Sunday morning, February 15, 2009
Text: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Title: “Run in such a way that you may win it.”
Rev. Bill Pederson

            It had never been done before and may never be done again.  When swimmer Michael Phelps helped the U.S. Olympic Swim Team win the 400-meter swimming medley relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he became the only athlete ever to win eight gold medals in a single Olympics.  Over a nine-day period, Phelps raced an exhausting 17 times, breaking seven world records, and became not just the greatest swimmer, but the greatest single-Olympics athlete in history. (Homiletics, February 2009, page 56)

            Michael Phelps as been in the news again lately, but this time the headlines were not all that glorious.  Caught in a photograph apparently  smoking a marijuana pipe down in South Carolina, Michael Phelps’s meteoric rise to fame in the Olympic pantheon has hit a sudden bump.  He has apologized for his indiscretion, but in the process has been dumped by one of his many sponsors, Kellogg’s Foods.  And USA Swimming has suspended Phelps for three-months citing in its suspension that “we decided to send a strong message to Michael because he disappointed so many people, particularly the hundreds of thousands of USA Swimming member kids who look up to him as a role model and a hero.” (HuffingtonPost.com, February 13, 2009)

            There is no question that Michael Phelps is an athlete for the ages.  Not only gifted with an extraordinary body, Phelps is also a fierce competitor and relentless trainer at his craft.  Not simply to compete on the world stage but to completely dominate his competition at that level is an extra-ordinary, almost other-worldly accomplishment.  Which makes the picture of Phelps smoking a banned substance that much more disappointing, even shocking – a gifted, fine-tuned, dedicated world-class athlete should not be abusing his body with drugs nor exposing himself so cavalierly to the world. 

            The Apostle Paul knew a thing or two about gifted, fine-tuned Olympian athletes.  The city of Corinth was a sports-crazed town.  For centuries the Corinthians would have been familiar with the Isthmian games, warm ups for the Olympics in Rome.  These games had made runners and boxers, along with orators, dramatists, and poets household figures across the empire.

            Not only were these athletes, actors, and writers revered for their skills, but they were heralded for the disciplines they put their minds and bodies through in order to compete and win.  Their potential was evident and respected, but their practice skills, their self-control and self-discipline to be the best they could possibly be, was equally applauded and appreciated by their adoring fans.  Athletes compete to win, Paul notes in our text today from 1 Corinthians.  Athletes train their bodies and practice self-control and self-discipline in order to prepare themselves to be the best they can be at what they do.  And all this, Paul notes for the sports-crazed Corinthians, to win a prize that will perish – literally in Paul’s day, a stalk of wilted celery.

            “Run in such a way that you may win it,” Paul exhorts the Corinthian congregation.  RUN THE RACE TO WIN IT – Paul pushes the Corinthians.  The RACE for Paul is the Christian life lived for the sake of the gospel.  For Paul, running the race to win it means to live the Christian life in such a way that others are drawn to the gospel by your efforts and they, and you, come to share in the blessings of that gospel. 

            We cannot escape the reality that in this text and many of Paul’s writings, that Paul sees the Christian life as one of struggle and contention.  The struggle and contention is initially with us and our tendency toward self-interest and self-fulfillment.  But Paul is also sober to the fact that the struggle and contention of the Christian life is with forces outside of us that chip away on our desire to follow Christ and subvert our best efforts for the gospel.  These outside forces may be non-believers who work on faith, or human knowledge and wisdom that distract us, or even the cosmic principalities and powers that Paul believes are the manifestation of evil in the world.       

            Of course Paul’s Christian life of struggle and contention is not a gospel we want to hear.  We want a gospel that comforts us and keeps us and tells us everything is fine.  We don’t want a gospel of struggle, we want a gospel that coddles and us and gives us the warm fuzzies and tells us how to make it through the next day or week or month.  We don’t want a gospel of contention, we want a gospel that relaxes us and relieves our anxieties and tells us that I’m okay, you’re okay, live and let live, all’s well that ends well.

            We don’t want a gospel of struggle and contention.  And yet time and time again Paul is certain that as Christians we must “fight the good fight” (2 Timothy 4:7) or “put on the armor” of Ephesians 6:13-17 or today, “Run in such a way that you may win it.”  Deny it if you like.  But the Apostle is certain: the Christian life is not an easy row to hoe; embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ, really embracing that gospel, is going to lead to a life of contention and struggle in this world.  You therefore better be ready to compete, you better bring your “A Game” at all times.  You better be committed to the life of an athlete who competes at the highest level by being self-controlled; goal oriented; self-disciplined; a person with a purpose.

            Paul says “Athletes exercise self-control in all things…” (verse 25a)  He means by this that athletes are focused at all times.  The focus for the Christian is Jesus Christ – especially his sacrificial love for all people.  Exercising self-control as a Christian means to be focused on the other; self-indulgence will not do; self-fulfillment will not win the race.  Focusing on Jesus Christ and his love for others is how Christians run the race to win it.

            Paul says that he does “not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air…” (verse 26)   He means by this that winning athletes are goal oriented.  They do not waste time and energy on goals that are not focused on Jesus Christ and his love and bringing others to the gospel.   Everything Christians do should be calculated to better themselves and put themselves in as good a position as possible to win the race.  I believe being goal oriented is what Paul means at the end of his letter to the church in Philippi, “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9)    

            Paul says to run to the race to win it that he punishes his body and enslaves it.  Paul means that he brings his body under self-discipline and subjection.  That subjection is again to Jesus Christ who is Lord of the body.   Paul is saying that in the Christian life of struggle and contention one has to practice an intentional self-discipline that subjects our body to the demands of Jesus Christ.  What Paul is saying here is that for Christians to run the race to win it, temple maintenance is in order.  Christians who are really competing to win must practice a self-discipline in thought and action that truly reflects that their body is the temple of the Lord.   

            And then Paul finishes with an astonishing flurry.  In essence he is saying that Christians must compete for the gospel’s sake with a purpose for winning.  Christians must be “purpose driven” to borrow a phrase from Rick Warren.  Paul writes, “but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.” (verse 27)  Paul means that there is always the possibility that he might fall short of the finish line.  The unmistakable inference is, if Paul the super apostle believes that is possible for him to lag in purpose along the way and not practice enough focus and goal orientation and self-discipline, then it certainly is possible for you and me.  In order to compete to win for the gospel’s sake, we must constantly evaluate our training so that our purpose is intentional enough not to disqualify us from the competition.  

            Paul says “Run in such a way that you may win it.”  No where is it clearer in Scripture that being baptized in Christ is an obligation, not a right.  Our baptisms mark us as Christ’s own in world that is often at odds with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Christian life is therefore a struggle and a contention to live in such a way that others are brought to Christ and some are saved.  Run to win, Paul exhorts.  The prize is an imperishable wreath of glory.