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| A Byzantine icon of Onesimus |
So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if
you do not give up all your possessions. (Luke 14:33)
The
quote above is a pretty tall order, don’t you think? I mean, just what are you
willing to give up so you can be a real disciple of Jesus? Our Roman brothers
and sisters, when they take Holy Orders, are expected to renounce the world. As
a Lutheran pastor, I’m not sure I’ve really done much renouncing. I did
know guys un seminary, however, who quit good paying jobs with lots of benefits
and possibilities for career advancement, and took up a call to an uncertain
and vastly less lucrative future in the clergy. I only gave up a
nerve-shredding career as a middle school substitute teacher and a full-time
unemployed actor. Of course, I also gave up alcohol consumption and few other
bad habits—that’s no loss when you consider I’m better off without them.
Our
lessons for the 13th Sunday of Pentecost in the Revised Common
Lectionary have this theme of making choices. Moses, in the lesson from
Deuteronomy[i], tells the children of
Israel, just as they’re about to return to the land promised to their ancestor
Abraham, they’d better get their act together and seek God’s will. If they don’t,
they’re not going to last long. If they choose justice, compassion, and honesty,
they may have a shot at creating a strong society. If they choose arrogance,
greed, and idolatry they’re probably going to screw themselves. God just doesn’t
like ugly. It never works.
In
the epistle lesson[ii],
St. Paul is making a pitch to his buddy Philemon to do a little emotional
sacrificing. The letter is only 25 verses long, but we can figure out the whole
story from the few details Paul includes. First, it looks like Paul is in the slammer
again. He was often getting himself locked up for preaching the gospel, and we
suspect this letter was written while he was in Rome awaiting trial. We also
think Philemon ran a house church in Colossae, which is in modern-day Turkey.[iii] Philemon must’ve been a
pretty rich guy since he had a home big enough to host a worshiping community
and he had at least one slave—Onesimus. From this letter we can deduce that
Onesimus has run away from Philemon and found Paul in Rome. I guess that wouldn’t
be too hard. All he had to do was ask where the jail was.
Paul
tells us that Onesimus, who seems to have become a Christian, is very useful to
him. You have to figure if Paul didn’t like the prison food, he could ask
Onesimus to run to the Wawa and get him a hoagie or something. Nevertheless,
Paul is upset that two Christian brothers—even if one happens to be the slave
of the other—aren’t getting along. You’ll note, of course, that Paul has no
problem with the concept of slavery. It was what went on in his day, and he
couldn’t wrap his brain around the idea that it was dehumanizing. For the sake
of the community in Colossae, Paul is asking Onesimus, the fugitive slave, to
return to a master who may have treated him like crap. That’s a pretty big ask.
He’s also asking Philemon, a guy who needs to show he has control over his
household, to forgive the runaway and take him back as a brother and not as a
slave. Since the letter also seems to suggest Onesimus might’ve helped himself
to some traveling money from Philemon’s purse,[iv] welcoming this guy back
isn’t going to be a day at Disneyland for Philemon. In the world of this text,
there are pretty strict societal rules, and you can bet old Phi wants to make
sure everyone in his household knows who the boss is. Even though Paul promises
to pay the slave’s debt, Philemon must think he’s going to look like a real
wuss welcoming back a slave who is lazy and a thief. He knows this guy deserves
a good thrashing, but he’s supposed to ignore that, give him his freedom, and
treat him like a brother. All the while he knows Onesimus has probably been
trash-talking about him to Paul. Paul’s request is one big, whopping bowl of fatty,
gristly pride Philemon is expected to choke down.
I
always chuckle a bit over the Letter to Philemon because I notice Paul is not
above a little emotional blackmail. He reminds Phi that he’s the one who
brought him to Christ. “I say nothing,” Paul writes in verse 19, “about your
owing me even your own self.” Say nothing? He just mentioned it! But Paul goes
on to say, “Confident in your obedience, I am writing you knowing that you will
do even more than I say.”
Even
though Paul sounds like a stereo-type Jewish mother, we still have to give him
props for asking these boys to sacrifice their pride for the sake of the
community and the Gospel. After all, Paul is very likely about to sacrifice his
own life for that very cause.
What’s
the value here? For Paul, reconciliation and forgiveness are more important
than position. Mercy is more important than justice. Inclusion and embrace are
more important than the norms of society. Being a disciple of Jesus means taking
up some kind of cross and giving up something you may not want to relinquish.
What
sacrifices are you willing to make for the Gospel?
You
can let me know in the comments. Thanks again for letting me share my thoughts
this week. See you again soon!