Sermons
"We Do Not Proclaim Ourselves"
II Corinthians 4:3-6
“We Do Not Proclaim Ourselves”
February 19, 2012
People don’t always respond to the gospel. Part of that is that they don’t always see past us. As Paul reminds us, it is not ourselves that we proclaim, but Christ, but our problem is that we have only ourselves, our personalities and our experiences, to do that with. Sometimes those get in the way.
Tim Tebow, the Broncos’ quarterback, is someone whom I believe genuinely tries to give the Lord credit for the skills and talents that he has. When he scores, he pauses in the endzone to say, “Thanks.” The way he does it, though, manages to get in the way of the message and has given rise to the verb “to Tebow”. Its first documented use comes from Denver fan Jared Kleinstein in October of 2011. “To Tebow” is defined as, “to get down on a knee and start praying, even if everyone else around you is doing something completely different.”[1] That’s from a web site called “tebowing.com”. It has pictures of people in the posture that Tim Tebow uses, down on one knee, resting his bowed head on his hand. The pictures are divided into categories like “toddlers”, “global”, “patriotic”, and “celebrity”. You can see someone tebowing in the Virginia House of Representatives, Katie Perry tebowing on stage, people tebowing at the top of Kilimanjaro, in front of the Taj Mahal, and within sight of the Mona Lisa. There are people tebowing by Christmas trees at home and as tourists in the White House. Depending on how what spirit the pictures were taken and posted, they could be construed as either mildly kidding or mocking. Either way, none of the pictures convey much real piety, or even seem to take what I am sure is Tim Tebow’s genuine faith at all seriously. In fact, it suggests that his efforts probably distance people. It seems showy, and they pick up on that.
Jesus warned his followers about the dangers of public expressions of faith. He taught,
“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you … but when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing… But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” [Matthew 6:1-2a, 3, 6]
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with public expressions of faith, and in fact there is no way that the faith continues to live and to spread unless we are willing to share it. What we have to watch out for is the danger of our own egos getting in the way. What we have to say is more important than whatever satisfaction we may gain from saying it. Being heard is what counts.
Since I’m on a sports theme this week, I would contrast the Tebowing web site to an article from last Saturday’s New York Times. You don’t usually expect to find discussions of faith in the sports section, and even when you do, you don’t expect the writer to talk about his own faith as well as his subject’s spiritual life. This time, though, it happened. The writer is Michael Luo and the article was about Jeremy Lin, the Knicks’ new point guard. To back up a moment, Lin comes out of Harvard, where he was involved in an active campus ministry group and led a student Bible study, completely apart from his sports involvement. His faith, however, has formed what kind of athlete he tries to be. When Intervarsity interviewed him for their newsletter, he said,
“I’ve learned how to be open and bold about my faith, but in terms of my influence, I just try to lead in a godly way. What that means for me is to serve them, whether it’s just doing the dirty work, like cleaning up sweat on the floor, or deferring to other people, or carrying equipment bags. In basketball these days, the rookies and freshmen are supposed to do the grunt work, and seniors relax and hang out, but when you reverse that, or when seniors help out with some of that, it shows that you’re trying to serve them, and that’s a good way to lead.
Also, the way you talk to your teammates and push them and the way you treat them is important. There is a fine line between trying to help your teammates and criticizing them. The toughest part for me is how to keep my teammates accountable but at the same time do it in a loving way that doesn’t judge or condemn them. It’s definitely been a struggle and I’m trying to learn how to lead consciously in a way that honors God.”[2]
Do you hear in that the echo of Paul’s words that “we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake” [II Corinthians 4:5]?
Fast forward again to the New York Times article that I mentioned. The headline was, “Lin’s Appeal: Faith, Pride, and Points”. You don’t expect a sportswriter to say something about himself the way Luo does when he says,
“Like Lin, I’m a Harvard graduate, albeit more than a decade ahead of him, and a second-generation Chinese-American. I’m also a fellow believer, one of those every-Sunday-worshiping, try-to-read-the-Bible-and-pray types, who agreed with Lin when he said to reporters after the Jazz game, ‘God works in mysterious and miraculous ways.’ Being a believer can mean different things in different circles. In a lot of the ones Lin and I have traveled, it can mean, essentially, you are a bit of a weirdo, or can make you an object of scorn.”[3]
It’s amazing, really, that someone bares his soul so simply and eloquently when talking about basketball. He continues,
“For me, as an Asian-American, the chants of “M.V.P.!” raining down on Lin at the Garden embody a surreal, Jackie Robinson-like moment. Just as meaningful to me as a Christian, however, is the way the broadcasters have hailed Lin as not just the “Harvard hero” but the “humble Harvard grad.” His teammates appear just as overjoyed at his success as he was. Both seem to be testaments to his character.
...
Last season, I followed closely as Lin went undrafted but later signed with the Golden State Warriors. He played sparingly and was cut in December. He landed briefly in Houston but was cut again. Finally, he joined the Knicks but had mostly sat on the bench. Now he is suddenly the shining star of New York.
In the midst of his stellar run last week, I couldn’t help but reflect on Lin’s journey. A Bible verse that he has cited as a favorite came to mind, encouraging believers that ‘suffering produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.’”
I do not want to say that Lin is perfect, or that any Christian is all there yet, but I do want to point his example as a reminder that it is in the slow and faithful pointing of people away from ourselves and toward Christ that really gets through to people. It is not in the glorious moments when the spotlight is shining on us that we most easily share Christ. It’s in the things that we do because we are in it for the long haul that the gospel is shared most effectively.
“For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” [II Corinthians 4:5-6]