Life in the Economy of Grace--September 20, 2022

Life in the Economy of Grace--September 20, 2022

"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. 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." [1 Corinthians 9:17-18]

Just about every day on your and my social media feeds, there will be somebody making an ominous warning that goes something like, "If you don't protect your rights and fight fiercely for your freedoms, you'll regret it when they are taken away from you."  And pretty often, that oh-so-serious talk is accompanied by very serious imagery, too--often of an assortment of weapons that the folks who made the meme want to suggest they'll use in the name of "protecting their rights" and "fighting for their freedoms."  It's a pretty repetitive message, honestly, and once you've seen one, you've seen them all.

And then there's Paul, who deliberately says the exact opposite:  "What I want to be absolutely sure of is that I don't make full use of my rights, so that it will be clear that the Gospel is about God's free grace all around."

Honestly, at some point you have to decide which voice you think is the one worth listening to--the anonymous angry meme-makers on social media... or the apostle Paul--because their approaches to living in the world are pointed in diametrically opposed directions.  

For Paul, the issue is how to make sure the Good News of Jesus never comes off as his own money-making venture or a get-rich-quick pyramid scheme, but rather as the freely given announcement of God's freely given grace in Christ.  And in order to ensure that the gospel won't get mistaken for a religious infomercial, Paul refuses to demand his rights to getting paid for his evangelistic work.  It's just part of how the gospel works, because that's how God's economy of mercy operates.  

By contrast, I just saw the other day a celebrity preacher offering a four-day class on "how to pray" that cost $1,500.00 to register for--to which one insightful online commenter replied, "Didn't Jesus already teach his disciples how to pray--and for free?"  Of course, the moment anybody in the watching world hears or sees a promotion like that, they can't help but think, "What a racket that is!"  It smacks of being just a religious cover for a bamboozler, and the ones who peddle it can't help but look like swindlers.  In a world where that kind of messaging is being broadcast out into the world non-stop thanks to our constant flow of information on our various rectangles of technology, it really is refreshing to hear Paul's counter-cultural voice saying, "If start demanding my rights for compensation, it's going to run the risk of making the gospel sound like a grift--so I would rather give up my rights than insist on them, protect them, or God-forbid, fight someone for them."  Paul is more interested in the gospel remaining hearable as the Good News of God's free grace than in becoming petty and defiant about some abstract nonsense regarding his "rights."

And even though our lives are removed from Paul's by some twenty centuries, the need is the same for us today.  In a world that is still full of voices either shouting angrily about "demanding their rights" or smoothly selling people on a pious-sounding con, there need to be voices that speak a different word--a word of grace freely given.  Those voices can be yours and mine.  We can be the ones who forgo our "rights" in order to go out of our way for someone else--because sometimes that is the way of Jesus.  We can be the ones who practice generosity, who share freely, and who don't look to get rewarded for our efforts, as a way of showing people that God's offer of grace really comes without any strings attached.  We can be the ones who embody God's economy of mercy rather than staying stuck in the old logic of "What's in it for me?"  

All of that is possible, but it will mean making the choice every day to listen to voices like Paul's and to spot the examples of people in the same mold, who are more interested in giving away grace than insisting on their rights, so that we can learn from them, too.  And it will be hard, because there are still going to plenty of folks who think we look crazy for those upside-down values, and it will be difficult sometimes to remember which way is truly up for us.

in those times, it's worth it to come back to Paul here in a place like this, and to hear with fresh ears just how radical the way of Jesus really is.  What if the only reward we ever needed was just to know we are participating already in God's economy of grace?

Lord God, make us to be so convinced of your generosity and grace that we can live like they really are enough for us.