It’s probably safe to say that the typical Christian in today's world doesn't read an entire book of the Bible in a day. And even safer to say this usually doesn't happen before lunch.
Well, I want to congratulate our lector this morning because that is exactly what they did. Yes, and you too can go home and make a show of wiping the sweat off your brow and say to all your friends “Whew! Today I sat in church long enough for them to read an entire book of the Bible today!” That’s got to be worth something!
The whole book of the New Testament our lector just now read
was Paul's Letter to Philemon, (well, except for four verses that the
lectionary people cut out for some strange reason, but that’s close enough!)
Philemon isn't a theological treatise like Romans or
Galatians. By comparison, it is kind of a bookmark. Or maybe a bookplate.
But it gives Paul and a few other early Christians a very
human face. It sheds light on a culture that is very different from ours and
gives us a glimpse of how real, live early Christians actually lived their
lives.
The Epistle is a personal letter from Paul to a man named
Philemon who was a Christian. In the letter, Paul asks Philemon to forgive his
slave, Onesimus. And Paul is not ashamed to schmooze Philemon a bit because he
wants Philemon to let Onesimus go, so that he would have the freedom to travel
with Paul. Even though the letter is written to one man, you know that the
entire congregation or cluster of congregations around Colossae, where Philemon
lived, was watching to see what Philemon would do.
Onesimus was a slave. And he was a Christian. Philemon was a
Christian, too. But Philemon owned Onesimus. Apparently,
Onesimus ran away and somehow ended up working with the apostle Paul. Maybe
they met in jail, but apparently Onesimus became a Christian while on the run.
Or he might have been baptized along with Philemon’s whole household, which we
know from Acts happened from time to time. In any case, Paul was sending
Onesimus home to his master Philemon so that the two might be reconciled. But
there is a risk here because Paul might have sent Onesimus home to face the
music instead!
It could not have been an easy choice for Philemon. He could
welcome Onesimus home as a brother in Christ or take him back as a runaway
slave and punish him. Of course, Philemon could have split the difference:
welcome Onesimus home as a Christian slave with little or no punishment. But
that’s not what Paul was asking…he wanted Onesimus to come back to Paul a free
man!
This is why Paul wrote such a diplomatic letter. Notice how
in the beginning of the letter he's totally buttering up Philemon. Notice how
he appeals to Philemon's faith. Notice how Paul says to transfer Onesimus' debt
to Paul. How could Philemon possibly refuse?
Okay. That’s nice. So what? As I said, this is an obscure
letter that is so short that it is practically a bookmark in the New Testament.
The average Christian does not even know it’s there. And this obscure letter is
set in a context that is so totally and completely different than ours that it
seems totally irrelevant.
But look again! If we look past the obvious, what you'll see
is and example of how everyday faith meets the hard road of everyday life. Here
are real people dealing with difficult issues and broken relationships. Here is
the story of three people (Paul, Onesimus and Philemon) struggling to live out
their faith, and being challenged by it over and over again. It's the story of
Paul appealing on the basis of faith for Philemon to live differently. It is
the story of Philemon who must weigh his pride and authority as a head of a
household as well as law and custom against his relationship to Paul and
Onesimus as Christians. And, it's the story of Onesimus a runaway slave and now
a companion of the apostle Paul who was risking it all to come face to face
with Philemon who could wreak terrible punishment on him if he chose.
I don’t know what the penalties were in the first century
for runaway slaves, but I am sure that Philemon would have been within his
rights to have Onesimus punished harshly, maybe not death, but certainly more
than a “time out!”
Paul is asking Philemon to put all that aside and treat
Onesimus as a brother in Christ. It doesn’t matter if Philemon is right and has
custom on his side. Paul asks Philemon to instead welcome Onesimus and then let
him go back to Paul.
For Onesimus this was huge gamble and a big leap of faith
because had to also trust that Paul was not throwing him to the wolves and
decide not run away again from both Paul and Philemon
Now that’s an awful lot packed into just a couple dozen
Bible verses, don’t you think?
Jesus says in today’s Gospel that when we follow him, we are
to hate—hate? —family, kinship, possessions, and everything we hold
dear. Jesus invites us— commands! —that we take up a cross
(something the condemned did on the way to their executions) and follow him.
What Jesus is saying that it will take work, discipline—practice— and
even sacrifice to put Christ at the forefront of our living and our
decision-making and to follow Christ. If you don’t believe me, ask Philemon and
Onesimus!
In this little letter, we see what faith looks when the
rubber meets the road. What issues and relationships try your faith? If someone
were to appeal to us on the basis of faith to change something in our lives,
what would it be? And, what would be the effect of that change? The promise is
that the deeper we go in our Christian living, the more we work to conform our
lives to Christ, the bigger the change we will see, the more lives we will
touch.
For Onesimus, there may have been a huge change.
There's some evidence in the early Christian church that there was a "Bishop Onesimus” of Ephesus. He is certainly remembered that way in the Eastern Orthodox Churches. This Bishop was so grateful for the witness and Christian love of St. Paul that he preserved many of his epistles that St. Paul had written to the churches during his ministry, and may have helped compile the Letter to the Ephesians as a kind “best of” highlights reel of Paul’s writing and preaching. And he included the letter to Philemon which freed him from one life and set him on the course of something new.
Today we’ve had a taste of what first century Christianity
was like in the first decades after Jesus’ resurrection. And, guess what?
It doesn’t look all that different from what people like you and me must deal
with everyday!
Imagine what would happen if Christians today approached
each other and the tough choices we face every day with the same sense of
prayer, compassion and hope that Paul, Onesimus and Philemon had with each
other!
Imagine what life would be like if following Christ was more
important in our everyday relationships than kinship, country and custom? What
if, as Christians, we discovered that being right didn’t mean that we “owned”
our opponents? Imagine if we dealt with our disagreements and conflicts with compassion
as well as with conviction? Imagine if we chose the way of non-violence and
love over caustic language, belittling satire, and threats of violence and
uprising to work out our differences! What if, instead of joining in with the
demeaning and degrading way of the world, we Christians followed a different
way… the way of peace… or as our Presiding Bishop says, the way of love?
Here is a link to the bulletin for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost at St. John's Episcopal Church, Clearwater
Here is a link to the Scripture readings.
Here is a link to a video of the sermon.
Here is a link to a video of the liturgy.
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