Our text this morning consists of nearly the entire book of Philemon.
Of course, that’s not saying much because Philemon is only one chapter, 25 verses,
335 words in the original Greek.
Its not a theological treatise, like Paul’s letters to the church at Rome or to the Galatians, its not full of profound reflections on love like 1 Corinthians
nor is it an epistle of praise like Philippians.
Yet without Paul’s short letter addressed to Philemon,
we would be much poorer in our understanding of Paul, of the church,
and of God’s transforming love and grace.

Our epistle this morning concerns a runaway slave and his owner.
Philemon is the slave owner, a Christian living in Colossae,
in whose home the local church met.
He was a leader in the church, well thought of by many, including Paul.
He was, as mentioned, a slave owner.
And for us in our present day and age, that seems repugnant.
However, in the context of Philemon’s time and place,
it was not only accepted practice,
but it would have been out of the ordinary for a person not to own at least a few slaves. Some would take issue with Paul’s seeming silence on the issue of slavery,
but those who do would be missing the careful nuance
with which Paul addresses the issue.
Not only in this epistle, but in others, such as Galatians,
Paul clearly advocates a societal system
in which there is no slave nor free,
but one in which all are brothers and sisters in Christ.

The other character in our epistle this morning is a runaway slave named Onesimus.
In Greek his name means useful.
But clearly he was anything but useful to Philemon.
He ran away, he upset the order of the household, he caused much grief to his owner.
In Paul’s time the punishment for runaway slaves was death.
Somehow after running away from Philemon’s household,
Onesimus ended up meeting Paul.
And this slave had heard the good news which Paul was preaching,
the good news of Jesus Christ,
and he had accepted Jesus into his heart.
Onesimus ended up serving Paul while he was in prison
and became as a son to Paul.
Paul refers to him as his very heart,
that the one who was once useless was once again, as his name inferred, useful.

Perhaps as we hear this story this morning,
we might not quite understand what a difficult request Paul was making of Philemon. Again, it was common practice for runaway slaves who were captured to be put to death. To do anything less would have been an open invitation for societal chaos.
Slaves performed the majority of tasks that allowed a society to function,
and for the slave owning class to live as they did.
The only way to keep a society fueled by slave labour running smoothly and predictably was to impose a strict and consistent discipline on any slave who chose to disobey.
And yet Paul writes to Philemon asking him,
not only to receive Onesimus back,
but to receive him as a brother,
welcoming him as he would welcome Paul himself.
Paul put Philemon on the spot,
inviting him to stand publicly against the expectations of society to punish and penalize, calling on him to stand apart from his peers,
not only to receive Onesimus back, but to welcome him back as a brother in Christ.
And if the request was difficult on Philemon,
surely it was no easier for Onesimus.
Paul was requesting that Onesimus return to his master,
knowing full well what the punishment for runaway slaves was.
Rather than protecting his adopted son,
rather than encouraging him to live free,
Paul told Onesimus that he must return to Philemon,
to trust that his master would have the courage and conviction
to stand against the current of societal demand and expectation.

Really, it’s a remarkable letter, remarkable for Paul’s nerve
and remarkable for the willingness of both Philemon and Onesimus
to do as Paul is requests.
And what makes all of this possible,
isn’t the magnanimity of Philemon or the conscience of Onesimus,
or even the authority of Paul.
What makes all of this possible is the reality of Jesus Christ.
There is a consistent factor in all three of the people involved in this text
which makes what Paul is proposing possible at all.
That factor is Jesus Christ and his role in the lives of all involved.
Philemon is a convert to Christianity,
most likely converted through Paul’s ministry,
a fact that Paul indelicately makes reference to in his communiqué.
Paul knows that Philemon is a leader in the church,
he knows of Philemon’s love for God’s people and his faith in Jesus Christ.
It is this transformation that Philemon has known in his life
which makes Paul certain that, not only will he take Onesimus back,
and not only will he not put him to death,
but that he will do even more than Paul asks.
Paul is certain that a new relationship will be formed
between the former master and the former slave,
that as brothers in Christ.
Paul may not attack the institution of slavery explicitly,
but it is clear in his expectation of Philemon,
that Paul believes in the relationship of equals for all those who are in Christ.

Onesimus, also, knows the reality of Jesus in his life.
Once he was a runaway slave, looking at nothing more than survival by any means.
But now the useless one has become very useful to Paul,
so useful that Paul would have liked to have kept him with him as his helper.
Now, as Paul requests that he return to his former master,
Onesimus agrees, knowing that his return may end up in his death.
But Onesimus’ life is no longer governed only by the threat of death,
but by the promise of the one who has overcome death and who promises eternal life. And so he is agrees to return to Philemon.

And let’s not forget the third person involved in this matter, Paul himself.
Paul takes a great risk in writing to his friend Philemon on behalf of Onesimus.
He risks putting his friendship in great jeopardy.
He may have miscalculated the depth of Philemon’s faith or Onesimus’ courage.
And Paul goes on to say that if Onesimus has done Philemon anything wrong
or owes anything, he himself would be responsible for it.
Though he is in jail as he writes,
Paul believes that he will be freed
and he is willing to take the responsibility for whatever Onesimus may owe Philemon. The only way Paul can speak with credibility of such sacrificial intent
is because he himself was transformed by his encounter with Jesus.
Paul knows that Jesus stood on his behalf,
that Jesus took responsibility for Paul’s life,
for whatever Paul owed due to his sin.
Paul is willing to put his reputation on the line
because he knows that Jesus has done the same for him in front of God the Father.
And so, because of the reality of Jesus Christ in the lives of all three people, reconciliation becomes possible.
My friends, as we look forward to our open house Sunday,
I want to suggest to you that as we present ourselves
to be a community of Christ’s disciples,
where community becomes family,
that one of the hallmarks of such a community
must be the desire to serve as reconcilers in our world.

I don’t know about you, but I sense that over the past few years especially,
there has been a marked increase in conflict,
not only on a global scale in terms of war and violence,
but also on a local scale and even on a personal scale.
Our families are marked by conflicts,
between spouses, between siblings, between parents and children.
Our churches are marked by conflicts, between congregational members,
between conservatives and liberals, between ministers and congregations,
between denominations and different church bodies.
Our city, Calgary, knows conflict on a scale which we have never before seen.
How many of you were shocked to hear of the two youth
who were beaten with hockey sticks and baseball bats
this past week in the community of Strathcona?
And who will forget anytime soon the incredible violence of the past summer,
where every week seemed to bring a new report of a murder, a shooting, a beating.
From Afghanistan to Iraq, from Darfur to Palestine,
conflict seems to pervade so much of our existence.

A vital message for the church to present to our community must be
that because of the reality of Jesus Christ in our lives
and in the life of this congregation,
we are called to be a community of reconciliation.
Theologian N.T. Wright says that with the New Testament in our hands,
containing the same gospel of the crucified Jesus Christ,
the church has the key to the reconciliation that our world longs for.
Wright says, we desperately need reconcilers in every area of the world today:
in industry and commerce, in families and schools,
between races and religions and in a thousand other ways.
We don’t need people who will yell slogans from this side or that.
We don’t need people who furiously demand what they call their rights,
knowing that a similar furious demand is coming back in the other direction.
We need people, we need organizations, we need churches,
who will devote and dedicate themselves to being instruments of peace,
agents of reconciliation.
Individuals can often do a great deal,
more than we usually suppose.
But whole churches, in prayer and thought and action,
can achieve more than you would ever imagine.
(N.T. Wright, Philemon Then and Now, May 9, 2004)

My friends, we need to be a community of reconciliation.
The church needs to be a community which seeks to reconcile people,
one to another and to God.
We need to be a community which has a heart like Paul’s,
willing to risk our reputation for the sake of reconciliation.
It means being more welcoming and less judging,
being open to God’s possibilities rather than being too sure of ourselves.
Part of being a community of reconciliation
is to recognize the possibility of God in every person.
Paul was faced with a very risky situation.
Philemon could have caved into societal pressure
and refused to be reconciled to Onesimus.
The pressure that Paul brought to bear on Philemon could have backfired.
With all the risk involved, it would have been very easy for Paul to say, its not worth it. He could have settled for safety and the comfort of inaction.
After all, Onesimus was only a slave!
(William Loader, First Thoughts on Year C Epistle Passages from the Lectionary)

But that’s not how God’s people think
and that’s not how God invites us to think here at Grace.
If we want to reach the community where God has placed us,
we need to be a people who seek to be reconciling agents in the world.
There can be no person who is beyond our care,
because no one is beyond the care of God.
Our task is to see how God can transform a life,
like he transformed Philemon, Onesimus and even Paul,
and believe that God’s transforming grace is still at work in the world today.

As we come to an end to the sermon,
there is one final thing that I would like for us to consider.
Often when God wants to use a community or a person to affect change in the world,
God begins by first affecting change in that person or community.
I wonder if God is inviting us to be reconciled
even as he prepares us to be agents of his reconciliation?
The only reason Paul could even broach the possibility of Onesimus’ return
was because he knew of Philemon’s faith.
Because Philemon was transformed by the grace of Jesus Christ in his life,
Paul was certain that he would respond with love and kindness
and be reconciled to Onesimus.
If we have been transformed by the grace of Jesus Christ in our lives,
who might God be wanting us to be reconciled to today?
There are all sorts of labels we could put on those who have hurt us,
who have caused us pain,
all sort of categories which work to keep us apart from one another.
But as Christians,
as a community which is to be agents of God’s reconciliation in our world,
God invites us to know that all of us are first and foremost
brothers and sisters in Christ.

So who is Onesimus for us?
Who would we have to risk to be reconciled to?
Who does our society expect us to punish or penalize
and who is it that we could respond to with grace, forgiveness and mercy?
Jesus says, if we feel that we can’t be reconciled
because our adversaries have not been able to pay back what they owe us,
they haven’t been able to atone for how they have hurt us,
Jesus says, its on me.
Charge it to me, I will pay you back.
And if we have been transformed by God’s gracious love in our lives,
what keeps us from being reconciled to those who we can easily name in our hearts?

There’s only one thing to consider as we try to answer that question for each of ourselves. If we have been reconciled to God,
it is because God chose to respond with grace, forgiveness and mercy
when he was more than entitled to respond with punishment and penalty.
If we know God reconciliation in our lives,
if we have received that which we have not deserved,
why would we only seek to pass that reconciliation on to those who we think deserve it?
If God is calling us to be a community of reconciliation,
if God is inviting us to serve him as a reconciling people,
then I suggest that we would be wise to begin with ourselves.
As a community which has been reconciled to God
through the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ,
may we find that the changes we seek to affect for Christ in our world,
begin first in our hearts.