Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] So maybe you grew up like me, and you would leave through your Bible every once in a while, and you would accidentally come upon this one page. That is the book of Philemon. Philemon has one chapter. Really? It doesn't have chapters. It just kind of is what it is. It's another letter written by the apostle Paul that exists in the New Testament. When I was a kid, I was pretty sure that this was pronounced Pilamon.
[00:00:30] And if I am setting you free from that understanding today, just know you're in really good company. Philemon. Philemon is how we say that. And what you'll find in this book is Paul, specifically, who was originally named Saul, a jewish pharisee that persecuted christians. He has this dramatic conversion away from that lifestyle in acts chapter nine into following Jesus after an encounter with the voice of God. And he is the author of this book. And in this letter to Philemon, he's in prison, probably in Rome, and he writes to Philemon, who's a fellow Christian and a church leader, actually, in a place called Colossae, regarding a runaway slave that has actually come to Paul from Philemon's house while Paul is in prison. And so Philemon is this wealthy Christian and slave owner, again, lived in Colossae, was actually a really prominent member of the church. A lot of people say that the church actually met inside of his home, and he was, again, a slave owner, which was a pretty common practice in this roman world. And then you have the slave onesimus, who we'll get into more in the next series of talks. What you won't see from Paul and what I don't know about you, but what I want to see a lot of times in New Testament texts that I don't see, and it's not necessarily because the text is wrong, okay? But it's because of my personality. What I want to see is Paul be a complete abolitionist against the institution of slavery. I want him to come full on blazing guns, set the whole thing on fire and set all the slaves free. Paul does not do this in this context, but he does a beautiful thing and teaches something that we need to understand, actually, about diplomacy within the church while efforting to see a slave set free.
[00:02:21] So let's jump into it. Philemon, chapter one, I suppose Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our dear friend and fellow worker, also to Afia, our sister and archipelagos, our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your home. Grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all of his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your fellowship with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement. Because of you, brother, you have refreshed the hearts of the Lord's people. Let's pray together. Father God, we pray that we would see your face in the middle of this text in scripture. Lord, and even more than just a good teaching or a good feeling or a good inspiration, Lord, I pray that our hearts, our souls would be attached to the way that you are trying to teach us as your people. We want to be more like you, sound more like you, be patient like you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:03:36] So again, Paul is trying to convince in this letter this guy named Philemon, a slaveholder. He's trying to convince him, you'll see, throughout the course of this letter, to let Ansimus go and then not just let him go, even though apparently onesimus has done something wrong. A lot of theologians suspect that he stole something from his owner and fled, that he has done something wrong. In this context, Paul is not just asking him to let him go and not punish him, but he's actually encouraging him to embrace him into the church as a brother and no longer a slave.
[00:04:12] Incredibly beautiful. And how Paul does this, of course, approaching this from the other side of an argument or a decision or a question, he is not on the same side as Philemon necessarily. And how Paul goes about it is really encouraging to me and hopefully inspiring for us, especially in the time that we live in, in our country or these months that are coming forward, building up to an election, or even outside of that, just dealing interpersonally with difficult people. Right? Am I the only one that wakes up in almost every day, has a difficult interaction with another human being? Where I go, that person is an idiot, that person is wrong, that person took too long, that person's driving too fast.
[00:04:49] And Paul, through the course of this letter, shows us how we can actually deal with people and care for people and change people a lot of times while all actually loving them. And the first bit of evidence of that is in verse four here, where Paul says at the beginning of his letter to Philemon, I always thank God for you as I remember you in my prayers.
[00:05:11] What a way to start a conversation in which you're hoping to change someone's mind.
[00:05:17] I can't wait to see this at the debate coming up in a couple days.
[00:05:21] It's going to be great. It's going to be great. Trump's going to get up there and he's going to go. Misses Harris, I want you to know I've been thinking about you and praying for you and really, I am thankful for you.
[00:05:32] And she'll turn and go, you know what, Mister Trump, I've had the same experience in considering you. I pray the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ over you, your family, your children's children, you know, they just have this whole moment together.
[00:05:47] I will pay someone so much money if that actually happens.
[00:05:51] You know, that's usually not the starting place, right? And I could pick on politicians, but I could also, you know, probably pick on myself. I would say when my wife and I are on the different sides of a discussion in my house, the conversation doesn't usually go okay. So, Rebecca, I am so thankful for you. First of all, I've been thinking about you and this and praying deeply over it. It's, hey, I thought we talked about this.
[00:06:22] What are you mad about this now? What's going on?
[00:06:27] You're a hypocrite. Why do you think? You know this is, I'm letting you into my home. I'm sure my home is the only one where this happens.
[00:06:34] You know, disagreements in our daily lives don't usually come steeped in thanksgiving. In prayer, they come with reaction and fact.
[00:06:45] I can see person on the other side of discussion that you haven't considered, you know, what might be intelligent in this situation.
[00:06:53] You've chosen the way of foolishness and I'm here to enlighten you.
[00:07:00] Yeah, that's not how. That's probably a little bit more how all of our discussions go. And Paul, trying to change Philemon's mind, chooses thanksgiving, gratefulness and prayer.
[00:07:16] And in doing so, Paul is encouraging us in this day and age, in our own context, to maybe when we want to go about helping change the world for the better, when we want to go about changing the minds of our family members, or maybe even if we're humble enough to allow our own minds to be changed, which, by the way, if you haven't changed your mind on something for a little while, I would wonder how many friends you have.
[00:07:43] But he's teaching us that as we walk about this world, it's going to be incredibly important that we do so with thanksgiving and thoughtfulness and prayer. As we head into an election season, what does that mean? As you head into difficult discussions at work and with people in your life, with family members, what does it mean to go into those conversations with thanksgiving and prayer? Because what Paul is after is he's after this word that he uses in here. It's called koinonia. And maybe you've heard that before. A lot of times, it's translated really directly and kind of simply into this word fellowship, which in my mind has always been like, yeah, christians are made for Koinonia. We're made for this fellowship, this community, this spending time together. They're breaking bread together. You know, in our current context, it means that we have small groups and we have youth groups and we have mom's groups and dads groups, and we throw barbecues, and all of those things are great and wonderful and important. But it goes really far beyond just kind of spending time in a similar space with somebody else.
[00:08:42] It's not as simple as the idea of interchanging information or interchanging life experience, which is another way it could kind of be related together. It's more than just sharing. Instead, koinonia is a part of the truth about us as the body of Christ. That's powerful in that we're all bound together in what is known as a mutual bond, a bond that should be so strong in the body of Christ, in the church, that we actually abandon our much prized individualism in our current world and culture, because that individualism is so shallow and petty in comparison to what God created the church for. We are to be bonded together in this koinonia, in this community and this fellowship. And Paul illustrates it in another book that he writes. It's in the book of Romans in chapter twelve, verses 14 through 16, where Paul says, actually, you should bless those who persecute you. Don't curse them, but pray that God will bless them. And he goes on to say, be happy with those people who are happy. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don't be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people, and don't think that you know it all. Don't elbow your neighbor right now. Later.
[00:09:58] That's that last line I'll preach. I love that. Paul's just like, quit pretending that you know everything and community will be better for you.
[00:10:05] It's a timeless truth.
[00:10:08] But Paul is saying, when he. When he's saying, be happy with those who are happy and weep with those who weep, he's saying, the church, of all things should be deeply empathetic toward the struggle and the victory and the challenges of the people that surround us and are in our world.
[00:10:23] Not so that we can simply pat them on the back, but because we are bonded together by this gospel. Paul uses this term, he calls it sharing the gospel. And it's actually sometimes that's been used for this is why we should be evangelists and we should speak the gospel of Christ, which is great and awesome. But Paul's intention in that specific instance is not that we would preach the gospel on the streets. It's that we would share from this thing that we've received, which is ultimate love and grace and forgiveness. And we should so willingly share that feeling and that understanding and that love with the people around us in a deep and profound manner. So, like it or not, to be a Christian, to be a part of the community, to be someone that goes to church, so to speak, that participates in Koinonia and fellowship, you are called to be deeply connected to the people around you.
[00:11:14] Now, in order to make that scarier, in just a moment, I'm going to have everyone that's going to vote republican raise their hand. Okay, just kidding. I'm not going to do that.
[00:11:21] And the idea sounds great. Yes, deeply connected, mutually bonded. Oh my gosh. That's who you are. Never talk to me ever again.
[00:11:30] We're called to love people, even that disagree deeply with us, even people that have been difficult with us before.
[00:11:40] We're called to something better than the individualism that the world often markets to us as wisdom.
[00:11:48] We're called to join together as imperfect members of Christ's body. To become the bride of Christ means we do more than just throw the best parties. I've been a part of those churches and those movements. It means we actually have to learn about each other and understand each other so that we can love well in every situation. So how do we approach the table and the conversations steeped in thankfulness and prayer and love and understanding, even if we know in some instances that love will not be returned immediately from somebody on the other side?
[00:12:23] One thing that I want you to consider is to always assume positive intent. This is a difficult thing to train yourself to do. My mother in law does this really well.
[00:12:33] We'll be behind somebody in traffic that is going entirely too slow. And Sarah creates the most beautiful picture immediately about why it's the right thing for this person to be going so slow. And I'm going, no, this person should not have a license. What are they doing?
[00:12:48] And then someone that's going too fast she immediately can be like, you know, could be an emergency, or they could be deeply unsafe. Sarah, she always assumes positive intent.
[00:13:03] We need to know that our posture matters. Every good outcome that comes from our Jesus community has to come from not just the right words and the right knowledge and the right beliefs, but it has to come alongside a posture as well.
[00:13:17] How we present ourselves to the world and to each other matters if we truly want to turn evil things into good things.
[00:13:25] Paul expresses that in this letter, and I believe that one of the biggest reasons that Paul does this so well is because he does have a deep understanding and relationship with Philemon. He understands where he comes from and what his life experience has been like. He understands his beliefs and where they come from. And this is something that I believe we do very, very, very poorly in our context and culture today.
[00:13:50] I'll give you, for instance, I grew up in a small town, which I've shared with you guys before. It's called Glendale, southern Oregon, near Grants Pass. The town was probably about 800, 900 people when I was growing up, and it's about 200 people now, if that.
[00:14:04] And for some of you who have lived in Oregon for a little while, you know exactly the town that I'm talking about, because there's many of them all over our state, and this was a small mill town, and mill town and mill life and timber and lumber has changed pretty dramatically over time. I recently listened to a podcast called Timber wars that's all about the history of Oregon. It doesn't take a specific side or an ideology. It just shares the timeline. And I was like, I understand myself and my state so much more than I have now ever than ever before. But growing up in that small town, mill life was what it was. You were either working at the mill, you might have had a job at the school, and then maybe you were one of, like, the two people working at the one store that we had, right, the Glenway super store. And super is a. Super is a big word for how small that store was.
[00:14:54] And that was the way of life. That was. The assistant coaches for your teams would show up after they got off of their shift. They'd be wearing the stuff that they were wearing in the mill. They talked like mill workers, they acted like mill workers. They joked like mill workers. And this was my people. And part of that existence, growing up was that we understood one group to be the greatest enemy of all of the enemies, and that was the environmentalists.
[00:15:20] When I was seven, eight, nine years old, did I exactly understand what an environmentalist was? No, but I knew that we were meant to hate them.
[00:15:28] Why? Because, well, they set fire to mill property once or twice, and they were citing this thing that we were calling their mascot, which was a spotted owl. And this spotted owl was not just meant to be kept from endangerment, but it was actually a way that these environmentalists could destroy our job and destroy our town and take everything that we've tried to build, even though it's small, to take it away from us.
[00:15:55] And this was how we would talk about this group of people, even to the point where I turned 18 and I went to college. I found myself in a rhetoric class with Professor Matt Schnackenberg, which, by the way, shout out to Mister Schnack, there's zero shot. You are listening and watching this, but I really love you and I enjoyed your class.
[00:16:14] And we were talking about the rhetoric behind environmentalism. And there was another young guy that stood up and began to talk about importance of environmentalism. And me, in all of my passion and all of my strength and in all of my ignorance, stood up in the middle of that class, and I said, environmentalists are the enemy of everything that is good in this world.
[00:16:37] Check me out, guys.
[00:16:42] Did Ben understand environmentalism and environmentalists? No.
[00:16:47] Did Ben have real life experience and were the profits in my town correct? Yes. All their jobs are gone. The town is completely decimated. And while it was a haven for drugs before, it is particularly overrun now. And everything that people had built is virtually destroyed because of some of these changes and policies. Now, I'm not bringing up this story to draw a line on changes and policies. That's not the moral of the story. The moral of my story is that in my ignorance, I still have life experience. I lost friends, people lost jobs. I know people specifically that moved to a life of drugs and alcohol because of what they had lost after that. And these things then shaped my opinions and my thoughts and my passion. Does that mean I'm right about everything? Look, there's a lot of issues with a lot of things on all different kind of sides in this thing. But what I felt in that class was that there were people in the room that did not understand me. They did not know my experience. They did not know my story, and they didn't lose my friends and our jobs.
[00:17:53] And that stinks.
[00:17:56] And even more than that, I knew that they didn't care. At least I felt they didn't care to want to know my experience.
[00:18:03] So how was my experience shaped and formed? Well, it was formed through real things. Real things happened in my context and I created real opinions that have since shifted and changed. But because of my experience and now spending time with people on every side of this argument, I now have a deep empathy with everybody who has worked from an environmentalist standpoint as well as the millworker that lost his job.
[00:18:28] I know these people personally and understanding and knowing people, not just their ideas, which may be wrong. And this is an excuse. This is not an excuse for hatred and for bigotry and even for that ignorance. But even when people are wrong, that wrong comes from somewhere that must be healed by Jesus.
[00:18:51] They're not just a person and a policy and an idiot.
[00:18:55] They're not just on the other side of this fence because they don't get the truth. And I'm here to bring the truth instead. They are a human being that has been developed and shaped and formed by their environment, by their parenting, by their lack of parenting, by their geography. And we come to understand the world through these lenses and in these ways which does not make anyone unredeemable, uncared for, or unloved. Instead, we approach each one of them with thanksgiving and prayer and thoughtfulness and the willingness to ask them to tell us a story for how they arrived at the place that they have arrived at.
[00:19:28] Because there are beautiful and broken and hurting and lovely and victorious hearts inside of all of these people.
[00:19:36] And if we are to convince and help and shape and change the world, we need to begin to listen to some of these stories that we don't even want to hear in the first place.
[00:19:46] Nt Wright says it this way. He says, this kind of unity, this one that would be steeped in thanksgiving and prayer and grace, is one of the key telltale signs to the world that Jesus is Lord.
[00:19:59] It's not this overwhelming sledgehammer of something that we feign to be the gospel. Instead, it's a slow beauty and grace and mercy and prayer and thankfulness.
[00:20:11] So how do we allow ourselves to be shaped in such a way? Well, we understand who we are in the overall story of God. And in order to do so, I believe that Jesus does a great job of illustrating this in Luke in chapter ten.
[00:20:24] This would be a familiar story to many of you. It's called the Good Samaritan.
[00:20:28] And it says, one day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question, teacher, what should I do to inherit the eternal life?
[00:20:38] And Jesus replied, well, what does the law of Moses say? How do you read it? And the man answered, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Right? Jesus told him, do this and you will live. And then this religious leader becomes that kid in the front of the class that you had in college.
[00:20:59] I have one more question.
[00:21:02] It says the man wanted to justify his actions, and so he asked Jesus, okay, well, great. But who is my actual neighbor?
[00:21:14] Can you give me an out here, Jesus, I'm fine with these people being my neighbor, and I'm fine with this geography being my neighbor, but these people and these people and these people, this is going to be a little bit more difficult. So who's like, really our neighborhood?
[00:21:29] Where can I put a gate and a fence around my neighbors?
[00:21:34] Jesus replied with a story. A jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, they beat him up, and they left him half dead beside the road. And by chance, a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there and also passed by on the other side. And then a despised Samaritan, a disgusting, horrifying Samaritan, came along. And by the way, Jesus introducing a Samaritan in this story is about one of the most vile things you could do.
[00:22:06] It says, when this Samaritan came along, he saw the man. He felt compassion for him. And going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. And he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. And the next day, he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, take care of this man, and if his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I am here.
[00:22:27] Now, which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by the bandits? Jesus asked. The man replied, the one who showed him mercy? Jesus said, yes. Now go and do the same.
[00:22:41] Now, the basic takeaway from this story is that it would be good to be like the Samaritan.
[00:22:48] We should be like the Samaritan. We should go out of our way to care for and to bandage and to even help out financially people that need it and are broken.
[00:23:00] But you know, the reason that the Samaritan even finds himself in that position in the first place, where he has this heart that's broken for somebody that's hurting and discovered alongside of the road is that Samaritans as a culture were treated this way.
[00:23:15] Samaritans were vile by virtue of their birthday. There was nothing that they could do about it. They were the scum of the earth, unclean, not to be touched, certainly not to eat with, and never to spend time with.
[00:23:28] But the reason that the Samaritan was able to perform such a miraculous act of mercy is that a samaritan knows what it's like to be left behind.
[00:23:37] They know what it's like to be unwanted. They know what it's like to be on one side of the road and watch a crowd of people run over to the other. So they won't, but they don't want to make close contact.
[00:23:48] And so, of course, it's natural that the one who himself has found himself broken and lost and lonely would also see those who are broken and lost and lonely.
[00:24:00] And so the idea in this story is that Jesus is actually the Samaritan.
[00:24:06] We're not the hero of this one. We should find ourselves. And in order to steep our interactions with thankfulness and grace and mercy and love, we have to understand where we come from. And in the economy of God, we come from a broken and hurting and selfish place alongside of the road, bleeding out, hoping that someone can come along and save us. And Jesus has done so.
[00:24:30] And the arrogance that it takes to ignore that history and that past and what Jesus has done for us and begin to dehumanize and vilify people on the other side of the political aisle, on the other side of the world and the other nation, on the other side of the railroad tracks.
[00:24:45] The arrogance that it takes for the church to do that is beyond ridiculous.
[00:24:52] We must be a people that understand that we come from broken places. And now because of that, we can go into broken places. We know what it's like, and we can empathize, and we can love and change and help and hold and live out the way of Jesus.
[00:25:09] So I want you to consider a couple things as we close the power of reconciliation that we already see in this book, and you will see in the rest of it. This is a profound example of how christians are meant to reconcile. And as you leave today, I want you to consider who you have dehumanized or you have hated or you have left behind.
[00:25:32] And I want you to ask yourself that maybe it's time to make a phone call.
[00:25:36] Maybe it's time to say, I'm sorry, especially when you said, so many times, you are wrong. You are wrong. I wonder if the word and the phrase that's needed is I am sorry.
[00:25:48] I want you to consider what it's like to live in true christian brother and sisterhood.
[00:25:55] Paul's appeal in this letter emphasizes the idea that in Christ all of us are created equal, regardless of social status.
[00:26:04] This letter challenges our own cultural norms and encourages us to abandon the individualism that is marketed so heavily for us and embrace a deep love and shared bond together in Christ.
[00:26:17] I want you to also consider what it's like to be transformed, what it's like to allow us to have our minds changed, maybe for the first time in a very, very, very long time.
[00:26:27] Are we humble enough to be transformed by the power of the gospel and not just take it on as another tool in our tool bag, but instead be shifted and changed completely and wholly by the person and the power of Jesus Christ?
