It seems that if you don’t like how things are, you can just create your own reality. We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. If your team loses, it’s because “the others cheated”. If your candidate doesn’t get elected, the election was “rigged”. If you don’t like a protest, call them “radical terrorists”. You don’t even need to have any facts to back this up. One social commentator said we are living in a “post truth” world. I’d hope the gospel of Jesus was immune from this but sadly, I am disappointed. The message that Jesus welcomed the outcast, fed the hungry, cured the sick and called those who follow Him to love everyone isn’t one we like to hear these days, so some churches change the gospel to soothe the ears and consciences of their wealthy and comfortable congregations. Sadly, this is not new, it’s been going on since the church began.
In our reading today, the apostle Paul is defending his preaching in Corinth. As an important city in the Roman Empire, Corinth had a large group of wealthy elites among the population. They certainly didn’t want to hear the message that they ought to use what they had to help others. They believed they worked hard for their wealth, they deserved it, and it was a sign of God’s blessing upon them. They thought the poor were poor because God wanted them to be poor for some spiritual failing or other. They wanted to hear a gospel that affirmed this so preaching was tailored to suit this. As a result, these preachers became fabulously wealthy themselves. Paul’s preaching did not sit well with some and so Paul had to be neutralised. Paul has to defend his preaching, pointing out he has not distorted the word of God or used deception to make the gospel seem more acceptable to the surrounding culture. He has preached Christ and himself as a servant of the gospel.
It’s a warning for the church today. We live in a world obsessed with acquisition and consumption, with materialism, and with money, status and power. The gospel is just as hard on our ears as it was to the Corinthians. But as Paul reminds us, when we see Jesus, we see God clearly; our eyes are fully opened to what God’s will for the world is. Paul reassures us that as the gospel comes from God directly, it will resonate on some level with God’s creation so does not need to be changed or altered to suit. If people won’t see this, it’s because they’ve been blinded to it by their greed or selfishness. I believe the church should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Sadly, some churches do the opposite to appeal to the prevailing consumer culture. The church cannot stay silent in the face of the “prosperity gospel” but, like Paul, must renounce it in word and action.