Not Insects, but Buffalo! - Sermon for Feb. 19

A Sermon for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany (RCL B) 2-19-2012

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:              2 Kings 2:1-12; Psalm 50:1-6; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Mark 9:2-9

Themes:         transfiguration on the mountain, light shining in darkness, new vision
Title:               Not Insects, but Buffalo!

In the 1950’s, an African Pygmy named Kenge took his first trip out of the dense tropical rainforest that was his home. He was taken out onto the broad savannah plains of Tanzania. Far in the distance across the savannah was a herd of Cape buffalo. They appeared as small black specks against the bright sky. The pygmy man stared at the buffalo in the distance, then turned to the anthropologist accompanying him, and asked, “What kind of insects are those?”

When the anthropologist replied that those were not insects, but rather were buffalo, Kenge roared in laughter and told the anthropologist that he should not tell such stupid lies.

(Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness, 2006.)

This western anthropologist was not stupid and he was not lying.

You see, before this moment, this pygmy man Kenge had spent his entire life on the floor of the thick rainforest, where he had never been able to see more than just a few feet in front of him, let alone all the way to the horizon.

His brain had never processed an image of something that was miles away, and so he had no way of perceiving the reality that something as large as a buffalo – an animal 10 feet long and averaging 1600 lbs of muscle - could appear so small due to the diminishing effect of distance.

My dear friends: you and I are African pygmies! No, no, not in the make-up of our bodies. But we are like the African pygmies at least when it comes to our spiritual vision!

But if it makes you feel any better, so were all of the apostles. So were Peter, James and John!  

Like those peasant fishermen, we live our entire lives within the thick jungle of experiences which constitute a normal human life. Dishes and bills and house repairs and dirty diapers and work and school and illnesses and sore feet and headaches.

Our brains have never processed an image of reality from God’s point of view. We don’t even know to see divine things. It’s like Peter up there on the mountain: “OK, Lord, I guess you and Moses and Elijah will need someplace to stay.” And what kind of insects are those?

Peter had no way to process what he was seeing. It was beyond anything that he had ever glimpsed.

This is why, I think, the Lord took his closest friends up on the mountain with him. Until this point, his time with them had been very, very busy. Sailing across the lake, catching fish, feeding thousands of people, being surrounded by huge crowds who all wanted something from Jesus.

It felt a lot like their ordinarily very busy lives. It was different, of course, living with the Messiah, but they were still walking with him through the thick rainforest jungle.

But here they are taken out onto the savannah for the first time in their lives.

Above and beyond and around the crowded busyness of their lives, there was a luminous divine reality that Peter and James and John had never yet glimpsed. They believed in the reality of God’s kingdom, but they had no way to imagine in their minds what the reality of God’s kingdom actually looked like. Until this trip up to the mountain top.

This Gospel reading appointed for today begins with a mistake.

For some reason, those who decide such matters chose to start with verse 2 and to leave out verse one, which is the actual opening of this scene. Verse one says this:

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

And then the text goes on to say that six days after this announcement is when the Lord takes Peter and James and John up the mountain and allows them to see the hidden, powerful reality of the kingdom of God.

What they are allowed to see there upon the mountain is not some isolated, dramatic experience, but it is rather a vision of what the life of Jesus is truly like and of what their lives could be like when they are lived in connection with him.

All of this has to do with sanctifying our imagination. The gospel allows us to see a different future – one that is different from our current reality. When we can see this possibility, we have hope. But what is more astounding is the truth that this good future is already growing even now in our midst! 

Countless scientific studies have shown that we human beings are most likely to imagine the future based upon what we are experiencing in the present. Think about how people felt about real estate values back in 2006 and remember what advice you were hearing then from various financial advisors. Do you think they ever imagined such huge drops in home values in such a short time?

Now consider this: Alexander Graham Bell, the man who invented the first practical working telephone in 1876, once spoke these words to a reporter who was interviewing him: "It may sound cocky of me, Sir, but I foresee the day when there will be a telephone in every town in America!" Do you think he could have ever imagined a time when there was a phone on every person in America?

It is a fact that our imaginations most typically are entirely bound by our past memories and by our present experiences. But God desires us to see, and to imagine, much, much more.  

We’ve seen the limits of our ability to perceive what is beyond our normal experience. Now consider this example of a sanctified imagination.

There’s a story that was told by the southern slaves of former years. In this story, a young slave woman is standing in the hot field, working, harvesting the crop. The overseer is brutally whipping another slave nearby. Already in this woman’s short life, she has seen too much pain.

She breaks down right then. She drops down and cries out, “I can’t take it any more. I can’t take it any more. I wanna die!”

But old man nearby hears her cry out and calls to her and says, “Don’t die, baby. Don’t die. Get dressed up and come with me.”

“So I got dressed up,” she reported, “and I went with him. You shoulda seen me, dressed up in the finest dress! We walked together and we walked right over into hell, and right there I spit on the devil! And then we walked straight into heaven, right before the throne of God! Everyone was there and we was having a grand time, dancing and singing and laughing.”

“But then, all a’sudden, the whip hit my back – CRACK – and I looked up, and there was the master standing over me, ready to whip me some more.”

“But I laughed with secret laughter, because he had the whip, but I had all the advantage!”

 St. Paul wrote that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

But I think that this blindness can afflict all of us, when we see things only as they appear to our eyes, and not with our faith-inspired imaginations.

Look at what we do today in the sacrament of baptism. You can look and see only a baby and some water and oil and a candle, and you can see a pleasant little opportunity for a family to get together and take some nice pictures and have a good memory (something to fill up pages in Luke’s baby book).

Or you can look with the eyes of faith and see something powerful and majestic and eternal – the light of the risen Lord touching the young soul of this baby boy. You can hear vows that are made before the very throne of God. And you can imagine all of the saints and the angels of God – all those beings of radiant goodness – rejoicing that the door of new and abundant life has been opened now for Luke.

What about in your life? Have you been able to glimpse the kingdom of God at work beyond and above and around all of the activities of your daily life? May it always be so that the eyes of your heart are able to see the light of the glory of God as it is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Plight of the Hebrews

A Sermon for the 10^th Sunday after Pentecost (RCL A) 8-21-2011

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

 Texts:              Exodus 1:8-2:10; Psalm 124; (Romans 12:1-8); Matthew 16:13-20

Themes:         Moses in the river, the confession of Peter, church built on the rock
Title:               The Plight of the Hebrews

It is not very often that you will hear me refer to the ideas of Charles Darwin as we reflect together here in worship. Not because I necessarily reject all of his thoughts and theories about the evolution of species, but because it is rare that his thoughts have any direct bearing upon our journey of faith as a Christian community.

But today is an exception. This morning, as we reflect together upon this story of oppression from the first chapter of the book of Exodus, I want to begin with a summary of Darwin’s thoughts about the process of natural selection: it is not the ones who are the strongest or who are the most intelligent which survive, but rather it is those who are most able to adapt to change who are the ones to survive and thrive.

However true this might be of biological processes, let me suggest to you that this is even more true in the spiritual realm, in the human journey of faith.

It is true here in the situation of the children of Israel during their sojourn in the land of Egypt.

Today’s reading from Exodus begins the cycle of state-sponsored violence and oppression of the immigrants which ends, finally, in God’s liberation of the people from the hand of Pharaoh.

For the first time in the Bible, the descendents of Abraham are here referred to as “Hebrews.”

Today, we are accustomed to thinking of this term as referring to the Jewish people, but at the time of the writing of the Pentateuch – these first 5 books of Moses, the term “Hebrew” in fact referred to any group of people on the margins of society who were landless and without social standing.

“Hebrews” were people who were distrusted and excluded from mainstream society, because they were different.

Wherever they were found, and from wherever they had come, the “Hebrews” were looked upon with suspicion by the majority of the dominant society around them.

God had promised life and land to the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and they were sent to Egypt by the hand of Providence in order to preserve their lives during a time of drought and famine.

But now, their presence in Egypt has become a problem. The very blessing of God upon them has become a threat to the Egyptians. The text states that the Israelites “multiplied and became very strong” because of God’s favor. The Egyptian empire rejected this blessing and sought to nullify it by human violence. Murder, genocide, slavery and oppression were the means by which Egypt was to adapt to this changing situation, but their methods would come back to haunt them.  

Most of you know that I find great inspiration from the early thinkers and preachers of the Church who wrote mostly in Greek during the first 5 centuries after the Resurrection. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that one cannot understand the Church or the Gospel at all without some reference to the thoughts of these great men – and they were nearly all men, unfortunately.

But it was these men, after all, who have left to us the great Creeds of the Church, as well as our foundational understanding of who God is and who Jesus is.

Christ is the foundation of this house – this community called the Church. The apostles provided the basic structure of the house, and it is these great thinkers who have painted the house and have set it in order with useful rooms and furniture, so to speak.

But for all of their greatness, these early Church fathers have some very obvious weaknesses. Their complete immersion in the Greek philosophical worldview gave them an assumed framework of thinking outside of which they seemed hardly able to imagine anything else. 

And so, in their commentaries on the book of Exodus, with its tale of Egyptian cruelty and enslavement of the children of Jacob, what we hear from the early fathers is classic Greek spiritual allegory: that is, how the Pharaoh represents the devil, and the mortar and bricks required of the children of Israel represents the deeds of the flesh that the devil demands from us in order to keep us from the worship of God.

For example, listen to this quote from a writing of St. Augustine: “We have been led out of Egypt where we were serving the devil as a pharaoh, where we were doing works of clay amid earthly desires, and we were laboring much in them. For Christ cried out to us, as if we were making bricks: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened.’” (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy: P.3).

Now, in my humble opinion, that is a bunch of utter nonsense. I mean, what he says here is fine, I suppose, but it is shocking just how blithely Augustine can ignore the horrific reality of the situation!

The Israelites were trapped in slavery by the cruel hand of a powerful empire which required an abundance of cheap labor in order to build its monuments and cities and highways. Their babies were being killed by this empire, because of fear and greed!

And God was opposed to that empire; God intended for these slaves to be strong and free.

What is amazing to me is that Augustine and the other early church fathers could not see the most obvious connection between the oppression and forced labor of the Egyptian empire, and the slavery and forced labor of the Roman Empire which they themselves supported!

You see: historians estimate that nearly one-third of all the human beings in the realm of the Roman Empire were slaves in one form or another. That’s one of out every three people living in slavery!

The truth is that the supposed glories of Rome were impossible within the forced labor of millions of human beings, as were the previous glories of the Egyptian empire.

But this God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is the same God of Christ and the apostles, and this God moved decisively to break the power of the slave-masters, and to set the captives free!

Augustine and the others could not see it. They could not see past the assumed worldview of what they had been taught as normal and acceptable.

This highlights the crucial reality that all of us must pay attention to our blind spots – that we must, if we are to be true, continuously question those things which we take for granted.

It is our assumptions that must be continually questioned. This, I believe, is one of the greatest gifts that Jesus Christ brings to us, and it is one of the gifts that can heal the world: the ability to look without fear and to see the truth which sets us free, to adapt and change without fear.   

I remember the first time when God shined light upon the assumptions of my youth and forced me to consider the truth and falsehoods of my blind spots.

I was in Africa, in Botswana, and I had picked up a book called “The Challenge of Basic Christian Communities.” In this book from the 1980’s, one of the essays suggested that Christian people ought to look to Cuba as an example of what a Christian society could be.

Instantly, that seemed like the most ridiculous idea I could imagine. What? Everyone knows that Cuba is bad, right? Cuba is evil. Cuba is the enemy. That is what I had always been taught as a normal American child growing up here, and I had never even thought twice about it.

And yet, here was a respected Christian teacher suggesting that Cuba might be a model for a different, yet healthy Christian society.

That moment began for me a long process of questioning the unspoken assumptions of what I had been taught and of considering that there are other perspectives by which one can understand the world.

Please don’t misunderstand me: I am not trying to make a positive statement about the socialist government of Cuba. I am not a political scientist; I am a teacher of the Christian faith.

What is important here is that all of us have blind spots in our thinking and in our understanding of the world. All of us, even the greatest thinkers of all, the most intelligent people, carry unspoken assumptions about life and the world which have the potential to blind us to “the truth as it is in Jesus” (Ephesians 4:21), to close our minds to the fullness of God’s design and intention for our life.

Pharaoh assumed that he held the power of life and death in his hand, that he could use and abuse the powerless Hebrews however he wished. But he was wrong.

St. Augustine assumed that slavery was a normal and accepted part of a Christian society, that God was not interested in human freedom and liberty on this earth. But he was wrong.

Most Americans today assume that slavery is over, a thing of the past, and that freedom and liberty are growing around the world. But they are wrong.

Slavery continues to this present day, because fear and greed continue today.

A recent report highlighted the reality of slavery among tomato growers in Florida. In the last decade, 7 prosecutions have been successfully argued in cases of slavery by the Justice Department in Florida, and over 1000 people have been set free. In some cases, these people, these “Hebrews” in the most original and fundamental sense of that name, were being held in chains, were being sold, and if they refused to work as demanded, they were being shot and killed. (See http://www.gourmet.com/foodpolitics/2009/03/politics-of-the-plate-tomato-slaves-follow-up)  

Is this an acceptable part of the bargain of contemporary life, so that you and I can enjoy fresh tomatoes in the middle of winter, while ignoring the fact that they were harvested by slaves?

Have we as a people forgotten that God is the one who sets the captives free? Do we even care?

What are the assumptions in our minds that blind us to the truth in our world?

How will we adapt and change so that we can stand with the God who sets the captives free, and stand against the empire that demands cheap labor to build its wealth?

How will we live in order to show forth the power of God among all peoples?

Like the Days of a Tree

Sermon for Proper 28 C RCL (11/14/2010), offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Isaiah 65:17-25; Canticle 9; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19


We all know that change is difficult. Changes in our world, and particularly those changes that affect us personally, always seem uncomfortable and we often do not think clearly when confronting change. I think that many of us are like an elderly woman who recently attended a church meeting where the guest speaker was explaining all of the ways that our society has recently changed in regards to faith and the church. After this speaker then discussed all of the new things that churches need to do to stay relevant for people today, he opened the floor for questions. This elderly woman raised her hand. She was obviously nonplussed by these new ideas, so she asked, “Can’t we all just stay home and watch TV like the good Lord intended?”

Today, at the end of our annual cycle through the Christian year, we are given texts that speak to God’s vision for the end of time. We call this apocalypse, and it is always given to be a source of hope and encouragement for those who are oppressed, worried, stressed and anxious.

This text from Isaiah is written to those living in exile, those who are anxious and worried. This apocalyptic vision of Isaiah is meant to give courage and hope to those who cannot see any hope for their future. Into that darkness, that bleakness, Isaiah speaks a word of light, of hope, of truth.

No more shall they build houses, and create fruitful vineyards, and lose it all to those who are stronger than they. No more shall they be overcome by conquering armies who oppress them and force them to leave their homeland. No more, says the LORD. Because I am creating a new heavens and a new earth where illness and death and violence will not be the dominant power any longer. “They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD” (Isaiah 65:25c). This is a vision of a different kind of future!

There’s an old story of from the days of slavery that speak to the kind of vision that Isaiah had here, the vision that is at the core of all apocalyptic talk.

Once, a young slave woman was out in the fields, toiling and laboring under the hot sun, when she broke. She lost her stamina. She decided to quit. So she put down her hoe and she started to cry and she said, “I can’t take it anymore! I can’t take it anymore! I wanna die!” But an old man was there with her in the field. He heard her cry and called out to her. “Don’t die, baby,” he said. “Don’t die. Get dressed up and come with me!”

“So I got dressed up,” as she tells her story. “I got dressed so fine, in the finest clothes you ever saw. You should’ve seen me! We went walking together, and we walked around through heaven. Everyone was there. It was beautiful! And then we walked straight down into hell and there I spit on the devil. And we came back to heaven, and I walked right up to the throne of God, and I was just about to talk with the Father, when – SLAP! – the whip hit my back! It brought me back to the field and knocked me to the ground. And there was the Master standing over me with the whip in his hand. I looked up at him, and I laughed with secret laughter. Because he had the whip, but I had all the advantage!”

He had the whip, but I had all the advantage. The apocalyptic vision allows us to look beyond the evident, to see the shape of a new, God-given future even in the midst of the chaos of our human society. But, a word of warning! Much care is needed when we walk into the arena of the apocalypse. This kind of language, this kind of vision is very powerful, and many people misunderstand it and many misuse it for their own advantage.

Have any of you seen the signs posted around these parts about the end of the world? The signs read: “Judgment Day is coming, May 21, 2011.” And at the bottom of the sign there is the link to a website: www.wecanknow.com.

The people behind this advertising campaign (and it is an advertising campaign, after all!) are convinced that through the correct interpretation of the Bible we can know the exact date on which God will supernaturally destroy the world and end human history. And, of course, they alone are the ones who have this correct interpretation. No one else has it! But they have it!

But did you hear what Jesus said? “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them” (Luke 21:8). When folks are fearful and confused, when people are anxious and worried about what is happening around them, then they become more vulnerable to these kind of shrill voices who falsely claim to have the secret knowledge which alone can deliver them from their distress.

Our Lord knows this about us human beings. This is why he gives us such common sense advice. Don’t listen to those voices; don’t be so foolish as to believe such lies.

Many of you will know that President Obama was on a tour of Asia last week. Perhaps many of you will also know that his trip to Indonesia was cut short by the eruption of Mount Merapi on the island of Java. Did you also hear about the appointed spiritual guardian of the mountain, Mr. Mbah Maridjan, the juru kunci, the servant of the Island’s Sultan, who died in the resulting lava flows?

The volcanologists, the scientists, warned everyone that the eruption was imminent. They could see it coming. But Mr. Maridjan was convinced by his secret spiritual sources that no eruption would take place. So the locals, who know him and trusted him as a local leader, were confused, and a number of people did not evacuate. And a number of people perished with him.

When crisis confronts you, when your world seems like it is changing for the worse, where do you turn for hope and guidance? To whose voice will you listen? I know that most of you are not anxious about the coming rapture and the end of the world, and thankfully, most of us are not facing such life and death kind of choices. But many of you are anxious about your test results, or anxious about what kind of people your children will end up being, or about whether or not you will have a job and money to pay the bills in the months to come. Some of you are anxious because your town is changing and becoming very different than it used to be, or perhaps even because your church is changing and becoming very different than it used to be.

Whatever it is that is the source of your anxiety and fear about the future, let those with ears to hear listen and heed the truth: there is no place where you will find comfort and security outside of the unfailing love and mercy of God. There is no secret source of hidden knowledge, no easy fix. Be wary of those who speak in that way. You already know where to turn. You must trust and rest in this Love of God that will never leave you or forsake you.

At the end of our apocalyptic Gospel reading today, Jesus offers words of promise and hope: “They will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls” (Luke 21:16-19).

I confess that this text confuses me a bit. Obviously, if those disciples are to be put to death, I would imagine that this would include damaging their hair in the process! And this is indeed what happened to them on this earth. But, by their endurance, they gained their souls.

And by your enduring trust and love and commitment as disciples of this wise and loving Master, even in the face of impending trouble and change, you will gain your souls. By seeing with the eyes of faith, you can laugh at those things in your world that seem to threaten you. By steadfast endurance, faithfulness and fidelity, you will find a life, secure in Christ, beyond the reach of any worry or anxiety. Because in Christ, no matter what the outward circumstances might suggest, we have all the advantage. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Nothing Without Your Consent

Sermon for Proper 18 C RCL (9/5/2010), Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Jeremiah 18:1-11; Psalm 139:1-5, 13-17; Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:25-33


My sisters and brothers: we have the great privilege this morning of hearing and meditating upon this tiny little letter from Saints Paul and Timothy to Philemon and Apphia. Only 25 verses long, 335 Greek words in total, in most Bibles it occupies only a single page. And yet, what a page it is! How remarkable it is that we can find so many crucial insights into the practical meaning of the Gospel for our everyday lives here in this brief letter.

This is one of the undisputed letters by Paul. And the purpose of the letter is very clear and precise: Paul is asking Philemon to forgive his runaway slave named Onesimus and to free him. Of course the obvious question is: what is the slave’s offence? And why is Paul involved in this domestic dispute?

While we are not told exactly what happened, by inference we can piece together this backstory. As we see in the greeting, there was a church meeting in the home of Philemon and Apphia. It seems that Paul is likely to have founded this church and he may have been a frequent visitor to that congregation. Onesimus, who must have met and heard Paul in his preaching, ran away for reasons unknown, and eventually encountered Paul again in the city where Paul was being held as prisoner, most likely to be Rome. When they met and talked in the city, Onesimus professed his faith in Jesus Christ and became a regular helper for Paul. And as Paul mentored and discipled him, surely they discussed the reality that Onesimus would soon have to return to Philemon to make things right. Can you imagine the young man’s anxiety and trepidation at this prospect? But the apostle does not send him back defenseless. Rather, Onesimus returns home with this powerful and persuasive little letter in hand as his one hope to avert the severe punishment due a runaway slave under the law.

How does he do it? How does Paul approach this task of persuasion?

First of all, observe how he opens his appeal. This is the only place where Paul first identifies himself as a “prisoner of Christ Jesus”. What a small descriptive title, but what radical importance lies behind it! Do you see how the apostles were willing and able to take pride in their imprisonments and their suffering for the sake of the Gospel? Sure, Philemon is a man of wealth and influence, with a large home and slaves to manage it for him. But who is the one worthy of the most honor and respect among the believers? Not the man of wealth and privilege, but rather the poor prisoner who is willing to do what Christ spoke of in the Gospel: to “carry the cross” and follow him at all costs.

It may sound obvious to us who gather here regularly, but in fact it is a peculiar and remarkable aspect of the church that sets us apart from the world around us. You see, it is not normal, nor to be expected in any way, that we would celebrate those who are apparent failures as though they are true victors and heroes! God teaches us that it is not success that is worthy of our honor and respect, but rather commitment and devotion.

After his greetings, Paul launches directly into his appeal on behalf of Onesimus. To use a colloquial phrase, the first thing that Paul does is to “butter him up”. Just look at how generous he is with his praise of Philemon! “The hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother” (Philemon 7b).

There is wisdom here. Have you not seen in your own experience how such giving of compliments and praise opens up a door so that a difficult request can be received more positively? My wife, Erin, always tells me that my life would be much better if I could just get into the habit of giving her at least two genuine compliments every day. “Is it that hard,” she asks, “to find two simple compliments for me?” Well… actually it is! Just because my brain doesn’t work that way. But I know for a fact that “it is meet and right so to do”. Genuine praise, recognition and compliments help to open doors to improve the quality of our relationships.

After the compliments, Paul moves right into the meat of the matter. But notice here, please, how the apostle makes his request. What we see highlighted here in this request is the voluntary principle which lies squarely at the heart of the teaching of Jesus.

As St. Clement of Alexandria stated so well, “Compulsion is repugnant to God.” Rather than compulsion of any sort, within the kingdom of God everything depends upon voluntary assent, even though God has the knowledge and power and ability to coerce certain actions from us. And even though St. Paul has the consensual authority of the church to demand certain actions (“to command you to do your duty”, as he puts it), yet he prefers to lay this aside in order to ask, to seek and to knock.

Out of deference to Christ, the apostle prefers to make a humble request on the basis of mutual love and concern, “in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced” (Philemon 14). Everything within the realm of the spirit relies upon this voluntary principle. We cannot over-emphasize this fact.

But, wait! There is still more in this little letter. Paul urges Philemon to “welcome him (Onesimus) as you would welcome me” (Philemon 17b). There is a deep message here.

In many places throughout the New Testament Epistles, we can find passages which speak of the proper behavior of Christians relative to their place in society: husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves. But here in this letter, we are given a glimpse of something entirely different. Here we can see clearly that the apostle Paul was unwilling to simply validate the typical roles of Roman society as he found them.

As the slave master, Philemon had rights under Roman law over Onesimus, the runaway slave. However, under the law of Christ, within the realm of God, Onesimus is now a child of the apostle and so has become a beloved brother to Philemon in the Lord.

Here is the revolutionary message of the Gospel made real in practical life! These family relations in the church trump any of the expected roles of human-made society! Within the church, all are brothers and sisters, equal under the Gospel.

Without declaring it directly, the apostle in essence is saying, “Forget about slavery! Forget about who possesses what, who owns whom! Forget about your rights under the law or your petty grievances! Forget about all of that stuff that belongs to the old way of life, and begin to embrace this new way! Start to practice forgiveness, reconciliation, and true brotherhood and sisterhood in the kingdom of God!”

Without stating it directly, the apostle lays the groundwork right here for dismantling the entire institution of slavery. To do that work was not his calling. After all, historians estimate that nearly one-third of the entire population of the Roman Empire lived in some form of slavery. To tackle that social structure was not his task. But it was his task – and it is ours as well – to call people to a new kind of life in Jesus Christ, one where all known social boundaries are irrelevant.

It didn’t take the Church too long to figure this out. By the fourth century, the great St. John Chrysostom, then the Bishop of Constantinople, the second-highest ranking bishop at the time, could stand in his pulpit and preach these words: “Slavery is an abomination. It is quite wrong that one person should buy another, and that such a purchase has the protection of the law. A person does not even possess his own life; so how can he possess another person’s life?” (On Living Simply: The Golden Voice of John Chrysostom, p.26).

Of course, Chrysostom was sent into exile by the Emperor for his insolence. St. Paul was imprisoned and killed for his preaching. But the seeds were already sown, and by the grace of God we continue to harvest the fruit of their faithful labors.

Thanks be to God for the wisdom and remarkable vision of the apostle Paul, who can still teach us so much from a brief little letter written so long ago on behalf of a runaway slave named Onesimus. Amen.