A Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B.

 

If I proclaim the Gospel, this give me no ground for boasting,  for an obligation is laid on me.  Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!  (I Corinthians 9:16)

 

 

St. Paul was one of the great preachers of the Gospel. He more than any single other person was responsible for spreading the Good News about Jesus throughout the known world of his day.  Paul took the Gospel to Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Rome and beyond.  He crisscrossed the Mediterranean multiple times, was ship-wrecked, beaten, arrested, imprisoned and more in this work that he gave his life to.

 

But why did he do it?  In the part of his First letter to the Corinthians we read today, he says that he does it because he is under an obligation to preach the Gospel.  God has given him a commission and he must obey it.  That, of course, is true – but it doesn’t tell the whole story.  A simple sense of obligation would not drive Paul – or anyone, for that matter – to the lengths he went for the sake of the Gospel.  Along with his sense of obligation, something else drives Paul – something I can only call his passion for God and for the Good News of Jesus that had changed his life.  In the days before his conversion, Paul had always striven to make himself righteous before God.

 

As he wrote to the Philippians, he was a Hebrews born of  Hebrews, an observant Pharisee, blameless in his keeping of the Law. [1] He worked as hard as anyone in his generation to be good and holy before God.  But something was missing.  All Paul’s pious striving left him incomplete.  Only when Jesus encountered him on the road to Damascus did he find the grace-given righteousness that all his own efforts had never brought him.  He discovered that he was known and loved by God in Christ – quite apart from whether he kept the Law or not.  

 

This was, as he writes more than once, a revelation to him. It opened his eyes to a new reality.

It turned his life around and made everything that had mattered so much to him before unimportant.  As Paul writes to the Philippians,   “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” [2] It is this passion for Christ, this new found joy at the amazing gift that has been given to him that gets Paul out of bed in the morning;  it is this passion that drives him to do all he does for the sake of the Gospel even to the point, as he writes today, to become all things to all people in order that they might share with him in the blessings of the Gospel he treasures so much.  To be sure, Paul takes his apostolic commission to spread the Gospel very seriously, but it is his passion to share the gift that he has received that moves him to give his life to the telling the Good News.

 

As an apostle, Paul had a special commission to tell the Good News.  But all of us have a commission to do so also, as we are reminded every time we renew our Baptismal Covenant:  “Will your proclaim by Word and example the Good News of God in Christ?” -- a question to which we all regularly respond, “I will, with God’s help.”   Typical Episcopalians that most of us are, however, that is a promise we keep rather loosely, shall we say.

 

 

Of course, we offer hospitality to people who come worship with us.  Some us may even have invited friends or neighbors to come to church with us.  But that’s usually about as far as it goes.

For us, as for Paul, an obligation to share the Gospel is, by itself, not enough.  If we are ever really going to live the Baptismal commission to spread the Good News we, like Paul, are going to need something more than a sense of duty to motivate us.  If we are going to be energetic advocates for the Gospel we says gives us life, we will have to get in touch with our own passion for God and for the Good News.

 

So I have a question for you this morning – where is your passion for God?  What in your experience of the Good News of Jesus makes you feel alive, hopeful, energized?  Where has the love of God become real for you?  Most of us probably haven’t had the kind of dramatic conversion experience that Paul did.  Instead, we’ve lived many or all of our years with the practice of Christian faith as part of the fabric of our lives.  Still, I believe that we are here today because at one or more times in our lives God’s love in Christ has moved, touched, changed -- even saved our lives in one way or another.  It is in those places that we will likely find our passion for God.  

 

To give you an example of what I mean, here is a very shorthand version of where I’ve found my passion for God.  In the times in my life when I have felt without a home -- alone, unloved and sometimes unlovable -- God in Christ has found ways to let me know that I am neither alone nor unloved.  Rather there is One who is always with me, loving me with a passion and compassion that will never abandon me in good times or bad.  God has revealed this sometimes in worship;  sometimes in the quiet of prayer, sometimes in a word of Scripture;  sometimes through the community of the Church;  often through the love of other people.  God’s abiding companionship with me and loving care for me are what stirs my passion for the Gospel.  That is why inviting people into a worshipping, community that welcomes everyone and gives them a place to be at home has always been central to my practice of priesthood.  Like Paul, I want to share with others the gift of God’s love that I have received.  That is where my passion for God and the Gospel are found.

 

Among the acts of the General Convention of 2003 that had nothing to do with sexuality issues and so garnered few headlines was a resolution calling on every Episcopalian to be able to articulate his or her faith story – which just might be another way of saying being able to name your passion for God and the Good News of Jesus Christ.  As for Paul and me, your passion for the Gospel is likely going to grow out of your own faith story – your own experiences of God’s love in your life.  And because your faith story is your story, not Paul’s story nor mine, your passion for the Gospel will have its own distinct character and its own particular power when you share it with others.  So – what is your faith story?   Where is your passion for God and the Gospel? 

 

Maybe you know the answer question and know it well enough to tell it in shorthand, as I’ve just done or by sharing a fuller story.  But if you’re not sure how to tell your faith story or name your passion for God –  or maybe if your unsure exactly what it is -- here are some suggestions that I hope will help you begin to put it into words.  In a time of prayer and reflection, recall your life in the presence of God.  As you do so, start ask yourself questions like these:

 

When in your life have you felt most connected to God?

 

What about the Christian story makes your heart sing and brings you joy?  

 

What parts of Christian faith, life or practice could you absolutely not live without?  

 

What do you put most of your time and energy into when it comes to living as a Christian?

 

What moves you to tears and what makes you laugh?

 

Where have you know love at its greatest depth?

 

What is the deepest desire of your heart?

 

What do you most want God to give you?

 

What do you most want to give to God?

 

If you spend prayerful time reflecting on these questions and others that flow from them, perhaps writing about them in a journal, if that works for you,  and in time, maybe even – gasp! – talking to another Episcopalian about them, you’ll go a long way towards getting a handle on your passion for God and for the Gospel;   you’ll know the reasons you are here week after week that go beyond a sense of obligation, family tradition, or doing the right thing for your kids.  

 

Those deep, passionate reasons are there in each of us – though sometimes it takes work to get in touch with them, find words for them; name them.  But when we do, something happens to us.  Our willingness to share the Good News of God in Christ that we’re passionate about grows.  Like St. Paul, we can get bit excited about sharing the gifts of love we’ve been given by God.  Passion for God and the Good News could lead us to break the great Episcopalian taboo of pious silence.  We might actually tell other people that life with the God we’ve come to know in Christ really matters to us  -- and that maybe, it could matter to them, too.