Rubbish

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

September 8, 2013; 16 Pentecost, Proper 18, Year C

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Luke 14:25-33)  Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions." 

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n today’s sermon, first I want to address the three circles of concern that Jesus attacks.  Then I’m going to talk about Paul’s letter to Philemon.  Finally, I want to connect the two and hope it makes sense. 

First.  In today’s gospel Jesus challenges some basic presumptions.  What is our most important concern?  For many of us, our family is our fundamental reference point, a core sense of our identity, and very possibly, our highest priority.  Jesus says here, and elsewhere, making your family your primary focus and your reason for living, is not enough. 

So, what might be more important?  Life itself?  Survival?  No, says Jesus.  There is something greater.  He says that only if you lose your life will you gain it.

Then Jesus closes with a warning to count the cost.  You have to be willing to give up everything to be his disciple. 

Jesus is attacking three circles of concern, three circles of power.  Family, possessions, and life itself.  These are three spheres where we try to make ourselves happy.  Three good things that can become blocks to fulfillment.  Three value systems that will sabotage us if we put our trust in them.  Three gifts that can become idols.  Family, possessions, and life itself. 

The implications:  (1) If family becomes our central focus, if family becomes our greatest concern -- things will become at best unbalanced and unhealthy, at worst, downright toxic and dysfunctional, full of dependencies and abuse.  We can become slaves to our families. 

(2)  There is something even greater than survival.  Trying to protect your life is not enough, he says.  And Jesus points to the cross. 

(3)  Then finally, Jesus closes with a line that if we used as our primary public church-advertising slogan, it might scare everybody away:  “none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”  Welcome to St. Paul’s.

Jesus’ warning is this.  These are our false gods:  family, survival, possessions.  Family often defines our sense of identity and supplies our need for affection and esteem.  Survival includes our often exaggerated needs for security, our desire to control the future to make sure we feel safe.  Possessions are often the measure of our power and value; sometimes our identity and even our sense of security is grounded in what we think we can possess and control. 

You’ve heard these terms before from this pulpit:  esteem, security and control.  The false self is built up by our programs for happiness.  We think we can become happy if we just get enough affection and esteem; enough safety and security; enough power and control.  These are the energy systems of the false self.  Jesus says, Hate this stuff.  Dismantle this stuff.

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ow let me see if I can make a connection with Paul’s letter to Philemon.  First the back-story.  Paul and Philemon are old friends.  Apparently Paul brought Philemon into the Church and is something of a spiritual father to him. 

Philemon is a person of some status in the Church.  He hosts his own house the Christian Church that meets in his community.  Philemon is a person of some status in the Roman world.  He is a slaveholder.  That means he is wealthy and powerful. 

The Roman economic and social system depended upon a stable labor source through slaves, and the whole social order could be shaken by any hint of a challenge to that system, a challenge that might put revolutionary ideas into the heads of the vast numbers of slaves.  The famous Pax Romana – the Peace of Rome – would not broach a challenge to such a core legal and economic structure of the Empire. 

Many slaves worked in brutal, dangerous labor.  But many others were skilled professionals – teachers, accountants and physicians. 

Onesimus was the slave of Philemon, and Onesimus was a runaway.  That was serious.  Scholars point to evidence that the entire Roman system was obsessed with finding and publically punishing runaway slaves.[i]  The stakes were perilous for anyone found to be colluding with a runaway.

But Paul inherited a tradition of Christian community that was vastly different from the Roman norms.  In Paul’s church, all people were equal as God’s children, clothed with Christ in baptism.  Paul publically challenged the common social and religious hierarchies saying, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”[ii]

We don’t know how it happened, but Paul took Onesimus the runaway slave into his friendship.  And then he wrote back to Philemon, writing as master to a disciple, saying, “Though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love.” 

Wow!  That’s a paradigm shift in the Roman world.  Then Paul declares his own standing.  He names himself “a prisoner of Christ Jesus.”  Paul is writing from jail.  Onesimus has come to Paul in jail, and served Paul during his imprisonment.  How risky for both of them!

Now, Paul is writing this letter appealing on the basis of love, telling the slave-owner what Paul expects from his disciple Philemon as Paul returns the runaway slave Onesimus.  “Welcome him as you would welcome me.”  “No longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother.”  Paul calls Onesimus the slave, “my child.”  He tells Philemon, “If you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.”

Paul promises to repay any debt Onesimus might owe Philemon.  Paul even grabs the pen and starts writing himself, “Charge that to my account.  I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand:  I will repay it.”  Then he reminds Philemon of his own debt to Paul.  “I say nothing about your owing me even your own self.”  Paul is telling Philemon that Philemon is Paul’s own slave in Christ.  What a bold statement from someone in a Roman jail who could easily be charged with aiding a runaway slave.  Finally, Paul closes strongly:  “Confident in your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.”

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mazing!  How does he do that?

Paul is able to do that because he has completely inverted the way he looks at the world.  His entire sense of being – his identity – is completely defined by his understanding of himself as living “in Christ.”  He was given absolute status and ultimate standing when Christ accepted him and justified him, as Paul says, completely as a gift of loving acceptance.  Nothing compares with that identity.  Not family, not Roman citizenship, neither bondage or freedom, not even life or death can touch his sense of esteem, security and power given to him freely and abundantly in Christ.

Then, from that strong foundation, he looks at the world and all its clamor – slaves and slave-holders, rich and poor, strong and weak, reputable and disreputable, citizen and prisoner, Roman and Jew – and he says all of that is just rubbish.[iii]  In the mystery of God, we are all one.  And while we were still in our disobedience, Christ died for all.[iv] 

So Christ’s death is Paul’s own death.  I died to all that rubbish, he says.  It doesn’t matter to me anymore.  All that matters is this – I am God’s own, adopted by Christ when I was a failure, filled with the Spirit and incorporated into the divine life.  And I look around and see that everyone and everything is filled with this same divine life and energy.  All is in Christ.  Nothing else matters. 

So, let’s go back to Jesus and this challenging gospel today.  Don’t let status or family, or attachments and affections, or insecurities or security blankets – don’t let anything get in the way of being who you are – God’s own beloved child – and of living freely in that identity. 

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ou are God’s own, adopted by Christ before you knew, now filled with the Spirit and incorporated into the divine life.  Therefore, look around and see that everyone and everything is filled with this same divine life and energy.  All is in Christ.  Nothing else matters.  So give it all up.  Everything.  And receive life and family and opportunity and things as gifts, gifts to be used in service to love, because love is all that matters. 

And though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet I too would rather appeal to you on the basis of love.  Let God love you completely.  Then, love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Everything else is just rubbish.

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[i] Wikipedia article Slavery in Ancient Rome

[ii] Galatians 3:28

[iii] Philippians chapter 3

[iv] Romans 5:8