Daily Devotion – February 2, 2021 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
9:16 If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!
9:17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission.
9:18 What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.
9:19 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.
9:20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law.
9:21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law.
9:22 To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.
9:23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
I co-taught a class at Luther Seminary for a dozen years called Reading the Audiences. A professor from the Leadership Division (me) and a professor from the Theology division were paired to teach this required course for first year students that placed them in a local church, had them learn how congregations usually work, and had them explore with that congregation ways of looking at and discerning about their mission, their church members, their neighbors, and what God might be up to in all three.
Each student learned the demographic makeup of the congregation and the neighborhood. Each student learned the economic and educational challenges of the congregation and the neighborhood. Each student did interviews in the congregation and in the neighborhood. Each student learned the history and culture of the congregation and the neighborhood. Each student hated that class.
I have heard from quite a few former students that, once graduated and out in an actual parish for a year or so, they start digging around for the notes from that class. While they truly did hate that work in seminary – it was contrary to their expectations of learning more Bible, church history, and theology – it was hard sociological work and also deep listening work in a place they didn’t really care about – they came to see that exactly that sort of work fitted them, much like Paul in this passage, to be Jew to the Jew, Greek to the Greek, in service of the gospel.
In these times of needing to be especially attentive to those who are different from us in background, temperament, faith, or social cause, wouldn’t it really pay off to have some of the skills of listening deeply, looking for history, and digging for stories in service of the Gospel? I can tell you for a fact, in more countries than I can name, that when a local church develops those sorts of skills, led in the field by both clergy and laypeople, they thrive in their calling to serve others in order to proclaim the Gospel.
Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us gifts to use in service to others. Thank you for giving our local congregation gifts to be put in service to our neighbors. Help us, like Paul, to be weak to serve the weak, so that we might proclaim your good news to whomever needs it. Amen.
