Sun Kwak, “Cruciform Habits”
https://www.youtube.com/live/l5REIulPBhQ?si=S858wVa4Ay3JXZ-t
TEXT: 1 Corinthians 9:1-27
[1] Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? [2] If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
[3] This is my defense to those who would examine me. [4] Do we not have the right to eat and drink? [5] Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? [6] Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? [7] Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
[8] Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? [9] For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? [10] Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. [11] If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? [12] If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? 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.
[13] Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? [14] In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
[15] But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. [16] For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! [17] For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. [18] What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
[19] For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. [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 not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. [21] To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. [22] To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. [23] I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
[24] Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. [25] Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. [26] So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. [27] But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
SERMON: “Cruciform Habits”
As many of you know, one of the other ways I serve our community here in Camarillo is as a flag football coach for this organization called YAC — Young Athletes for Christ. And one of the things that makes us different as an organization is that above and beyond developing football ability, our aim is to develop character within the confines and structure of team sports. And we have general Christian liberty to run with that. Something I’ve implemented from the very beginning of my time coaching that’s a been a bit unpopular is that I don’t just disallow taunting or complaining about calls. But on our teams, you’re not allowed to do touchdown celebrations. You’re allowed to give high fives, but absolutely no dance celebrations. So, there was a moment when one of our players Sam was distraught after our team had let our opponents score a touchdown. And what he spotted was the other team celebrating and doing a touchdown dance. And he immediately comes over to me, and tells me — Coach Sun, they’re celebrating. That’s not allowed. And I had to tell him that it wasn’t a universal YAC rule, but it was just a Coach Sun rule. And I saw something kind of die in his eyes at the moment. Because he was looking for justice, but it wasn’t available at the moment. But the other thing it did was put his young heart in a bind. Because football is a competitive game, and it generates all kinds of adrenaline and energy. And in this hyper-competitive environment, this call to refrain from celebrating felt unnatural and constricting. Perhaps, even countercultural. And for little Sam, he began to realize that being a part of our team required him to behave in ways that might be contrary to one’s natural instincts.
We’re landing in the letter of 1 Corinthians today. And the city of Corinth was a heavily competitive place. Not only was there something called the Isthmusian Games, which were second only to the Olympics in Athens when it came to sporting competitions. But this was a city, according to Wayne Meeks from Yale University, that was heavily status-conscious and status-aware. You not only were aware of what other people’s statuses were, but you were aware of what other people thought of you. And so, there was this competitive spirit caked into every aspect of Corinthian living. Because the desire and aim was to increase one’s status in comparison to those around. In fact, status was so important to these Corinthians that it was known that external semblances carried more weight than true internal value. And there was no shame in that in their context. As one historian put it, for the Corinthians, self-promotion and boasting had become an art form, because appearances mattered more than facts. They wanted to look the part and appear as winners. Which you might know isn’t just an ancient problem. It’s very much a modern problem as well, but we have a chance to learn from our ancient friends here. Because something that the apostle Paul is addressing in this passage and throughout this letter is that this form of competitive spirit and jostling for status and position. This was something that had seeped into the church here in Corinth. But a bit like Sam from our YAC flag football team, these Corinthianshad to make a conscious decision. In this hyper-competitive environment, what were they going to do? Would they become like their culture or would they abide to a different way of life as guided and instructed through the life of the church, guided by the story of the gospel?
We’re in a short series during this season of Eastertide that we’ve titled Life Together. And it’s a short series around what it means and looks like to do life together as the church. It’s not just about looking the part but about being the church. And that comes with all the messiness and brokenness that’s involved with doing life with fellow sinners who share in the need for forgiveness and grace and kindness. And all the while, it necessitates that we learn new reflexes and move our spiritual muscles in ways that our uncomfortable and even, at times, energy sapping. But with the Christ at the center and the gospel as our compass, we navigate the terrains of doing life together not in our ideal community but in our real and lived out community. The place where feelings will get hurt, the place of unmet expectations and disappointments — and as we’re going to learn today, the place of self-sacrifice and inconveniencing ourselves for the sake of others. Making less of ourselves in order to lift up others. Learning to care less about our preferences in order to create seats and opportunities for others in the community. Not primarily because we follow a different set of rules. But because the person who energizes us to do this gives us the ultimate power source because of his self-sacrifice and his other-focused devotion. We keep our eyes on Christ, as we engage in life together here at Christ Our Redeemer.
I know we already talked about football. But you might know the movie Remember the Titans. And there, you get Coach Boone played by Denzel Washington. And at the heart of what he was setting out to accomplish was bringing unityacross race-related divisions amongst the black and white players on the football team in the South around the 50’s. One of the team leaders and star players Gerry Bertier gets into a career-ending injury and near life-ending accident from a serious car crash. And Coach Boone is asked to address the media and gather the team. And it’s obviously a serious moment for the team, where he’s forced to take a step back from the game of football and consider the larger picture. And of course, he cares for Gerry, he knows life is about more than football and about winning games. But his conviction is that the team still needs to bring home the championship, so his eyes are glued onto the next team and continuing practice. And so, his eyes are set on victory in the next game, in this hyper-competitive environment. And there, he’s pressed and asked if his values are in the right place. And he responds — I’m a winner. I’m going to win. And this lives forever on the internet as a meme and a gif. And as with all the athletic greats, it’s something he could never shut off — it was a part of his identity. As we just stated, winning and the privileges and rights inherited by winning. This was not just a part but the integral cord that held together what it meant to be in Corinth. And in this chapter, they’re being confrontedabout their true identity. And what the apostle Paul looks to be telling them is that the way of Christ is not by attainingand amassing but actually by losing and giving up rights and privileges. And because this winning mentality was something so deeply embedded into the minds and hearts of the Corinthians, the apostle Paul doesn’t just give them a set of instructions. But he guides them towards an analogy that would have hit home for them.
And so, you go to the very end of our chapter, and we get an analogy that would have registered with these Corinthiansin light of their Isthmusian Games. And we read there about this race being run. And the apostle Paul sets out the guidelines for this race — all the runners race, but one receives the prize. It’s not unfamiliar to how we understand the rules of a race. It’s the same then, as it is now. In my earlier years of playing basketball, one of my coaches would tell us — There’s no such thing as second place. Second place is first loser. And so, you consider what the apostle Paul is trying to show these Corinthians. He’s not telling them that only one of them will win. This isn’t The Hunger Gameshere. Because you might have heard people talk about the Christian race before — it’s something we do together, it’s not something we compete with each other about. And so, what is Paul doing here? I think he’s drawing the Corinthians and us to something foundational in the Christian life. Because for this multitude — note that it’s all the runners, in the plural. For all the runners to receive one prize, which is a wreath — something victors wore on their heads after completing the race victorious. For the multitude to wear it together, it can only be that it’s because we’re joined together not in our individual victories but in another’s corporate and representative victory. Where in his winning, we not only win but win with each other. To dispose these Corinthians of their proclivity toward winning and achieving and attaining, what the apostle Paul had to direct them toward was one common victor, whose victory is once and for all.
Because what the apostle Paul has just spelled out in the verses leading up to these final verses in chapter 9 is a whole lot of relinquishing and losing, which was, once again, antithetical to the Corinthian way. And a word that keeps surfacing again and again seven times over is the word rights, as in privileges and things we deem we deserve without question. And there are different analogies that he uses to spell this out, from eating and drinking to marriage to wages owed. But then, he gets personal, because he refers to this seal of his apostleship, meaning this proves and validates that it’s Christwho sent him. And it’s the way in which he relinquishes and gives up. He talks about the wages he gives up prior to. But in verses 15-18, we get at the heart of what the apostle Paul sets as his primary focus. And as he’s been spelling out these rights seven times over, here in these four verses, we get four references to the word gospel. It’s the very source that drives him toward self-sacrifice and relinquishing things that he might deem belong to him. And as he’s preaching the gospel, what he says is that the ends is that he might win over both the Jews and the Greeks. And he’s going to do this by becoming to the Jew a Jew and becoming to the Greek a Greek. And we might read this and conclude — Paul’s just being culturally sensitive. Or as Tim Keller might say, He’s contextualizing. That this might some cross-cultural sensitivity that he’s referencing here. But if we slow down a bit here, we catch something peculiar. Because Paul didn’t have to become a Jew. He was a Jew by birth. Because what he’s driving at is that the gospel does something to his identity. Something that is even more deeply rooted in him than even his birth identity.
Because this gospel identity was formed in him when he observed the narrative of one who ultimately gave up his rights. That though he had exclusive rights to heaven and to his Father’s things, he relinquished these — he left his throne, his comforts, his palace. He left heaven itself in the ultimate act of giving up his rights in order that he might come to a people broken and destitute, to have all rights removed when hanging naked on the cross for our sins and rebellion. That he might ultimately give us access to his Father, to his home, to his Table. And in the most evangelistic appeal, here he became all things for all people. That for humans, he became a man when giving up these rights in heaven. But for sinners, he became sin and the object of his Father’s wrath. Where in the words of John Stott, in becoming sin, Jesuswas so covered by our filth and the multitude of our sins that his Father, who he knew for all eternity, could no longer recognize him. The the Son of God, the jewel of heaven had become the thing that his Father had so despised when taking our place on the cross. And there, his Father had no other option but to pour out complete wrath upon the man wearing our sin on the cross. Because what would cease the endless strive for attaining more, for attaining individual glory, was when the Corinthians, along with we here at Christ Our Redeemer, would look upon our common victor, our corporate representative. Because that wreath we read of in verse 25 was something victors wore on their heads — as a crown. And that crown for us is what James describes in James 1:12 as the crown of life. But for Jesus, who relinquished his rights, his privilege, when leaving his palace and throne from heaven. For him, it was a crown of thorns. To the only one who had sufficiently crossed the finish line. To him was given the crown of thorns, marking our sins, marking our shame, paying our debt, and giving us unmitigated access to the Father. Because there is power in the story of the gospel.
And here’s how we’ll begin closing our time — with a little application. Which as some of you might know, isn’t the normfor me, but here we go. Like many of you, the COVID years were dark years for me. And they were particularly dark for me, because ministry had to keep happening, and I just had to keep going. And with everything that happened with COVID and church hurt and relational fractures and broken trust and scathing words and unbearable weights. It drove me to a dark place of isolation. I was sitting on a Zoom call with a counselor. And I was telling him how I feel so weighed down, that it feels like an eternally rainy day. And his response to me was one of the things that kept me going in that season. He looked at me through the camera and told me — Sun, if you think you’re the only getting wet on a rainy day, you’re not looking up. And as someone who felt the burdens of ministry and ministering to others, this initially fell on me like a ton of bricks. But after a pause, he tells me — I’m not telling you to look around at the weight of others you have to shoulder. I’m telling you to look at the one who not only endured a rainy day but the flood of God’s wrath. He did that for you. And by looking up, I began to be able to look around. I don’t do it perfectly, but it gave me the courage to enter into grief and difficult conversations. It gave me the capacity to empty myself for others, even when it felt like I had nothing left to give. It gave me the strength to be able to week by week visit and watch one of my dearest friends waste away bodily. And to do it with joy, because I knew Jesus endured the cross not just for me but also for her. Because my source, your source does not come from us. But from the one who gave up his seat, who left his comforts, who gave up his life to run after and to die for and to stand for a people like you and me.
Church family, giving up our rights is difficult. It requires commitment and tenacity. Whether it’s time that we’re unwilling to give up. Or, conveniences. Or, finances. Or, personal opinions. But we are called to give up our rights for one another, because we serve a King who gave up his rights for us. And whether that’s serving in our Nursery and Kids classes. Or, getting to know some pre-teens or teens. Or, inviting over some of our young adults into your home. Or, offering to babysit for a tired mom. Or, bringing a meal to a weary family. We empty of ourselves, because in a strange way, we get to encounter Jesus through those very acts of sacrifice. I know it’s not easy to serve one another here in the church. But we’re all going through rainy days. The best way to get through them is to do it together and alongside one another. It’s my deep encouragement that we might learn the practice of giving up our rights, our privileges, our conveniences for the betterment of others that we might become a community that looks like, smells like, feels like the love of Christ. That as we collectively look toward our King who gave up his rights and took the flood waters of wrath on our behalf, we might be a community formed toward cruciform habits.
