If you follow the rock music scene, I guess I should hurry to assure you that the sermon today is not about a heavy metal group, nor is it about some kind of kinky fetish.
The theme, "A Motley Crew, In Chains" is evoked by the long list of names which Paul singles out as he finishes the Colossian letter, as well as by his poignant reference to his own condition.
This theme, "A Motley Crew, In Chains", I intend to use this morning to speak to you one simple, overarching truth: that though we in the church be different, though we have widely differing backgrounds and personal histories, nevertheless God has called us to bind ourselves to one another. We are free, but God has called us to choose our chains. We may choose to bind ourselves to one another in ways that are redemptive, powerful, and wonderful. We are a motley crew; but we can elect to be in chains, not as an imprisonment, but as a commitment.
Let me call the roll, with Paul’s help:
The essence of prison is isolation. To be in prison means that you are kept away from the community. You are considered to be, as the film title reminds us, a "Menace To Society". So when you are in prison, they intend to isolate you.
This prisoner felt more isolated than most because his feelings for those he left behind had been so intense. If they had been ready to live out their lives on their own, it would have been easier to take. But they were children, mere children, immature, unstable, not fully formed, not ready for prime time. And it hurt to be unable to go to them.
More than that, now they were in real trouble. It was not just what might happen to them, it was what was happening to them. Somebody else, not of his choosing, was raising his children. Somebody wanted to impose on them a way of life that was very foreign to what he had taught them. Somebody else wanted to drag them back into old habits. And the guardian he had left behind was finding it impossible to lead them or to keep their respect. His pain grew deeper day by day, knowing of the plight of his children and dwelling on the fact that he was in prison, totally unable to be with them.
The only avenue left was a letter. A letter of instructions and of reflections, a letter which would both feed the mind and strike home to the heart. In the last analysis, a personal letter, written to real people with real faces and real names would be the bridge across the isolation.
Standing, then sitting on his hard backless bench; lying down on the smelly pallet in order to think, as much as possible, striding back and forth in that small cell, he began to speak his letter to the secretary who had been supplied. His words tumbled out, filled with passion and pathos.
When the letter was at last finished, he asked if he could sign it personally and add just a word or two in his own writing. When they passed him the tablet and he lifted his hand to write, the burden of his chains felt like ten tons of iron, holding down his hand and marring his penmanship.
He could not hide his grief and his burden. With all the determination he could muster he finished his letter with one last plea, one pointed reaching out with shackled hands:
"I Paul write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains." Remember my chains.
There are prisoners in chains and then there are free people in chains. The difference is that prisoners in chains are in isolation, cut off from meaningful relationships; but free people in chains have chosen to bind themselves to others. Free people in chains have chosen to commit themselves to others. When they do so, theirs is not a burdensome bondage but rather a redemptive, powerful, and wonderful commitment. Just look at this motley crew that made up the Colossian church -- how different they all were! -- and yet they bound themselves to one another: wonderful chains!
I
For instance, there was Tychicus. Tychicus, of whom Paul says, "he is a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you .. so that he may encourage your hearts."
Tychicus was in chains, just as Paul was. But his chains were not of iron but of responsible, loyal commitment. We read elsewhere in the New Testament about Tychicus .. he appears in Acts, in Second Timothy, and in Titus.. and everywhere Tychicus appears, he is being sent as a messenger by Paul. "I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus .. When I send Tychicus to you.." Tychicus has chosen to bind himself to Paul in personal loyalty and to bind himself to the gospel as one of its messengers.
Tychicus becomes for us, then, an example of committing yourself to bearing good news. Chaining yourself to bringing encouragement. "I have sent Tychicus .. that he may encourage your hearts."
Men and women, I begin this morning by identifying a little sickness among us. If we do not eradicate this sickness soon, it may become a deadly illness. Our sickness is that some of us have chosen to use our freedom to disparage and discourage one another. We have been guilty of putting each other down, of doubting each other’s integrity, of assuming the worst rather than the best of each other.
I hear us saying things like, "Nobody will ever do those things you propose. They don’t care." I hear us writing each other off, "He doesn’t have any leadership ability. She doesn’t know the Scriptures. They won’t do anything for the Lord." We are in danger of becoming messengers of discouragement rather than, like Tychicus, messengers of encouragement.
Sometimes I even hear us pronouncing gloom and doom about the future of this church itself, "These people won’t do share their faith. These people won’t build that building. These people won’t train for discipleship." Do you hear what we are doing to ourselves? When we run each other down, we are misusing our freedom, and we will help create the very unhappy results that we are predicting!
You say, Well, pastor, I’m free to have my own opinions and I’m free to tell it like it is! And I say, Yes, you are. You are free to tell it like it is. But you are also free to give up that freedom and to chain yourself to your brothers and sisters. You are also free to commit yourself to them in a ministry of encouragement. You are free to build others up rather than tear them down. You are free so to desire the success of the church that you will choose to make every word a positive word, every statement an upbuilding statement. You are free to be a messenger of encouragement.
"Tychicus is a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord; I have sent him to you .. that he may encourage your hearts." Says Paul, "Remember my chains."
II
That’s Tychicus. Now in almost the same breath, Paul mentions Onesimus. Onesimus too is called a faithful and beloved brother. But Paul adds a little extra phrase. Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, "who is one of you."
"Who is one of you." That seems an ordinary phrase; but there is a lot hiding in it. Do you know the story of Onesimus? Do you recall that wonderful little personal letter of Paul, written to a man named Philemon? It was written just shortly before this Colossian letter, because Onesimus had been a slave and had run away from his master, Philemon. The story is that Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon, but sent him back with a letter, admonishing Philemon not only to forgive Onesimus this breach of the law, but also to change their relationship. Set aside the old over-under relationship; take Onesimus as your brother, not your servant.
Now Paul promised a very interesting thing. He said to Philemon, "Philemon, if you will receive Onesimus as your equal and your brother, then he will volunteer to serve you. He will choose to serve you." If you insist on his being a slave, he will resent it and he will probably run away again. But if you receive him as a man, as a friend, as an equal, and as a brother, then he will freely give himself to you with a power greater than the command of any law or the weight of any chain.
Now you take that story and you put that here into the context of this quiet little statement in the Colossian letter, and what do you have? "Onesimus is a faithful brother, one of you." Onesimus may not be your social equivalent, Colossians; for he was a slave, and you were free. But Onesimus has chosen to go beyond the confines of his previous condition of servitude and has chosen also to give up the freedom he once snatched. Onesimus has chosen to be your brother, bound to you, one of you. Onesimus has chosen not to flaunt his freedom, but to give it back to the people of God.
Now look at us. Just look at us, Takoma Park. Old and young, black and white, well-off and struggling, doctorates and high-school dropouts. A motley crew! The world says that we can’t happen. The sociology of the thing is all wrong. Everybody who reads the literature about church growth knows that the churches which grow are the ones which choose to deal with only one race, only one social group, only one educational standard, only one political outlook.. but here we are, groping along, trying to embrace all sorts and conditions of people, trying to transcend all the old lines of race and class and age and all the rest.. They say it can’t be done.
What does the Scripture say? Paul: Receive Onesimus, former slave, runaway, bad boy, menial laborer, and so on ... receive Onesimus, "who is one of you now." Onesimus has chained himself to you; he has gone beyond the enslavement that society put on him and has taken on a commitment to you. Now he is yours and you are his. One of you.
Do I need to spell this out? Do I need to go on at length about how our older members need to embrace our newer ones? Do I need to speak candidly about how race is still a factor of fear if not of outright division among us? Do I need to go into detail about how within this family there are men and women who are starving for spiritual companionship, which can be given only by those who finally wake up to the fact that they are free to give it?
I think not. I think you know exactly what I am speaking about. Onesimus.. the person who for whatever reason somebody once thought of as inadequate, not our kind... Onesimus chose to chain himself to you Colossians, to be one of you.
"Remember my chains."
III
So then: Tychicus, the messenger of encouragement; then Onesimus, the ex-servant who chooses service. Next let me introduce you to Aristarchus.
"Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you” Not much of a statement in and of itself, until you scour the rest of the New Testament and find Aristarchus’ name. Actually you find him mentioned three times in the Book of Acts.
Let me not take time for the details. Let me just summarize it this way. Wherever trouble comes for Paul, there is Aristarchus! Whenever Paul is in a tight spot, there is Aristarchus too, sharing Paul’s problems, seeking to help, even if it is nothing more than being there to identify with him. Aristarchus is a lightning rod for trouble. But he has chosen this! He has chained himself to this! Aristarchus has chosen to use his freedom not to run away from this trouble-maker, Paul, but to stand beside him, even to get in prison with him!
When you belong to this motley crew called the church, there are going to be some troubled people in the crowd! Being the body of Christ means that you and I are called on to commit ourselves to be brothers and sisters for those who get into trouble.
Whether they deserve help or not really doesn’t make a whole lot of difference; it they are our brothers and sisters, that’s all that matters. At this point some of us in this church have performed magnificently.
You will understand that I need to be extremely careful, lest I invade someone’s privacy. And so what I say now I say in a very careful, cautious fashion so as to protect everyone involved from unnecessary exposure. But at the same time I want us to celebrate how some have chosen to chain themselves, commit themselves, to brothers and sisters who are in trouble.
Does it hearten you to know that within our fellowship there are people who have given money, without realistic expectation of its being repaid, to pay legal fees for someone who did, in fact, commit a crime? Does it help you to see that there are others who have loaned money on many occasions and for many needs, even including the repayment of a theft?
Does it surprise you to know that within this church there are persons who will baby-sit others’ children at all hours of the day or night so that the parents may work? Does it shock you to realize that others are walking the lonely path alongside single mothers awaiting the birth of their infants?
Does it amaze you to learn that when a young person felt that he could not live at home but wanted just to be on his own, one of our members, scarcely even knowing him, offered him her home?
We are capable, you see, of being the body of Christ. We are capable of unselfishness. We are on occasion willing to be inconvenienced. Most of all, some of us have learned that even when we are free of wrongdoing, that does not mean we sort of float above the trenches, Simon-pure. Rather it means that we seek out those who are in trouble and choose to commit ourselves to them. A motley crew, in chains.
I praise God for Aristarchus living again in certain ones of you. You have been alert to the distress signals, you have chosen to hear them rather than to ignore them. "Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you... Remember my chains."
IV
Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus. The list goes on. There are others lifted up here by Paul. All of them examples, in one way or another, of the same great reality, that once you know you are free, you can choose to give away that freedom. You can voluntarily chain yourself to your brothers and sisters.
In deference to the clock, I will not speak of Mark, whom Paul himself had rejected a dozen years earlier, and whom Paul still sort of suspects: "If Mark comes to you. if he does what he says he will do .. if Mark proves dependable this time..." then receive him. I will not speak of Mark, tagged as a failure, but who nevertheless chose to come back into a new responsibility for Christ and His church. He has joined the motley crew in chains.
Nor can I mention Jesus Justus, described as among the "only ones of the circumcision [that is, one of the only Jews]" who will help Paul with his mission .. I cannot take time to develop Jesus Justus, who knows all about the racial barriers, who knows that it just isn’t done for folks to jump over the line and try to work alongside people of another race. Jesus Justus, welcome to the motley crew in chains!
And if I cannot work with Mark or Jesus Justus, then surely you would not want me to waste time on Epaphras, that embattled pastor of the Colossian church, who probably on any given morning would have preferred to walk away and turn in his application for the First Baptist Church of somewhere, anywhere .. but who chose to come right back to Colossae and slug it out, day by day and week by week, freely chaining himself to that turbulent congregation. Leader of the motley crew in chains!
To say nothing of Luke, a professional man with ample opportunity to go wherever lucrative things present themselves, but who chose to tie himself to Paul, recording and interpreting God’s work.
To say nothing, either, of Nympha, who gave away the freedom of her private home so that others may come in and worship; or of Archippus, who has taken on a leadership task, and who feels like letting go, but who isn’t going to.. for when the going gets tough, then the tough get going.
What a motley crew! What diversity! You wouldn’t think anybody could make a church out of all this. But just look at them! Setting aside all the barriers, ignoring all the obstacles, refusing to give in to all the usual expectations, Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, women and men, ordinary folks and professionals, all of them so grasped by a vision for Christ’s church and its success that they are willing to set aside their personal freedom and take on a commitment. They are willing to endure inconvenience, listen to criticisms, suffer the indignities of racial putdowns, and even volunteer for dangerous and expensive assignments. They were unbeatable!
Why in the world? Why? A motley crew, they were the body of Christ. They were unbeatable! And they still can be. Remember the chains.
