16th Sunday after Pentecost
September 19, 2004
Philemon 1-21

¹Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker, ²to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier and to the church that meets in your home: ³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, ⁵because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. ⁶I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. ⁷Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

⁸Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, ⁹yet I appeal to you on the basis of love. I then, as Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus— ¹⁰I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. ¹¹Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. ¹²I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you. ¹³I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. ¹⁴But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favour you do will be spontaneous and not forced. ¹⁵Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good— ¹⁶no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord. ¹⁷So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. ¹⁸If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me.

¹⁹I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back—not to mention that you owe me your very self. ²⁰I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. ²¹Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask. (NIV).

Following Christ.

  I don't think anyone can hear the words of today's Gospel lesson (Luke 14:25-23) without feeling a bit confused and uneasy. To hear that you must "hate" your parents, spouse, children or siblings and give up everything in order to follow Christ is shocking to say the least. We are not used to such language. Of course, some of the shock is simply a matter of language and culture. Jesus was speaking Aramaic to other Jews. In that language you can use the extremes of love and hate to make a comparison. But you can't do that in English. We use the word "more" for comparisons. So in English Jesus would have to say, "You must love me more than your family members."

  Nevertheless, the fact remains that Jesus is saying we must value and be more committed to our relationship with him than the relationship we have with any family member or property. In fact, he is calling us into a relationship with him in which we relinquish control of our life and property to his direction.

  No, this is not some sort of cult and I'm not leading up to asking you to sign the deed of your house over to the church! When we relinquish control of our life and property to Jesus we don't lose them. Rather we use them according to his will and purpose. We acknowledge that our life and all we have is a gift from God and he, the all-knowing Creator, knows best how to use them. So we live in a way and use our property in a way that glorifies God rather than pursuing the cravings of our corrupt nature. When we relinquish control of our life and property to Jesus our confession of faith and behaviour come together. Jesus is not just an occasional advisor; rather he is God and Lord and Saviour. And we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

  What might that mean in our daily life, to let Jesus direct our life and how we use our property? Consider Paul's short letter to Philemon. It's an example for us of someone letting Jesus direct his life and the use of his property.

  Paul is a prisoner; where we don't know. Philemon's slave Onesimus has been with Paul; why and how we don't know. Apparently he offended his master in some way and ran away. He thus has some sort of debt with Philemon. During his time with Paul, Onesimus has become a Christian and has become very useful to Paul in his work as apostle. In fact Paul would like to keep Onesimus with him like Timothy or Titus or Silas.

  But Paul will not coerce someone and take his property. He must send Onesimus back to Philemon. So he writes this letter to Philemon asking two things. First, he asks that Philemon receive Onesimus not as a useless slave, but as a useful brother in Christ and Paul's spiritual son. And then, in a very tactful way, he asks that Philemon let Onesimus continue to work with him. Clearly Paul is asking Philemon to relinquish control of his property for the cause of Christ.

  Note that this letter is not about Onesimus or the abolition of slavery. It's about Philemon. Paul writes to Philemon and asks him to do something. Philemon has to decide how he's going to live and what he will do with his property in view of Paul's request. Did he comply? There is reason to believe that he did. First, this letter has been preserved as part of the Bible. And second, Ignatius, bishop of Antioch in the generation after Paul, mentions a bishop of Ephesus named Onesimus, quite likely our man.

  Not being slave owners, I'm not sure we can fully appreciate Philemon's situation and Paul's request. Perhaps we can imagine a different scenario that might happen to us. Suppose you and your son are not getting along very well. You want him to go to medical school but he refuses. Then you wake up one day to find that your son has taken the car and disappeared. Some time latter you get a letter from a very good friend of yours who is the president of the seminary. Your son went to see him hopping that he could talk some sense into you. While he was there, it became clear to both of them that what the boy really wants is go to seminary and become a pastor. Now your friend is asking you to forgive your son for taking off in the car. Instead think of him as a brother in the faith and let him return to seminary to study. Oh yea, that will cost a bit of money and he might need the car too!

  Well I don't know if that is any easier to understand than Paul's letter to Philemon, but it's similar. Why should you forgive your son and send him back to seminary? Why should Philemon have forgiven Onesimus and sent him back to Paul? In both cases, the answer is really that you consider the request as if from Christ himself and you are ready to serve and follow Christ in all things. That is the basis on which Paul makes his request to Philemon. I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. . . . Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints. Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love.

  Philemon is a devout disciple of Christ. There is a church meeting in his home! He has always done what he can to encourage and support other believers, the saints. On that basis Paul appeals to him. Yet surely this was not easy. We don't know what loss Philemon incurred when Onesimus took off. Although Paul offered to pay him back, I'm pretty sure we have to understand that Paul the prisoner had no means with which to pay! Then Philemon had to deal with the whole slavery issue. Onesimus was a slave not a son. Yet Paul is asking him to receive Onesimus back no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. . . . Welcome him as you would welcome me, Paul says. Finally, Paul is asking that Philemon send Onesimus back thus permanently giving up whatever service and benefit he had from his slave.

  Yet Paul is sure that Philemon will do all this. Why? Because Philemon loves the Lord and shares in the fellowship of the faith. He considers Paul a partner in that faith who is doing the will of God. Philemon considers that he owes his very life to Christ and to this apostle.

  That brothers and sisters is why Jesus can make the same kind of request of us, to love him more than anything and to be willing to give up everything to follow him. You and I believe that Jesus has freed us from the penalty of sin by giving himself for us. He died in our place so that we could receive the forgiveness of sin. He died to satisfy the judgement of God's law for us. He rose from the dead as the first victor over death. You would gladly give everything you own, you would gladly do anything if you and your loved ones could escape death, if you could live forever in perpetual health and youth. That is precisely what Jesus has prepared for you! He has made it possible for you to have eternal life and it doesn't cost you a minute or a dime. That is the faith that we share, the hope in which we participate. We are convinced that Christ will raise us from the dead.

  Again, it is on that basis that Paul makes his request to Philemon. Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love. Philemon has known the love of Christ for himself. He has experienced God's undeserved favour because of Christ. So Paul asks him to act with regard to Onesimus on the basis of that love. He doesn't want Philemon to fulfill an obligation. He wants Philemon to act out of gratitude by remembering the debt that he himself cannot pay.

  We too owe our very life to Christ and in, a sense, to whomever it was who brought us to Christ. For apart from him we have no way to attain eternal life. So Christ calls you to follow him—to love him more than father or mother, spouse or child, brother or sister, more than your own life or anything you possess—because he gave his life for you and earned eternal life for you.

  In the case of Philemon, Paul says, Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask. Can Jesus make the same request of you and me? Can he say to us, although . . . I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love? . . . Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask? Can we put ourselves and everything we possess in the service of the Lord? That is a tough question to answer. Most of the time we don't really know until the test comes.

  But what I am certain of is this. If you and I ever hope to be able to turn everything over to Christ, we have to be convinced of the love that he has for us. No commandment can coerce us to have confidence in Christ. Instead, we have to be convinced that his death counts as ours and that his resurrection guarantees our resurrection. We have to be convinced that we have been joined to Christ so that we are his partners. We must be convinced that we are part of his body now and so will share with him the life of the world to come.

  That we may be convinced of all those things, he has given us his Word and Sacraments. Last week we read, Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:7-8). Today we read about Philemon. It seems pretty reasonable that he did what Paul asked, that he welcomed Onesimus not as a slave but as a brother in Christ and that he sent Onesimus back to Paul. His example encourages us because it shows us that our faith and work in the Lord is not in vain. As we receive the Sacrament of the Altar, God again says to us personally and collectively, "Your sins are forgiven; your debt has been paid." And at your Baptism, you were made a part of the Body of Christ.

  All this, God has done for you that you might live with him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. God has given his son and promised eternal life. So follow Christ. Let him direct your life and the use of your property. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.