Sermons

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Relinquishing Rights
July 29, 2001
Series on I Corinthians
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

I Corinthians 9

It’s good to be back with you this morning after two weeks in Costa Rica with the high school mission trip. Honestly, I missed you, I missed being here. While I was gone, I continued to read with you in I Corinthians, though the setting was different…mango and banana trees in sight from where I sat and read!

I also listened to the tapes of the sermons that Lynne Baab and Jeff VanDuzer preached on I Corinthians 7 and 8…and I have to tell you that I was overwhelmed with gratitude for their gifts in studying and listening for God’s word. It’s a huge blessing to me to be able to leave and know they will do such a great job…and it’s always a huge blessing for our community. So thanks, Lynne and Jeff.

This morning we continue in I Corinthians, now at chapter 9 if you want to turn there. It’s important to realize that this is connected with the chapter 8 passage Lynne looked at last Sunday. You’ll remember how excited she was to hear that her passage would be on the topic of “meat”!

But as Lynne explained, the issue before the Corinthian church was much bigger than just whether they should eat the meat that had been used in idol worship. It seemed that some of the church thought themselves mature enough to eat it without it affecting their faith in the slightest … yet for others, it would have been a huge obstacle to faith. And so Paul said, “If that’s the case, I won’t eat this meat, or even any meat at all…to make sure I don’t drag someone down.”

Today Paul expands this thought. I’ll begin reading at Chapter 9, verse 1.

I Corinthians 9:1-7, 11-12

I don’t know if you picked up on it, but this is a dangerous section for any pastor to preach on! …because in order to deal further with why Paul does not eat meat offered to idols, he finds another example to illustrate. And his example is the issue of material support…HIS material support…his means of livelihood as a minister of the gospel. The issue is: Should other people contribute to his living so that he is free to travel, plant churches and preach? [I can see your minds whirring already. "Mental Note: Check Baumgartner’s salary.”]

But Paul does this in a very interesting way. He spends 12 verses … TWELVE verses arguing, and I must say quite convincingly, that he IS indeed entitled to the Corinthians' support. He lists it out: He is an apostle, he has seen Jesus, he has worked his tail off on behalf of the Corinthians’ spiritual growth, and they are bearing fruit. They KNOW it! So, Paul says, don’t I have the right to be fed? Don’t I have the right to have what other apostles (like Peter) do…their wives traveling with them in ministry? Other apostles are free from working another job…don’t I have that right, Paul says? But he won’t quit. He goes on with illustrations that hit right where this Corinthian church is:

If you are in the army…they pay you, right? If you plant, you get the fruit you harvest. If you’re a shepherd, you’re entitled to the milk. Why, even an OX who goes around and around with a treading machine has the right to pick up scraps as he goes. Paul says “I’ve sown, I’ve plowed, I’ve threshed, I’ve stood for your spiritual growth. Even the LORD himself, Paul writes, “commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel” (Luke 10:7-8). SO…do I have the right to your material support?

Paul is a powerful debater. When I finished reading this section, I was ready to sign on: Yes, Paul, Yes, Yes! Of course you have the right! Let me get my checkbook. So after all that work, all that arguing, all that convincing, Paul says “Good. We agree…I have the right. Now…I relinquish that right.” . . . What?! Paul legitimately has the right, but he voluntarily chooses to give up what is rightfully coming to him…forfeits the right, limits himself.

I’m not sure we get this. I’m not sure we want to get this. We are all about rights these days, aren’t we? Rights and entitlements. It is a distinguishing mark of our society. Some of these rights come distinctly from the judicial structure of our country:

The right to bear arms. The right to free speech. We hold up these type of rights up as extremely important…though the cynical side of me says we hold onto them… even when our country has the most violent crimes with guns in the whole world, even when our concern for free speech means many of us are embarrassed at what comes into our living rooms on the television. But, my personal cynicism aside, we are consumed with “rights.”

Other “rights” that concern us are less concretely spelled out, but nonetheless are present inside us: The right to have a good job. The right to have a certain material level of life: car, house, vacation, luxury. Particularly if one has a certain level of education, we feel we have a right to these things. The right to make my own decisions. The right to be happy. We are enamored with rights.

Sometimes it gets downright silly. For years as I have traveled on airplanes, I have always ticketed an aisle seat. My legs are somewhat long, and I get cramps if I can’t stretch out. Now, after years of doing this, the wisdom of the aisle seat is still debatable. Inevitably, as soon as I stretch my leg out into the aisle, a stewardess comes roaring down the aisle with a metal cart and smashes into my knee! Nonetheless, over the years I have come to feel that I am entitled to that aisle seat. On the way to Costa Rica, they had the audacity to put me by the window. And I realized I was actually indignant that they dared to put someone in MY seat. I felt like my rights had been violated!

Sometimes things aren’t just silly. Some of you have been in property disputes with neighbors. The location of a fence, or the trimming (or lack of trimming) of trees that affect another person’s view. Those issues can very quickly raise issues of “my rights.” And two people concerned with “my rights” have a hard time finding common ground.

Paul is concerned about rights as well. But what he says flips the whole world upside down. I’ve identified what my rights are…now I choose to not exercise them.

Some of you will remember the movie “Dead Poets’ Society.” Robin Williams plays a very creative teacher who tries to teach a group of boys to think for themselves in an extremely strict all-boys school. In one scene, he takes his class out into a big courtyard, and has three of them begin to walk around together, with no other instructions. Very quickly, the three fall into a rhythmic step with each other, and Williams stops them to talk about how easy it is to conform to those around us. He urges the kids to do their own thinking. He then invites the entire group to do a “freedom” walk as individuals, with any style or stride they may want.

It’s a comical scene as they mill around, some strutting, some slinking … then Williams notices that one young man is still leaning against a pillar. “Mr. Dalton,” he says, “will you be joining us?” And Mr. Dalton says “I’m exercising my right to not walk.” That illustrated Williams’ point of independent thinking perfectly. And it at least hints at Paul’s point with the Corinthians. Paul knows the distinction between having a right…and exercising it. He tells them that he is choosing to NOT exercise his right to receive their support…but for a reason far deeper than independence, or self-interest. Verse 12: “Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.”

Paul’s passion comes out here, perhaps more than any other place in all of his letters. He is passionate, maybe obsessed with one thing…letting other people know about the incredible love of God evidenced in Jesus Christ. And he will be content with NOTHING…not his rights, nor anything else…that might stand in the way. The question of rights is irrelevant for him. The question is: What will allow others to see the grace of God? He is consumed.

I honestly read this, and my heart dropped. Do you have that kind of passion for other people to encounter the living God? At best, I say “once in a while.” It seems like we are normally content with “I’ll live my life, and if someone wants to go out of their way to ask me about God, then we’ll talk.” We’re careful, not passionate. We seem much closer to the quote I read this week in that fine literary magazine Sports Illustrated. It was from Kyle Turley, an-all star offensive tackle on the New Orleans Saints. Turley happens to be a Mormon, but his words could apply to any of us.

In the course of an interview, he said, “I’m Mormon, and so what? It’s what I believe, but it’s not all I am. The problem with religion is that people take it, whatever it may be, to the point where it completely dictates their life. That’s when things get scary. After what I’ve been through, ironclad beliefs don’t seem so healthy these days.”

Now contrast that with Paul’s words from verse 19ff:

“For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law (though I am not), so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as on outside the law…so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by all means…save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel…”

Paul isn’t being wishy-washy…he’s pouring out his strategy, his passion. Paul’s passion for others to know Christ overshadows everything…even his rights.

Costa Rica was a good place for me to have some of my passion renewed. Let me tell you about some reasons why that was true. Every morning we went and worked at the construction site where we helped add seven classrooms to a Christian school. I worked one morning with a 17-year-old Costa Rican youth named Isaac. As we worked, Isaac told me his story…or as much as I could get between my horrible Spanish, and his only-slightly-better English.

The story went like this. Isaac’s family has three children. His father is living and working construction up in Los Angeles, and sending his weekly checks back to Costa Rica to support his family. Isaac has not seen his father for over two years, and he had no idea when he would see him again.

Isaac was a boy who needed to know and be reminded over and over of his heavenly Father…a Father who would always be with him. I longed for Isaac to know that…I long for people all around me and you who have been let down or abandoned by important people in their lives…to know the steadfast love of Christ. The thing is…there are “Isaacs” all over the place…not just Costa Rica, but in the States, in Seattle, in your life, in my neighborhood.

They need to know.

Two different mornings, we joined with a Costa Rican youth group to put on a three-hour time for kids, sort of a large group “Vacation Bible School.” We had games, relays, water balloons, a presentation of the gospel, and a Bethany student sharing their story with Christ all ready to go. The first morning, we walked to a very, very poor barrio, or neighborhood. Instantly there were over 100 kids, young kids, dying for some fun, some attention. If you looked down the street from the warehouse we were at next to the railroad tracks, it was metal roofs and little shacks or cottages as far as you could see. Open fires were in the front yards. People milled about everywhere, though it was mid-morning and mid-week. Drunks wandered the train tracks behind us. And there were kids…everywhere. Streaming out of the little houses in an endless line. It yanked at your heart.

And as I looked at this depressing picture, I started to think: What will happen to these kids? What chance do they have to grow up knowing that they are loved and cared for? And what RIGHT do I have, having experienced God’s incredible love…to just sit in my comfortable neighborhood?

The second morning was very different. The neighborhood was much more middle class, and this time when we got out of the cars there was not one kid in sight. Not ONE. After a few minutes, the word came out that the neighborhood was Catholic, and we were perceived as some Protestant mission. In Central America, the Protestants and Catholics are a long, long ways apart…with considerable animosity.

What were we to do? We were here, ready to be heroes…why didn’t God show up with the kids? At that point, I guess we had the right to get back in the cars and go home. After all, we had given it a good shot. We had prepared, and prayed, and shown up…and it hadn’t worked. But…we didn’t exercise the right to go home. Instead, the kids and leaders and the Costa Rican kids split up and started walking up and down the neighborhood.

I have to tell you, you would have been amazed at your kids! They talked to people, threw balls, sang, invited. Within an hour, there were 75 kids at that hilltop. Playing, making friends, listening to one of our students talk about this person Jesus.

Paul is passionate for people to know Jesus. He knows that will require him to give up various kinds of rights. He knows that it will require (of him, and of us) hard choices. But for Paul…NOTHING will stop him.

I pray that Paul’s passion for the gospel, and his willingness to lay down his own interests for the sake of others…might pour out of this letter, and be rekindled in our own hearts as we go about our lives this week. Amen.