you're giving love, instinctively

round and round you're turning me

A sermon on Paul's (non) practice of collecting compensation:

Have you heard of Stockholm Syndrome? The term comes from a real-life 1973 bank heist in, you guessed it, Stockholm, Sweden. What happened was the robbers, in a bid to secure their escape, took four of the bank employees hostage. 

In the end, though, it was all for naught. The scheme was foiled when authorities released tear gas via a hole drilled from an apartment above the bank. Happily, everyone was rescued. In fact, none of the hostages were even injured during the harrowing rescue. 

Strangely, though, afterward, not a single one of the hostages would testify against the robbers. In fact, if the hostages held any ill will, it was to the authorities, not the robbers themselves! Some of the hostages even went so far as to raise money for their captives’ defense! 

A quick online search will tell you Stockholm Syndrome is a coping mechanism or an emotional response. What happens is, in certain circumstances, hostages can develop a psychological bond with their captors. BUT if you read on a little further, you’ll also discover that Stockholm Syndrome is a contested illness. In other words, there are doubts about whether Stockholm Syndrome actually occurs. 

Nevertheless, there is something to this sort of dynamic. Isn’t there? 

Now one of the reasons Stockholm Syndrome is up for debate is that the circumstances are so rare. And to be fair, I don’t think any of us have ever been held hostage. And may we never be so unfortunate, either. 

Despite that, though, on some level, we can relate. Can’t we? For as unlikely a scenario and as unusual of a response as Stockholm Syndrome depicts, there is something uncannily coherent about it. Isn’t there? 

Regardless of how bizarre this malady may seem, we can understand it. And I’d like to suggest that we all actually have plenty of experience with this curious phenomenon, too. From frenemies, doom-scrolling, self-sabotage, and dysfunctional relationships, we all know about that baffling pull to embrace our own duress. Don’t we?

…Now, at this point, perhaps you’re wondering what in the world any of this has to do with today’s Scripture! And, honestly, I hope you are. Just the same, I’d ask you to bear with me. Because, believe it or not, that strange tendency we’ve been discussing has everything to do with what St. Paul is talking about!

Yes, on the face of it, it sounds as if Paul is just advocating for clergy compensation. And as much as I might wish that were the case, if it were, I’d have to concede that Paul is making it in a most unusual manner! For instance, notice how, after making his point, Paul goes on to say that he’d rather die than accept the due payment he just argued for! 

It’s an extreme reaction, to be sure. But it just goes to show that Paul isn’t merely discussing the validity of a paycheck for your dearly loved and highly esteemed pastor. No, Paul’s going to the very heart and essence of the Christian life. And I’m not the only one to say this, either. Martin Luther took this passage as the starting point for his consequential 1520 treatise, The Freedom of a Christian.

As we mentioned last week, there were a number of problems plaguing the church in Corinth. But chief among them, as Paul diagnosed it, was that the members were a little too fixated upon their own interests. And this played itself out in a lot of different ways. But one of the primary ones was through a particular attitude of contemptuousness.

For instance, there was this controversy raging within the congregation as to whether or not a member could eat food that had been sacrificed to idols. And on a related note, one of the things the folks in Corinth loved to do was bicker. They practically made a pastime out of forming factions and arguing about this and that. But anyway, in this case, what happened was that some of the members insisted that they could eat the food that was sacrificed to idols, and fie on the rest.

…Interestingly enough, Paul agrees with the rationale. Paul affirms a person can eat food offered to idols. After all, the fact of the matter is that all those supposed idols are really just a bunch of nothing. 

So whatever else the folks doing the sacrificing thought, in the end, all they were doing was preparing some choice cuts. And as far as Paul’s concerned, more power to you if you’re savvy enough to get a good deal afterward. The problem, though, is that it’s not so simple. 

A Christian isn’t just accountable for themself, says St. Paul. No, quite the opposite. Every Christian is, by virtue of baptism, knit into the larger body of Christ. Accordingly, members can’t simply sit back and look only to their own interests. 

Instead, every member needs to consider how their actions affect the rest of the congregation. And the thing is, it’s not just that a few folks disagree with the practice. It’s that some of them are being driven to incredulity by that cavalier attitude toward idolatry.

In other words, it’s not just that there’s a disagreement within the congregation. It’s that the behavior of some is harming the faith of others. What’s more, it’s the members who fancy themselves as mature who are damaging the faith of those other weaker members, as St. Paul calls them. And as far as Paul’s concerned, nothing could be more objectionable.

…Now, perhaps you’re wondering what any of this has to do with Paul’s defense of pastoral payments—forget about Stockholm Syndrome! Well, fair enough. What Paul’s doing, you understand, is offering a demonstration about how to navigate this sort of issue. And he’s using his practice of pro bono pastoring as an example!

Like the folks who stand on their right to eat meat sacrificed to idols so Paul could demand his due compensation. BUT, unlike those who can’t see past their own prerogatives, Paul doesn’t. And the reason is that he doesn’t want to make it any harder on the budding Christians in Corinth. The rule of thumb for good ol’ St. Paul, you follow, is how his conduct will affect others, especially the weaker members, as Paul calls them. 

A point of order here. We’re inclined to think of weak as a jibe. Aren’t we? For Paul, though, weakness is not an insult. On the contrary, weakness is an objective. And a high one, at that!

After all, just notice how Paul says he became as a Jew, and as one under the law, and as one outside the law. Not so with weak, though. Is it? No, Paul says he became weak. Full stop. No conjugation.

As Paul tells it, he doesn’t just act weak. No, he’s really become weak. And what’s more, he draws a direct line from being weak to being a Christian! 

…Didn’t expect that. Did you? When it comes down to it, we’re a lot like the Corinthians. We’re inclined to get faith turned all around. 

Some part of us absolutely refuses to believe that any of this has any greater purpose than propping up our own flagging self-continuity project. We want to believe Christianity is just another supplement in our life-management regimen. Sure, we’ll swallow putting others ahead of ourselves. But only so long as it nourishes the assumption that we’re improving ourselves every day in every way.

But here’s the deal, while that might sound nice, it’s really awful. For starters, it’s banal. Christ didn’t have to die so that you and I could learn how to be respectable. Moses would have sufficed for that! 

What’s more, you didn’t need to be baptized into Christ’s death for that, either! No, the church could just have handed you a how-to manual for successful living would have sufficed for that. Instead, though, the church insisted that in baptism, Christ dragged you to the other side of Death! 

Hear this; you now live on the far side of death! And now the old satanic foe’s worst tricks are behind you, too! What’s more, all that lies ahead of you now is the great wide-open field of faith! 

I mean, notice how Paul absolutely does not describe Christianity in conventional terms! No, he compares it to nothing less than a race or a boxing match! In fact, he’s appealing to the Olympics held in Corinth! 

…As far as Paul’s concerned, faith is a sport! And o what a mighty good game it is, too! But the stone-cold bummer is that we act like the same old rules still apply. 

Paul isn’t telling the Corinthians, or you and me for that matter, to consider how our actions will affect others because it’s good. Sure, it is good. It’s patently a better way to live. And, in fact, it’s how we’re made, too. You and I can no more disregard our empathy than we can deny our very nature. 

But Paul is offering so much more than that! Paul is proclaiming that, in Christ, you and I have been set free from that same old routine! Christ hasn’t just come to offer you some cut-rate freedom. No, he’s come to bestow the real deal upon you! 

In Christ, you have freedom from that greatest tyrant of all, yourself! However far your case of Stockholm Syndrome with Sin and Death may be, you are now totally free and clear of it! In Christ, the new Adam and Eve, you now have full recourse to your full humanity before the fall!

You are no longer bound to your whims that never really satisfy! No, now you are free! Really free! Free, like St. Paul! Free to do something as fulfilling as it is frightening! You, yes you, you are free to commend yourself to Christ and to commit yourself to anyone else, too!

And that’s not all, either! Because now there is more to you than you! Now, it is Christ himself who lives in you! Now it is Christ playing fast and loose with his grace, mercy, and love through you! And among you, too!

…Now, that doesn’t mean any of this comes easy. As any of us who’ve ever had the rug pulled out from under our feet can attest, it is downright difficult to be weak. Isn’t it?

That old Stockholm Syndrome to Sin and Death doesn’t just vanish. It hangs on. It persists in confusing our captivity with freedom.

This is why St. Paul says becoming weak is no act. In truth, it’s a miracle. But that’s half the fun of it! And the rest of the glory is that the darn wonder of it all actually comes off!

But it’s not just that it’s hard to be weak. Although it is. It’s that, in Christ, weakness is now the greatest strength there is! Now weakness has been tempered by the cross. Now weakness is infused with the very power of the resurrection, eternity itself!

In Christ, this old world’s centers have not held. Christ, by his death and life, in that order, has broken the ruinous centrifugal pull of Sin and Death. Now, there’s a new center of gravity. And his name is Jesus Christ. 

And you, by your baptism, have been pulled into his orbit! Now, as Diana put it, everything has been turned upside down, inside out, and round and round for you. But don’t just take my word for it. 

After all, Paul knows what he’s talking about! Isn’t that the story of his Damascus Road encounter? As St. Paul says himself, when he was weakest, GOD was strongest. And so is God for you! For you.

When you run out of steam, the Holy Spirit will be full-blast! When you’re all tied up in knots, you’ll be closer to the freedom of faith than you’ve ever been. And when you hit the wall, you’ll really stand at the entrance to that great romp of faith! 

And what a mighty good rollick it is! You are now freed from the confines of your skull-sized kingdom! The bolt has been unfastened! And now your world is as boundless as God’s unending mercy itself! 

Those dazzling virtues that have laid dormant in your heart finally receive their nourishment! Christ himself awakens that deep freedom within you. And all those cheap imitations have, at long last, lost their allure! Because once you’ve gotten a taste for the real thing, nothing else will do! Will it?

No, it won’t.

But best of all, it’s all yours! And it’s all yours right now! And it comes with no strings attached, too! It’s all just Christ’s good pleasure to hand over the keys to his kingdom to you, gratis! Gratis. That’s Latin for grace, by the way.

Now try to tell me that doesn’t sound like the best game around! Because you can’t. Can you? No, you can’t.

So, how about, instead, we just sing for the great joy of it all? Sound good? You bet it does!

Praise and Thanksgiving, ELW 689