'All things to all men'
Here is the basic outline from the sermon that I preached at WHBC this morning. Please feel free to respond. You can write your post agreeing, disagreeing or simply just commenting by clicking on the comments button just below this post.
1 Corinthians 9:19-27
Background to Corinth:
Capital of the Roman province of Achaia
Important city for trade
Contained at least 12 temples to Greek gods including one to the godess of love 'Aphrodite'
I aimed to explain intially that Paul was very good at meeting people in their own setting. I pointed to the example of his debated in the Areopagus (Acts 17) and how he was able to use a bit of his hearers story to attract people to the message he was to bring to them.
We then explored a little about how our idea of sermons aren't actually what the New Testament may allude to. I proposed that many of what we consider to be monological discourses were actually diaological and pointed to the story of Eutychus as evidence of this. Much of my thinking aroung this is from discussions with and the reading of Jeremy's Thomson's grove booklet 'Preaching as dialogue: Is the sermon a sacred cow?'
I next tried to show how Paul used inclusive language and how we need to be careful in the language that we use so as not to alienate people right from the outset (I'm struggling with my walk, oh really do you have a veruca). For this I used an extract of Tom Wright's commentary on 1 Corinthians where he explains that Paul was not a spin doctor but he made the gospel relevant whilst still remaining faithful to the original roots.
Being all things to all men is different in different situations and we have been given various gifts from God which means that as the Church we can be there and offer support to all people. Our gifts are God given and are as important as each other. We all have a role to play.
The final section looked at how it is through a disciplined lifestyle that God speaks to us and uses us to fulfil this famous phrase from Paul. It is as we develop this relationship with God that we learn to trust him and we become people that look to accomplish the plans he has for us.
1 comment:
I think I would agree with most of what you say. I do however think that we must go further than just giving a gospel presentation, which however faithful we try to be to the message will never be entirely so because of human falability. I think that one of the jobs that we must entail is to teach people to become critical thinkers and hearers. People need to deveop this skill so as to be able to discuss and join the life long road of exploration of the scriptures.
Your point about the giving up of liberty is essential and is interesting. Jesus talks about bringing freedom in Luke 4:18-19 as he quotes from Isaiah 61:1-2. Seems like quite an interesting question, How can Jesus bring freedom, but then Paul talk about giving it up?
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