All Things to All People

​Listen again to what Paul says to the Corinthians: “I have become all things to all people.”
 
Leading up to that line, Paul explains what he means by becoming all things to all people. With slaves, Paul acts like a slave even though he is not a slave. With Jews, he acts like a Jew, meaning that he follows the law, even though he does not recognize a personal obligation to follow the law. With those outside the law—that is, with Gentiles—Paul acts like a Gentile even though he is not a Gentile. And to the weak, Paul acts weak.
 
I don’t know how you hear Paul on this, but I am not entirely comfortable with it. It sounds unprincipled, as if Paul were willing to be or do anything depending on who he is with at any given time. That’s not a great character trait!
 
We know that Paul was not really like that, at least not always. Paul routinely took strong stands in his letters. As we know from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul frequently said things that people found so offensive they tried to run him out of town or even kill him. According to tradition, Paul ultimately died a martyr’s death for his refusal to compromise his faith. Paul could stand firm when it mattered.
 
But what Paul emphasizes in our passage is his flexibility, his willingness to adapt to his hearers, to accommodate to the needs and expectations of his hearers as much as possible.
 
So, what is the lesson for us here? What can we learn from Paul’s example of flexibility, adaptation, accommodation?
 
The first lesson that occurs to me is Paul’s effort to prioritize the needs of other people. We saw the same thing in our passage from Corinthians last week. Paul does not insist on doing things his way. Instead, Paul tries to work with the people around him, even when they are different than he is on things that Paul considers important, like the question of the law.
 
In that effort at meeting the genuine needs of others, Paul was motivated by love. Out of love, Paul was willing to become all things to all people.
 
This is yet another reminder that the Christian life is defined by love. As we sang last week, quoting Jesus himself, “they will know we are Christians by our love.”
 
Our task as Christian people is to love. Over the course of our lives, hopefully!, we get a little better at loving. We get a little better at not insisting on our own way. We get a little better at taking the wants and the needs of the people around us seriously. We get a little better at being all things to all people, as they have genuine need.
 
But we need to get more specific.
 
Paul had a specific calling: to proclaim the gospel. Proclaiming the gospel was an obligation laid on him. It was not a question of his own will, but a commission entrusted to him. Paul’s calling was, as he says, to “win” people to God. Paul tried to be all things to all people so that he “might by all means [possible] save [at least] some, as God called him to do.
 
In other words, Paul adapted his behavior to the people around him not just out of generic Christian love, but rather as the fulfillment of his particular vocation as an apostle and evangelist. In Paul’s life, Christian love took the form of becoming all things to all people so that he could accomplish what God called him to do—win souls.
 
We share with Paul the general command to love. But since none of us are apostles, our particular callings—what Christian love looks like for each of us—are different than Paul’s. 
 
As I have already said several times this year(!), we are prayerfully considering our own specific callings right now. We are considering the form Christian love should take in each of our lives this year. Next week, we will dedicate our commitment forms for our time and talents.
 
On my form, I have checked off all the things that I do here at Saint David’s. But I have also spent time reflecting on what is the heart of my calling, what are the things that matter most for me to do, what are the ways I need to adapt my life to do my part for God’s people and God’s mission.
 
I hope all of you will do the same: reflect on what Christian love looks like in your particular vocation here at Saint David’s.
 
And, as Paul would remind us, our callings are not limited to what happens in Church. Part of my vocation is to be a good husband. Indeed, sometimes being a good husband is the most challenging part of my vocation. I experienced that challenge yet again this week, at the very moment I began working on this sermon!
 
Last Tuesday, after puttering around for much of the morning, I finally buckled down a little after 11:00. I started going over our readings, preparatory to meditating on them for a half hour. As I pondered our responsibility to love, to put other’s needs ahead of our own, my phone exploded.
 
Now, I don’t love talking on the phone. And at that moment, I was busy, and I was trying to settle myself, to listen for God’s voice.
 
So, I ignored the call. My phone beeped to indicate that the person had left a message. I ignored that, too. My phone began to beep at me in a way it had never done before. It turns out, on this phone, Carrie can set off the alarm whenever she wants. This is not a good thing. Puzzled but determined, I ignored the alarm. Then I got another call.
 
It was clear that someone really wanted to talk to me. I might have felt some urgency. In fact, I was feeling irritation.
 
But I picked up. It was Carrie, who had forgotten some papers that she needed for work right away. She told me that it would be really great if I could bring the papers to her. I ignored that comment. Carrie added that I could also email her the papers she needed.
 
As I had been pondering when my phone exploded, I am commanded to be what the people around me need me to be, out of Christian love. Over thirty years ago, I took a vow to God in front of gathered family and friends to love and support Carrie in particular, to really be what she needs me to be at any given moment. For me, one important part of Christian love, one form my Christian love should take, is to do things like get Carrie the papers she needs when she needs them.
 
I have work to do on the whole loving, serving, adapting-to-others thing. 
 
But I keep at it, as best I can, with God’s help. I keep trying to love, practicing love, working at loving others enough to focus on their needs at least as much as my own. To do that at home, and here at Saint David’s, and everywhere else I go.
 
I know that you do the same because I see it all the time. And I know that we all fail sometimes, too.
 
And so I pray that we can continue to get better at loving others, at fulfilling God’s specific calls to each of us, to becoming all things to all people so that we might by all means get it right sometimes.
 
In Christ’s name. Amen.