In last week's scripture portion from 1 Corinthians we read that Paul chose to limit his own freedom in Christ rather than cause others to stumble in doubt. We hold the church in Corinth – and he tells us - we should never use our freedom in Christ to lord it over others.

 As Paul continues his letter to the church at Corinth, he says that although he preaches the gospel, he has nothing to be proud about – rather necessity is laid upon him. In today’s lingo he is saying that he is perhaps just doing his duty, responding to his call. But to 1^st century ears, what he is saying is revolutionary in its impact.

In the 1^st century rhetoricians, public speakers, philosophers and teachers made their living by their words. They came into town – just as Paul had done – and went to some public forum and spoke – just as Paul had done. By the eloquence of their words they hoped to persuade some eager hearer to their cause – because students paid big money to listen to wise teachers -- and they hoped to attract some benefactor – someone to give them room and board and an allowance in exchange for the privilege of having this great speaker under his roof.

It sounds a bit strange, but on a more contemporary note, imagine that the President came to town and at your invitation, stayed in your quest room and held a peace conference around your kitchen table. Why you’d be the talk of the town! The neighbors would be talking about it for decades – and you would be equally famous because of the presence of your famous house guest.

It was the same in the 1^st century. Why to snag a house guest like Paul the Apostle would put you on the map! Everyone at the church would suddenly listen to what you had to say and honor your opinion because perhaps, just perhaps, some of his wisdom had rubbed off on you during some early morning cup of coffee.

But – has anyone here ever been a house guest? Do you not moderate your actions and your language just a bit so that you do not offend your host and hostess? Are you really able to be completely yourself when you are a quest in someone’s home?

Paul doesn’t think do either and so when he is in Corinth, he lives on his own just so no one in the church can claim his as a house guest – and just so no one can think that his preaching is influenced by anything or anyone except Christ the Lord.

And so while Paul is in Corinth – or anywhere else he preaches, you will find him not just with the hoity toity upper classes of the town, not just with the rulers of the fledgling church, not in the spacious salons of a patron, but out and about among the people – not teaching and preaching from the comfortable vantage point of the high walls of the benefactor’s home, but from the open stall of the tentmaker's shop.

‘Woe to me’ he says ‘if I don’t preach’ – at the corner drugstore, in the bank, at the post office. The message that Jesus came to proclaim is a message that can not be limited by a single house or a single town. The truth of Christ that Paul came to preach could not be contained, guided or controlled by anything other that the leading of the Holy Spirit.

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Paul is not alone in this practice. This morning’s gospel lesson (Mark 1:29-39) opens on the afternoon of the Sabbath. Jesus has just healed someone in the synagogue and his fame as a healer is beginning to spread.

Jesus and the disciples arrive at the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law is sick and he heals her as well. By sundown when the Sabbath ends, the sick are being brought to him from all over – and he heals many of them.

Simon and Andrew are glad to offer hospitality to their great teacher – Simon’s mother-in-law is no doubt glad to serve them after her own healing. The people of the region are glad for their healing.

Perhaps if Jesus had just stayed there, accepting hospitality and working with those who came, he might just have had an easier time. He might have brought honor to the home of his hostess. He might have brought peace and prosperity to the region where he did his healing. Disciples might have flocked to him – paying huge sums for the privilege of sitting at his feet.

But the next day, the disciples discover he is not in the comfortable home that has offered him hospitality. Instead they find him outside – in the dark – by himself – at prayer. Naturally, they want him to return – for the good life to go on – but while this might be the disciple’s plan, this is not God’s plan.

‘Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came to do.’ The gospel message was not just for a small town in Judea. The message that Jesus came to proclaim was a message that could not be limited by a single house in a single town. The truth of Christ could not be contained, guided or controlled by anything other that the leading of the Holy Spirit – the Holy Spirit led Paul and that Spirit still guides each of us.

Jesus came to proclaim release to captives, to give sight to the blind – and Jesus still releases each of us from the captivity of sin and the blindness of self-centeredness – and he did that not by closing himself off from the people, but by living among them.

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Paul writes that to the Jews he became as a Jew, to those under the law as one under the law, to those outside the law as one outside the law. When among the weak he became weak so that he might show even these people the glory of the gospel.

This does not mean that in the 21^st century we need to become child molesters to minister to child molesters, or be a thief among thieves.

Paul does not write that he tries to please everybody – fitting in wherever he goes and being ‘one of the boys’ – pretending to be a red-neck among red-necks, a Republican among Republicans. He does not mean to tell us that he is a spineless, wishy- washy, mealy-mouthed man who will do anything to fit in – someone with no identity of his or one who will water down the gospel until it’s pleasing to everyone.

For our own day Paul would write ‘for the lonely, I became as one who was lonely, to the joyful, I was joyful, to the poor as one poor, to the rich as one rich, - again not so he could please everybody or travel about as a chameleon, changing his color with the changing shades of the background against which he found himself.

What Paul writes is that he claims his own freedom and independence, yet presents the gospel in any way it can be understood in the company in which he finds himself.

Paul is talking about being out among the people – accepting, not condemning, building relationships with even those outside the law and the weak - so that he can share the blessings of the gospel. He wants people to understand that: What you are does not matter. Who you are does and who you are is precious and worthwhile in the sight of God.

Thumping people over the head with a Bible won’t share with them the amazing story that’s inside. Loading people outside the church with a heavier weight of guilt than they have already heaped on themselves will not lead them to the freedom of Christ. Glaring at people with distaste and disdain will never communicate the love that we have received.

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When we read this morning’s epistle lesson we need to ask ourselves just how much gospel will the world see if we hide ourselves behind our walls of respectability and peer out at the world from behind closed blinds?

How will the world see Christ at work in our lives if we spend our days surrounded only by those who see the world – who value their faith only as we do? If we spend our time looking down our noses at those who have not answered the call of grace? – Or offer it only those with the means to pay or who meet our social criteria?

The salvation we have received from Christ should send us out into the world to share with others – for like Paul, necessity is laid upon us. It should not imprison us behind self-constructed rules and restrictive expectations of others.

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St. Francis of Assisi has said 'Preach the gospel at all times -- If necessary, use words.' Each of us has the the responsibility to go out and preach. We may never need to use words. It may be by a cup of coffee offered to a friend, some loose change offered in the grocery line to someone who's a little short of cash. It may be a smile for a stranger or even holding open the door for someone coming from the other side.

What matters is that we do it for the sake of Christ, the sake of the kingdom of God and for the sake of the Good News of Salvation.

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The gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be bought by us – rather it buys us. The gospel cannot be managed by us – instead it manages us. The gospel cannot even be defined by us – instead it defines us. And it defines us as people of love and grace, people who acknowledge that we have no goodness, virtue or value apart from what we have received from Christ.

The good news for us this day is that we have been purchased, redeemed and defined by the gospel of Christ and now we have been commissioned to share the good news with a world lost and in need – a world eager to find the same hope and love and grace that we have received through Christ. Let us so go and do.

Amen.