Proper 18C

September 5, 2004

St. Paul's, Lake James

Today’s Epistle is the whole book of Philemon. It is a personal letter of spiritual recommendation written by St. Paul to the leaders of a church in Colossae in Asia Minor. A few such letters from ancient time have survived. I rarely have opportunity to preach on a whole book of the Bible, so today I want to lift up to you a central theme of the letter, which is love.

St. Paul writes, "I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love." Love is the basis of life. All authority, all power, all action, all of life rests finally on the basis of love. "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (St. John 3:16) For love God created the world and everything in it. For love we are created.

For love Jesus was content to be betrayed and hung up to die on the cross, and for love God the Father raised him from the dead so that in him we may live forever with him. For love God gives us the Holy Spirit to witness God’s love to us in the truth of Holy Scripture and in the truth of conscience. Someone once said that conscience is that still small voice that tells us, "Someone’s looking." He was partly right; the loving God is always present with us, speaking to us through conscience.

Let us see how the principle of love works out in today’s Epistle lesson. St. Paul writes, "I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love."

Onesimus was a slave. The name means "useful" and St. Paul makes a play on the name. "Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me." Slaves by definition are not free. They are owned by a master, and the master has a right to all the slave’s labor. The master’s self-interest requires him to keep the slave alive and working as long as possible, to keep the slave housed and fed and clothed. Slaves are not free to change masters; they are not their own masters.

Onesimus seized his freedom and ran away. The same name appears in the Epistle to Philemon and in the Epistle to the Colossians, and scholars think that Onesimus was a slave in Colossae. Colossae was a town in Turkey near the larger city of Ephesus. Colossae was to Ephesus as Lake James is to Morganton, or Morganton to Asheville or Winston-Salem or Charlotte. Slaves on the run head for cities. Living on the run is hard, always looking over a shoulder, fearful that the next person you see will turn you in. Somehow Onesimus found Paul, and found Jesus. Maybe he had heard the gospel when he was a slave to Philemon; maybe he came to believe because some unknown person evangelized him. We don’t know. We do know that Paul speaks of Onesimus "whose father I have become during my imprisonment." Maybe they were in jail together. Paul’s preaching kept getting him jailed for disturbing the peace of the synagogues. Onesimus was "useful" to Paul. Perhaps he brought Paul food, or served him in some other way.

Paul is truthful about his own interest. He says, "I wanted to keep him with me, so that he might be of service to me . . . during my imprisonment for the gospel." But Paul also recognizes that harboring a runaway slave is not a true witness to the gospel of love. So in the power of love Paul does the hard thing and counsels Onesimus to return to his master. And Onesimus does the hard thing and sets out to return.

Jesus’ love calls us to hard choices. Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Father, not my will but your will be done," and sure of the Father’s will Jesus waited for the Judas to lead the temple police to arrest him, for the leaders of his own people and the Roman governor to execute him, for the death which is God’s triumph over the power of sin.

Philemon’s freedom in the gospel sets him free to give Onesimus the same freedom of action that Philemon enjoys. As Paul writes, "have him back . . . no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved

brother-- especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account."

Because the paradox is that baptism and Christian faith is voluntary enslavement to Christ Jesus. When we accept Christ easy and light yoke of obedience we give up our freedom to seek only our will with no responsibility to love. We are owned by the only master who can set us free to love and to live, we are owned by the God who made us and who loves us, and who guides us in his way by his word written in the Bible, by his Spirit speaking to our consciences, who guides us in fellowship with one another in Jesus’ body the church.

Stewardship is the recognition that the Lord Jesus Christ, as our master has a right to all the slave’s labor. He asks us to give him the first tenth of the fruits of that labor for the use of his church, but he also calls us to labor in all things to his honor and glory. St. Paul writes, "I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love." Love is the basis of life. All authority, all power, all action, all rest finally on the basis of God’s love. We are called to the Christian task of using the power we are given according to God’s will that we may thereby exercise his authority of love.

Tom Rightmyer trightmy@juno.com