Necessary Roughness

Before I drove down to Grand Junction I was able to attend Divine Service I at Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Vernal, UT. Because they don’t have a web site, you get some pictures here.

The bell is rung once before each service. This is a custom observed by both Our Saviour and the Roman Catholic parish about six blocks away.

Pastor Roger Sterle has two parishes, one in Rangely, an hour away, and one in Vernal. While Pastor was conducting worship at Rangely, a former elder led a Bible Study using Fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace from CPH.

After the study, I looked at the bulletin with the organist and noticed that “How Clear is Our Vocation, Lord,” and “Behold a Host, Arrayed in White,” were on the list. I remarked my past history with those two hymns, and the organist said it was quite convenient since she wasn’t familiar with them.

Pastor Sterle preached the following sermon, on the whole book of Philemon:

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from our Lord and our Saviour, Jesus the Christ, Amen.

This is a very interesting book in the Bible, a letter written to an individual, inspired by the Holy Spirit, telling a story that all people everywhere need to hear and learn from. Paul, a prisoner, a well-known cathechist from God, a well-known companion throughout the world in which he preached and taught, speaking from prison, in prison, by his own request, for as the Jews, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees sought to bring him to court, Paul, a Roman citizen as well as a Pharisee and a Jew himself, claimed the right of every Roman citizen to be tried before Caesar.

In prison, a slave left his master, having heard the great words that Paul preached, and journeyed to Rome from Colossi, to be there to minister to Paul and bring him food and water, for they were not given to the prisoners in the prison. Coming from a house church of one named Philemon and his friends at Colossi was Onesimus, and Paul seeks to return Onesimus, a slave and yet no longer a slave, returning to his master. Paul appeals to Philemon on the basis of Christian love and charity about the way in which he should treat Onesimus once he his returned: not as a useless runaway slave, but as a useful returning saint.

We must never forget that the Lord Jesus Christ turns each of us into useful saints in his church. Verses three and six in our text, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ….I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.” We notice first of all that Paul here is talking about how we are saints of his church, speaking to the saints in Colossi, telling them that they should be sharing, for the effectiveness of the full knowledge about the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which he had preached so eloquently to them, which he had charged them with when he left, leading Timothy or Titus there to adorn elders so that they could preach the good news.

Paul, a saint by grace. Paul, a saint restored to the peace of God which he now also wants to share with the saints of Colossi, that is to say that Paul is made holy before the Lord God by the blood of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and all that Christ did for him and died on the cross, and Paul is reminding the people at Colossi, in the house church of Philemon, that they are useful saints, and they remember all of these important things. He even calls Onesimus and Philemon saints, in verse five, “because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,” including Onesimus. What an admiration Paul must have had for Philemon, to speak such words to one who is a slave owner, speaking words of love and care and character.

Philemon’s love for his Lord Jesus Christ was demonstrated in a time of great persecution. At great risk to himself and his family he allowed his church to be a place of worship for all those gathered in Colossi. That wasn’t as great a persecution as came later, nor was it as great a persecution as the apostles underwent, but it was a persecution nevertheless, for daring to speak about the Lord Jesus Christ, for daring to show themselves useful saints, for the work of Christ Jesus. Paul, an apostle, prays that the church of Colossi may know the full knowledge of every good thing as Philemon shares his faith with them.

Luther, in his writings on the book of Philemon, a longer writing than the book itself, even the Concordia commentary that is coming out has 300 pages that cover all 21 verses, a lot of wealth and knowledge to be found in these short verses about us being useful saints by the faith which Jesus Christ has instilled in each of us through the Holy Spirit, so that we share all things in common, especially the love that Jesus Christ showed us, and that way, by knowing the same salvation in Christ that has made Philemon a saint, we too become saints in the sight of God.

If you study all of church history, if you study the writings of all the great fathers who came before Luther, who came before Chemnitz, all of the early church fathers, you will find that time and time again, when they speak to those who are of the household of faith, they always refer to them as God’s saints. We are such, as well. In the joy and the comfort of the love that is ours because of the blood-bought death of Jesus Christ.

Now Luther tells us that in Philemon, the law is the condemned status of a sinner, which exhibits a lack of love and an absence of faith. Luther further tells us that the gospel in Philemon is the justified status of the saint through the cross of Christ Jesus, which he reminds us we also see in Luke 14. (D - gospel reading).

So now we live in this new reality of life, which far too many people seem to have forgotten as they turn, in the words of our Old Testament lesson, to other gods. For God says, “you shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess,” “if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them.” Instead, Paul wants us to live in the reality of the baptismal life that we have as God’s saints, in the drowning of the Old Adam, and the rising of the new, each and every day with the New Adam that dwells in us, namely our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So sainthood means servanthood in the church.

“Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you — I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus — appeal to you for my child, Onesimus.” An old man, but not old in his words or old in his vigor for the Lord, not so old that he will not remind Philemon, who probably owned many slaves, that Onesimus, now one in the faith in his own baptism, was a brother with Philemon, a fellow saint, and a fellow heir of the everlasting heavenly life, that he would like to retain Onesimus with him, but nevertheless because of the way Paul saw himself as a servant and a proclaimer of the truth, he seeks to return Oneismus to his lord, Philemon.

Both are spiritual children of Paul. Both are spiritual children of God. Both have been washed clean in the waters of baptism. Both have been receiving the Holy Spirit in their lives, and Paul asked the one to serve the other, Philemon to serve Onesimus the slave, by welcoming back without penalty. Even though Paul himself would like to obtain Onesimus’s services, Paul says. if he does owe you anything, put it on my account. I will repay you for what Onesimus will owe you.

As useful saints, we see the servanthood not only of ourselves, but of our brothers and sisters in this congregation, and our brothers and sisters in the congregation of all Christendom all across the world, we serve each other not under compulsion but love. To treasure up that which Christ has given us, to love one another, even as Christ has loved us. We serve as beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord by the benefits that God has given to us.

Lest we be unaware, what Paul was asking, when counter to the total Roman culture, Marvin R. Vincent writes in his book on Word Studies in the New Testament, Volume III, tracking fugitive slaves was a trade. Recovered slaves were branded on the forehead, condemned to double labor, sometimes even thrown to the beasts in the amphitheater. The slave population was enormous, even though many died every year. Thus, viewing a runaway slave as a beloved brother was a radical departure from the norms of the Roman society in which Philemon and Paul both lived.

Again, Luther reminds us that the application of the law is that the curse of man and the world, who steals and grievously rebels against his earthly masters, the worker who gives his boss six hours instead of eight hours, the child who disobeys Mom and Dad woefully and willingly, those who do many of the other things that the world seeks us to do, which cause us to go contrary to God. For as Luther reminds us, the gospel side is that all are blessed in the Lord, who are declared righteous in Christ Jesus, the crucified and the risen master of all.

Therefore in our new reality, then, we can say is the blessedness of servants, eating at the same table of our Lord, when we celebrate the eucharistic supper. Now, as servant-saints, we become useful in our own congregations.

“So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it — to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.”

Useful saints, we are partners with one another in the Lord’s work. Useful saints are partners who have received Christ’s name, and because we have received Christ’s name, we owe a debt of love to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which we cannot repay outside the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in heart and mind. As useful saints, then, we are brothers and sisters who benefit one another in the Lord.

Luther writes, what Christ has done for us with God the Father, that St. Paul does for Onesimus with Philemon. For once and for all, the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the cross is the ground for our justification before God. Paul’s actions of offering to redeem Onesimus, taking his place before Philemon, reminds his friend that the whole Christian life, for both the master and the slave, centers on the already completed salvation they equally share in their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Can we not see from this how profoundly Scripture affects human relationships, as we observe an apostle making an appeal to a master for his own slave?

Useful saints, as brothers and sisters in Christ, refresh each other’s hearts. In Christ, as Paul says, “Refresh my heart in Christ.” As useful saints and brothers and sisters in Christ, we become doers without recompense. We become doers without seeking glory. We do even more than we ask, confident in our obedience to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We do it out of our love for one another.

Choosing death, choosing evil, and turning to worship other gods is a ploy Satan likes to use, as he entices us with the itching ears that Paul talks about in Timothy, to turn away from the true and omnipotent God. Instead, living in the gospel we want to live a good life in the love of our Lord and God in Christ Jesus, chosen in him, as we read in our Old Testament lesson.

The vocational life, which is why I chose the sermon hymn, of each man, woman, and child of every strata of every society, is demanded to be done upon the basis of God’s Word. By faith we thank God for our sainthood and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. By love we serve God as useful saints in his church. The Lord Jesus Christ turns us into his useful saints, as the last verse of our sermon hymn reads:

“In what you give us Lord, to do, together or alone,
In old routines or ventures new, may we not cease to look to you,
The cross you hung upon, all you endeavored, done.”

In the name of Jesus, Amen.