SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
TEXT: 23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings. THEME: INTRODUCTION When you discover something great, don’t you want to share it with others, with family, friends, and even strangers, especially when they are dealing with the same things you are dealing with? What we have discovered will be a blessing to this life. Here are a few things shared with me that I have shared with others; Dry fit shirts, Frixion erasable roller Gel pens, instant pot, air fryer, indoor smokeless grill, CTEL classes from PSR. Impact drivers, electric hot water kettle. SCRIPTURE After 2000 years of its development, Judaism is changing because of the good news of Jesus Christ. Judaism has been refined and defined with the Law, spelling out what is right and wrong, prescribing how to live and trying to take into account every contingency. What they weren’t prepared for was the long-awaited Messiah being so different from what they excepted. This is Paul’s experienced with Jesus. At first not believing those bold claims of forgiving sin, healing, identifying himself as the Son God and God, and the resurrection. This attack on the Jewish faith had to be stopped by all means, even violent means. When from Jerusalem, he heard that there were Christians in Damascus he set out to round them up and incarcerate them. En route, the resurrected Jesus appears before him and intercepts him and his posse. Jesus is real, resurrected making the inconceivable possible and changing all of Paul’s violent objections to Christianity. All that Paul thought were blasphemous lies from a deranged egomaniac were now placed in the context of truth and love, creating a new paradigm for understanding Jesus as the Son of God, the Christ, the Savior of the world. This persecutor of the faith becomes the greatest promoter of the church. Truth so profound that Paul is compelled, obligated and commissioned to proclaim the Good News to others. The Good New that;
We are profoundly and completely loved. This good news is not only for Paul, or for a particular people, but for everyone. But they won’t know this unless someone tells them, so Paul joins God’s mission, responds to God’s call and is obligated and commissioned to share the Good News. The second part of this passage is where Paul becomes all thing to all people. He has these perspectives from his life as a Jew, a Lawyer, a Roman Citizen and one weaken, suffering at the hands of power, incarcerated for proclaiming the good news. These experiences give him insights into other people’s situations, and find common experiences where he can share his experiences with God. We cannot fully understand everything about another person just by being of the same ethnic back ground, or by living in the same town, or by living under the same cultural rules, or by ensuring that same illness but it does give us some common ground to make a personal connection. This is where what we know about Christ from our own life, can bring the gospel to life for others. These are where the connection points make faith in Jesus real. Connecting points can also be made by being a good listener. Listening to other people’s stories, identifying how they are feeling. And not interjecting our opinions until we they are done sharing. APPLICATION To be all things to all people is to be empathetic, nonjudgmental, listening, and understanding things from another’s perspective. How is our presentation of the gospel influenced by this sensitivity? What kind of diversity might emerge from this expression of faith? The future of the church will be with those, like Paul who, have a sense of obligation to be a vehicle for the Gospel to be proclaimed. Often times meeting people where they are instead of having them come to us. They gather around interest and connections and build a connection where they are willing to explore spiritual things.
These are becoming the new models of the church but they are not self-sufficient. They will need support for entities like WUC, that can be stewards of their resources to help these versions of the church. Their leaders will have to be trained, if not, they will be insulated, sheltered from learning and tend to be conservative, literal and judgmental. Our Association and Conference will have to provide training for them and continue programs for learning like Equipping Tomorrow’s Church Leaders, and Pacific School of Religion’s Certificate of Theological Education for Leadership (CTEL). The Paul-like leaders of these churches, have heart, they are called, they are obligated and feel Commissioned because of how the Gospel has impacted their lives. But like Paul, they need an Ananias in Damascus to teach them, frame a theological foundation and give them the tools to continue to do theological work for an ever-evolving faith. Then lastly, they need us, a connection with an established bunch of Christians, to be in relationship with them. There is a sense of accountability, a mutual caring and sharing; to inspire them and be inspired by. Our relationship with these new forms of the church will put them in connection with those in our Association, the Conference and the UCC. Together, these partnerships can accomplish for God, what we are unable to do on our own. CONCLUSION I watched a webinar on the rural church sponsored by the UCC. Panelist shared what their Small membership churches were doing during the pandemic to survive. I was exhausted by what these exceptional, energetic pastoral leaders were doing with their congregations. But the model was clear to me, “these were Churches the figured out how to do more with what they had”. If they are not careful, they will burn themselves out their church members. Thank goodness, you don’t have an exceptional, energetic pastor. The story of the Wailuku Mission Housing is the story of the Gospel being lived out by our church (not its pastor). The story of God’s love has called and compelled us to live faithfully. We have taken God’s loving of us to love God and others and have decreed the use of our 2.5 acres of land for Affordable rental homes for our neighbors. Believe it or not, we are a church that is doing the best we can to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ by what we say and by what we do. This is the same old gospel of Jesus Christ, being lived out new in 2021 and beyond. Listening to the voice of God, listening to the cry of our neighbor, and responding in stewardship of what we have, to be used as God would want it used. This is our sharing of the Good News of Jesus, as a blessing for others.
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