A Prophet's Vision (Joel 2:23-32)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 10/27/13

This week we begin a multiple week study into some of the lesser known prophets of the Bible. These prophets are sometimes referred to as the “minor prophets.” They may be called the Minor Prophets, but what they have to say to the Israelites and what we can learn from them is no less important. In fact the term minor prophet simply references the fact that these books of the Bible are far shorter than some of the longer prophetic books such as Isaiah or Ezekiel. Today we begin our study into these prophets by looking at the prophet Joel.  The words of Joel are amazing because they are able to speak to the Israelites of the time and yet are so powerful and relevant for us as believers today.  Joel is so important that Paul uses it in his letter to the Romans, and Luke references it in the book of Acts, which we will talk about shortly.

            Before we start into our passage for today, it is important for us to first get a better understanding of the book of Joel, why it was written and to whom it was written.  Throughout the history of prophets there seems to be a theme that runs through their words, this theme is probably over simplified but it seems as though when things are prosperous in Israel the prophets speak of repentance and foretell of destruction and gloom, and then when things are bad for Israel, the prophets seem to speak of hope. The history of Israel throughout the time of the prophets of the Old Testament lends itself to this type of theme. The history of Israel, (not the modern day nation) had a roller coaster of emotions, it was a history of ups and downs. For a while Israel grew under King David, and Solomon and some of the others. The borders expanded as well as their power.  Unfortunately as their power increased, so too did their egos. Many began to believe they no longer needed God and turned away, many distorted the teachings to fit their own economic and moral beliefs. For this reason we see many prophets coming to warn Israel to repent and turn back to God.  The destruction that the prophets warned about came true, as the Babylonians conquered Israel, destroyed the temple, and took many Israelites captive. During this time many of the prophets spoke words of perseverance, and words of hope that God would deliver them from this evil.  Once again the prophets’ words rang true, and the Israelites were able to return home where they would have to pick up the pieces and try to start life as a nation over again. Our prophet for this morning is interesting because this book contains both words of hope for the future while at the same time the warnings and call to repentance can also be found.  In all likelihood this means that Joel is writing in the times after the Babylonian exile, the Israelites are rebuilding a destroyed Israel, things are getting somewhat back to normal, which means the possibility exists to falling back into bad habits. Joel seems to be giving the Israelite hope for the future, but at the same time is warning them against the same actions that led to their initial destruction.

            Our passage that we are reading today from Joel is most certainly a message of hope. It is a hope for the building of a new kingdom, and a call to trust the Lord.  As I mentioned this was most likely written after the exile in Babylon, when the Israelites are trying to rebuild their once great nation, and yet it is probable that hope was lacking because these people had to try and rebuild something great from the midst of destruction.  Scripture also alludes to the fact that not only had the Israelites faced destruction from the Babylonians, but that there was some sort of famine that destroyed the land, most likely caused by some sort of locust. Yet in the midst of this despair, God gives the people hope through the prophet Joel saying, “The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. “I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame  You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame.”   What wonderful words of hope!  A hope of a time in which there is plenty of food in the land, hope of a time when the Israelites will no longer be put to shame, hope of a wonderful and new Kingdom of God.

            As we read this text today as Christians we may begin to think, so what. So what if the Israelites are never put to shame again, so what if a new kingdom is built, what does that mean for us as Christians today? If we hear these words of Joel as simply words to the Israelites of that time, if we hear them as only words of hope of a rebuilt Israel, then yes there is not much for us to learn from this, other than the love and mercy of God. On the other hand if we hear Joel speaking not only to the Israelites but to all humanity, if we envision not just a new Israel, but rather a Kingdom of God, where God reigns over the Earth, then we  may start to understand the magnitude of Joel’s message for our lives.

            The Kingdom of God is something we as Christians frequently talk about, it is a hope that we hold dear as well.  Yet while it is a hope we have, it is also something that we have seen begun on Earth, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Christians we proclaim that Christ broke through barriers of sin and death, and brought for us a new covenant. A covenant that that provides eternal life through the grace of God, but also a covenant that declares the reign of God, the Kingdom of God here on Earth. Through Jesus, this Kingdom was established on Earth, and yet by looking around at the world today it is obvious that the Kingdom is not yet fully arrived. We see violence, we see greed and corruption, we see jealousy and hate instead of love, and yet through Christ we have the hope of the time in which the Kingdom comes in full glory, and we feast at a heavenly banquet. It is surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, a hope very much like the words of hope that we find from the prophet Joel in our passage today.

            The question may be asked though, if Jesus brought the Kingdom of God to Earth, and yet it is not fully actualized, then what happens now that Jesus has ascended to heaven? The answer to this comes in a familiar story to most of us, found in Acts 2, that is of course the story of Pentecost. Many were asking the same questions, what do we do now, but the Holy Spirit descended on the people gathered on that day and the church was founded. All were given ability to receive the Holy Spirit and to guide us. This was such a spectacle to see, that those who were observing thought that the members were drunk, but Peter responded, “Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. ¹⁵ These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ¹⁷ “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.Your sons and daughters will prophesy,  your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women,  I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above  and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.  The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.  And everyone who calls  on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

            Do these words sound familiar?  Well they should because On that wonderful day of Pentecost, out of all the books in the Bible that he could quote from choses our passage from Joel. So what does this mean? Joel prophesies about a time in which all are able to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. In the time of Job that was something that was seen as being reserved for leaders and prophets, those who had a specific mission from God.  Yet Joel prophesies that one day sons and daughters will prophesy, that young men will see visions and old men will dream dreams, even the servants and the slaves will receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Joel is giving hope to the Israelites of a time in which the Kingdom of God was upon the Earth,  A time in which God reigned and all the people were led by the spirit. Peter on the day of Pentecost is telling us that that day has happened.  That the Holy Spirit has descended upon the people, that through Christ a new covenant has been established through water and the spirit. That the time had come when God would save his people through the power of Jesus Christ, and that we would all be able to receive the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. The Kingdom of God that  Joel has prophesied about had arrived.

            Yet we know that it is not fully here. There are still many without food, countless affected by violence. It makes us stop and wonder how is this possible? How is it possible that the Kingdom of God is both already here on Earth and yet not fully here?  Interestingly enough, this seeming paradox of the already and the not yet aspect of the Kingdom of God is very similar to our personal salvation as well. If any were able to attend last Sunday’s revival at Lambs, the guest speaker J.D. Jump went into a lot of detail of the nature of salvation and grace. That first and foremost in order to understand our salvation we must understand our brokenness. Ever since the fall of Adam of Eve in the garden of Eden, humanity has been plagued with sin. As Larry Davies pointed out the following night, when we talk about sin we most often think of the big and heinous crimes such as murder, theft and so on, and then we think to ourselves that we are doing well. Sin however is a condition, sin is like a disease, sin is our failure to perfectly follow Christ. When we truly reflect upon our lives, I don’t think there is anyone here who could truly say that they have not fallen short of perfectly loving and serving God. Once we realize our sinful nature we realize that we cannot save ourselves. Something has to happen to change us and make salvation possible. That something was of course Jesus. Through Christ we have received the grace to respond to God and to strive towards perfection. This initial response is known as justification, which is usually received through baptism. Justification allows us to turn away from the path that leads towards sin and death and leads us towards union with God. We are however not yet perfect, we still need grace to continue to lead us towards God and away from sin, this we call sanctification, or perfecting grace. In other words salvation is a journey that is only possible through the grace of God.

            When we start to understand how grace works in our personal salvation then we can start to see how it is possible for the Kingdom of God to have already been established, and yet not be fully here. Just as we personally are riddled by sin, so too has all of creation been affected by sin. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection not only brought us our own personal salvation, but brought salvation to all creation. Through Christ, sin and death were conquered and all are now capable of eternal life. Jesus established a new covenant on Earth, Jesus gave a hopeless world hope, and established the Kingdom, or the reign of God on Earth. As is the case with our own salvation, there is more needed than this initial response. Just as justifying grace made it possible for us to be saved, and sanctifying grace leads us towards that perfection;  Jesus’ life, death and resurrection on Earth brought forth the salvation of creation, and yet transformation through grace received through the Holy Spirit is still needed. This is why we can claim that through Christ the world was saved, and still hope for the day when creation is restored to full glory. This is why we can read the words of Joel from our passage today and see that the day of Pentecost is both the fulfillment of his words, and yet also just the beginning of the hope for a Kingdom that he is talking about. This is why this morning we can read these words of Joel with a new hope, knowing that we have saved through Jesus Christ, that the power of the Holy Spirit is with us, and yet at the same time through the grace of God strive towards the beautiful vision of peace that Joel describes. Joel’s vision is not just a vision of hope for the Israelites of his time, but is truly a vision of hope for us all.

The Squeaky Wheel? (Luke 18:1-8)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 10/20/13

There is an old saying that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. We all have probably heard it, said it, and most likely witnessed the truth of the saying.  The saying of course means that whoever makes the biggest fuss, and is most persistent about it will usually get responded to quicker. We have all probably seen this happen countless times, whether at work with a coworker, or at home with kids. Just go into a grocery store or a superstore on a busy day when a bunch of kids are there, and you’ll see it at work. A child sees a toy or a piece of candy and cries and cries until finally the parent who doesn’t want to make  a scene gives in. It seems to be part of our most basic nature, after all it is a baby’s cry that signals when it needs a diaper change, or when it is sleepy or hungry.  As we read our scripture for today we find a scenario that seems very similar to our squeaky wheel scenarios. There is a widow who is refused by a judge, but after countless pleas her persistence pays off and the judge sides in her favor. On face value this parable seems to support the notion that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, in fact it even sounds like it is telling us to all be squeaky wheels. Is that what the parable is really saying?  There has to be some deeper meaning to this parable right? Well, let’s look deeper into this story, and when we do I believe we will find that this parable has a lot  more to say to us than what meets the eye.

            Our passage for this morning starts out by saying, “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”  This opening line makes it pretty obvious that this parable is about prayer, and yet when we look at the passage closely it seems as though justice is the theme that is focused upon the most. So which is it? Is this parable about our need for prayer, or is this parable about justice? That’s kind of a trick question. We always like to present questions as either/or scenarios but far so often in life, and especially when reading the Bible, the answer is not an either/or but as we used to say in seminary all the time, it is a both/and.  This passage is about both prayer and about justice.

            Oddly enough the parable is also about both the widow and the judge. We often call this the parable of the persistent widow, but if we focus on just the widow, we lose a large part of the message. This parable is pretty incredible in that we learn something when we focus on each character. The first character that we have in our parable is the judge. Jesus tells us, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.”  Jesus doesn’t give a name to the judge, and yet he still tells us a lot about him. Jesus says that the judge was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. Today we may interpret this as just saying that he was a mean man, maybe images Ebenezer Scrooge come to mind, but what Jesus is saying here holds a much deeper meaning. We live in a time of separation of church and state, where a judge can be Christian, but the role of judge is one that pertains to the state; it is not a religious occupation like clergy. In the times of Jesus the same type of separation did not exist for the judges. In fact, the judges were supposed to declare God’s judgment.[1] We see this in Deuteronomy 1 when Moses tells the judges, “And I charged your judges at that time, “Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you. ¹⁷ Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God.”   We start to see that the role of the judge is not just to hear and judge upon different trials, but to in fact attempt to enact the justice of God. That means that a judge should be fair, that a judge does not get intimated by others, and at the same time a judge does not look down upon other because of their caste in life.  It was a very noble and religious position.

            And yet we see that this judge who is supposed to be fair, this judge who is supposed to enact the justice of God, does not even fear God, and does not care for people. This instantly tells the readers that this judge is not just. And so when the poor widow is introduced next in the story we know that it is not going to end well for her.  At first that is exactly what happened, the judge rejects the widows pleas for justice on many occasions, and yet the woman keeps coming back. Finally, after being worn down by the widow, the judge gives in and grants the widow’s plea. Earlier, I spoke about how this parable is a parable both about prayer and about justice, well here as we focus on the role of the judge, we begin to see how this parable pertains to justice.

            The judge is the epitome of the unjust. After all what type of person refuses a widow in the midst of her transgressions, and yet still we see that through the persistence of the widow, this horrible, this unjust judge changes his mind and grants the woman her plea.  Justice still finds a way to prevail, even with this horrible judge. This parable just goes to show us that even in some of the most extreme cases, justice is possible. The parable however tells us much more than this. A comparison between this unjust judge and God is expected to be made, but at the same time it is understood that God is nothing like this judge.  God is just, God cares for all of his people especially the poor, the downtrodden, and the widows. When we make these comparisons between God and the judge in the parable we see that they really are nothing alike. And yet, even with the horrible judge ruling in the parable, justice eventually prevailed. If justice is able to prevail when someone with a judge like that, then why would we expect any different from God?  In fact, we should be able to expect so much more. God is all loving, all knowing, all powerful, God is just, so what is there to stop God’s justice from rolling down like waters. It is as Paul says to the Romans, “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?”   When we look at this parable from the perspective of the judge then we can learn about God’s amazing justice.

            There is however, much for us to learn from the perspective of the widow in this parable as well. We have already talked some about the status of the judges back in the time of this parable, but let us also look at the role of widows. In those times widows were some of the more oppressed and marginalized members of society. While there were certainly exceptions of women working and providing for themselves, Lydia for example; many wives relied on their husband for support.  In our day and age when a spouse dies, the widow or the widower is able to inherit the finances and property of their spouse. That was not the case in the time of Jesus. A woman was not allowed to inherit a property; this privilege was reserved for the next male kin, usually either a son or brother. [2] This often leaves a widow extremely vulnerable because they truly have no way to support themselves and are at the will of their husband’s kin.

            While it is true that widows were some of the most marginalized and vulnerable members of society, at the same time they were also according to scripture some of the people to be protected first and foremost.  There is a story found in 1 Kings about the prophet Elijah where he feeds a widow throughout a drought and then later heals the widow’s son who was on the verge of death.  In the New Testament we find many more calls for the protection of widows, from the book of James to 1 Timothy, and of course Jesus on multiple occasions not only speaks about the need to take care of widows, but actually does it.  All of this goes to show that even though the widow may have been one of the most vulnerable and marginalized members of society, they were also expected to be taken care of by those members of faith.

            So when we get to the widow coming before the judge asking for  justice, one would expect for her to receive a fair trial. After all as we mentioned before, the judge was also a religious position, and so he should certainly know to take care of the widow. And yet, this poor widow’s luck seemed to be bad.  She had lost her husband, she has been wronged in some sort of legal dispute, most likely a relative of her late husband who is not helping to take care of her, and now she has brought her case before the judge, who should help her in her situation, but she has the bad luck to come before a judge who neither feared the Lord nor had respect for people. This down and out woman had every reason to give up. It seemed as if the whole world were against her, it seemed as though no one heard her cries for help, would anyone really blame her if she had simply quit, given in and counted her life as a loss?  And yet this widow did not give in, despite all of the setbacks in her life telling her otherwise. She received the verdict from the judge and came back and pleaded. Time after time she was rejected and yet still she returned. This widow showed so much heart, so much persistence that in the end the judge could not take it anymore, and justice was served.      

            Jesus tells us at the beginning of the parable that this parable is about prayer, and when we look at the story from the perspective of the widow, we will find that this is true. At first glance however, this parable still seems to have nothing to do with prayer; after prayer isn’t even mentioned within the parable itself.  Thankfully, Jesus put the parable in perspective for us and shows us that the widow’s persistence is what we should learn about prayer.  He says, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.  “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?  I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"  

            When we read the parable as a parable about prayer and the persistence of the widow, it becomes easy to think that it once again is talking about the squeaky wheel. We could interpret it as if we pray hard enough to God, God will give us what we want, if we bug God enough then we will get our way. The problem is that we are saying that God is like the judge, but we have already determined that the judge is unjust, God is just.  We don’t need to beg and plea, because God is already good. And yet this parable is a parable about persistence in prayer, but if the reason we are persistent in prayer is not to get our get our way, then why should we be persistent?

            It is so that we can answer this question that we should look at this parable as being both about justice and about prayer.  As we stated earlier, when we read the parable from the perspective of the judge, then we can begin to understand God’s justice. That even a unjust judge can eventually do the right thing, so why wouldn’t we expect so much more from and all loving and just God? This parable tells us that we can count on the justice of God, and if we can count on the justice of God, why would we need to persistently bug God trying to get him to change his ways? The answer is that we don’t. When we go persistently to God, it is not to change God mind, but rather it is to put ourselves in full reliance on God. It is a way of saying, I trust you, even though things are tough. It’s a way of expressing our frustrations with God, all while still relying on the will and grace of God in our lives. It is also a way for us to be in constant contact with God even when things are well, because though things may be good for us, through constant prayer we may find ways in which God is calling us to serve the widows and marginalized in our society,  and how we connect with others through prayer. God’s justice and mercy allows us to be persistent prayers, trusting in that mercy and grace to carry us through, and realizing our need to be in constant communion with Christ.

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[1] New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary pg. 336

[2] New Interpreters Bible Commentary pg. 336

The Power of Lamentations (Lamentations 1:1-6)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 10/13/2013

I know that this is a little odd to go into this type of topic, especially right after I have celebrated the joy of a wedding, and since it is the first time many of you have seen me since; but today I want to talk about an often overlook, and a an extremely underutilized book of the Bible, Lamentations.  This scripture is actually from last week’s lectionary reading, but I found it to be so powerful that I wanted to speak about it today.  As I said, Lamentations is a wonderful book of the Bible that is far too often glanced over and forgotten about. Why is that?   Maybe it is because it is part of the Old Testament, but we still love to read from Genesis and Exodus, Isaiah and the Psalms.  Maybe it’s because it deals with difficult issues, and yet we find many of these issues in the prophets and in the psalms.  The reason I believe that we often overlook the book of Lamentations is because of the name itself.  Lamentations, lament, sadness; these are not issues that we want to deal with. In fact too often in the church these are feeling that we are not supposed to have. We have been told that we are always supposed to be happy. We have been told not to be sad because God is with us. It is true that God provides us with comfort, but isn’t possible that one way in which God comforts us is by simply listening to our lamentations?  For the most part this book of the Bible is just the people of God voicing their sadness, something that for many seems counterproductive and for others seems ridiculous because if you have God why should you be sad; and yet this book is here in our Bible, part of our historic canon. Maybe the truly is power in lamentation.

            Our passage for today is an especially powerful passage; this lamentation is not an individual lament, but instead it is a communal lament, for the lost city of Jerusalem. The reason for these letters was because the once proud and powerful nation of Israel had been conquered by the Babylonians. The Babylonians then took many of the wisest, wealthiest members of Israel and kept them captive in Babylon forcing them to be part of that society. Finally, the city and the Temple in Jerusalem were destroyed.  This book is a response to this horrible event in the life of Israel. “ How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal. She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.”  These words are not words of comfort in the midst of the destruction, these words are not an attempt to explain or to fix the problem, these words are simply a lament, and that is why they are so powerful.  Especially in our times today, and let me be the first to say that I am the biggest culprit of this, we often want to find ways to explain away all of our problems, we want to find ways to fix it, we want to move on, and all of those things are great, but do we every allow ourselves time to actually grieve?  Do we ever truly let ourselves lament? 

Photo courtesy of Christart.com

            Our passage for us today shows us that it is ok to grief, no, not that it is only ok to grieve, that it is good to grieve. When the Israelites lose their homes, their temple, everything that ever meant anything to them, what else are they supposed to do?  We see this also in play in our psalm that was read this morning, Psalm 139 in which the psalmist says, “ By the rivers of Babylon-- there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.  On the willows there we hung up our harps.  For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?  The Babylonians were telling the Israelites to play those wonderful songs of Zion, and yet the psalmist replies so wisely, How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? How can sing with joy when we are in the midst of despair? Sometimes the correct response to a situation is to simply grieve.

            Luckily many of us will never have to face the destruction of our homeland, most of us will never become captives in a foreign land, and yet all of us will face grief some time in our lives.  Many of us have lost loved ones, and the sad truth is that we will likely lose more. Some of us have been through extremely difficult situations, the loss of a job, a failing marriage, addiction, abuse, some may even be going through a tough situation and now and all the world is telling you is to get over it, that it will all be ok, but this morning let us learn from the Israelites, let us learn from the book of Lamentations and say, I will try to beat, I have faith, but right now I need to grieve. Right now I need to let God know how much I hurt. There is power in lamenting.

            Not only is there power in lamenting for the one who feels desolate and lost, but there is a power for all of the body of Christ. When we gather each week for worship, we gather as a body that celebrates the work of God, but we also gather as a body that embraces, takes on the pain of those around them. It is as Paul told us, “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” Lamentations are a way for the church, for the body of Christ to share in the lives of those around, that means sharing in the joy, but yes also sharing in sorrow. It is why we are able to come together this morning and in a few moments gather around the table, gathering as a people who are broken, gathering as a people in need of mercy and grace, but gathering as one body, the body of Christ. As we take from the bread and from the cup we are reminded of that unity as we all partake of the same body. We are all able to come to the table, to let out our deepest cries, our darkest laments, and at the same time experience the grace of Christ even through that very pain and brokenness. There is power in our lamentations, when we need to, let us pour them out before the Lord. The Lord can handle it, the question is are we brave enough to lament?

The Prosperity Gospel (Luke 16:19-31)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 9/29/13

Last week we read from the first part of this chapter here in the Gospel of Luke, and we heard about the parable of the shrewd steward. We talked about how this parable didn’t seem to make sense to us, how it didn’t sound like many of the other teachings that we have heard from Jesus. The parable was difficult in that the shrewd steward backstabbed his master, costing the master lots of money, and that this steward was then commended for it by the master himself. Whereas last week’s parable was troubling because it seemed to be very different from what we are used to hearing from Jesus; this week’s parable is troubling because it is exactly what we are used to hearing from Jesus. This week’s parable talks about wealth and greed, it talks about the rich and the poor.  It talks about money, and let’s face it, none of us really like to talk about money. Well, maybe that’s not true. We like to talk about money when we are making it, we love to talk about money when we are using it to fulfill desires in our lives; what we don’t like to talk about is the responsibility that comes with money. What we don’t like to talk about is our greed, what we hate to talk about is our love of money. This is why this parable for this morning is troubling for many of us, because it forces us to talk about greed and money. We should have seen it coming though, last week Jesus finished the parable by saying, “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”  Now, Jesus hits us with the uncomfortable truth of our own greed in this parable for today.

            In the parable we start off by being told about a rich man who as the scripture tells us, “was dressed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day.”  This short line actually tells us a lot about this man.  First the man dressed in purple. Now that may not seem like that big of a deal but in fact it shows the depth of his wealth and power. This is not just a fashion statement, the man didn’t just run to Old Navy, or Kohl’s and decided picked purple clothes because it went with the color of his hair or his skin complexion.  The dye that was required to make purple clothing was very expensive back then, meaning that someone who is able to wear purple, must rather wealthy.  That is why Lydia that we read about in acts is able to be a helpful patron of the early church, because she did the dying of the clothes.  Because, purple was so expensive, the Romans set standards of who could and couldn’t wear purple, reserving that privilege for highly ranking officials or for the noble family.[1] Besides his clothing, the man’s lifestyle tells us a lot about him as well. First we find that his house is gated, allowing himself to be separated from the rift-raft on the streets. Secondly we see that he is able to feast sumptuously every day.  All in all, we find that this nameless man here in the parable is very wealthy.

            We then are introduced to another character named Lazarus, who is the opposite of the rich man. We are told that Lazarus is poor, so poor that he is covered in sores, maybe from malnutrition, maybe from lack of medical care, maybe from lack of housing. We also find out that he is so poor that he waits outside of the rich man’s gates hoping for the scraps that fall off of the table. This is not the only time in the Gospels we hear about someone talking about the scraps from the table. In Matthew 15 when the Gentile woman is begging Jesus to heal her daughter, she cries, “even the dogs eat the crumbs from the master’s table.”  This idea may not be just referring to a messy eater like me who drops a lot of food, but rather to a cultural custom at that time.  It was common at feasts for pieces of bread to be used to wipe the grease off of one’s hands, kind of like a napkin, and then to be thrown onto the floor.[2] This is probably the type of scraps that the woman in Matthew is talking about the dogs eating, and it is probably the type of scraps that Lazarus is waiting outside of the gates hoping for. When we read these two passages together to understand what it means by the scraps from the table, then we might take the fact that the dogs licked Lazarus’ wounds to be a double insult, that the same dogs who lick his wounds were able to eat the scraps from the table and yet Lazarus wasn’t.

            The story progress as both Lazarus and the rich man die, and here we get the twist in the story. Lazarus is taken up by the angels to be at the side of Abraham, while the rich man is cast down into Hades, or hell, where there he is tormented. He cries out to Abraham to let Lazarus come and give him a drop of water, but Abraham refuses.  Lazarus no longer serves the beck and call of the rich man, in fact the roles are reversed. Lazarus, who was the poor man on Earth has now become the rich man in paradise, while the rich man on Earth has become the poor tormented man in hell. 

            For many of us today, this story isn’t really that shocking. In fact this is the kind of cosmic justice that we expect. That the poor man is rewarded for his faithfulness and the rich man is punished for his disregard for the poor.  While this is an overly simplistic understanding of justice that doesn’t really leave room for much grace, it is still a understanding that we are familiar with, and therefore this parable doesn’t really shock us too much. In the time that this parable was told however, this twist would have been extremely shocking. Wealth and status was seen in those times of a sign of God’s favor, whereas poverty and sickness was seen as God’s punishment and wrath.

            Unfortunately there are still many people who believe in ideas very similar to this. In fact there is a whole theological movement which has been dubbed the prosperity Gospel, that seems to preach this message. The message they preach is that if you are faithful enough, that if you put enough trust into God, then God will give you everything you need. That riches and money are a sign that you are being faithful to God, and likewise if you are poor, if you are sick, if bad things seem to keep happening to you, then you are doing something wrong or your faith just isn’t strong enough. These type of preachers take verses out of context  like Jeremiah 29:11, “ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  And use them to preach that everything in life is going to be given to you by God if you just have enough faith. And yet the gospel of Luke probably could be described as a prosperity Gospel, because it talks a lot the rich, wealth, money, power, earthly success, and this gospel is very different from the prosperity gospel that many of our brothers and sisters are preaching on television each week.   This gospel of Luke does not celebrate wealth, it does not celebrate riches, in fact quite the opposite is true; it warns against the dangers of wealth, greed, and power. This gospel says, “

Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when people hate you,
    when they exclude you and insult you
    and reject your name as evil,
        because of the Son of Man.

23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

24 “But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have already received your comfort.
25 Woe to you who are well fed now,
    for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
    for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
    for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”

This is the gospel in which the poor Lazarus feasts with Abraham in paradise, and the rich man as Leonidas from the movie 300 would say, “dines in hell.”

            This gospel, this parable teaches us the simple truth that Evangelical author Rachel Held Evans sums up so well by saying, “If your theology doesn’t work for the poor, it doesn’t work.” Let’s be clear though, working to earn money is not wrong. Saving your money is not wrong either; but how often are we dining with sumptuous feasts, how often are we wearing the finest linen, how often are we using our money to keep ourselves more comfortable, when the poor man Lazarus is dying right outside of our doors.  There is a responsibility that comes with wealth. Now often we hear wealth and we think we are off of the hook because we are not wealthy, we don’t make hundreds of thousands of dollars and have private jets, and so these parables are talking to other people, not to us. And yet if we have enough money to take care of ourselves and enough to give food to someone in need, then we are indeed wealthy.

            We also tend to think of individual wealth, when we hear these parables, because the rich man was only one man. We tend to hear it as our personal need to feed and clothe the poor and the hungry. We hear it as a call to give our tithe to the Lord, and rightfully so. What if however, we also thought about this parable as the body of Christ? What if we thought in terms of a wealthy church?  Once again we may throw up many of the same defenses, well we aren’t a big mega-church with multiple pastors and busses, we are a small poor church so this parable doesn’t relate to us. Once again, if we have enough money as a church to take care of our basic needs, and have the resources left over to reach out to those in need, then we have a responsibility to reach out to those in need.  We must examine ourselves and see where our priorities lie.

            It reminds me of story of a church, who knows where, who knows if it even really happened but the message of the story rings true.  The story goes that one day as people were going into church a poor man in rags sat outside in the cold asking for help. The members of the church walked right by the man however because this was an exciting day, the church was getting a new pastor. As time got closer for worship to start, the members began to get a little worried because the new pastor had not shown up. As the bells rang for worship to begin, the poor man walks into the sanctuary, down the aisle, and into the pulpit. The ushers began to rush towards the front to stop the man, when the man took off his coat and uncovered his head to reveal that it was in fact the pastor, and that no one had even stopped to help.

            As churches it is so easy to close the door on those who sit outside begging for help, It is so easy to get wrapped up in our own feasts, our own worries and drama, that we fail to recognize the ones who need help, sitting right outside of our doors. This morning let us make the commitment that we will not neglect Lazarus’ plea for help. Let us make the commitment to not be like the rich man, but to practice a theology that works for the poor. Let us promise that worship each week does not become a time for us to separate ourselves from the needs of the world, but becomes a time that fills us with the spirit to go out into the world and serve.  Brothers and sisters there is so much need in the world, there is so much need in our community. As you may know it seems likely that the government is going to cut $40 billion dollars in food stamp support. $40 billion dollars, that means there will almost certainly be more in our area in need of help. Sure, we cannot help everyone, but we must refuse to sit behind our gates and listen while Lazarus cries outside. We must live out a new prosperity gospel, not one that see wealth as a reward from God, but rather one that see resources as a responsibility. One that is not self-serving, but that serves the least of these.

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[1] New Interpreters Bible Commentary pg. 316

[2] New Interpreters Bible Commentary pg. 316

Obfuscation (Luke 16:1-13)

Sermon as preached at Lambs UMC on 9/22/13

As you were flipping through your bulletin this morning looking to see what hymns are going to be sung, looking to see what scripture was being read, and checking to see if there was anything on the upcoming events; you may have glanced at the title of the sermon and simply seen the word obfuscation. Obfuscation, what in the world does that even mean?  Well according to Merriam-Webster dictionary Obfuscation menas, “ to make (something) more difficult to understand,  to make obscure, to be evasive, unclear or confusing.  If ever a word matched its definition perfectly, it would have to be this word. After all what word could sound more confusing or as difficult to understand as obfuscation. It truly is a strange word, which again means to intentionally make something more difficult to understand.

            So why do I bring this up, and why do I harp on this confusing word this morning?  Well, it is because after reading and rereading, studying many different commentaries about this passage, thinking long and hard about this strange parable that we get from Jesus here in Luke, I found that I continued to end up confused. This parable is hard to understand; not necessarily hard to understand what is going on, but rather it is hard to understand why Jesus told it. It is hard to understand the intended message for the readers.  There are bits and pieces that seem to make sense, and I have debated about preaching about those parts this morning, but I believe that that would be a disservice to all of you and to God.  Maybe, just maybe, we are not always supposed to have all of the answers. Maybe,  just maybe,  God does things to obfuscate the message. Before we explore those possibilities however, let us first look at this parable and see why it is that it is so troubling, so hard to understand.

            In our parable for today we have a rich man and a steward, that is, someone who is charged to take care of the property of the master. In the beginning of the parable we find out that the steward has been squandering the master’s property. We also find out that rich man has found out about and has confronted the steward about it. The steward then knows that he is about to be fired from his position and so he must think of what he must do to take care of himself in the future. First he thinks about manual labor, but realizes that he is too weak for manual labor. Next he thinks about begging, but the steward is far too prideful to beg. And so finally the steward comes up with a plan.  The steward, who is not yet fired and who still technically works for the master, goes and finds some of the people of the area who are in debt to the rich man.  The first one he meets he asks, “How much do you owe my master?” The man replies that he owes him 100 jugs of olive oil. The steward, still working with the authority of the master, but without his knowing, cancels half of that man’s debt. The steward goes to another man and asks what he owes and the man replies, “One hundred containers of wheat.” The steward then cut 20 containers off of that man’s debt.  Scripture tells us the reason that the steward was doing all of this was that so once he was fired he would have good will with these people so that they would help him.

            Finally we get to the end of the parable, where the master confronts the steward, after listening to so many of Jesus’s other parables this is where we expect the master to rail on the steward for being greedy, for being manipulative, and after this parable we have Lazarus and the rich man who is punished for not helping the poor. We expect this steward to be reprimanded, but what do we get? “ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.”  The steward is commended by the rich man for being shrewd? I would say he was being manipulative. And if that’s not enough then Jesus adds another confusing line saying, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.”  Make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth? What that doesn’t sound like what we have heard from Jesus prior to this. And to make matters more confusing is that Jesus continues, and as he continues he says things that are more in line with what we are used to. He says, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. “   Here we have sayings that seem to fit more with what we are used to hearing from Jesus. That if you can’t be faithful with a little, how can you be faithful with a lot. If you misuse your treasures on Earth how can you be expected to be faithful with your treasures in heaven. That we cannot serve both God and wealth. These are the type of statements that we are used to hearing from Jesus, and yet how does it all fit with what we read in the parable?

            Some try to take a more positive view of the steward in the parable. Some argue that after realizing that he is going to be fired that the steward is not dishonest, just clever. They claim that the steward probably has a commission that he collects when works for the rich man, and that when he is cutting the debt that people owe,  he is really only cutting out his own commission, since he won’t be getting it anyways once he is fired, and so that he may build up goodwill with the people. The idea is the that the steward didn’t do anything wrong, but simply found a clever way to provide for himself, and that is why he is commended by the rich man.  I must admit, I so badly wanted to believe in this scenario because it would put everything into a nice and pretty box, but there are things in this scenario that just don’t add up.  For starters the amount of debt that he cut between the two men are drastically different, and it is very unlikely that his commission would have changed that much between people. Secondly,  this scenario suggests that the steward was not dishonest, but just shrewd, and yet scripture itself calls him “the dishonest servant.” As much as I want to believe this scenario, it probably isn’t correct. What most likely happened, is exactly what it sounds like. That the steward, knowing that he was going to get fired, looks out for numero uno, backstabs the master by forgiving debt that is owed to him, and then for some reason instead of reprimanding the steward, the rich man commends him for being so shrewd.  This parable is so confusing, it is obfuscates the message.

            And that gets me back to this word, this idea, obfuscation; and I must admit that I did not just think of this word on my own, it was not already part of my vocabulary, but rather I saw as I was watching a short four minute film online by Barbara Brown Taylor, who is a world renowned preacher, author, and scholar. The name of the film is “A Stance of Unknowing”[1] and it is a poignant dialogue about not knowing. Taylor points out that there are multiple places in the Bible in which not only is the meaning not clear, but that it seems as though God obfuscates, that God intentionally makes something muddier. She points out that in the Exodus story that it was God who hardened Pharaoh’s heart against the Israelites. She also recalls in the gospel when Jesus is asked about why he speaks in parables and he replies,  “He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, "'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.”  If we live under the presumption that we are supposed to understand everything about God, or that God is supposed to try to make everything understood for us, the we will be very disappointed when we see instances like these when God seems to obfuscate the meaning. Likewise with our parable for this morning, we can try our hardest to make sense of the difficult nature of the parable, and there may be some who can, but we also have to come to the realization that we will not always understand everything about God, nor does it seem that we are always supposed to.

            For many of us this is challenging, for many of us everything needs to make sense for us to believe. That is why so many of us say that God has a plan for everything, but how do we say that when there are senseless murders in the DC naval yard this week.  How can we say that God’s plan is for adults and children alike to die from chemical weapons being released on towns.  How can we say we understand God’s sovereignty and say that the reason a young person died in a tragic way is because God needed another angel.  These are not truths about God but rather claims that we feel as though we need to make so that things make sense for us. 

            Taylor in that short film makes the claim that one of the leading causes for atheism is the fact that Christians so often try to make these extravagant claims about the sovereignty of God.  That we make claims that since God are good God has to do this. Or that since God is all powerful that the hurricanes, and floods, and wildfires where his choosing, and that they must have been done for some reason.  We hear claims from Pat Robertson that hurricane Katrina was God’s response to homosexuality, that the horrible earthquake several years ago in Haiti was God retaliating against Haiti for neglecting God, and that the more recent hurricane Sandy was God trying to stop a Mormon from becoming president, and we can see why many people can become fed up and disillusioned with all of our claims of God’s sovereignty. As Taylor points out it quickly becomes of list of things that God has to do in order to fit our understanding of God’s sovereignty, when the truth of the matter is that there is nothing that God has to do. God is God, there is nothing that he has to do.  When we get upset about something that God didn’t do, we are really just getting upset at the fact that God is not acting in the way in which we expect God to act, that God is not acting in the way in which we want God to act. When God acts in ways that don’t make sense to us, when we read things such as this parable that don’t entirely make sense we tend to get disillusioned.

            And maybe that’s a good thing.  Maybe when we come to realize that God doesn’t always work the way in which we picture things, we can begin to realize that God does not work like us.  Most of all we may begin to realize that we are not God.  If everything made sense to us why would we need a God to save us, since we could simply save ourselves. And yet things don’t always make sense, we cannot save ourselves. We need God, and maybe being disillusioned is a way of placing even more trust in God. Trust that  even if we haven’t got it all figured out, we still rely on God. That even when God seems to be absent or silent, we still rely on God because maybe that silence can speak. That when a parable that Jesus spoke seems to confound us, confuse, go against what we expect Jesus to say, that it may be a time realize that we do not have it all figured out. That trying passages like this should cause us to continually reexamine our beliefs, challenge our faith, reconsider previously held notions, and yet do it all with an understanding that we simply don’t understand. That God is greater than anything we ourselves can imagine, and maybe that’s why we need God so badly.

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[1] Retrieved from theworkofthepeople.com on September 17, 2013

99 & 9 (Luke 15:1-10)

Sermon as preached 9/15/13 at Lambs and Evington UMC

Today in our scripture from Luke we get two very short, and yet very well know parables from Jesus. They are of course the parable of the Lost sheep and the parable of the Lost coin. Though they are probably some of the shorter parables that Jesus told, these parables seem to speak to us, they seem to capture us and hold us captive. They are most likely some of the first parables that we learned as children, and still today we love to hear them told to us. The message of the parable has even leaked into our mainstream media. I was watching TV the other day and a commercial came on that made me do a double take, because I knew that this scripture was coming up for this week. It was a Chevy Silverado commercial, and in the commercial we see farmer out in the rain fixing a broken barbered wire fence. Then getting into his truck and searching all around for a missing calf. Goes over bridges and into ravines with his truck, he gets out and shines his flashlight all around looking for this little calf, and finally at the end we see the farmer, carrying this calf in his arms, in the pouring rain back to his truck to take it back home. When I saw this commercial, I was like, “wow, this is the parable of the lost sheep.” A friend quickly reminded me however that if this were the parable of the lost sheep, it would have been a dodge Ram commercial.

            All kidding aside, These two parables are ones that usually speak to us.  And why not?  There is a truly beautiful message in these parables. A message that we have such a loving God that though there are plenty of people who already follow, who already believe, and yet God is willing to leave those be to find those who have fallen away. That in a flock where there are still 99 good and useful sheep, that the Lord, our shepherd is willing to go out and search for that one missing sheep. That like a woman who lost a coin but has several others, the Lord will still tear the house up searching high and low for that lost coin until it is found.  It truly is a message of God’s love, of God mercy, and of God’s grace.

So often this parable speaks deep into our souls as well; it may have even been a message similar to this that has helped to bring us to Christ. It may have been this message of God’s  grace that has helped us through difficult times, knowing that God is there looking for us, desperately seeking to bring us back. It probably why we find the hymn Amazing Grace so powerful, because it speaks to this emotion of being lost and now found. It reminds us of God’s grace for us.  We all know these parables pretty well, in fact most of you could come up and give a good sermon all about this love and grace. Many could give testimonies of how they once were lost and now are found through the grace of God. It would be hard for me to get up here and to tell you something about these parables and your life that you don’t already know.

            But what if I told you this morning that these parables are most likely not about you, or at least not about you today?  Think about it these parables are about the sheep that have wandered away, or the lone coin that is lost, and yet we are all here this morning, gathered to praise and worship our God. And the truth of the matter is that most of us here have been coming for quite some time now, that most of us have been faithful followers for much of our lives. Now sure all of us have gone through times of trials and tribulations throughout out our lives, some maybe be even facing them today, but you are here, seeking the Lord not running away. There may be some here this morning that feel lost, and if that is the case then I hope that this message of grace and mercy does speak to you today, but know that the simple fact that you are here in the midst of feeling lost speaks to your faith and your love of God.  It is also important to note that we are all indeed lost in some way since we have all fallen short of the glory of God. That yes we all need God’s grace to lead us and guide us; but let’s be quite honest with ourselves this morning. When we read about the 99 sheep and the one lost sheep, or the 9 coins and the one lost coin, we love to picture ourselves as the lost sheep or the lost coin, but in all honesty most of us here are more like the 99 and 9, not the lone one. This may be a difficult truth to handle, but once we are able to wrap our minds around this concept, we may start to understand these parables in brand new ways.

            As I have been saying, far too often we have sentimentalized these parables to be personal stories about us, and at some point in our life maybe we needed that. We read these words as kind words, words of joy, which don’t get me wrong they are, but we forget the point of the parables being told; we lose sight of the fact that these parables also carried a rather harsh and prophetic message as well. When we step outside of the parables themselves, and see the context that they were spoken in, then we may start to see what I mean by this.

            So what was the context for this parable?  Well scripture tells us quite clearly what it was. In the previous chapter, chapter 14,  Jesus is invited to dinner with some of the Pharisees. While at dinner Jesus begins to talk about inviting others to the feast as well; I believe that Jesus was being both literal and figurative in this instance. After telling them a parable of the a great banquet in which none of the nobles decide to attend and so it is opened to everyone on the streets, we can imagine that Jesus began to upset many of the Pharisees. Jesus was talking about not only eating and congregating with those who were viewed as moral deviators, he was also talking about being with those who were ritually and societally unclean. I don’t think Jesus made many friends with the Pharisee that evening.

            And so now we find Jesus here in chapter 15 taking it one step further. No longer is Jesus talking about eating and congregating with the morally and ritually unclean; Jesus is actually doing it. The Pharisees were not too happy about this fact either. Our passage tells us, “And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." The Pharisees were grumbling, how dare  he associate with those types of people. You see, it is to this protest by the Pharisees, it was to this disgust that Jesus responded with these parables. If you had 100 sheep and one of them was lost would you not leave the 99 behind and go looking for that one lost sheep?  Or if you had 10 coins and lost one would you not search high and low until that coin was found?  Jesus’ words are words of hope and grace to the lost, to sinners whom Jesus eats with; but we cannot miss that they are also tough, harsh, pointed questions back at the Pharisees for them to answer.  In essence Jesus is saying, I am looking after and reaching out to those who are neglected, who are troubled, who need my love the most; should you be doing the same? So why then do you sit there and grumble instead of celebrating with me that these people are listening to my words. “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. “

            This passage may be speaking a word of hope and truth to you this morning if you truly are the lost sheep or the lost coin, but if you are like me than these words may feel more like daggers in the heart. If you are like me then you may be realizing, I’m not the lost sheep or the lost coin, I’m the 99 & 9, or maybe even worse, I’m the Pharisee grumbling about who we choose to associate with. It is hard to hear, but sometimes we  need to hear these harsh words, that far too often we are more like the Pharisees than we are like Christ, whether we mean to be or not.

            It reminds me of a meeting that I was attending about the Vital Congregations program that the Methodist Church is doing to try to revitalize churches so that they may become more faithful and fruitful congregations. You have probably heard something about it already, but each church is asked to measure 5 categories that are believed to be indicators of a vital congregation and to use the statistics to see for themselves where improvement may be needed. These five categories are Worship attendance, Number of small groups, Number of people involved in hands on mission, Amount of money given for mission, and number of professions of faith.  Many of these categories probably make sense to you for why they would be good indicators of a vital congregation, but you may be wondering about why professions of faith. Why not member? While member is extremely important as it is a commitment to the local church and the church to that person (as we will see later in the service)  professions of faith are those who have never professed before. Membership can transfer, but someone coming on profession of faith is representative of the lost sheep and the lost coin being found. Professions of faith are the celebrations that Christ talks about. So getting back to my story about the meeting, we were talking about this category of professions of faith, and how most churches are struggling with it, and that even many of our professions of faith are from the children who have grown up in the church. We were debating about why this is the case, many people mentioned that the members were even really good about inviting people to church and yet there are so few professions of faith, when finally someone boldly spoke up and said, “maybe it’s because we don’t know that many people who aren’t already Christians.”

             That should make us think, do we really know that many people who aren’t Christians, who aren’t baptized?  We may think that there just aren’t that many around us, but trust me there are. So then when must ask ourselves, Are we eating with the sinners and tax collectors. Are we following the example of Jesus Christ and associating with the poor, the dirty, those who language could make a sailor blush, those who see violence instead of peace as the answer, are we associating with those who are different ages, races, even nationalities than us? Or are we inadvertently being like the Pharisees and sitting back grumbling, judging others for not being as holy as us?

            As the passage says.  “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”  The overarching message of this parable of grace is joy. It is a celebration that God will seek after those who are lost, those who are weary.  Yes, repentance is part of the story too, but how can someone find the truth in their hearts of their need to repent if we are far off grumbling instead of out searching, out eating with those who need God’s grace the most. We are to follow the example of Christ. Not hiding behind our thoughts and beliefs like the Pharisees, but actively reaching out and engaging with others; not judging but rather offering love. For we may not all be the lost sheep or the lost coin, but through these parables we can see how much God cares for all of his people. Are we going to share in this love or are we going to mock and judge those who do?  God’s preference is evident, let us rejoice with the one sinner who repents, let us celebrate that God’s grace extends to all mankind.

On The Basis of Love (Philemon 1:1-21)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC  9/9/13

Today we are going to study the entire book of Philemon. That’s right we are going to look at every chapter of this letter from Paul and we are going to do it all during this morning’s service. Now, for those who are frantically trying to think about how they are going to get to the doors and out of here discreetly, don’t worry; for although we are looking at the entire book of Philemon this morning, the entire book is only one chapter long. In fact it is quite a spectacular letter that is often overlooked by many churches. It is one of the few letters in which Paul writes to a specific person rather than to a congregation. And still it is even different than other personal letters such as Timothy, because in Philemon, Paul is not giving instructions on how to lead the church, instead Paul is seeking a personal favor. It is an amazing letter in which we truly get to see the heart of Paul on display. So why then is this letter often neglected?  Is it because it is so short that it is simply overlooked? That may be possible, but I believe that the biggest reason that this letter is often neglected is because of some of the content of the letter and how that has been used in the recent past.

            This letter from Paul to Philemon is centered around a slave Onesimus and how he should be treated by his master. Right away we may become a little uncomfortable with the fact that this letter involves slavery, but that tension is only made worse by the fact that for years in America this letter from the Bible was used to support the institution of slavery in America. In fact this book in particular was used to encourage laws requiring people to return runaway slaves to their rightful owners since after all that is what Paul did with Onesimus.

            This book of the Bible is then a perfect example of the need to look at the historical context of the Bible so that we do not miss what is at the heart of this wonderful letter. By focusing on the slavery in this letter we may be unable to see the forest for the trees. With that being said, if we understand some of the historical context of this letter, we may better be able to put this matter aside. First and foremost, just because an institution exists in the Bible does not mean that the Bible is saying it is good. In fact there are indications in this letter that Paul does not agree with slavery. “Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother--especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.”  One may wonder then if Paul was against this institution of slavery then why did he send Onesimus back to Philemon instead of helping to keep him as a refugee.  It is a difficult question to answer, but often there are multiple ways of fighting injustice and all are needed. Sometimes injustice is fought head on with demonstrations, protests, and rallies;  other times injustice is fought within the system, finding a way to transcend the oppression. It appears as the latter is true for Paul, but we will get to that later.

            The second thing to keep in mind before we proceed is that the institution of slavery that we read about here in Philemon is very different than that which we had here in the United States. First of all, slavery was not a racial institution. Whereas slavery here started with the slave trade in Africa and evolved into a twisted racial institution where black people were seen as being a lesser human, as three- fifths of a person. Slavery in the time of Paul was not racial. Slaves were either conquests of war, criminals, or those who were financially indebted to their master.  There was also a common practice that after thirty years of faithful work a slave would be let free. This could even be a reason Onesimus ran away, because he felt as though he should have been released and wasn’t.  All of this being said, the slavery in the time of Paul was still a horrible and despicable act, but we should not confuse it with the slavery that we are used to learning about here in the states. We should also not let the fact that the institution existed, and even the fact that Paul is working within the institution hinder us from seeing the truth and the message that is here in the passage.

            And so with all of that finally out of the way, let us look at what this wonderful letter does have to say to us. We have already touched on what is happening here in the letter, but let’s do a little bit of a recap. In the letter we have Paul, writing to a man named Philemon who from what we know about him is a land owner, a slave owner, a leader in a small house church, and apparently a friend or an acquaintance of Paul.  Paul, himself is writing from jail and while in jail has met a former slave of Philemon named Onesimus. Onesimus has become a Christian thanks to Paul and has gained the love and the trust of Paul, so much so that Paul says, “I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment.” Throughout the letter Paul speaks of Onesimus with endearment, and asks a favor of Philemon.  Paul tells Philemon that he is sending Onesimus back to him, as would be normal when one finds a runaway slave and knows the master; but Paul tells Philemon to treat Onesimus well, and to forgive any wrong doings that he has done. And so we have the story for what is going on in this letter.

            Let us look closer however to find out the importance of what Paul is saying. Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon and telling him to take care of him, but under what authority is Paul saying this; after all Onesimus is Philemon’s slave.  In those times, a person returning a slave to a master did have the legal right to admonish or reprimand the slaveholder for any of his practices, and yet Paul waives this right, this is not the authority that Paul is using. Maybe Paul is using his own authority, since after all Paul has made quite a name for himself as a leader of the new Christian movement. But Paul does not use this authority either. Paul and Philemon are friends or at least acquaintances, so perhaps he is appealing as friend to do this favor, and while there may be some elements of this in the story, still this in not the basis Paul is appealing on. Finally, maybe he is appealing on the basis of duty, duty as a Christian. This one is more interesting because Paul in fact does say, “ For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty,  yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love.”  Here we get our answer.  Paul says to Philemon, this is something that is your duty to do as a Christian; I could command you to do your duty, but I won’t. I could tell you that Christ commands us to Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  I could tell you that the sheep and goats will be separated by who does unto the least of these. I could tell you that what the Lord requires of you is to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. I could tell you all of these things and then command you to take care of Onesimus because of them, but I won’t. I won’t to do that, instead I appeal to you on the basis of love.

            Paul appeals to Philemon on the basis of love. That though there is this overriding sense of duty that Philemon should have as a Christian;  Paul’s hopes and dreams is that Philemon does not offer hospitality to Philemon out of duty, but does it out of love. Paul sees the transformative power of love. Paul sees a runaway slave, a fugitive, and does not see a criminal, but instead embraces him as a son, and as a brother in Christ. Paul sees the system and powers that be, and sees away to bring them tumbling down from within.  Paul does not see a slave and a slave owner, but rather two brothers in Christ. It is this love that Paul is appealing to Philemon to recognize. “ Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever,  no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother--especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.”  Paul had a beautiful vision, a vision of love. A vision where there was no longer a slave master and his slave but instead, two brothers in the love of Christ. This should not come as a shock to any of us, we have heard this before from Paul in Galatians 3. “ Before the coming of this faith,^j we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 2So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,  for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” 

            Paul is telling us that the law gives us guidance on how we should live, but that we no longer live out of a duty to the law. We have been clothed with Christ and now act in love. That there is not separation between us, neither jew nor Gentile, male and female, and yes neither slave nor free, for we are all one in Christ Jesus. We are all bound together by the love of Christ, and our actions, our motives, or thoughts, should be reflective of that love. For us this seems like yeah of course, but Paul claim here in Galatians, as well as in our passage from Philemon was really quite visionary. In a world in which divisions of power existed, Paul saw these divisions as being toppled by the love of Christ. That through love, a slave and a master were equals as brothers of Christ. That through love men and women, were equals through the being brothers and sisters in Christ, an idea that was quite revolutionary for that time. Paul is begging Philemon, to embrace this vision of love, and to accept Onesimus back now as more than a slave, but as a brother.

            This truly is a powerful request, to request that a slave-owner view a slave as a brother. For such an appeal its seems as though Paul would have to appeal to some sort of authority, some sort of upper hand, and yet as we mentioned Paul simply asks on the basis of love.

            Paul does take it a step further and gives examples of what that love may look like.  Paul does not have anything to gain from helping out this slave, and yet he teaches and embraces Onesimus. As mentioned Paul has built a bond with the slave, so much so that he compares himself to being like a father to him.  And so now it must be a painful experience to send Onesimus back knowing not knowing how Philemon will receive him. In fact Paul even says, “I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.”  Paul shows his own love for Onesimus in the letter as an example for how Philemon should love him. Still Paul goes one step further; out of love Paul puts himself at risk on the behalf of Onesimus. He says, “If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it.”  Paul puts his neck out for Onesimus, the ultimate sign of love, the same love that we learned from Christ’s love for us on the cross.

            And so this morning as we reflect on this wonderful letter, we must ask ourselves how are we going to go forth into the world?   Are we going to go forth and treat those we encounters as equals or will we continue to allow divisions to remain in this church, in this community, and in this world. Are we truly going to embrace others as brothers and sisters in Christ? And if we do why? Do we do it out of some duty that we feel? Do we do it simply because we feel as though that is what the Lord requires of us, or will we do it like Paul says, on the basis of love? When we serve, when we treat others, when we simply live on the basis of love; we may just find that it can be more transformational than anything we could have ever fathomed.