13 Pentecost C September 8, 2019
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Hutson
Deuteronomy 30: 15-20 + Psalm 1 + Philemon 1-21 +
Luke 14: 25-33
Beloved, grace, mercy and peace are yours through the Triune God. Amen.
Lately Bruce and I have been watching the squirrels in our yard….they are super busy in these late summer days….burying nuts everywhere they can. We watch them from our back porch and from the sunroom…which just shows you how exciting life is at our house sometimes. I began to wonder, though, how they could remember where they buried those nuts. Do squirrels have some sort of God given GPS system that helps them return to the scene of their nut burials? Do they sniff out the stash that smells familiar? How does this work, exactly?
You know, you can learn almost anything on the internet, whether it’s true or not. And it turns out there is a huge debate amongst squirrel scholars and squirrel scientists over whether squirrels DO actually return to find the nuts they buried….the actual nuts, or whether they just sniff out any nutty food source in the dead of winter, and dig it up for a meal, regardless of who put it there.
The evidence is strong for the latter. Apparently the existence of the squirrel species is dependent on living in relationship with one another. Squirrels depend on other squirrels to bury food so that all of them have the chance to survive through the winter. Do they THINK these deep thoughts in their tiny little squirrel brains? “I must bury this for my fellow squirrel kind?” Well, who’s to say? But the reality is that the nuts we are watching them bury now will be food for their entire community in the winter days that are surely just ahead.
Maybe you’re wondering right about now, what the food burying habits of the local squirrel population could possibly have to do with our readings this morning, or this sermon. Stay with me.
One of the lesser known books of the Bible is the book of Philemon. It is just 25 verses long. It is a letter Paul writes to a group of believers who meet in a home, as they did in the early days of Christianity. The letter is not only to Philemon, but also to Apphia, a woman and to Archippus as well. The reason Paul is writing to them is because a slave, Onesimus, had, for reasons not included in the letter, escaped from Philemon and his friends and ended up with Paul. By law, Paul was obligated to return Onesimus to Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus. And by law, they would be within their rights to punish him severely, perhaps even with death, for escaping from them.
Paul could certainly have appealed for Onesimus’ life by talking about all that was wrong with the system of slavery, of owning another person. He could have noted that the message of Jesus, for whom he calls himself an ambassador, is a message of freedom. He could have noted that in his own life he had enslaved people and that he, too, understood the injustice of such a system.
But that is not what Paul did at all. Paul appealed to Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus as family. And he appealed to them using familial terms. He called Onesimus his child. He spoke glowingly of how useful Onesimus had been to his ministry, especially while he was in prison. He also calls him a beloved brother.
In short, Paul appeals to Philemon and company to participate in a new relationship with Onesimus. No longer calling him a slave, no longer considering him a subordinate, but as “more”…as that beloved sibling.
Paul doesn’t ask them to change the whole system of slavery, but to change the relationship they have with one person.
I remember several years ago when Sister Liz Colver was here, talking to us, the church where she grew up, about her work as a community organizer. She was asked how it was possible to create change in the world, when every challenge, every issue seems so huge. So big. It’s hard to fathom how we could end hunger, homelessness, poverty, human trafficking, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, climate change, crime, economic inequality, and any of the many other issues we face together as society. What could we, here on the corner of Greenwood and 132nd, possibly do? And Sister Liz responded that we could do what we could where we are. She was one of the many witnesses the Holy Spirit sent among us to encourage us as we were pondering the plight of the families in our community who were experiencing housing instability. A few years later, here we are, next door to fifty nine permanent homes for fifty nine families at risk of homelessness. As one of the children who lives at Compass Broadview said last week: “This is our home now.” We didn’t solve the complex problem of homelessness. There is still so much work to do. But, we did what we could where we are.
This is what Paul was asking of Philemon and the members of his house church. Not that they dismantle slavery, but that they accept Onesimus as fully equal to them. Onesimus. One person. One step.
If we re-frame the many issues set forth in the world in light of the examples offered to us by Paul and by Sister Liz, and maybe even by the squirrels….imagining what we can do and be and say in response to those issues from right where we sit, then, beloved people of God, I am certain that we can make enough of a difference in those one to one ways that the system will eventually change. Perhaps not in our lifetimes. Elsewhere in his writings Paul says that his job was to plant seeds and that it may be that someone else reaps the harvest. But when we live our lives in ways that are inter-dependent, that are based on being vulnerable enough to get to know one another, and not just here….but among those who are outside of these walls, then real community can and will form.
Let me offer two examples from this week, that show you what is possible. How many of you remember the first day of school? It can be exciting AND it can also be overwhelming and scary. On Wednesday, when it was the first day of school here, folks from this congregation set up a little table, made some lemonade, put out a cooler of popsicles, and created a cute photo frame for the first day of school. We put this up out front and greeted parents and kids who walked our way when school was over for the day. We didn’t solve all of the issues that challenge students and teachers and families: bullying and learning disabilities, and language barriers and lack of funding….but what we DID was say: “You did it! You made it through the first day of school, so have a popsicle or some lemonade and snap a picture and celebrate.” That was how we cared for the community around us on that day. The very next day, at about the same time that school was letting out, the phone rang at the church. It was a woman who comes to a 12 step meeting here every week. I know her because she’s been coming here for a long time. That 12 step meeting is the place where she encounters God. In providing that space, we don’t solve the overwhelming addiction problems in the world, but we DO provide a place set apart for those 30 or so folks to walk through them together. So, when she called me on Thursday, she whispered into the phone: “Pastor Julie. I’m over here at the school and the parents are talking about the church. They’re talking about all that the church does for the neighbors and the neighborhood. They are saying that you really do care, that it’s not just a bunch of religious talk. I thought you’d want to know what they’re saying.”
So, I want to return to the squirrels. What if, instead of just happily storing up food for the entire community to find over the winter…what if they had the capacity to think another way? What if they used human strategies? “I’ll just store up enough for myself. I’ll bury them all here and build a wall around them so no one else can have them. What if my fellow squirrels aren’t burying as many as I am? How can I solve the issue of winter feeding for the entire squirrel community?”
This is also what Jesus is talking about in the Gospel reading today. That following him means we will have to turn our backs on the things and the people that we cling so closely to for the good of the whole. And most days that feels entirely foreign to us. Society and systems have taught us that in order to insure our well being we must cling to our possessions and only care for our family and ourselves and what matters to us.
What we learn from all of Creation, and from Paul’s relationship to Onesimus, and from Jesus is that our thriving as God’s beloved creation and creatures is dependent on all people and all places thriving. On the whole community having food and shelter and safety and being reminded of their belovedness.
Mother Teresa said “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” Beloved in Christ, we are called to be stone casters and light bearers and popsicles givers and nut buriers….and in doing these small acts of love….we shine the light of the Gospel of Christ into the world, not for ourselves, but for all of Creation. Thanks be to God and let the Church say…Amen.