Preached at Canadochly Lutheran Church on September 8, 2013 (ELCA 25th anniversary "God's Work Our Hands" Sunday)
Scripture text: Philemon
A bit of trivia. Today is the one time in the three year lectionary cycle where one of our lessons is an entire book of the Bible. Our second lesson today is the entire book of Philemon.
Paul is in prison in Ephesus and one of those who has come to help and minister to him during his imprisonment is a runaway slave named Onesimus (which means “useless,” a pretty insulting name.) Onesimus belongs to a Christian in Colosse named Philemon, a man who had converted to Christianity through Paul’s work.
Paul then sits down to write to Philemon to persuade him to do two things. One is to forgive Onesimus for running away and two is to release Onesimus from slavery. What Paul is asking is no small favor. A slave was a very valuable piece of property. They cost a lot of money to purchase and in upkeep. Running away from your master when you were a slave was a serious crime, one the merited significant punishment. Paul’s appeal to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus is a very big deal.
Now you might be curious as to why this little piece of personal correspondence was considered so important to be canonized alongside the Gospels, the book of Acts, and all the other letters of the New Testament. The reason is simple. Here is the kingdom of God at work in the lives of individuals. This is what happens when Christ enters into you.
Onesimus has fled from slavery into service. He’s gone to Paul to help him in his imprisonment (Hence the pun where Paul talks about how “useful” Useless has become.) Paul has, in turn, written to Onesimus’ master and said “Look, Philemon, you’re a Christian now and you’re living by a different set of rules now. Onesimus is not a slave; he’s your brother in Christ. Forgive him and free him, because it’s what Christians do.”
God is at work in the lives of these men. He is making of them a new creation and they can no longer live as they once did. Things are going to be different now.
For his part, Philemon now has a choice to make. He can ignore Paul, demand on his rights and bring Onesimus back into slavery and into the punishment he deserves for running away. Or he can listen to Paul and do as he asks, but by doing so he’s going to have to eat the loss of a significant investment in money, time, and energy that he’s put into this slave. Philemon is faced with the choice to do what is easy or to do what is right.
And that is a choice that is also before all of us. Like Philemon, we have heard the word of God, heard the story of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection. We’ve heard the promise that by his actions, Jesus has taken away from us the evil of sin and death and given us life. We’ve believed that promise and it is that promise that brings us back here each week, to pray and praise, to be renewed in Word and Sacrament.
But what we do on the other six days of the week is important too. Far too often in modern society, we’ve come to view the Church in much the same way we might Wal-Mart. It’s Sunday morning, let’s go to the store, and buy our weekly dose of religion. And if we don’t like the dose at this church, well, we’ll just go somewhere else and see what they offer. We even call that “church shopping.”
They say that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and that seems true here. One of the drawbacks of living in a capitalist society is that everything looks like a marketplace and that I and every other pastor of the Church are only here to sell you a bill of religious goods each week.
Well, that’s not my job. My job as a Christian is nothing less than to change the world through Christ, to help the kingdom of God break into the lives of people one by one. And, as each of you is also a Christian, then that is also your job. As pastor, I am here each week to help you remember that and to give you the tools you will need through preaching, sacrament, and scripture to do that job.
We can’t keep living our lives pretending that nothing has happened to us. The rules have changed. Our lives have changed. We are God’s children and we are disciples of Jesus Christ, and we’ve been given a task, a commission, to spread the same Gospel that we’ve received to others. That’s what all this we’re doing today is about. We’re here with others in our communities who serve others because that’s what Christ has called us to do.
A lot of us look out over the world today and we see nightmarish things: Poverty, crime, war, disease, despair. We pray in Christ’s own prayer for the kingdom to come, but for that to happen it’s going to take (to borrow a phrase popular in our news media right now) “boots on the ground.” It’s God’s work, but our hands, and the choice is before us just as was before Philemon.
Are we going to do what is easy? Nothing, just pretend that nothing’s happened to us and keep on going on like we have been. Or turn to pithy gimmicks that promise the world but require no energy, thought, or commitment on our part? If that’s the case, then don’t be expecting the nightmare that is our world to change anytime soon. Or would we rather do what is right? Living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and let that word of love be in every action we do from day to day. Are we going to sacrifice to see that new world come to be? Are we going to work to make it happen? It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be tough.
But that’s the choice before us. The quick and easy path that leads to nothing or the difficult and demanding path of what is right and good for the world, a world that Christ died for and a world that we are called to serve.
As Paul once did with Philemon when he asked him to free Onesimus and to do what was hard and right, the ball is now in your court. What will your answer be? Amen.
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