Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33
One of my degrees in undergraduate studies is in Sociology. Being a Bachelor’s Degree we never got very far into specific fields, and so took a lot of different classes as far as the different schools of Sociology went.
I did take the extra electives in Criminology however. It cost me a little extra time but it was worth it really. I was absolutely fascinated by it. And, as a perk the advanced class was allowed to take a trip to Moundsville penitentiary. This place is semi-famous if you have ever seen “The Night of the Hunter” with Robert Mitchum, and even more recently it aired in an episode of “Ghost Hunters” on the Sci-Fi channel. It’s really a pretty intimidating place.
Our visit started out as a lark really, but once you arrive at the façade of that imposing Gothic structure you get an immediate sense of seriousness. Even our troupe of giddy sociology majors took on a tone of abrupt silence as we walked through the first gate.
We received the full tour that day. We even sat in one of the small cells, and laid hands on the bars. We even took a short walk over to the prison coal mine that, in its day, was a hand operated shaft mine worked on by the inmates.
Thinking about this experience still brought a little shiver to me as I was reading Paul’s letter to Philemon this week. It may have been that he starts the letter out with “From Paul, who is in jail…” From what I understand Roman run prisons were no picnic either.
There is an ancient prison still around in Rome if you ever get the chance. It’s called the Mamertine Prison, and as it was built in the 300s B.C. it is the popularized incarceration point of Paul and Peter. Sallust, a Roman writer of around 40 B.C. (within a generation or so of Paul and Peter), describes it as being “about twelve feet deep, closed all round by strong walls and a stone vault. Its aspect is repugnant and fearsome from its neglect, darkness, and stench.” Sounds pleasant.
I really have to admire Paul’s tone in the letter after reading that. He’s talking about how dear everyone is and how the ministry of those on the outside encourages him. But, then again, maybe incarceration is making these joys easier to see.
Paul’s real purpose in all this is to ask something of Philemon. Who, as we understand it is a leader of the church in Colossae, in what is now the middle of Turkey. Paul wants him to take back his slave. His slave, who apparently ran away, and from the letter, probably stole from Philemon and who knows whom else. And more than take back, Paul isn’t returning him as a slave but as an equal in Christ. And more than that he wants Philemon to do it as an act of real love and kindness and not something that he is begrudgingly accepting. For a guy writing from prison he sure expects a lot out of people.
Let’s get some more of Onesimus’s story though. I mean, who knows how he met Paul, either by fate, or perhaps he ran away to travel with him, but regardless he lands in the same place and through Paul’s witnessing he has that precious conversion experience. Paul, now having also befriended Onesimus is confident enough in him to send him out to minister on his own, and admits to not wanting him to go because he is such a comfort to Paul. Paul is actively healing the gap between master and slave before our eyes. He begs, he cajoles, and he even tries a little guilt to get Philemon to agree.
In a line that makes Paul’s poor eyesight known to us he write that he will pay back whatever is owed by Onesimus, writes it in the large letters of his own hand.
If I was Philemon I’m not sure I would be too keen on taking Onesimus back. There’s a little hubris in all of us that initially wants to reject those who walk out on us. But hopefully Paul’s poignant joke stuck in his head long enough to have him reconsider.
Oh, did you miss the joke? Well you have to speak Greek to get it, and without the dictionary I would have skipped it as well.
The joke is in Onesimus’ name partly. The name literally means “useful.”
And so, in the letter when Paul is saying that before Onesimus knew Christ he was Useless to Philemon, but now, he is Useful to the both of them for the minister that he could be, there is a certain wry smile in it.
I think it’s funnier if you know Greek.
But the way Paul writes is masterful, much like Jesus’ parables it was a little statement intended to stick out. Maybe hours after reading the letter Philemon is sitting around thinking about Onesimus and the welcome he might receive when suddenly some part of his brain clicks and he gets it… “USE-ful… oh man I get! Ha ha ha ha… Oh that Paul.”
In high school I had a good buddy who lived next to about 400 acres of woodland that we would hike around in all the time. One winter on a warm day there was a creek that was high with snowmelt, and there were five or so dead trees on our side of it. My friend always carried an old machete with him on the hikes and we looked at cutting one down. Without really saying anything I measured out the shadow of one of the trees, and then the shadow of my friend with he was standing there. A few mental calculations and I picked out a tree for him to start working on. After it fell and we worked our way across, my friend commented to me, “Excellent use of trig there.” I was horrified. He stood there smirking because he knew what I was thinking. I hated math. I loathed it. I had only taken trigonometry because I was required to take it, and here I had actually used it in the real world.
We seek to serve God. In that seeking I know there are times in which we believe certain things to be useful and certain things not to be. I’m sure before receiving the letter Philemon was probably grousing about his missing slave. Griping about his usefulness or lack thereof. And he was a leader of the church.
When he received Paul’s letter I’m sure he wanted to say, “Oh Paul, surely not. Surely not him.”
Paul does well in the letter to remind Philemon that he too owes Paul his life for bringing him salvation. He reminds Philemon that he was once a slave as well—a slave to sin and wrongdoing without the grace of Christ. And so have we all been. I identify much more easily with Onesimus than I do with the other characters in this story.
What did Paul say to Onesimus? What was it that cemented their kinship so closely? Surely just the open hearts that a conversion experience brings, but how did Paul empower him to meet his former master on solid and even ground? Did he tell him how to fulfill the promise of his own name?
Jesus was being followed by enormous crowds. Which maybe partly was due to the rumors going around about his making wine and lunch for everyone? I am a little glib about the crowd mentioned here though only because Jesus kinda seems like he is trying to get rid of them.
I mean look at the language he uses. Well, first he turns, and I have this weird image in my head for some reason of a Jesus who is walking around, maybe easily at first in the countryside, and as more and more people keep filling up the crown behind he walks a little faster, and a little faster until he spins around and tells them what is what.
Maybe he knows that in their hearts they aren’t ready to really follow him. Maybe he knows that they really are following him to see something cool happen.
Regardless though the scripture says he turns, and wow. Unloads with both barrels of the shotgun. He says that in order to be a disciple, that is a student of His, you must love Him more than anyone else in your family. And moreover, you can’t even come with Him unless you love Him more than you love your own life.
Do you think that the crowd thinned out a little at this point?
Of course this is a great point. One that we struggle with daily probably. We must not have anything, or anyone else ahead of the place that God has in our hearts. The motives of the family cannot interfere with the directions that we have from God. The emotional pull of the family cannot overcome the emotional blessing of God. And if the family can’t even compete, you can imagine the place the rest of the world has.
Jesus is talking about preparedness. We’re at chapter 14 here and more than halfway through the whole book of Luke. He’s got the cross on his mind already and he knows what the life afterward is going to take. He knows the convictions that becoming an apostle is going to take.
And true to form he tells a story about it.
The stories say, how can you start something so huge as a tower, or something so important as the defense of your city and not be prepared for the reality! If you did people will laugh at you! The city will fall, and there will be no achievement. So then, He says, you cannot follow my teachings unless you give up everything of yourself.
And what are our great projects? How can we raise a family if we don’t study what God wants for us? How can we be a good friend if the Spirit doesn’t lead us in our actions? How can we possibly be a follower of Christ or his teachings if we don’t know or aren’t prepared to deal with the consequences? We cannot.
Jesus wants followers who are going to be useful. And not just useful in the ways that we think we ought to be useful. We think that we have found our niche at times. We think we have the purpose of God all planned out. But God’s purpose for us can change. His gifts can be altered. We may have hidden talents we didn’t yet know we had. Something God had been saving up for a rainy day. And if we don’t constantly keep up with the Will that God has for us, well, then we are salt that’s lost its flavor. We cease being useful. And sometimes we keep plodding away at the same old thing and wonder, gee, why aren’t I as effective as I used to be?
The power of Christ changed a slave into a free Disciple. Onesimus didn’t tell Paul, “no, no, I’m a slave. Maybe I should just try to be a really good slave instead of taking al l the responsibility of being free.”
We need convincing sometimes like Philemon. We think we have a good handle on things. We keep thinking that we have finally got it. We read a passage of scripture and we say that it means this, and this. And true scripture is irrefutable, but we must be aware of the Words the Spirit has for us through that scripture.
There is an oriental proverb of a monk who sits on the end of a road taking the toll for a bridge. He gets bored one day and asks a man crossing the bridge what he saw something down the hill, and the man replies, “Two women doing laundry and a cow standing in a field, and a troop of soldiers.” A while later he asks the same to a boy coming the same direction. The boy replies, “I say a boy and a girl with a kite, which had a long tail and was red like a dragonfly.” The monk is puzzled and asks if he didn’t see the soldiers or the cow or the women washing? “Oh yes,” says the boy, “but they were very ordinary.”
God has different things to show us on the path at different times in our lives. If we cease looking around for things that have changed then we run the risk of becoming useless.
Is this part of what Paul told Onesimus? Surely he spoke as Jesus did of the self-denial and the dedication that becoming and apostle would take. And coming from a group of guys who were imprison for their conviction I’d say that was probably a pretty weighty idea. Nothing like trying to recruit followers while incarcerated for that very belief. “Hey, want to be a Christian?” “Sure! By the way, what are you in for?” “Being a Christian.” “Really… Well, on second thought…”
What Paul said must have overpowered all of that kind of thinking. “Onesimus,” he said, “fulfill your namesake in a way you never thought possible. Become useful to God himself as a part of His wonderful plan of Love and Salvation for this world.” Yeah! All right Paul! He should recruit for the Armed Forces! That guy could sell a furnace to the devil.
And that is a wonderful task with which we are charged. To be useful in the grand design. How many of us long to have purpose? To have a part to play and here is a loving God who has that part. And it’s not just any part, there are no bit or backstage roles to play in God’s plan, each is integral and wonderful in its own way, and by being useful we find ourselves reaping the blessing that God has promised. It’s like part of the acting contract we have.
So as we go out, trying to find our way to be useful to Christ, we must be ready for some cross carrying, be ready to let the personal wants slough off us, and be ready to release those personal issues that stand in our way.
Christ will give us the courage to know what we HAVE to do in our lives to be useful, but the true disciple is one who can do it because of Love. Love like someone who was once in Jail for Christ.
