Corinth was a happening place. Forty miles to the southwest of Athens, set on the isthmus connecting the Peloponnese with the mainland, Corinth was the perfect place to build a city. Being off of the coast by only a few miles to either side of this isthmus, Corinth took advantage of the two bodies of water without being completely vulnerable to attack. Even if it were attacked, the city had a 1,500-foot elevation behind it for a defense, and plenty of fresh water sources. Corinth benefited from the sea traders, from the overland trade connecting the mainland with the peninsula, the nearby seaports, and even sailors who would portage their boats across the few miles of land between the Bay of Corinth and the Aegean Sea to avoid the hazard of storms around the peninsula. Such a location made Corinth a marketplace of artisan’s products, pottery, and earthenware. Religious diversity was ensured by Corinth’s location as well. This was the perfect place to plant a cosmopolitan city, and a place for a flourishing and eclectic population. From the locals already in the area to the surplus population (mostly the dregs of society) sent from Rome to populate the city, Corinth was a place known for its culture as well as being the “Sin City” of the ancient world.

 

Paul spent eighteen months in Corinth teaching and organizing the church, and he wrote this letter from Ephesus, and from its content, it is clear that the Corinthian church was having difficulty resolving disputes. But that is not what we are focusing our attention to today. Our passage deals more with Paul’s personal relationship with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and how he has been able to stay faithful to the Gospel by keeping his Gospel priorities in line.

 

In this passage, what are those priorities? His priority is to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. He has the “obligation” to do this. He must do this not of his own free will or for his own self-promotion (I repeat, not his own self-promotion!) but for the rights (and responsibilities as well) that the Gospel provides.

 

But this obligation has a fascinating twist. He is to make the Gospel free of charge. In this context, what does this mean? That people should not have to pay to hear him preach? Does this mean I must return my honorarium for being before you today? I don’t think, from the text, that Paul’s “free of charge” phrase has anything to do with how much he is to be paid. Rather, this has to do with the freedom people have to hear the message. The gospel is free to all.

 

Paul makes clear the freedom of the Gospel: Verse 19: “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.” He feels very deeply his own obligation to make the Gospel about the gospel. The gospel is not something for him to boast about, because the gospel is not about reward. Paul makes clear in the first verses that the Gospel is given with nothing expected in return, either in gratitude from the receiver or as a reward from God. The one who spreads the gospel must remove any sense of from its distribution.

 

In my experience as a pastor and as a person, making the gospel free is not an easy thing because we are such ego-driven creatures. We are driven by our own desires, our own agendas, and we often exploit the gospel to stroke our own bruised selves. I remember, when I was serving my summer pastoral internship out in California, I was staying with my father that summer, and he invited some friends over for dinner. They were members at some funky non-denominational church, which stressed some tenets of some faith that seemed very unfamiliar. We got on the topic of salvation and accepting the Lord Jesus Christ, and their Bible-thumping evangelicalism was unnerving me, disturbing me, and irritating me. The gentleman finally asked me, “Do you know what it feels like to be there with someone you have led to Christ finally accepts him as Lord and Savior?” No, I said, I don’t know, because I have never led someone to accept Jesus Christ. Jesus does that. Well, the fellow hemmed and hawed and split words and agreed, and added, “but, we, you and I, have the task of spreading the good news, yes?” Yes, and we also believe that the Gospel has a life of its own, and that the true owner of the good news is Jesus.  Yes, the dead and buried-raised from the dead 2000 years ago-Jesus is alive and well and does a really good job in giving life abundantly when I can get out of his way. Ego, my brothers and sisters. We are not in it for ourselves. Paul makes that clear.

 

That’s my “B” point. Here’s my “A” point. Perhaps more problematically, Paul gives this account of what he has done to spread the Gospel: To the Jews, he brought the Gospel as a Jew to win them. To those who were under the law he came as one also under the law, which he readily admits was a sham, because he reminds the reader that he wasn’t actually under the law, but only pretended. To those outside the law, he came as one outside the law to win them. To those who were weak, he came as one who is weak, He became all things to all peoples, and he did it all for the sake of the Gospel, to share its blessings.

 

I can hear the cries coming out: Relativism! Relativism! Paul forsook the Gospel for the sake of kowtowing to the culture! I bet he would have even become politically correct if he could!  Flip-flop? No problem. He would rather make the Gospel acceptable than preaching it rightfully and truthfully! Make the Gospel whatever it needs to be. Just make sure it is palatable, insure that it sounds great, easy to follow and understand. Wrap it up with a bow, a fog machine, a great praise band, and a glowing smile. No need for compromise, just give in! Culture 1, Gospel 0. The Gospel comes as nothing more than a watered down reflection of that which it engages. For shame!

 

Well, turn a certain extent, yes. We learn from Paul’s actions the nature of Gospel flexibility, and Paul uses this flexibility to its fullest in the cosmopolitan, multi-faith, multi-cultural centers like Corinth, like the cosmopolitan, multi-faith, multi-cultural centers like….Houston…..But we need to make sure that it is flexibility, and not relativism. To read Paul’s actions as supporting a carte blanche gospel is to misunderstand Paul. Paul bends and twists the Gospel because the Gospel is built to be bent and twisted, put through cultural calisthenics, as long as Paul, as well as ourselves, sticks to the abiding principle of the Gospel, and that is love.

 

The Gospel comes to you on your terms because the Good News of Jesus Christ is unbounded. It’s not so much that you believe in the Gospel, but the Gospel believes in you. The Gospel is coming to find you, twisting and turning, never giving up its identity, but defying our attempts to construct a rigid frame around it. There is no limit to where the Gospel can go and who it can reach and what it can do, unless silly mortals like ourselves try to shape it into something we think we can control, into an inflexible shape because we are more comfortable with the bred-in- captivity gospel than the wild beast that it is. We fear the Gospel, so we want to break it, stick a bridle in its mouth, and domesticate it.  We choose our favorite quotations: John 3:16 or the like, to summarize the Gospel. We have our own pet understandings: the gospel is about salvation, or it’s about the end of the world, etc. But the Gospel, just like that greased watermelon you may have tried to catch in the pool at summer camp, the more your squeeze it the more in slips right through our hands.

 

I propose, then, that a new generation of Apologists must come forward, and St. Philip is well suited for such resurgence. Apologists, coming from the Greek meaning “to make a defense of” have been part of Christian History for millennia. With my students in my Christian Thought elective I teach, I enjoy spending time working through the rhetoric and theology of the early Christian Apologists, people who REALLY knew how much was on the line as they were defending a faith that was barely old enough to be worthy of such a title. Paul’s great sermon on the Areopagus in Acts 17 is an excellent example. Justin Martyr and Tertullian made articulate and impassioned defenses of Christianity. In our modern context, when people think of those who defend Christianity, images of Bible-thumping bigots or smarmy TV evangelists come to mind. There are other molds of apologists in the world. I personally think that my preaching professor, Harvard University’s former minister Peter Gomes, God rest his soul, may go down in history as one of the late 20^th century’s greatest Apologists. A Harvard University preacher, well-trained in the arts of oratory, theology, and rhetoric, not with a pulpit with flashy turning globes and multi-million dollar theatrics, but a person who knows his own faith, is comfortable with that faith, understands the scandalous nature of that faith, and knows how to navigate the waters of a 21^st century world and knowing that means, more than anything else, understanding the historic nature of our faith and how it speaks fresh new words to a new world, that’s the sort of Apologist we need. And it’s not as if there’s some dearth of people who need to hear about what a place like St. Philip has to offer; according to a recent Pew forum, people who said that they thought religion was important but considered themselves “unaffiliated” were about 12.1% of those polled. That made them the fourth largest “denomination” in the census.

 

How exciting it is to consider ourselves like Paul did, explorers on the shores of a new world, a world where Christianity is now a world religion, and we need to be able to see it as such, and not the dominant religious voice practicing a bit of noblesse oblige among the heathen. And like Paul, we need to share the Good News not for the sake of acceptance, but for the sake of sharing the Gospel’s blessings. So don’t limit the Gospel. The Good News that Jesus Christ brings is a word of love, and new life, and life abundant, and that goes for all of you here, and all those who you, like Paul, are obliged to take it to. Don’t feel like you have to limit the Gospel, so also don’t feel like you have to get it right. You are called to spread the message of the Gospel’s blessings, and spread the story of its encompassing love, its life-giving love, that costly love that risks everything, and to preach anything else is to preach a half-truth, and even worse, a half-love. Revel in that freedom, and take the Gospel out, and share its blessings.