David Pettett
Many times when, as a hospital chaplain, I have been invited to the bedside
of a complete stranger, I have been amazed, as they have recounted their life's
journey, at how, at significant points in their story, God has touched their
life.
The patient sharing their story has not always been aware of these
encounters. But as I've listened it has been obvious to me that God has been
blessing them. It may be the obvious blessings that God bestows on all people.
The rain. The sunshine. The birth of a child. A loving partner in marriage. Or
it may have been something more specific. Protection from an accident or the
provision of a job.
The privilege of being the chaplain in this situation is that there is the
expectation from this complete stranger that you will introduce some
"religious" talk. And so I would always comment on some aspect of
their life's story where it seemed obvious to me that God had blessed them or
was directing them. Almost without exception the patient would respond with
acknowledgment that, "Yes, God must have been with me then." It is
fairly easy to go on in a conversation like this, where someone recognises that
God does actually have an interest in their life, to talk about Jesus and to
challenge the person to recognise his Lordship.
If you reflect on life with Job 28 you look at all the amazing things
mankind can do and has done. But thinking about all of this, thinking about all
the amazing things a person has done in their life, you come up against the
question, "But where shall wisdom be found?" (v.12) In all the
amazing things a person has done, what is it all about? If you come to the
conclusion that all the amazing efforts and exploits of humanity give life
meaning, you come a cropper. Our efforts to understand life lead us nowhere.
(v.13) The beauty of the world and the value of precious metals and stone have
no answer. (vv. 14-19) Is it all meaningless, as life just ends in death with
nothing more? (vv. 20-22)
When you come to the answer, that "God understands the way to it"
(v.23) you need to be careful how this is expressed so that it doesn't appear
to be the glib "Sunday School answer". To understand life, theology
must intersect with experience. The glib Sunday School answer may be the right
theology but it may not intersect with a person's experience. With the mere
mention of the word "God" a person may be distracted into stereotypes
of what that word means in their experience. Their experiences probably have
not been understood in the light of what the Bible says about God and humanity.
They will therefore have no way of entering into an understanding of the
profound statement, "God understands the way to wisdom." We need to
express this biblical truth in a way that will touch the life of the person
we're speaking with. How we express this will vary depending on the other
person's life experiences.
This is where the importance of listening comes in. As we spend time
listening to a human story we not only empower a person but we gain some
understanding of their world view. With such an understanding we start to see
points in their life where a biblical understanding of life might intersect
with their experience. Such an understanding then helps us express biblical
truths, not in terms that might be profound to us, but with words that tap into
the other person's understanding of life.
It's a great privilege to bring the gospel into the public sphere. To do it
well we need both a clear theological understanding of life and a clear
understanding of what the unbeliever understands of life. And then we need some
skill to bring about an intersection of these two. It's not an easy skill to
develop but one with great rewards for the gospel.
Gela
He leads me beside still waters
Tuesday 8 April 2014
We all stand on level ground in our fellowship in Christ Jesus
The Letter of Paul
to Philemon
The Rev Lindsay
Johnstone, Chaplain, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney
Many lives are being reshaped within
chaplaincy ministry. Whether in correctional centres or in hospital there are
folk whose lives are being rebuilt out of a context of deception, fraud, fear,
theft and some have lived in and tried by any means to flee from corrupt
systems and relationship abuse beyond their control.
Into such situations the Word of God speaks
within Paul's Letter to Philemon[i]. A
runaway slave became a Christian through the ministry of a prisoner who sent
him back to the slave owner with a promise to underwrite the debts of the
slave. The prisoner in Rome had decades before supported the stoning of a
Christian who breathed out words of forgiveness to his murderers, as Christ had
done on the Cross.
The Roman Empire accepted slavery, and
slaves had no rights. A church in Colossae met in the home of a slave owner
Philemon and his wife Apphia. At some stage Philemon had been converted to
Christ through Paul’s ministry. Philemon had a slave named Onesimus[ii] who
escaped and found his way to Paul in prison in Rome. To fund his trip he must
have had to steal money from Philemon. Whilst with Paul who is a prisoner,
Onesimus is converted and now realises he should fulfil his responsibilities to
Philemon. This requires great courage, as a slave owner under Roman law could
have him killed for what he did.
What are the good things that Paul, Philemon and Onesimus and all of us share in Christ Jesus?
Before becoming believers, their spirit
(and ours) was dead in trespasses and sins, and locked into the kingdom of
darkness. From the spread of the New Testament we can affirm the following truths
about them and all believers following the spiritual rebirth. All of us share
forgiveness, eternal life, adoption as children of God. We become heirs of God
and joint heirs with Christ. We are a royal priesthood. We have equality of
value in the sight of God, and in heaven shall all receive “the crown of
righteousness”. Our inner spirit is renewed and healed, and has received the
provision of all of our needs. We have equality of responsibility to love one
another. In our spirit we have together already been raised with Christ in
heavenly places, and we have come to the church of the firstborn who are
enrolled in heaven, to the spirits of those who are justified and made perfect.
We all have equal access to the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, in
that the Holy Spirit equally indwells all believers.[iii] Although
these realities are not spelt out in Philemon,
they are referred to in the Scriptures mentioned in the footnote, and therefore
they are part “of all the good which is
ours in Christ Jesus” (Philemon verse 6).
The apparent purpose of Philemon was for Paul to request
Philemon to take back his converted runaway slave and to accept him as more
than a slave, as a beloved brother.
Paul wants him to understand what both
Philemon and Onesimus now have in common through belonging to Jesus, and to act
on that understanding i.e. “to welcome
him as a beloved brother”, not just
as a forgiven slave.
It seems that Paul had also a secondary
purpose – to request that Philemon transfer Onesimus back to Paul to work for
him. It seems that Philemon himself had been converted through Paul’s ministry[iv], and
that there was a relationship to which Paul could easily appeal. He prefers to
operate out of relationship, rather than out of barefaced apostolic authority.[v]
Most of Paul’s letters commence with a
greeting and a prayer. The prayer is not just a pious opener, but it has a
distinct connection with the aim of his letters.
The Greek of verse 6 is appropriately
translated as follows: “that the
fellowship arising out of your faith may become effectual in the
acknowledgement of all the good which is ours in Christ Jesus”[vi].
My summary of the structures of thought
within this verse are as follows-
The faith by which we have come to trust in
Christ has produced a new level of relationship/ sharing, a koinwnia, of all the good
within us through knowing Christ Jesus. The koinwnia is an inward activity between our own spirits and the
Holy Spirit and relates to many areas. The part of the verse referring to
koinwnia is about our own inner communion, and not about our outward sharing. Verbal
sharing of the Gospel is an aspect of koinwnia, but koinwnia
is a broader and deeper concept. What Paul is asking Philemon to do involves a
life-style paradigm shift, and that reflects something of the depth of koinwnia.
What Paul wants to see in us is
a clearer awareness (epignwsis[vii]) of
what we all share in Christ. This will continue to transform our minds,
attitudes and behaviours.
In the case of Philemon, it is this
perception that will enable him to undergo the paradigm shift and life-style
choices that Paul is requesting of him. Indeed it would be culturally
courageous for Philemon to do so, but he can own and do it of his own decision
and conviction if he sees it arising out of who he is as a new creation in his
inner spirit, working with the activity of the Holy Spirit; and if he can
perceive that the slave Onesimus has all of this as well.
For us the abiding message of Philemon is that the more we understand
both individually and collectively our equal and rich identity in Christ, the
more effective will be our lives and ministries. Our relationships will grow in
being more affirming and empowering.
[i]
“Philemon” means something like “Likeable Guy”. Onesimus is referred to in
Colossians 4: 9 as ”Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of
you”. There are ancient traditions that he became a bishop and that he was
martyred in the persecution of 68AD, but whether or not any of those were true
of this Onesimus, the message of the epistle stands totally independent of
these traditions.
[ii]
“Onesimus” means “useful Person”. There is a pun in verse 11 eucrhston (“useful”) and acrhston (“useless”), where this Greek word
is a synonym of the name “Onesimus”.
[iii]
John 3: 3-8; Romans 8: 14-17; Ephesians 1:13-20, 2; 6; Hebrews 12: 23; Isaiah
53;1 Peter 2:9; 2 Timothy 4; 8; 1 John 4: 17 to name just some of the
Scriptures that speak of the realities concerning the renewed spirit of
believers.
[iv]
Verse 19
[v] Verses 8-9
[vi]An exhortation to
evangelism (as implied in NIV translation does not readily fit the apparent
requests that Paul made in the rest of the Letter.
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