A modern parable:
During a time of great crisis a certain government gave out PPP loans and they fell into the hands of law makers and to bolster the economy, they were forgiven and greatly rejoiced. Some were forgiven a couple hundred thousand dollars, some almost a million dollars, and one at least four and a half million dollars. Yet when they saw ordinary citizens being forgiven students up to ten thousand dollars, they became angry and shouted that responsible people pay back their loans no matter what. Those who showed such hypocrisy were voted out in the next election and their retirement package was redirected for they had already received much and it was given to forgive more student debt.
This church here is unique within the United Church of Christ in that using the words trespasses and trespassers in the Lord's Prayer is often rooted in Lutheran practice. Most Congregational churches I have served have used debts and debtors. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Forgiveness is a biblical theme that runs in both the Hebrew and Christian testaments. Every seven years, debts are to be forgiven and slaves are to be freed. In looking up slavery in the time of Jesus and Paul, it was vastly different than the slavery we know from in our country. In that day, slaves were generally just held 7 years, slaves had the rights that most free persons would have, and often if the slave was learning a trade while enslaved, the slave owner would help that person set up a business with their new skills once they became free. In early Christianity, it was heard of that some Christians would sell themselves into slavery and give the money to poor. So, although we have Jesus and Paul 'recorded' as telling the slaves to obey their masters, the majority of slaves in their day were not life-long slaves and there were laws in the Roman Empire that they were to be treated well and often it was a economic advancement if the slave owner would invest in their business once their time was done.
So this short book of Philemon brings out the complications of trying to be a Christian in a non-Christian world. Onesimus is retuning to his slave owner from whom he ran away or overstayed with Paul when ordered to go back to his owner. Paul is writing for two reasons, one is to ask Philemon to charge any debts that Onesimus has to Paul and not to the slave returning. The second is to ask Philemon to treat Onesimus not as a slave, but as a brother in Christ which probably means for him to be freed. One commentator did mention that this means that Philemon would not just lose money as the investment is lost, but the family would lose face and respect among his neighbors and business colleagues and would hurt his future business dealings and family fortune.
This brings us to the Gospel, where Jesus tells us to 'hate' our family and friends. The root Aramaic or Hebrew word for hate isn't one that means long-burning, wishing them death and worse passion. It is closer to preference, not that we don't love our family and friends, but we are to love God more than we love our family and friends. The preference is that we put God first. So Paul, in his letter, is asking for Philemon to love Christ, who is identified with the least of these and in this case the slave Onesimus, more than he would love his family's reputation and their finances. Paul is accepting any debt or damage of Onesimus to be transferred to himself and not laid upon the returned slave.
Back in Jesus' and Paul's time, choosing to follow Jesus did come at considerable cost. First of all, it meant that a person and family couldn't worship any other idols or gods or proclaim that Caesar was a god and worship him. This made them very suspicious and often seen as traitors. In the Roman Empire, you could keep your gods, faith, and spirituality, but you had to acknowledge that Roman gods were at least equal to your own. Paul wrote several times in his letters, "In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female." Secondly, then, especially within the church group, all of the social and cultural constructs were put aside into an egalitarian community where the gifts of the Spirit were honored, not how much money you made, where you lived, who your parents were, or what is your background. That was very disrupting. So, although, Paul and Jesus didn't outright condemn the system of slavery, they did work to free those enslaved and oppressed. They did upset the apple cart of the slave system. Most, if not all, early Christians saw military service as incompatible with being a Christian. Becoming a soldier was a common way for those who weren't citizens in the Roman Empire to become one. They held onto and lifted up blessed are the meek, the peacemakers, and the pure in heart.
I remember in college when I was growing in my awareness of ministry as a calling. I was working as a busboy at Red Lobster and some of my co-workers asked me in awe, "Do you follow the Ten Commandments?" "I try," I responded. And thought about it, "I don't worship other God's, swear too much, have idols, honor the sabbath by going to church and spending time with family and friends, I don't steal, wasn't married, or kill people. I don't lie about other people, but probably exaggerate, and coveting is probably the one I struggle the most with because there is a lot of cool stuff in the world that I want." But to take up our cross in today's world, to look at the cost in our country isn't as obvious or destructive to our families and personal life as it would have been back then. But thankfully, we have outlawed slavery, though there are still forms of it in our country and around the world.
To choose life as Moses and Aaron asked the Hebrew people to do when there were journeying from slavery in Egypt to the promised land and to choose to follow Jesus does set us apart if we work in our heart, mind, soul, and body to love God, to love our neighbor, and to love ourselves. It sets us against the consumeristic ethos of our country of wanting and possessing more and more. It sets us against envying and worshiping the rich and powerful which is done splashed over all our media. It sets us against the culture of death that is found with idol of the 2nd Amendment and putting mercy first.
Choosing life is to see all people as God's children, to work to free all people from slavery and oppression and poverty. Choosing life is to value the world and all life and its gifts that sustain all life. Choosing life is recognizing there is a cost to not going with the flow, but finding the community and abundance of love, peace, and joy amongst the pain and sorrow that is also present. Let us choose life. Amen.
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