Let me set the stage before I read Paul’s words to Philemon. Onesimus, (oh-nes i-muhs) a slave, has run away from his master, Philemon, who is a convert of Paul’s. Onesimus absconded with funds or property and has made his way to Paul, who is in prison. In that unlikely setting Paul has converted Onesimus to Christ. Now Paul composes a letter on his behalf, attempting to persuade Philemon to take his slave back, not as a runaway slave, but as a brother in Christ. I bet you will recognize these words:
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.”
Do you know these words? My dear Miss Penelope Biddulph I am happy to write, in compliance with your kind wish, to tell you that Henrietta passed a very good night & is better this morning. She desires her love to you, & to your sisters, in which Miss Clarke & I unite. Believe me Yours very truly E B Barrett (1832 letter) before she married Mr. Browning.
One is a published work, the other personal correspondence; both penned by the same person. The letter we read today is a personal letter from Paul, much like this note of wellness from Miss Barrett. It does not discuss theological points, or belief in Christ or church dogma. Rather it is correspondence between friends on behalf of a slave and recent convert to Christ. So why was this personal letter included in scripture? What message does it say about God so that it is part of God’s Holy word?
First and foremost, this personal letter teaches us that all scripture is personal. We are to read scripture with an eye looking for how this applies to my life. When Moses climbed the mountain and received the Ten Commandments we are to be looking for our own mountaintop experiences with God. When Thomas doubted Jesus, we find comfort in our own moments of doubt. When Paul encountered the risen Christ on the road and converted, we see that we too can have a meeting with Christ; a time when Christ touches our hearts and becomes our personal savior.
This personal letter between two friends and brothers in Christ is the only private letter we have from Paul. It is a letter of love. Paul appeals to Philemon on the “basis of love” (9) and is sending Onesimus back to him referring to him as “my own heart” (12), Paul claims him as a son. The law demanded he be returned, but because of the love they share in Christ, Paul offers to pay any debt Onesimus owes to Philemon. Paul becomes the agent of grace. I believe he does so, because he has seen that Onesimus has changed. Having found Christ, Onesimus has become useful. Here we see a Greek pun. Onesimus as a runaway slave was useless to Philemon. But his very name means “useful.” Once he has Christ in his heart he lives up to his name, to his potential, and becomes useful. I think that is true for us as well. When we have Christ in our hearts, God gives us the ability to be useful for Christ. We become onesimus, useful, for Christ, slaves for the Lord we truly know and love. Paul sends him back so that to be useful to his master. And yet asks that he return him to Paul’s side to assist him in prison.
His usefulness does not end there. Some scholars believe that this same runaway slave, this recent convert to Christianity, 50 years later becomes the bishop of Ephesus. Ignatius one of the great Christian martyrs and early church fathers, writes a letter mentioning Bishop Onesimus. Ignatius writes the same pun saying he is Onesimus by name and Onesimus by nature (Barclay, Letters…Philemon, pg. 275).
This personal letter tells a personal story. A story of how Christ changed a life. You have a personal story, a faith story too. A story when you were in a prison of addiction, a story of hope when you found your peace in Christ, a story of feeling lost and finding your way back to God like the prodigal child. You might have wandered in the desert for a long while, you might have known God’s love from a young age, or you might be searching and hoping for Christ to claim your heart this very day. Ask Jesus to enter your heart now. Pray to the Lord to become the Lord of your life. Let the love of God change you and write a new story for your life; your faith story. Then become Onesimus for Christ.
Today we read a personal letter, heard a personal story all so that we can know a personal God. Do you remember last week, I spoke of the Nebraska senator who sued God for all sorts of awful things? Sometimes we think God is only in the big stuff, all consumed with wars, floods and disease and really doesn’t have time for you or me. We fear that God can’t be bothered with the details of life. But that simply is not true. God is personal. God is your personal God. God sent God’s only Son to be your savior and friend so that you could know, feel and trust in God’s love; a precious love that becomes personal, becomes real on a cellular level. So real that you can breathe and taste it.
I can hear you say, but how? I long to know God at that level, but it has escaped me. Or I knew it once and now I feel adrift.
Take heart and immerse yourself into psalm 139. Here we live the personal connection with God. We hear the mystery and wonder of being intimate with our maker. So if you want to be closer to God, I encourage you to read this psalm everyday for two weeks. Let it become part of you. As I have sat with this psalm all week I am humbled knowing that before I say a word God knows. Sort of like when your best friend can finish your sentence. Tears have come to my eyes knowing that God knit me together in my mother’s womb. You all know I have never met my mother; yet God knew and formed me in her womb. How personal and loving. I am silenced contemplating God’s thoughts are beyond me. Then it declares when I come to an end, I am STILL with God. Now I believe that I will see God face to face when this life is through, but God, our personal God is so close NOW that I am still with God when I get to the pearly gates. It does not say I will meet God there. Right now and right here your personal God knows you, sees you and loves you!
On Wednesday night I was walking in Capitola and ran into Janet Maack and her kids and one of their friends. As I walked up, she greeted me with, “I see you!” It took me back to the movie Avitar. You remember that 2009 James Cameron movie of the NaVi living on Pandora and Jake the paraplegic marine asked to join this blue-hued and spiritual community. We were captivated with its flying creatures, angered by the colonial domination and awed by the spiritual tree of life. Throughout the movie the NaVi people would greet each other with “I see you.” This seeing is not just an outward seeing, it a spiritual one as well. Jay Michelson of the Huffington Post explains: “In the Na’Vi cosmology, what’s really happening is the Ai’Wa in me (the God in me) is connecting with the Ai’Wa in you. This is echoed in their greeting, “I see you,” a direct translation of the Sanskrit Namaste, which means the same thing. As the Na’Vi explain in the film, though, “I see you” doesn’t mean ordinary seeing – it, like Namaste, really means “the God in me sees the God in you.” https://everydaythomist.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/i-see-you-avatar-and-prudence/
Imagine saying Namaste to God and God saying Namaste to you! God sees you. God knows you. God loves you.
Jake and Netiri say “I see you” as they are falling in love. For love to truly form and flourish we must see clearly, and that is the power of the 139th psalm. Our God sees us at our best and at our low points and loves us completely, unconditionally. At the end of the movie when Netiri sees Jake in his human and crippled form they truly see and love each other in that moment.
Immerse yourself in the 139th psalm, waking up each morning saying, “I see you” to God, knowing that God sees you. God loves you! Then let your personal story of love unfold as Christ brings out the best in who you can be!
NAMASTE! AMEN!
