WEBVTT 00:00.810 --> 00:04.160 Our text today is from our Gospel reading from Matthew five. 00:04.770 --> 00:08.542 Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar and there, 00:08.596 --> 00:12.366 remember that your brother has something against you, leave your 00:12.388 --> 00:16.926 offering there before the altar and go first, you reconcile to your 00:16.948 --> 00:20.110 brother, and then come present your offering. 00:20.450 --> 00:24.846 If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, throw it away from 00:24.868 --> 00:24.982 you. 00:25.724 --> 00:29.654 If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from 00:29.692 --> 00:30.230 you. 00:30.380 --> 00:35.206 For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than 00:35.228 --> 00:37.960 for your whole body to go into hell. 00:38.510 --> 00:39.820 This is our text. 00:41.870 --> 00:49.274 I wonder what sort of surgical procedure do you suppose Onesimus had 00:49.312 --> 00:53.770 to undergo before he was ready to return to Philemon? 00:54.530 --> 01:00.634 What did it take to get this new convert to Christianity to leave Rome 01:00.762 --> 01:06.238 and backtrack over his recent escape route halfway across the Empire 01:06.414 --> 01:07.810 to Asia Minor? 01:08.310 --> 01:14.974 What had to happen to Onesimus before he, a runaway slave, would 01:15.032 --> 01:21.270 willingly agree to this long journey back to his old master? 01:22.730 --> 01:25.320 It's hard to imagine that it was easy. 01:26.570 --> 01:32.634 How long do you think Paul waited before he sprung this idea on his 01:32.672 --> 01:33.114 new son 01:33.152 --> 01:39.146 in the faith? You know, Onesimus, the forgiveness of Jesus is a 01:39.168 --> 01:42.480 wonderful gift, and you have certainly got it. 01:43.090 --> 01:48.590 But there's also this thing Jesus said about reconciliation. 01:50.930 --> 01:53.114 Then again, maybe it came as no surprise. 01:53.242 --> 01:58.354 Onesimus had been formed by the same teaching that formed every new 01:58.392 --> 01:59.038 believer. 01:59.134 --> 02:03.150 He had learned the account of Jesus Sermon on the Mount. 02:03.310 --> 02:09.526 So maybe going back was even his own idea a conviction and an 02:09.548 --> 02:13.670 outgrowth of his new membership in the church. 02:14.090 --> 02:18.838 Maybe he just knew that part of being a member of this exhilarating 02:18.934 --> 02:24.442 community meant leaving it for the sake of something even more 02:24.496 --> 02:25.100 important. 02:27.150 --> 02:34.062 Still, what sort of remarkable, improbable change had to precede such 02:34.116 --> 02:37.230 a bold move by Onesimus? 02:37.730 --> 02:47.966 What part of the slave's old self had to be cut away and thrown out so 02:47.988 --> 02:53.230 that he could be set free from the temptation and trap of sin? 02:54.890 --> 02:55.750 And yet 02:55.900 --> 02:59.860 it was sin. Repugnant as the 03:00.090 --> 03:01.646 truth is to us today. 03:01.828 --> 03:09.146 Onesimus had been wrong to defy the arrangement he had with Philemon, 03:09.338 --> 03:15.594 Even if it was an arrangement predicated on ownership and serval 03:15.642 --> 03:16.430 obedience. 03:17.090 --> 03:18.320 It didn't matter. 03:19.329 --> 03:22.480 The right thing was the right thing. 03:23.090 --> 03:28.882 The gospel did not subvert society, at least not overtly and directly. 03:29.026 --> 03:29.718 No. 03:29.884 --> 03:32.790 Paul knew his Augsburg confession. 03:33.530 --> 03:38.022 The gospel does not overthrow secular government and public order, but 03:38.076 --> 03:42.362 intends that a person keep all this as a true order of God and 03:42.416 --> 03:46.106 demonstrate in these walks of life Christian love and true good works 03:46.208 --> 03:50.570 according to each person's calling, rights. 03:51.790 --> 03:58.270 But what a terrifically nasty calling Onesimus had been given slave. 03:59.329 --> 04:02.046 But that was the vocation he had. 04:02.228 --> 04:06.894 And that meant that the right thing for Onesimus was to go back to 04:06.932 --> 04:11.570 Philemon and make amends for the wrong he had done to his master. 04:12.390 --> 04:17.762 Yes, he went with a letter from Paul, a powerful and persuasive letter 04:17.826 --> 04:23.320 meant to call Philemon to an uncommon and graceful path of his own. 04:23.690 --> 04:26.870 But there were there were no guarantees. 04:27.930 --> 04:32.746 Onesimus was still a fugitive slave, returning to the scene of the 04:32.768 --> 04:39.194 crime with nothing but a letter and a repentant heart to plead his 04:39.232 --> 04:39.820 case. 04:41.230 --> 04:42.998 But that starkly 04:43.174 --> 04:48.846 and the character of Onesimus, the Christian catapults into the 04:48.868 --> 04:55.118 stratosphere. Still before he was ready for such an audacious path, 04:55.214 --> 05:01.666 tracing the steps of Jesus before Onesimus was ready to live in the 05:01.688 --> 05:06.182 reality of the gospel, something had to have been lopped off and 05:06.236 --> 05:08.200 thrown away, didn't it? 05:09.210 --> 05:14.598 After all, if Jesus meant that part about abandoning your offering at 05:14.604 --> 05:18.058 the altar in order to seek out and to reconcile with the brother who 05:18.063 --> 05:23.222 is at odds with you, did he not also mean the part about the sinful 05:23.286 --> 05:25.180 eye and the wicked hand? 05:26.909 --> 05:31.774 Did Onesimus, then returned to Philemon, missing the hand that had 05:31.812 --> 05:35.806 reached out to take what was not his own as he headed out the door for 05:35.828 --> 05:38.586 Rome. Did the slave 05:38.618 --> 05:44.159 go back to his master without the feet he had used to run away? 05:45.570 --> 05:50.974 Or was the critical removal of sinful flesh even more drastic than 05:51.012 --> 05:51.600 that? 05:53.730 --> 05:57.430 Mercifully, the Church has consistently condemned self 05:57.500 --> 05:59.860 mutilation, even the resolute 06:00.000 --> 06:05.626 sin, avoidance of the most ascetic of the monks who castrated 06:05.658 --> 06:09.706 themselves to be rid of temptation and to obey the sermonic command. 06:09.818 --> 06:12.906 Even that was never sanctioned by the church. 06:13.098 --> 06:17.390 Who knew better how to interpret scripture in light of scripture? 06:18.370 --> 06:23.134 Now we don't literally cut off the parts of our bodies that trip us 06:23.252 --> 06:25.750 and tumble us into the jaws of sin. 06:26.650 --> 06:28.150 As the old adage goes. 06:28.220 --> 06:32.694 If we actually embraced that course, we Christians would be nothing 06:32.732 --> 06:38.578 but a band of badly mutilated and grotesquely deformed monsters, 06:38.754 --> 06:43.874 continually inflicting on ourselves unending amputations and clumsy 06:44.002 --> 06:46.409 ectomies of all sorts. 06:48.270 --> 06:54.954 So with a huge sigh of gratitude, we gleefully label Jesus shocking 06:55.002 --> 06:58.942 direction about whacking off hands and gouging out eyeballs and 06:58.996 --> 07:00.842 flinging both away in disgust. 07:00.986 --> 07:06.050 We label all that as nothing but metaphor. 07:08.390 --> 07:11.060 Jesus didn't mean it. 07:11.670 --> 07:15.960 It's just a graphic image and nothing more. 07:16.570 --> 07:17.909 What a relief. 07:19.530 --> 07:25.794 And you know, if that part of Jesus sermon is just a potent metaphor, 07:25.842 --> 07:29.659 well, then maybe the rest of it is too. 07:31.070 --> 07:37.498 Maybe we don't really need to be that concerned about where our eyes 07:37.584 --> 07:45.374 wander or what our hands are doing, or how our lips are speaking, or 07:45.412 --> 07:47.790 what our mind is contemplating. 07:48.290 --> 07:54.050 Maybe Jesus doesn't really care when we slander our brother with our 07:54.120 --> 07:59.538 fast moving thumbs, or with our well trained fingers that dance across 07:59.624 --> 08:04.770 the keyboard skillfully, crafting, accusation, and subtle innuendo. 08:05.450 --> 08:10.789 Maybe Jesus doesn't really mind when we use our fingers deftly to find 08:10.860 --> 08:17.994 the fast track to the most vulgar, most demeaning, most vitriolic of 08:18.032 --> 08:25.942 links and posts and sites, or simply use them to fritter away precious 08:26.006 --> 08:31.454 hours while scrolling mindlessly through the inane stupidity and 08:31.491 --> 08:33.280 nothingness of the web. 08:34.610 --> 08:38.480 Nah, Jesus didn't mean it. 08:39.250 --> 08:44.960 It doesn't really matter what your eyes or your hands do. 08:45.970 --> 08:47.630 It's just a metaphor. 08:50.050 --> 08:53.726 Paul, though, clearly thought that Jesus did mean it. 08:53.908 --> 08:57.590 At least he took the part about dropping everything and doing 08:57.660 --> 08:59.540 whatever it took to make 09:00.090 --> 09:01.898 things right with a brother. 09:02.074 --> 09:03.918 He took that seriously enough. 09:04.084 --> 09:07.680 And I'm pretty sure Jesus thought that 09:08.130 --> 09:09.134 Paul thought that 09:09.172 --> 09:14.734 Jesus meant it when he told us to get rid of whatever it is that 09:14.772 --> 09:16.270 causes us to sin. 09:18.050 --> 09:24.590 Onesimus did have to cut off and cast aside something, cherished 09:24.970 --> 09:29.766 something, part of him, before he could take Jesus at his word and 09:29.788 --> 09:34.374 risk his future and his life in an effort to seek reconciliation with 09:34.412 --> 09:37.560 a brother who definitely had something against him. 09:38.890 --> 09:43.030 Much was being demanded of Onesimus. 09:43.470 --> 09:47.190 After all, he commanded the moral high ground. 09:47.350 --> 09:50.550 He had been a slave, for crying out loud. 09:50.630 --> 09:51.610 A slave. 09:52.590 --> 09:57.760 If anything, Philemon was the one who owed something to him, right? 09:59.090 --> 10:04.034 And yet here he was, heading off to find Philemon so that he could 10:04.072 --> 10:09.940 repent, make amends and offer himself as a slave all over again. 10:10.470 --> 10:15.426 You see, it was not a hand or an eye that Onesimus needed to throw 10:15.458 --> 10:15.894 away. 10:16.012 --> 10:18.546 No, it was something even more precious. 10:18.738 --> 10:27.374 He had to cut off and throw away his pride, his self esteem, his newly 10:27.442 --> 10:29.338 discovered sense of self worth. 10:29.424 --> 10:35.654 He had to throw away his human dignity to follow in the path 10:35.702 --> 10:37.078 prescribed by Jesus. 10:37.174 --> 10:41.850 He had to slice out all of that and toss it away forever. 10:42.590 --> 10:47.600 Onesimus had to undergo the most radical surgery of all. 10:47.970 --> 10:52.640 Not the removal of an eye or a hand or a foot. 10:53.030 --> 10:57.010 No, what he needed was a cardioectomy. 10:57.590 --> 11:01.380 It was his own heart that had to go. 11:02.710 --> 11:05.490 That's a grim operation. 11:06.569 --> 11:10.200 It has an exceedingly high mortality rate. 11:11.450 --> 11:16.790 Indeed, no one ever survives a cardioectomy. 11:17.630 --> 11:19.850 But that was the required procedure. 11:20.270 --> 11:23.610 Onesimus had to die. 11:24.590 --> 11:29.260 Reconciliation is serious business. 11:30.530 --> 11:32.240 Jesus means it. 11:32.850 --> 11:34.574 Paul believed it. 11:34.771 --> 11:39.200 So did Onesimus. Do you? 11:41.170 --> 11:45.630 If you start lopping off the parts that make you sin, it's not long 11:45.700 --> 11:49.117 before you have to figure out what you're going to do with the real 11:49.204 --> 11:49.840 problem. 11:50.370 --> 11:52.080 Your own sinful heart. 11:52.850 --> 11:58.530 Your heart is always the real problem and the single greatest 11:58.610 --> 11:59.090 obstacle 12:00.090 --> 12:07.422 to reconciliation. Your heart harbors your worst stumbling blocks your 12:07.476 --> 12:15.914 pride, your rights, your dignity, your hurt feelings, your justified 12:16.042 --> 12:23.390 moral indignation, your conviction about what is only right, your 12:23.460 --> 12:26.040 certainty about what is true. 12:28.170 --> 12:29.906 There's only one solution. 12:30.098 --> 12:32.870 It's far more drastic than amputation. 12:33.450 --> 12:39.910 Your self consumed, contemptuous, covetous, conceited, craven, 12:40.070 --> 12:43.882 complacent, and corrupt heart is the problem. 12:44.016 --> 12:46.890 It's got to be removed. 12:47.310 --> 12:52.286 The necessary procedure for an Onesimus was a cardioectomy, and the 12:52.308 --> 12:59.760 same operation was required of Philemon and Paul and you. 13:01.250 --> 13:05.794 The good news is that you have got the best doctor to do the 13:05.832 --> 13:06.610 operation. 13:07.350 --> 13:08.900 He knows what he's doing. 13:09.590 --> 13:14.834 With infinite wisdom, patience, and love, the Holy Spirit does his 13:14.872 --> 13:15.460 work. 13:16.090 --> 13:22.454 He cuts out your wretched, rotting, ruined heart and replaces it with 13:22.492 --> 13:27.640 a new one, replaces it with the heart of Christ. 13:29.390 --> 13:32.774 The Holy Spirit cuts out Jesus 13:32.902 --> 13:37.450 restores. In place of your self righteousness. 13:37.790 --> 13:42.590 You get Jesus righteousness. In place of your pride. 13:43.010 --> 13:46.590 You get his humility. In place of your vengeance. 13:47.090 --> 13:51.146 You get his grace. In place of your condescension. 13:51.338 --> 13:55.646 You get his compassion. In place of your moral outrage. 13:55.838 --> 13:58.180 You get his long suffering and love. 13:58.790 --> 14:05.286 Jesus gives you a new heart, and then he sends you to live a life of 14:05.308 --> 14:06.390 reconciliation. 14:07.130 --> 14:12.534 He sends you back to make things right with the friend you 14:12.572 --> 14:13.590 disappointed. 14:13.930 --> 14:19.334 He sends you back to make the first move and apologize to your spouse 14:19.382 --> 14:22.060 for what you sure was not wrong. 14:22.990 --> 14:28.614 He sends you back to repent, to the brother you shredded with cruel 14:28.662 --> 14:32.110 but oh so clever words of criticism. 14:32.850 --> 14:37.966 He sends you back into unfair circumstances when you were the one who 14:37.988 --> 14:38.746 was hurt. 14:38.858 --> 14:44.142 He sends you back into unfair arrangements that will probably never 14:44.276 --> 14:45.102 get better. 14:45.236 --> 14:51.486 He sends you back into impossible situations with people who will not 14:51.588 --> 14:52.334 change. 14:52.532 --> 14:58.054 He sends you back into battles with sin and temptation and evil that 14:58.092 --> 14:59.730 will not fade away, and that will 15:00.090 --> 15:02.174 not get any better with time. 15:02.372 --> 15:09.594 He sends you back into his world to live his humble, graceful, 15:09.722 --> 15:14.062 compassionate and loving truth in every situation and in every 15:14.116 --> 15:14.720 relationship. 15:16.770 --> 15:17.920 Are you going? 15:19.250 --> 15:24.910 Are you going to go back and do the hard work of reconciliation? 15:25.930 --> 15:31.720 Who is it that needs you to find them and make things right? 15:32.410 --> 15:37.930 What journey do you need to make to find a brother who has something 15:38.000 --> 15:39.020 against you? 15:39.710 --> 15:41.930 What number do you need to dial? 15:42.350 --> 15:44.934 Whose ears need to hear your confession? 15:45.062 --> 15:47.930 Whose face needs to see your remorse? 15:49.150 --> 15:50.560 Are you going? 15:52.610 --> 15:57.054 It should be noted that you are not being called to the altar to 15:57.092 --> 16:00.510 surrender your heart in an emotional catharsis. 16:01.010 --> 16:02.490 Quite the opposite. 16:02.650 --> 16:08.020 You are being called to make a sober choice and then to go. 16:08.710 --> 16:11.806 Yes, come first to the table. 16:11.998 --> 16:15.250 Come to the altar and receive here God's grace. 16:15.850 --> 16:17.926 Receive again the new heart of Christ. 16:18.028 --> 16:20.440 But then and go. 16:21.290 --> 16:27.080 You don't walk away from here mutilated, mangled and broken, but whole 16:27.470 --> 16:33.866 and complete, the way God always intended you to be, with the heart of 16:33.888 --> 16:39.210 Jesus beating in you and driving you to do his work of reconciliation. 16:39.890 --> 16:44.960 His grace is surging through your limbs and your life. 16:45.490 --> 16:46.640 So go. 16:47.650 --> 16:52.994 Go back to those who are distant and hurt and alienated from you and 16:53.032 --> 16:54.980 take care of what needs to be done. 16:55.350 --> 16:58.014 Go where Jesus leads. 16:58.142 --> 17:03.234 Go back into all those hard places where he wants you to be. 17:03.432 --> 17:08.599 Go back and enter into new relationships with those around you. 17:09.050 --> 17:14.502 Go back into true fellowship with your brothers and sisters, back into 17:14.556 --> 17:17.990 the perfect joy of fellowship with your Father. 17:19.130 --> 17:23.720 There is nothing metaphorical going on here. 17:24.410 --> 17:31.182 There's just the real flesh and blood work of Jesus to give you a very 17:31.235 --> 17:40.190 real, new heart and a very real, new life lived in his very real grace 17:40.850 --> 17:41.790 forever. 17:42.690 --> 17:43.130 Amen.