. He chose to deeply enter the worlds of others—radical empathy.
This passage tells us something about the way we practice hospitality in our churches. Most of the time, we invite people to come to us, to enter our space and be made welcome. There is a sense of being in charge, having something others don’t have, and making that available to them. In hospitality, we make ourselves and our goods available to others, but we don’t become as the other in order to be the very essence of hospitality in our own beings.
Paul suggests that the gospel calls us to give up control of welcoming strangers into our space and, instead, to find out how to become “one of them.” In doing that, the distinctions of “us” and “them” are lost. All are one, won for God because all are transformed by the sharing in the gospel reality.
It is not about Paul telling others to become like him in order to be “won over” or saved. It’s not about defining the conditions under which salvation takes place or forcing conformity to the structures of power. It’s about the one with the power becoming weak and deeply joining the world of the stranger so that both participate in God’s transforming power through Jesus Christ. By being this, we become a radical Christian community committed to Christ.
Thursday, April 29, 9:00-9:45 AM
Adapting to Reach Other Asians (1 Cor. 9:20)
We have this cliché that says, “When in Rome, do what the Romans do.” Not sure where this comes from but when our family visited China in the summer of 1998, I tried my best to do what the Chinese did when in China.
As overseas Chinese returning to our ancestral homes in the outskirts of the town, Chung Lau in Guangdong province, we respectfully purchased the necessary foods (chicken, the roast pork, the bok tong go) and journeyed to our village’s cemetery where my grandparents are buried. After hacking away tall weeds, we made our way to each of the four graves marked by little tombstones. At each of the graves, we laid out the food, filled the whiskey cups and poured the content in front of the tombstone, and finally setting off some firecrackers. After making all the stops on a very hot and sunny day, our large extended family gathered on the side of a dusty unpaved road and ate the food that were presented to our ancestors. Our children and my wife refused to eat the food that already had flies on it and returned to our air-conditioned bus. I sat near the roadside and ate.
Paul said in 1 Cor. 9:20, “To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win the 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.” Since Paul was freed in Christ, he was willing to do whatever was necessary to identify with those whom he was trying to reach with Christ. I would like to believe that if Paul was traveling in China with me, he would have eaten the food we presented at the cemetery.
In Chapter 8, Paul wrote about eating food offered to idols. The general public could eat meat left over from sacrifices in pagan temples in communal dining rooms within the Temple compounds. Some Corinthian Christians felt free to partake of this meat since they ascribed no power to pagan gods. However, others felt that to partake of this meat was to open themselves up to the influence and power of these gods. Paul calls these persons “the weak.” Yet Paul urges those who are eating the meat to refrain for the sake of their fellow believers, not because “the weak” will be offended, but because they might, seeing such behavior, resume their worship of pagan gods since they continue to believe these gods to have some power over their lives. Paul himself had no problems eating the food offered to idols but for the sake of others, he would remove all obstacles that might be placed between potential believers and the Gospel.
Although it seems that Paul would go out of his way to relate with those he is trying to reach, in the larger context, Paul was very concerned with what is good for the community, as opposed to what is good for an individual. He determined that there is nothing inherently wrong with the meat, but the decision to eat or not to eat depends on the conscience of the neighbor, for whom Christ died. Love demands that each person should reconsider his/her actions in order to not hurt the fellowship of the Christian community.
Although I was willing to eat the cemetery food in China, I did not insist that the rest of my family do too. Ultimately, the fellowship of our tour group and our family was more important than whether they do with the Chinese do when in China.
Friday, April 30, 9:00-9:45 AM
Reaching Out Beyond Ourselves (1 Cor. 9:21-22a)
When I was growing up, I read comic books. Superman and Batman were characters in DC Comics while Spiderman and the Hulk were in Marvel. We loved to read how in each of these superheroes, they were able to deal with their inherent weaknesses to overcome the evil forces of Lex Luther or the Riddler or high school rivals or the military that wants to snuff out the unusual. And then in the inside back covers of the comics was usually an ad of this scrawny teenager having sand kick on his face by a well-built football player on the beach. As an Asian American, I would rather be the well-built football player but I was more the scrawny guy. We don’t like to be “weak.”
When it comes to the life and vitality of our churches, we want our churches to not be weak either. We talk often about adding new members, increasing our pledges, expanding our facilities, sending out more missionaries, and starting new programs. We want to be a part of a strong, healthy, super-mega church rather than a weak and dying church.
Today’s Scripture from Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:22, we see that we need to boldly accommodate ourselves to those who are weak. Yet how often has the Christian community done the exact opposite and insisted that the weak become strong if they want to be accepted? Church history shows us several examples of individuals and groups who regarded the church more as a company of saints than as a company of sinners. Eventually, the church rightly repudiated this view as contrary to the teaching and example of Jesus, whose forgiveness of sinners was renowned. The church has needed to be reminded that it is a community of needy and sinful sojourners, not a select club for those who are pure.
For us to reach out beyond ourselves, we need to become weak in order to win the weak. One of the early biographies of Francis of Assisi tells a story of a brother in Francis’ community who was having trouble enduring the regimen of fasting. In the middle of the night, his spirit broke as he groaned from the pangs of hunger. Francis woke up the entire community and had all of the friars break their fast (himself included) so as not to embarrass the weak brother. Although Francis called his community to a strict standard of living, he was able to show compassion to those who struggled to achieve the ideal.
Who are the weak in our communities and world that we want to reach? How might we become weak to be effective to win over those who are weak?
As Asian North American Christians, we frequently have the understanding that we are not weak but rather strong, not poor but rich, not under-privileged but advantaged, not just a member of a federation of nations but the only superpower, not slaves but freed. So we have a difficult time to set aside as Paul has, the control that we have in the world to our advantage and to trust God to use us as humble and indebted souls in God’s kingdom.
Like Jesus who became human for our sake, may we become weak in order to win the weak for their sake.
Saturday, May 1, 9:00-9:45 PM (Worship & Business Plenary)
Do It All for the Sake of the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:22b-23)
Behind everything that we do is a reason. Some of us came to Seattle because whenever you hear that CONFAB is meeting you automatically come. It’s a good habit! Some of us are here because we heard about this almost 50-year old movement of gathering Chinese Christians across Canada and the US for fellowship and learning and want to see what this is all about. Some of us are here because we are serving on the cabinet. But none of us are here because we are getting any monetary rewards.
When Paul was writing to the Corinthians in 9:19 about “being free with respect to all,” he was referring to the fact that he does not take payment for his work (to which he is entitled) so that the gospel can be made available to all people free of charge. (see 9:16-18) There’re no admission fees to get in to hear Paul. But neither was Paul willing to take any pay so that he would be freed to proclaim the gospel with no strings attached. This allows him to be the slave for all for the sake of the gospel. For the FCBC people here, this doesn’t mean that I am willing to work for free!
Paul is clear that he preaches the gospel because God obliges him to do so—not because he wants to for his own needs and not because he receives material benefits for doing so. Paul preaches the gospel because this is a call from God. This is not a “volunteer” activity. It is an obligation God places on Paul as a Christian.
What Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians and how he was living out his call, challenges us in the way we often talk about being church. We refer to the church as a voluntary organization where Christians volunteer to be in ministry through the church or they don’t. We have strategies to enlist volunteers, help them to identify their gifts, equip them with training, and then deploy them in some worthwhile assignment to advance God’s kingdom. Paul’s point here is that one doesn’t serve God out of one’s own choice but to be a Christian means that the obligation to serve is laid upon us by God.
Ministry by all Christians is not about volunteering in the church, it’s about vocation. The church is not a volunteer organization. It is a place where Christians come together to help each other live out the gracious obligation with which God blesses us.
Now you know why you are here at CONFAB or involved in your churches. This is not a choice that we have. It’s not that we figure that we have a few hours a week to donate to the church and become a volunteer. It’s about living out the gracious obligation of being a follower of Jesus Christ and a call that we must fulfill.
We are God’s people for the sake of the gospel, so that we may share in God’s blessings in the world.