October 9, 2016 Under Construction: Philemon Vicar

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October 9, 2016 Under Construction: Philemon Vicar Mark Moretz, Hope Lutheran Church

Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text for the sermon today is Paul’s letter to Philemon. Paul is trying to persuade his friend Philemon to forgive his runaway slave, Onesimus. What if you were in Philemon’s shoes and this was your money or investment that Paul is meddling with? I mean you are following the laws and cultural norms of the land, right? How dare he challenge you to forgive and free a slave who stole from you and ran away. But that’s what Paul does. He challenges Philemon to forgive and set free the undeserving slave Onesimus. And not just forgive and free him but accept him as a brother in Christ. So, I ask you again, what if you were in Philemon’s shoes and someone in your employ stole from you and skipped town? They have been gone for months. Now they have appeared on your doorstep asking for forgiveness and in addition they want you to re-employ them, house them, and go to church with them on Sunday. I imagine that during first century Colossae, people were not much different than today. What’s the cliché? “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” Being stolen from leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth of the victim, doesn’t it? Have you ever been stolen from? I have, once a vehicle’s glass broken and belongings taken; and earlier

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this year two bicycles stolen. And both times I filed police reports. Would I have liked for the thieves to have been caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law? You bet I would. But what if you were in Philemon’s shoes and your runaway employee came to you and apologized and asked for forgiveness? He or she couldn’t repay you, but they had Pastor Wayne or Pastor Lew with them urging you to forgive them, release them from their debt, and restore them to a new relationship. What if they had come to belief in the risen Jesus Christ during this or even because of this thieving escapade? Would you be able to forgive them? Or would they still have to suffer the consequences of their actions? Forgiveness is not a natural thing for our fallen human nature, is it? And Paul knows this when he writes Philemon. In his letter, Paul tells Philemon that if Onesimus owes him anything to charge it to Paul’s account. Paul is willing to cover Philemon’s losses in whatever was stolen and incurred by the loss of services. Paul is interceding for Onesimus and putting his Apostleship, his reputation, and his money on the line for Onesimus. In faith, Onesimus has become a new creature and confessed his sins to God and to Paul. Onesimus has now come under the forgiveness of God through the all availing sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. And Paul is demonstrating Jesus sacrificial love for us, in his interceding on Onesimus’ behalf. Onesimus has been forgiven by God, but can Philemon live out the faith he has been preaching and teaching, and forgive Onesimus? It may be painful for Philemon to forgive, especially when his gut says otherwise.

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But Paul understands that we are empowered to forgive the Onesimus’s in our lives through Jesus Christ who lives in us and works in us to do things we could not do on our own. And it is Jesus Christ who can work in Philemon’s life under construction, to create a forgiving heart in Philemon. You see, grace is never cheap. It cost the life of Jesus Christ on the cross, the most precious sacrifice in all the universe. But between us humans, grace can be difficult, it can be painful, and sometimes may feel impossible. And I realize there are worse offenses than theft. So what happened with Philemon and Onesimus? The Bible does not tell us. But there are some historical footnotes that suggest these two did reconcile. About fifty years after Paul wrote this letter, Ignatius, one of the great Christian martyrs was being taken from Antioch to Rome to be executed. He stopped at Smyrna and wrote to the church in Ephesus, and in the first chapter of that letter he had much to say about their wonderful bishop. The bishop’s name was Onesimus. And in this letter, Ignatius makes exactly the same play on Onesimus’ name that Paul played in his letter to Philemon. A quote, “He is Onesimus by name and by nature, the useful one to Christ.” Could it be that the runaway slave became a great Bishop in Ephesus? It is possible, but not because of Philemon’s generosity, but because that’s what the Gospel does when it gets hold of people’s lives. And we sure do need the Gospel of grace in our lives today, don’t we? Especially today. The trouble nowadays is that forgiveness is not a socially cool norm. Everybody has to oneup each other. The modern norm is to win at all costs, humiliate the other person, win the

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intellectual war, show no mercy. Anger is good. Revenge is sweet. Sometimes self-control is out the window. Let’s look at a few snapshots of our modern society. According to a new study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, nearly 80 percent of U.S. drivers expressed significant anger, aggression, or road rage behind the wheel at least once in the past year. The most alarming findings suggest that approximately eight million U.S. drivers engaged in extreme examples of road rage, including purposefully ramming another vehicle or getting out of the car to confront another driver. Many drivers reported engaging in the following types of road rage: Purposefully tailgating; Yelling at another driver; Honking to show annoyance or anger; Making angry gestures; Trying to block another vehicle from changing lanes. When someone wrongs us on the highways and byways, do we return anger for anger or do we show a little grace and forgive? I read another story about a 73 year old man who held a grudge against a high school classmate for something that happened over 50 years ago. And this grudge ended in murder. Some grace and forgiveness could have saved several families from being devastated. Another example is that people today refuse to agree to disagree and still be friends. Nowadays, everyone’s opinion has to be the only right way to think. And some people are absolutely callous in their remarks. Just look at the comments of any online news article. Recently when reading about Hurricane Matthew hitting Haiti, there were comments making fun of the Haitians and their country. And I thought, do they not realize that people will die there? Then these people began to name call each other back and forth. And this was not even a controversial news story.

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And what about grace and forgiveness in marriages? I heard this story: A married couple had a quarrel and ended up giving each other the silent treatment. A week into their mute argument, the man realized he needed his wife's help. In order to catch a flight to Chicago for a business meeting, he had to get up at 5 a.m. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence, he wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake me at 5 a.m." The next morning the man woke up only to discover his wife was already out of bed, it was 9 a.m., and his flight had long since departed. He was about to find his wife and demand an answer for her failings when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. It read, "It's 5 a.m. Wake up." Our marriages need some grace too, don’t they? Grace and forgiveness is not natural to our fallen human nature, is it? When someone wrongs us we find it difficult to forgive and restore. Don’t we? But we have been wronging God since the beginning. We have been breaking his commandments. We have been turning our backs on God. We have worshipped and put other things before God. We have wanted to do things our way, not God’s way. We’ve hurt our neighbors. Like Onesimus, we have been lazy and useless, we’ve stolen from God and we’ve run away from God. Even as Christians who love God and who love each other, we sometimes do these things to God and each other. And the beautiful thing is that just like Onesimus, in our story, we need someone to intercede for us, we need someone to say, receive him or her as you would receive me. We need someone to say, if he or she has wronged you at all or owes you anything, charge that to my account.

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We need Jesus who says, I write this with my own hand: I have paid it all. Our hearts are refreshed in Christ, because of his obedience to death on the cross for our sins. And it is in love and thankfulness and through the power of Jesus that we can forgive. And that is a picture of our lives under construction, with Jesus as the master builder. And forgiveness can change lives, like the life of Shannon Ethridge. When Shannon was just 16 years old, an act of forgiveness and love changed her life forever. While driving to her high school one day, Shannon ran over Marjorie Jarstfar, a woman who was riding her bicycle along a country road. Marjorie died as a result, and Shannon, who was found completely at fault by authorities, was consumed by intense guilt. She contemplated suicide several times, but she never took her life because of the healing response of one man: Gary, Marjorie’s husband. Gary forgave the 16-year-old and asked the courts to drop all charges against her, saving her from a probable guilty verdict. Instead, he simply asked that Shannon continue on in the godly footsteps that his wife had taken. "You can't let this ruin your life," Gary told her more than 20 years ago. "God wants to strengthen you through this. In fact, I am passing Marjorie's legacy on to you." Gary's act of forgiveness showed Ethridge the amazing love of God. Today, Ethridge is the bestselling author of several books that help women overcome guilt-ridden, wounded lives. Forgiveness is powerful. And Paul knows that if Philemon forgives Onesimus it will be a powerful witness of Christian love and faith. Paul says, “Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.”

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You see, even though it goes against our human nature and the nature of this world to forgive, we are empowered to forgive the Onesimus’s in our lives through Jesus Christ who lives in us and works in us to do things we could not do on our own. And that refreshes our hearts. May we be forgiven, strengthened, and refreshed by Jesus’ body and blood today. And may we be empowered by our living Lord to live beyond our human nature. Amen. Now may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.