Onesimus the Useful

Scripture Lessons: Jeremiah 18: 1-11 and Philemon, NT pages 215-216 Sermon title: Onesimus the Useful Preached on 9/4/16 It’s not every day that we get to read an entire book of the Bible, but if there’s a book of the Bible that ever could be read from beginning to end in one worship service it’s this one that makes up our 2nd Scripture Lesson, Philemon. Just one chapter long, in our Bibles it spans just two pages, and there are really only three human characters to keep track of: The Apostle Paul, a slave named Onesimus, and the slave’s owner Philemon. The plot is simple enough too – Onesimus the slave ran away to follow Paul, who as you know traveled from place to place preaching the Gospel and starting new churches. Either he started the church that met at Philemon’s house or he was just a guest, but when Paul came to town the slave Onesimus was so captivated by the Gospel that the Apostle preached that he ran away from home and from his owner. Paul, who is writing the letter, feels like he needs to send Onesimus back to his owner, and so he addresses this letter to Philemon for Onesimus to carry back as he returns. In this scenario it is Onesimus who takes the greatest risk. Paul, a Roman Citizen, is in a position of relative safety compared to this slave Onesimus even though it would seem Paul is writing from prison, and Philemon, a Christian, but also a man wealthy enough to own a slave and a house big enough to hold church in has little to lose and may in fact be regaining his human property as Onesimus journeys back home – so it’s Onesimus who interests me the most because while this letter demands something of both Paul and Philemon – Paul has to stick his neck out to speak for the slave and Philemon is being asked to be gracious, it’s really Onesimus who is being thrown in the deep end of the pool. And no one really wants to get thrown into the deep end of the pool. When we first moved here our oldest daughter Lily was of the age for swimming lessons, so we asked around a little bit about where we should go. Everybody had their opinion, as swimming lessons are serious business, and some people would say that you really need to go see Bert and Margret Hewgley. That if you want her to learn how to swim you need to go see Bert and Margret Hewgley, but we also heard that what Bert would do is tear open the door to the mini-van, pull your screaming child out with one arm, tell the child’s mother to look the other way as he threw mama’s baby girl into the deep end of the pool. Now today I know that this story is not in fact true, but we signed up for lessons with Gail Moore anyway, because getting thrown into the deep end is scary. It’s something like how I took Spanish Lessons in High School and College but then I got off the plane in Argentina and “donde esta el bano” only got one of my immediate needs met. Or getting thrown into the deep end is something like what happens to new members of our church. Some people have walked into this church for the very first time, very first time they’ve been in a church in years, and I’ll be talking with them in the hall way one day and the next – they’ve signed up to join the bell choir and serve on the Diaconate and they’re inviting their friends to church, and part of me wants to celebrate and the other part of me wants to calm them down – “Wait a minute – don’t just jump into the deep end!” But that’s how we learn to swim. That’s how we learn to trust. After my second year of seminary we were all asked to take an internship as a chaplain, but I didn’t want to go to a hospital, I signed up for the Metro State Women’s Prison. Now this wasn’t like our County Jail which is intimidating enough – the Metro State Women’s Prison in Atlanta, GA is a maximum security prison with a 20-foot fence and a network of buildings just as cold and bare as February. Our supervisor sent me to speak to a group of women up on the second floor of this residential building, and each floor had about 20 women in it – about 20 women to every one officer, and the officer’s weren’t walking around, they were supervising from the safety of this room in the middle and just looked out on all the women incarcerated using cameras. So I walked the stairs up to this floor with 20 women on it basically all by myself. The guards were just watching, and I’ve never really known what it was to have a lot of female attention all at once, so let’s just say that the absence of any men in the lives of these women for who knows how long made me more attractive than I have ever been, but the whistles and cat calls didn’t make me feel like a group of nice ladies were desperate for my phone number, it made me feel like a pack of wolves were about to eat me for breakfast. However, once I got up there I heard this 90 pound girl sing – and she sang, “His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me.” Some people think you have to be strong to have faith. That strength and faith are the same. That being determined and having grit is a lot like being faithful but I’m not so sure because faith has so much to do with our weakness and God’s strength. So God called Jeremiah the prophet down to the potter’s house in our First Scripture Lesson, and there “he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him,” and the Lord said, “Look, I am a potter…. Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.” Faith is like accepting the truth that we are clay – we are clay – and so the children sing that “we are weak but he is strong” – they sing, “He’s got the whole world in his hands,” so I don’t need to pretend that I do. Faith is about release you see. So the great Henri Nouwen, who has written many books on spirituality, is famous for having described the embodiment of faith as souring through the air on the flying trapeze. Faith as entrusting your life to the one who has promised to catch you before you fall. He tells this story of interviewing Rodleigh, the flyer in a trapeze troupe: “One day, I was sitting with Rodleigh, the leader of the troupe, in his caravan, talking about flying. He said, 'As a flyer, I must have complete trust in my catcher. The public might think that I am the great star of the trapeze, but the real star is Joe, my catcher. He has to be there for me with split-second precision and grab me out of the air as I come to him in the long jump.' 'How does it work?' I asked. 'The secret,' Rodleigh said, 'is that the flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything. When I fly to Joe, I have simply to stretch out my arms and hands and wait for him to catch me and pull me safely over the apron behind the catchbar.' " 'You do nothing!' I said, surprised. 'Nothing,' Rodleigh repeated. 'The worst thing the flyer can do is to try to catch the catcher. I am not supposed to catch Joe. It's Joe's task to catch me. If I grabbed Joe's wrists, I might break them, or he might break mine, and that would be the end for both of us. A flyer must fly, and a catcher must catch, and the flyer must trust, with outstretched arms, that his catcher will be there for him.' Nouwen continues: "When Rodleigh said this with so much conviction, the words of Jesus flashed through my mind: 'Father into your hands I commend my Spirit.' Dying is trusting in the catcher. To care for the dying is to say, 'Don't be afraid. Remember that you are the beloved child of God. He will be there when you make your long jump. Don't try to grab him; he will grab you. Just stretch out your arms and hands and trust, trust, trust.' " Whether it be in death or in life, again and again we are thrown right into the deep end of the pool, and so it makes sense to me that so often my muscles knot up and anxiety grips my soul – but today let us think on the example of the slave Onesimus. His name is Greek – it means useful – and for us, here in the 21st Century, his example is indeed useful, for he is flying through the air, armed only with a letter, and yet we see him release trusting that he will be caught. Trust, trust, trust. Amen.