COUNTING THE COST Luck AND PROVIDENCE Luke 14__25-
33 PHILEMON 1—25 Luke 14:25-33
A poor aged Chinese farmer had a single horse on which he depended for everything. The horse pulled the plough, drew the wagon, and was the old farmer’s sole means of transportation. One day a bee stung the horse and in fright he ran off into the mountains. The old farmer went in search of him, but was not able to find him. He came home and his neighbors in the village came by and said, “We are really sorry about your bad luck in losing your horse.” But the old farmer shrugged and said, “Bad luck, good luck — who is to say?”
A week later his horse came back, accompanied by twelve wild horses whom he had obviously encountered, and the old farmer was able to corral all these fine animals, which turned out to be an unexpected windfall. Again news spread throughout the village, and his neighbors came and
said, “Congratulations on your good luck, this bonanza out of the sky” To which the old farmer once again shrugged and said, “Good luck, bad luck who is to say?”
The only son of the farmer decided to make the most of this good for-tune, so he started to break the wild horses so they could be sold and be put to work in the fields. But, as he attempted to do this, he got thrown off one of the horses and his leg was broken in three places. When word of this accident spread through the village, again the neighbors came, saying, “We are sure sorry about the bad luck of your son getting hurt.” The old man shrugged and said, “Bad luck, good luck — who is to say?” Two weeks later a war broke out between the provinces in China. The army came through conscripting every able-bodied male under fifty. Because the son was injured, he did not have to go, and it turned out to save his life, for everyone in the village who was drafted was killed in the battle. (1)
A certain event may have every appearance of evil at the time it occurs, like a valued horse running away, or a leg getting broken. And yet, in the mysterious unfolding of life, what seemed so bad at the time turns out to be the means to unexpected good. Had the horse not run off, the twelve new horses would not have come. Had the leg not been broken, the son’s life might have been lost. Therefore, the old fanner’s reaction each
time was profoundly wise. He accepted the shape of his creatureliness and refused to hand down ultimate verdicts on things until they had run their course.
In Genesis chapter 3, Satan, the Old Liar, told Eve that eating the forbidden
fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil would open her eyes making her like God knowing the difference between Good and Evil. Of course that was not true. We don’t control the Providence of God, we do not know how things will turn out.
Obviously, we don’t know always know what is good for us We did not create this universe and therefore do not have the capacity to determine the ultimate nature of these realities. ‘What is finally good and evil is literally beyond our finite abilities. Humility and openness to mystery are an essential attribute of a disciple of Christ.
St. Paul’s said we, “know in part and prophesy in part, that our seeing is always as through a glass darkly. ” Even the great teacher Paul, could only teach (prophesy) part of the truth of God.
God is at work for good. The One who created the universe and knows fully good and evil. He is in capable of turning our fortunes and misfortunes. God is not always obvious or predictable in how he works, but again and again in history, he takes the worst of times and does the best of things with them like he did with the runaway horse and the broken leg. (1)
Years ago, Herb Gardner wrote a play called “A Thousand Clowns.” The title comes from a metaphor the chief character uses in try-ing to help his young nephew understand the wonder of being alive. He said, “Every day is like going to the circus. You remember how a little car always drives into the middle of the ring, and it looks so tiny, and then all of a sudden, all of the sides open up and out pop a thousand clowns? You never dreamed that all those people could be in such a tiny vehicle, but somehow they were.
“This is the shape of life, my boy. There is always so much more to any event than we humans can see on the surface. Do not ever assume you know everything about anything. Every day is a little car filled with a thou-sand clowns — learn to be humble and a friend of mystery and who knows how you will be surprised?” (2)
Faith is trusting in our Heavenly Father regardless of whether we know or do not know.. We can have confidence in God who in all things is at work for our good. We do not have to understand completely how it is all going to work out. “Do not jump to premature conclusions about either good or evil” seems to be the import of this story, and right in the center of our Scripture lessons this morning is a story that illustrates this point.
If you look at it carefully, the reading from Philemon has the same structure as the Chinese story although the particulars are different. This is the only personal letter of St. Paul’s to be included in the New Testament. All his other epistles were addressed to churches.
Years before, Paul had gone to a city named Colossae, and there he had been instrumental in the conversion of one of its leading citizens, a man named Philemon. Like many people of
that era, Philemon was a slave owner. It is estimated that at the time of Paul there were sixty million slaves in the Roman Empire. One of Philemon’s possessions was a young slave named Onesimus. One day Onesimus stole some money from his master and fled into the night. As a runaway slave, he headed for Rome and proceeded to lose himself in the multitudes.
We have no details as to how Onesimus happened to cross paths with his owner’s old friend, the Apostle Paul. By this time, the Paul was under arrest and being held in prison in Rome on the hope he might gain an audience with the Emperor and be exonerated. It could be that Onesimus had been arrested by this time and was thrown into the same prison. This part of the story is unknown. All we do know is that somehow a runaway fugitive and an imprisoned old apostle came in touch with each other.
By usual expectations, Paul would not even have taken notice of such a one, for in those days slaves were hardly regarded as human beings. Few free folk even noticed them beyond the function they performed. Or, had Paul recognized Onesimus and discovered him to be both a thief and a fugitive, he could easily have responded to him in anger and condemnation.
However, Paul had modeled his life after the pattern of Jesus of Nazareth “who loved each one he met as if there were no other in all the world to love, and who loved all as he loved each.” This is the way Paul had learned to live his life as well, which means there were no unimportant and insignificant individuals to him.
Again, although the particulars are not clear, what the Risen Christ had done through Paul for Philemon, he did for Onesimus as well. The young slave experienced a powerful conversion, and as a result, became a very different kind of human being.
The name Onesimus literally means “useful,” and in the letter that Paul would subsequently write, he makes a play on this fact, which suggests the impact Christ always makes on a person when he is allowed to come into their life. Paul said, “Onesimus used to be only useful in name, but now; he is useful by nature.” Jesus Christ has a way of taking chaotic and disorganized lives and bringing them to effective and creative focus. “Old lives for new” — this is how the Christian way is often described. Jesus in Revelation said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And so it was that Onesimus and Paul became very affectionately bonded to each other, and the young slave became a great help to Paul during his experience in prison.
And yet, for all the miracle of change that grace had brought to Onesimus, Paul knew quite well that the past could not be forgotten or avoided forever. Christianity does not invite us to take off the past like a coat and simply toss it aside without thought. Authentic Christian experience enables us to face up to our past, to make amends for it, and to proceed to live our lives in new directions.
The day came when Paul said words to Onesimus that must have struck terror to his heart. “You have to go back and submit yourself to Philemon, ask for his forgiveness, make amends for all you did.” Runaway slaves in that day were treated with swift and consummate harshness. The whole fabric of ancient life rested on slavery and extreme measures were taken to put down any kind of rebellion. In fact, the practice of crucifixion was invented by the Romans to keep would-be revolutionaries and runaway slaves terrorized and in their place. Offenders were cruelly and slowly executed in high visibility to strike terror in the heart of anyone who might be pondering such behavior.
Therefore, Onesimus could well have argued with Paul that he really must not have cared about him by asking him to risk such a terrible fate. And yet, Paul said, “No, this is what you have to do. One is never free for the future until one has honestly and openly faced up to the past.”
Since he could not go with him, Paul did the next best thing. He wrote a letter to his friend Philemon, in which he asks a generous man to do an absolutely revolutionary thing; that is, to look on this one who was returning, not as the thief and runaway he had been, but as a human being for whom Christ had died and in whom he had done a saving work. Paul tells how Onesimus has become a part of his own heart, and he asks Philemon to step out of the culture in which he lived all his life, and to look at the situation from an entirely different vantage point — the way Jesus Christ would look at it.
In our Gospel of the morning, Jesus says, “If any one would come after me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife, and children, he cannot be my disciple.” I think one of the meanings of these harsh-sounding words is that we have to be willing to let go of the conditioning that was given to us in our heritage and allow Christ to give us new eyes, new values, new ways of perceiving what is right and wrong.
One way of understanding Christian conversion is to say that we are constantly having to unlearn and relearn in light of Jesus Christ, to let go the things that we were taught by our culture because Christ is clearly calling us to new and better ways of being.
This is what the letter to Philemon was all about. Someone has said, “It is the seed that eventually split the rock of slavery.” That is true. When human beings began to do what Paul asked of Philemon, that is, to view slaves brothers rather than as possessions, the time would come when the owner-slave relationship would have to give way to something more humane.
At any rate, this is the appeal that Paul makes to his friend, Philemon, and the chance he asked Onesimus to take. There was high risk in this revolutionary drama. God who brings good out of evil situations was at work in the lives of Philemon and Onesimus.
You see, there is the lovely sequel to this letter in the New Testament. Obviously, Philemon did rise to heights and did what Paul requested or this letter would certainly not have survived. The tradition is that he not only treated Onesimus as a brother in Christ, but he set him free and sent him back to the imprisoned apostle, who had said so clearly that he was useful to him and that he would have liked to have kept him by his side. Again, the tradition is that Onesimus became one of Paul’s most trusted and valued associates. The reason for believing this is that fifty years after this letter was written, the Bishop of Antioch, named Ignatius, wrote a letter to the Bishop of Ephesus, a letter that still exists — and the name of that bishop is none other than Onesimus!
There is every reason to think that the slave who once stole money and fled into the night with no higher purpose than to lose himself among the hoards of Rome, eventually, by the grace of Christ, and the mercy of other people, became one of the bishops of the early Church.
The horse ran away and the people said, “We are sorry for your bad luck.” The old man was wise enough to say, “Bad luck, good luck — who is to know?” A thieving slave ran away and eventually came back, not with just twelve horses, but with the ability to do good in the world.
But that is not all. Another tradition is that Paul’s letters were first collected and circulated by the Church in Ephesus. It was here that it was first recognized that these epistles had lasting and universal value, and this is how they eventually became a part of our New Testament. Some biblical scholars attribute the collection of Paul’s to the work of the bishop of that place — a man name Onesimus. This would explain why amid all the letters that are addressed to churches, there would be included one personal letter. If Paul had not seen Oneximus as a brother and not a slave, Onesiumu would have never been converted. If Onesimus had not gone back to face his owner, he would have never really been free and could not have advanced to a responsible position..
The same power is also at work in my life story and in yours. We do not know enough know luck from Providence or to judge the things that are happening to us and to other Christians around us. We do not have the capacity to eat of “the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil.” Most of us have only a dim perception of what power God would give us for good if we would have it.
But for all we do not know, here is what we do know: “In all things, God is at work for good!” Life is like a circus and every day is like those little cars that appear so tiny, yet, out of which emerge a thousand clowns. It is too early to come to a conclusion about any event. But it is not too early to live in hope, in faith, in confident openness. Our God is a Mystery, to be sure, but count on it — he means us good and in all things is at work to bring it to pass.
Notes: idea from JOHN R. CLAYPOOL
1. Carlos G. Valles, Anthony de Mello, (New York: Doubleday, 1987), p. 69.
2. Herb Gardner, “A Thousand Clowns”: A Comedy in Three Acts (New York: S. French, 1962).
Charles Scott
Church of the Good Shepherd, Indianapolis
crscott@email.com
