To Boast or not boast

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

​Over and over and over again, as I was growing up, my Papa Tee would talk with me about the best ways to handle myself.  Sadly, I admit every lesson he taught did not leave a lasting impression, but the super majority of them did.  There is one lesson, in particular, that I have remembered since the day he taught me.  And even though he may have only taught it to me once, it is imprinted on my brain in such a way that I do not believe it will ever leave me.  In fact, in many ways this particular lesson speaks to the essence of who my Pop was, at least in my eyes, and who I always strive to be in my own life. 
 
As I prepared to stand before you this week, I thought a lot about this lesson.  Actually, I couldn’t get it out of my mind and when I can’t get things out of my mind, I know I need to give a voice to them.  So, if you would oblige me, I want to share with you the substance of this lesson. 
 
Now, like all lessons Pop taught me, sports were front and center.  Whether it was the basketball court or the baseball diamond, the field of sport seemed to always set the scene.  With this particular lesson it was the baseball diamond, but not only that, this lesson consisted of the one thing he was more well known for than probably anything else in his professional career, the double play.  You see, my Pop was a shortstop and as Sports Illustrated, back in the year 2000, said, a slick fielding one at that.  From all accounts, he worked tirelessly to perfect this particular art, and his work paid off.  Still today, my Pop holds the record for the most double plays ever turned in the Carolina League.
 
Here’s the thing though, this lesson he instilled in me, was not about how to turn a double play.  He had to let go of that dream with me because as hard as he tried to change me, I am left-handed and for those of you familiar with baseball, a left-handed shortstop has never really been a thing.  This lesson was about something else entirely, it was about modesty and humility.  So, while in the front room of his house, with him sitting in his recliner and the Cubs on the TV, because that was all we could really get and plus he liked Harry Cary, he proceeded to say this to me:
 
“Jason, I never had to stand over top of the runner going from 1st to 2nd to let him know how good I was at turning a double play.  It wasn’t my job to turn the focus on me, or to praise myself in any way.  It would have been wrong of me to call attention to myself like that.  Everyone there, the base-runner and the people watching could reach their own conclusions about how good I was at turning double plays.  All I had to do was perform to the best of my ability.  Performing in this way also meant that members of the teams we played, my opponents some might say, respected me and my abilities.  This was a win-win – I did what I was called to do and I never embarrassed other people.  And you want to know something, I built great relationships with all sorts of people.  My opponents… my teammates… Fans.  I never chose to humiliate anyone or stand over them and tell them how great I was and how they should be like me.  That stuff is just plain hurtful and has no place in sports.  You want to know something else, I never thought of myself as more important than my team or more important than the other team.  People who do that have lost sight of what is truly important.”
 
Like I said a minute ago, that lesson, whether he taught it to me one time or a million times, is still imprinted on my brain.  In fact, that lesson so deeply resonated with me and how I chose to view the world at large that all three of my kids have heard my Pop’s words over time.  Yet, the longer I live the more I discover how easy it is for people to BOAST about themselves, and due to the power of my Pop’s influence over me, or maybe because I want to believe that deep down people are not self-absorbed, I keep doing the best I can to live my life for the benefit of others, without trying to turn the focus or spotlight on myself.
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What if your life and the message your life carries were really bigger than you?  Would boasting even be possible, much less the negative impacts that naturally come from boasting?  It seems to me the Apostle Paul knew a little something about the negative impact of boasting, and while one might read today’s passage and initially conclude he is tooting his own horn, after all he does claim to be all things for all people, to reach such a conclusion really clouds the purpose of his message, and forgets his motivation… sharing the good news of the Gospel for the benefit of others, not himself.  His eyes are fixed on sharing Good News to all who might need it, and to share it in ways they might actually be able to hear it.  In this way I see a connection between Paul’s teaching here and lesson my Pop was teaching me:
 
Do not act the way the way you act… Do not proclaim the message you proclaim… just so you get something out of it.  Will you get something out of it… well yes, but this can’t be your focus.  You see, as long as you don’t turn this into something solely about yourself and your own needs, your reach will always expand… but the minute this becomes about you, I promise, people will be hurt, and they will feel alienated and made to feel like they are less than.  Making people feel less than should never be the goal.  
 
To Boast or not to Boast might seem like an easy question to answer, and I believe it would be if we could ever get out of the way, and that part is never really easy.  Oftentimes, we insert ourselves and our agendas into [every aspect of our communal lives].  And as baffling as it is to hear myself say this, even the church and the good news of the Gospel message aren’t immune.  We find ways to make the church serve our needs, instead of the needs of others.  We can even limit the way we dream about church to dreams that only serve ourselves instead of dreams that expand our reach to all people.  We turn the message of grace and hope and unconditional love into anything but, and yet we continue to proclaim it to be Good News. 
 
We resist, both overtly, covertly, and maybe even unknowingly, changes in structure and changes in attitude that would align our message with the Good News of the Gospel just because it feels unfamiliar.  We say things like, we’ve always done this and we’ve always done that, and in doing so we become less than all things to all people.  And when we act this way we stop proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel proclaimed by Christ and start proclaiming the good news of the Gospel of ourselves.  Or maybe some stop proclaiming anything and just sit back while others do which results in someone else’s boastful message becoming the message for the whole group. 
What we must always remember is proclaiming the Good News never includes boasting and that is why the Good News of the Gospel can and should be proclaimed in a multitude of ways. 
One who boasts is expressing excessive pride in oneself. 
One who boasts is blinded to the needs of others. 
One who boasts is ultimately disconnected from the needs of others. 
The result for one who boasts is predictably… sadly… a self-serving message and a self-serving message should never be confused with the message of Good News for all. 
A boastful self-serving message should never be confused with the message of unconditional, freedom granting love.  
A boastful self-serving message should never be confused with the message of grace and hope. 
 
The Gospel Message is always and forever focused on how we relate to and become part of the life of others.  This is why Paul runs through the litany of different groups and how he has been able to connect with and relate to them.  One who only boasts about themselves and their accomplishments will always find relating to other people a difficult chore.  A boastful state of mind opposes the delivery of Good News.
For Paul, his life is to be the restatement of Christ’s own sacrificial giving of his life for the poor and the weak.  And this is not something unique to Apostles, it is for all followers of The Way.  That is why the church should never be thought of as only a community of volunteers… the church is part of the Gospel… the church is part of the Good News. By living a life consumed by self-giving acts, the church is a sign of the New Creation God is bringing about for the whole cosmos.
 
For Paul, how the community orders its life and how members relate to each other are part and parcel of the proclamation of God’s reconciliation of the world.  The church has been called into existence to live as a community that proclaims this new reality.  The only way such proclamation can happen is if the people of the church trust in the radical freedom to fully identify with the people they have labeled ‘OTHERS”.  The church must become as they are so that the church will experience a genuine transformation of the self.
 
Will everyone agree with this teaching?  The short answer is no, but here’s the thing, Paul didn’t actual expect that.  Instead, he asks something of both groups, and it is a big ask because he asks that those on each side identify with those on the other side.  Paul, I believe knows this is the only way to move forward in proclaiming the true Gospel.  Identifying with the “OTHER” doesn’t actually involve a change in conviction, at least not at first, but it does mean that you recognize what it would mean to act in behalf of those to whom you are opposed.
 
This teaching of Paul, is a theological teaching of ministry that applies to all of us, no matter what role we play in the church.  Paul seeks to relate to people where they are, not in a way that diminishes his own identity, rather in a way that respects their otherness.  The reason for their otherness doesn’t matter to Paul.  So what if they are Jew, or Gentile or weak, or whatever else we can come up with to slap the “OTHER” label onto someone.  Paul’s motivation is the Good News of the Gospel.  God loves you and God wants you to know that.  In fact God loves you so much that there is nothing you or anyone else can say or do that would make God love you less.  You, my brother, you my sister are created in the Divine image of God and no one and no thing can ever take that away from you. 
 
Paul, I believe, wants to help all people he comes into contact with to recognize from their own perspectives how the Gospel offers hope.  Paul’s message to all of these “OTHER” people is never about Paul.  In fact, the very message of Paul’s life is a message far beyond Paul himself, and ours should be too.  That’s why Paul isn’t boasting, because he is fully comfortable with the fact that the message he carries is never about him.  Paul, you see, has found joy in being every kind of servant a person can be.  Paul has reached an understanding that his life, if he truly wants to walk the walk of which he talks, can only be fully lived in service to others.  In service to each and every person or group of people he encounters because it seems Paul has come to understand that ALL people are the BELOVED CHILDREN OF GOD.
 
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So yes, the more I sit with this part of Paul’s teaching, the more I see how closely it relates to the lesson my Pop taught me once, or maybe it was a million times, some thirty years ago.  The connection is quite remarkable really:
 
Do not act the way the way you act… Do not proclaim the message you proclaim… just so you get something out of it.  Will you get something out of it… well yes, but this can’t be your focus.  You see, as long as you don’t turn this into something solely about yourself and your own needs, your reach will always expand… but the minute this becomes about you, I promise, people will be hurt, and they will feel alienated and made to feel like they are less than.  Making people feel less than should never be the goal.
Holy and Gracious God, may we all have ears to hear. 
AMEN!