Serving a Gracious Master

PROPERS: FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY 

TEXT:       1 CORINTHIANS 9:16-23                                               

PREACHED AT ST. JOHN’S, PASCAGOULA, ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2024

 

ONE SENTENCE:        In our many roles in life, the challenge is for our core identity to be Christian.

 

            One of the great ironies of my vocation is the eight years I served in Starkville.

 

            There was significant irony in that time because I had been reared an inveterate Ole Miss fan.  And I had become rector of the Episcopal Church at the home of Mississippi State University.

 

The irony was lost on no one.

 

            I had grown up cheering for the Rebels.  The first college football game I attended was Jake Gibbs’ last as quarterback.  I would attend freshman football games – when that was still a thing.  I remember Bill Goodrich and Stan Torgeson as game-day radio announcers.

 

            I recall the greatest football game I ever saw was when Ole Miss lost to Alabama, 33-32. Archie Manning had 436 yards of passing and 104 yards of rushing in a losing effort.

 

            I still say the darkest day of my life was the Saturday in October 1970 when the undefeated and second-ranked Rebels lost to unranked Southern Mississippi, 30-14.  I was in Hemingway Stadium the next week when Archie Manning broke his arm.

 

            Suffice it to say, Head Coach Johnny Vaught was a god in our household.

 

            I got my college education there, too. In May 1975, I graduated from Ole Miss, with majors in political science and journalism.

 

            From that point on, the football gods did not smile on my university for several years.  I was not pleasant to be around during fall weekends in the late ‘70s.

 

            I have long said that a major part of my spiritual maturity was being healed of football.

 

            But the red and blue ran deep.

 

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            So, it was with some degree of reluctance… and a great deal of ribbing from my friends… when I was called as rector to Church of the Resurrection in 1993. At my celebration of new ministry, MSU’s president Don Zacharias – one of my parishioners – gifted me a maroon blazer.

 

            I swallowed hard.  But I had changed.

 

            Over the years, I would face good-natured kidding from folks in Starkville. I decided to respond with scripture written by St. Paul, from the second lesson today: “I have become all things to all people that some might be saved.”

 

            Paul knew my experience, but he knew it in even more graphic terms.  Hear his words:

 

“I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. 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. 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. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak.”

 

            Paul lived as a slave, so he could reach out to those who were enslaved. Paul observed the law, so Jews would relate to his message.  He lived as a Gentile, so those outside the chosen people would believe. He became weak, so he could relate to those without power.

 

            Paul’s missionary journeys took him many places and into many roles. Many cities… many ports… many roles. But his core identity was as a follower of Jesus.  That was his primary purpose.

 

            Many hats, but only one crown. He wore that crown to his own martyrdom.

 

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            You and I face many situations – many roles in life: individual, spouse, parent, grandparent, friend, colleague, confidant, employee, supervisor… on and on.

 

            But, like Paul, we are called, beckoned, nudged toward one role – A child of God and a follower of Jesus.  That is our core identity, and it should be the essence of who we are.