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September 1:
Call: Colossians 3: 12-17
Text: Philemon
Read: Worshipping With Chuck Week Six
Friendly Favor
Finally!
Finally, I think I understand.
Finally, I think I understand
why a simple letter of request from Paul to a friend
has been canonized.
Now, let me be clear:
In addition to the fact that Paul wrote it,
Which qualifies the letter as special in and of itself,
I have always liked the letter that is our text this morning.
In fact, I have always been fascinated by this letter
I have used it as my text several times
Including twice before while serving Potsdam
But this letter is so different from Paul's other letters
That it has taken eighteen years and two months as a UMC pastor
To begin to grasp what role Paul's brief letter to Philemon has in our scriptures.
But this week
- perhaps influenced by the way I have spent the last two weeks.
I have at last begun to grasp that it's very uniqueness
Is what makes this 25 verse epistle so valuable
You see,
It doesn't tell us what to do.
It shows us what to do.
It doesn't tell us how to do it
It does it.
Look at Paul's other letters in our New Testament
Letters to: the Romans, the Corinthians, the Galations
Letters to: the Ephesians, the Philippians, the Colossians
Letters to the Thessalonians and to Timothy and Titus.
All are theological treatises
All make theological arguments
All tell us about Jesus the Christ
and how we in the church are to respond and interact.
But in this short letter to a friend,
Paul asks a favor of Philemon.
And in doing so, lives the gospel
Rather than writes about it.
This letter is a living demonstration and visiual aid
For us to follow
If we are to say that we are Christians.
The facts are these:
Philemon is a friend of Paul
In fact, Paul is the one who converted Philemon
There is a bond between them.
Onesimus is a slave owned by - or indebted to - Philemon
But Onesimus ran away from his master.
Why did he run away?
I have no idea. Paul does not tell us why.
What we do know is that the runaway slave ultimately encountered Paul
And even more importantly,
in encountering Paul, he also encountered Jesus The Christ
And enlisted as one of His followers.
At the time, Paul was a prisoner
And Onesimus became a great help to him.
Now, Paul knows that:
As much help as Onesimus has been to him
This new recruit for Christ
Has legal (perhaps even moral) obligations to his master
And that that master is Christ's follower as well
- also thanks to Paul.
So Paul realizes that he has to send Onesimus back to Philemon
And he pens a letter to his friend
Asking that he forgive Onesimus
And that he reconcile with - and forgive - him
Even promising to pay any debt that the slave owes
And he Philemon to not only reconcile and forgive
But to also accept Onesimus as a brother.
This is the letter that Paul wrote: [ read Philemon]
This is the letter that Paul wrote
This is the example he gave to us.
Paul wants something - a favor - from Philemon
And he begins his letter by noting that Philemon's reputation
Is as a man who loves all the saints
And as a person of faith toward the Lord.
He does so
Because, while Paul wants the favor,
He wants it done for the right reasons.
He wants a Christian response
Not a secular response from his friend.
Because of that, he makes it clear that
his request to Philemon is not based on
any duty or obligation
arising from Paul's having introduced him to Christ.
Instead it is based on love
Love for him
Love for Onesimus
And most of all
Love for Christ
And that love comes from faith
Love and faith,
the very things he mentions in his introduction or greeting:
He wants the favor done
From those characteristics
He wants the favor done
From the very characteristics Christ taught
He wants the favor done
From the very things with which he told the Colossians to clothe themselves
Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
He asking Philemon to do what he instructed the Colossians to do
"Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another,
forgive each other
just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive."
And above all, he is asking the letter's recipient
To clothe himself with love
And let the peace of Christ rule in his heart.
Again, what he expected of the Colossians
Again, from the words that called us to worship.
But here, instead of prescribing these things
As he did in that call to worship
He is simply expecting - even assuming -
that Philemon will respond out of love
rather than with: "What's in this for me?"
And so, with all this in his mind and heart,
Paul asks Philemon to receive Onesimus back
Not simply as slave or servant
Not as one who is inferior
But as a brother in Christ.
And he does so,
Confident that Philemon will grant the favor
And suspecting that he will do even more than requested.
Paul's confidence comes from
What he understands a Christian response should be
For Paul sees that committing oneself to follow Christ
Is a transforming experience.
Paul knows that we Christians cannot write others off
For Christ did not - and does not - write us off.
Paul knows that Christ's love for us
Shows a deep mercy
And that our love for Christ
Should enable us to respond with mercy as well.
We can be confident that Paul knows this
Not only by his requesting this of Philemon
But also by his inclusion of Mark
As a fellow worker at the end of the letter.
For Mark is the one who turned around and left Paul and Barnabas
Part of the way through their first missionary journey
Mark is the one whom Paul then refused to take on his 2nd journey
Causing a break with Barnabas,
The man who had welcomed Paul into Christian fellowship
When others were too scared to do likewise.
But as the inclusion of Mark as a fellow worker reveals,
Paul had reconciled with Mark
Out of love - not obligation
And that is what Paul, in an example of Christian behavior now asks of Philemon.
This letter is in the canon to put us in Philemon's shoes.
So, how do we respond when we receive this letter?