September 8 2013
Proper 18C
The Rev. Kate Ekrem
Once when I was in
seminary, I signed up for a course that was oversubscribed. There were too many
people who wanted to take it. So, instead of taking the first 20 students who
signed up or something like that, the professor had us all show up to the first
class. Then she started giving us an overview of the class. How much reading,
how many papers, how complicated the material was going to be, how she wasn’t
going to spoon feed us and on and on. About half the people dropped the class
after hearing all that, and then we were down to the right size. It was the best course I took in seminary,
well worth all the work.
It seems like Jesus is a little bit
like that professor in today’s Gospel.
Jesus has been travelling around Galilee, feeding thousands with loaves
and fishes, healing people and doing miracles. By this point, there were lots of people following him.
Following him maybe because of what they could get from him. Free food,
healing, the excitement of being part of a new movement.
Jesus turns to them and says, that’s all
good, but it’s not the point. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and
mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself,
cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be
my disciple. … none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all
your possessions." I expect a lot of people dropped Jesus’ class after
that.
It’s worth reflecting on if we, like that
crowd, follow Jesus for what we get out of it. We get community, a sense of
family and belonging, we get healing and comfort in hard times. These are all
true and good and important, but they are not all. Are we able to see these
things as the beginning, the introduction to something much bigger, more
important, more costly, and more valuable.
I’m not sure Jesus is asking his followers
to starve and be homeless. To give away our last crumb and live on the street. But
he is asking them to do something at least as life-changing. To make the Gospel, sharing God’s unquenchable
love with all people, more important in
our lives than our livelihoods, our lifestyles, even our parents and our
children.
If we want to follow Jesus, we need to be
like Jesus, accepting the hardships and the difficulties that really loving all
people – rich and poor, good and evil, friends and enemies, family and
strangers – that really loving all of these people will inevitably bring us. At
some point, following that path will lead us into conflict with our family, our
jobs, things we thought we knew about ourselves or could take for granted.
That’s exactly what happened to Philemon.
Philemon is the person to whom today’s letter from Paul was written. (Charlie)
just read the whole entire letter, that’s it. Philemon was a good person, a
follower of Jesus, a leader of the church in Colossea, some scholars think he
may have been a bishop. He was a richer person, who like all rich people in
those days owned slaves, and one of Philemon’s slaves was named
Onesimus. And Onesimus ran away, it sounds like he also probably stole
something, maybe some money from Philemon when he ran. And he ran to Paul, who
is in prison, or perhaps more like on house arrest, and Onesimus spends some
time with Paul and either is converted or is strengthened in his Christian
faith. And now Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon, with this letter. This
letter saying, I’m not going to tell you what to do, but you need to do the
right thing. You’re a Christian, Onesimus is a Christian, he’s your brother in
faith, not going to tell you you have to free him and forgive him, but, you
know what you need to do.
Paul is asking Philemon to put his money where his mouth is.
In a concrete, direct and very big way.
Owning slaves – or being a slave
-- in the ancient world was as common as
owning mutual funds today. It just was. It was the economic system of time. Paul
doesn’t tell Philemon, you need to free all your slaves, or you need to help
end slavery for all time. What he says is very concrete, just about the
relationship between two people – Philemon and Onesimus, face to face, eye to
eye, how are you going to treat this one person in front of you, do you or do
you not recognize this person as your equal, your brother. That’s all Paul
asks, but the answer has the potential to change everything.
Paul is asking Philemon to change
his life. Asking him to be a disciple, to pay the cost of living a life in step
with God and out of step with the world he lived in. His faith came into
conflict with his life and he had to decide, would he pay the cost.
There are so many ways we struggle
with the same question, how do we follow Jesus in ways that lead us out of step
with our world. What does our faith lead us to do that probably seem weird or
ridiculous to our neighbors. That are inconvenient and costly and force us to
choose whether we’re going to go along with the way everybody else lives, or be
different. Some things I know many if not most of you do – for example, spending a good chunk of your
day in prayer or Bible study and a good chunk of your weekend here in church. Radically
changing the way you use non-renewable resources to protect God’s creation.
Giving away large portions of your income instead of spending it on yourself. Spending
more money on clothes or food that is produced in a fair and healthy way. These
are costly things and most costly of all may be to look our own Onesimus in the
face, that person whom we are at odds with or whom we think has wronged us, to
let go of our own assumptions and attachments and simply see them as a fellow
child of God and let that change our hearts and our minds.
Paul asks Philemon to pay the price, to be
a disciple, but he’s not asking out of coercion or force or even haranguing or
guilt, he’s not judging him or saying you have to measure up. Everything he
says is out of love. This is such an affectionate letter, full of reminders of
the close relationship that Paul and Philemon share. He asks him to do this out
of love.
Following Jesus, being a Christian, living
out your baptismal promises, is not cost free. It’s not something that’s not
going to change your life. The question is, is it worth it? The witness of
scripture and so many saints down through the ages affirms that it is. Jesus
and Paul and Philemon and Onesimus would tell us if they could, it’s worth it,
it’s more than worth it. It’s the pearl of great price.
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