Gold Glut

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Guest Preacher, Rev. N. Adiel A. DePano

February 12, 2012

Four-inch plastic sports figures. Canvas backpacks. Bronze gloves on mahogany bases. Wood plaques to display press clippings. They are all trophies, costing around $25-50 each, given to all kids who participate in a given sport. They are in a word, “participation” trophies, and they’re the subject of some heated debate.

In recent years, a trend has emerged in American culture, heightened by the competition and the stress involved in kids playing sports: You show up, you get a trophy — or a ribbon, or something. “Participation” trophies they called them given to all who played, regardless of the quality of their performance. All at once, the first- place team and the last-place team, the best player and the worst player, received the same trophy for playing.

Wearing a uniform was worthy of a trophy. Quality took a back seat to quantity, as children found their good and bad efforts equally rewarded. Trophies meant only that you had played, not that you had achieved anything significant.

But these trophies for participation created problems no one anticipated. Jack Lesyk, a Beachwood, Ohio, psychologist says it best: “If you are going to get an award anyway, the message is you don’t really have to try your best.”

Enter the apostle Paul. Here’s what he says: “Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete but only one receives the prize?” (9:24). In the prior verse he says, “I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.” (9:23)

His audience, of course, knows precisely what he is talking about: Corinth had hosted the Isthmian Games for centuries. They would also be well aware of the Olympic Games, as are we, especially since this an Olympic year with everyone’s eyes trained on London who gets to host the games this summer.

So Paul reminds his readers that in these games, while many may participate, only one will get the prize.

In last Sunday’s Super Bowl, while every player got some extra cash for playing in the game, there was only one Super Bowl XLVI winner – the New York Giants! There was only one Most Valuable Player – Eli Manning of the Super Bowl Champions.

One gold medal awarded per event. Only one. No glut of gold here. One first-place winner, and only one.

But here’s a sobering thought: The Christian life is not the Super Bowl, or the Isthmian or Olympic games. In the Christian “Games” all those who run well, all those who “exercise self-control,” all those who “do not run aimlessly,” all those who discipline their bodies and become master of them — will be given the laurel wreath, the prize, the glory! Everyone has an

opportunity to gain what Paul describes at the end of his life as a “crown of righteousness” (2 Timothy 4:8). It’s a crown, or a prize, that God will give him, he says, because he has “fought the good fight, ... finished the race, ... [and] kept the faith” (4:7).

And notice that he says that his is a prize that the Lord will give not only to him, but to “all who have longed for his appearing” (4:8). To the Corinthians, he argues, however, that winning is going to take a lot more than “long[ing] for his appearing.” Which reminds me of an anonymous saying, “Anything unattempted remains impossible.”

To be a winner, Paul says, you need to train and run with determination. “All good athletes train hard,” he notes (1 Corinthians 9:25, The Message). You all have a chance to win, but not all of you will. Oh, you’ll get to the Big Show; you’re already entered in the race. No question there. But will your life, your race, be about anything else? Here, then, is Paul’s message: It matters how you live your life! It matters how you run the race! It matters how you prepare and train and conduct yourself. You can’t just get to the event and congratulate yourself for showing up. The hard part is just beginning. In fact, the apostle points to four factors that can influence the race.

The first is self-control. “Athletes exercise self-control in all things” (9:25). A winner is someone who is able to control the self. The self does our bidding, and not vice versa.

Michael Slaughter of Ginghambsurg UMC in Tipp City, OH in his book Momentum for Life wrote about the acronym DRIVE – each letter representing a discipline he has maintained for years that has helped him gain and keep momentum in his life. The “E” in DRIVE stands for “eating and exercising for life”. He wrote, “Eating healthy and making a disciplined commitment to exercise is not optional for the committed follower of Jesus.”

That person is able to complete a task although tired and bored; is able to observe social, moral and ethical boundaries in the commerce of life; is able to delay or defer or even deny gratification. That person always asks the question, “Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.” (Credit unknown) A person who has self-control is a person who is going to go a long way down the track.

Second, there’s a sense of purpose. “So I do not run aimlessly” (9:26). Paul’s saying here that we’ve got to be in it to win it. If you’ve read Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life, you understand what Paul is talking about here. Without purpose, you’re not going to get very far, or if you do go far, you’ll arrive and not know where you are.

In a talk he gave in 2006 to a Ted.Com symposium Rick Warren said, “The good life is not about looking good, feeling good or having the goods; it's about being good and doing good, giving your life away. Significance in life doesn't come from status, because you can always find somebody who's got more than you. It doesn't come from sex. It doesn't come from salary. It comes from serving. It is in giving our lives away that we find meaning, we find significance. That's the way we were wired, I believe, by God.”

Karl Rahner once said, “The typical patient today is suffering not so much, as in Adler’s day, from an inferiority complex, but from a meaninglessness complex, associated with a feeling of emptiness.”

Many of our churches in the California-Pacific Conference are in decline. Why? They have no sense of purpose. They confuse survival for purpose. They confuse in-house activity for mission. They may have good intentions, but not purpose. There is no agenda, no plan, no vision, no strategy. So the decline continues. They slip into terminal mode without them knowing it.

Third, there’s the matter of efficiency, choosing your battles. “Nor do I box as though beating the air” (9:26). Boxer Muhammed Ali was a master of the so-called “Rope-a-Dope” strategy. Ali used it to perfection against George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle on October 30, 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire. Ali allowed himself to get backed up into the ropes and let Foreman flail away. After he had done this for six or seven rounds, Foreman tired, and Ali, relatively fresh, delivered the knockout blow in the 8th round.

Christians in training are not about knockout blows, but they do understand the importance of conserving their energies for the things that really matter in life. They understand that one can get really, really tired of doing stuff that doesn’t matter. Smart Christians invest their training and their efforts in things and people that build them up and make them stronger. The “I” in Michael Slaughter’s DRIVE stands for “investing in key relationships.” He wrote, “Life is not about our accumulated stuff or personal accomplishments. Life is about people. We miss out on life and meaning if we are not making relationships a priority on any given day.”

Fourth, there’s discipline. “I punish my body and enslave it” (9:27). Here, Paul notes the pain that can be involved for those who aspire to win. It’s not to promote a sort of muscular Christianity, but instead to note that being faithful to your faith, being true to the course you have chosen, sometimes is going to be very painful.

Choices may be made that will cause conflict and discomfort. Positions may be taken that will invite confusion and misunderstanding. Decisions will be made that may incite reaction and dismay. Not that conflict, discomfort, confusion, misunderstanding become the norm/goal.

Great organizations are driven by a shared purpose! Without shared purpose, churches can be in a death cycle of conflict, confusion and misunderstanding. But being visionary and having the drive for the fulfillment of a vision may indeed entail conflict, discomfort, confusion and misunderstanding.

Committed followers of Jesus are no pushovers. They put up with pain as a result of being faithful and fruitful. They stay the course and stay on the course. Followers of Jesus are not quitters!

And don’t think that the race is ever over. It’s not and it won’t be until that day when there’s no sunset and no dawning. Even Paul said that he did not consider himself to have

finished the race (Philippians 3). So, let’s be careful to avoid celebrating too early with our tasks unfinished and our goals unmet.

The miracle is that as we grow in the practice of love from our exercise of self-control, active seeking of clarity of purpose, commitment to efficiency, and discipline so also shall we grow in our capacity for happiness. (St. Catherine of Genoa, 1447-1510) Keep running then. Endure the pain if necessary. Build and keep momentum. Be a winner. A gold-medal winner.

In 1 Corinthians 15:58 Paul wrote, “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

My friends, we’re in for a marathon. Let us therefore be steady, focused, firm, and committed to excellence. Let us have the attitude/mindset that what we do as followers of Jesus and as his Church in the world is of critical importance and has eternal significance!

A glut of gold would be a good thing for you, for Covina UMC, for the mission of the Church to make disciples of Jesus Christ who transform the world!

In closing I’d like to share a video that describes at least for me the race which is before us and what kind of training we’re being invited to design in order for us to run a good race.

Video: “Church 2092: Transforming Our Churches to Get There”