Sermon: A Community Founded on Love
On September 7, 2025, Father Rob preached a sermon on Community. The lectionary for that Sunday can be found here.
For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love—and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I wanted to keep him with me, so that he might be of service to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel; but I preferred to do nothing without your consent, in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced. Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
Philemon 1:8-16
For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis… of love…
In the name of the Father….
I know I’ve shared my personal testimony before but there is part that bears repeating.
I attended church throughout my teens. But it wasn’t until I was eighteen and faced with major life decisions that that I finally acknowledged that I was lost… without any compass. I had heard John 3:16 enough by that point that it was clear what I needed to do. On Friday, December 13th, 1985, I submitted to the Lord.
The next day, I didn’t feel any different. I went through my day. Then something happened that took me by surprise. That Sunday morning, I sat in the back of the church… where I always sat. As I looked across the church, taking stock of where I was, my eyes landed on the back of the heads of Curt and Delight.
It’s been so long… I can’t tell you why I ever thought this way but… prior to that moment… I couldn’t stand Curt and Delight. I have no clue why. I was just as kid.
But what hit me THAT morning… staring at the back of their heads was… I LOVED these two people. I mean… I felt real, genuine love and affection for the both of them. And it was in THAT moment that I realized… that I had been changed.
We all want to be loved. Most of us want to experience love for someone else. What we don’t realize is that there are so many categories and statuses of the world that divide us and get in the way of love. We look for bonds that draw us together, yet we are divided over so many silly things that keep us from experiencing genuine love.
But what Scriptures tell us is that when we become members of the Body of Christ through faith… there is a transformation that takes place within. This transformation, at its fundamental core, involves love.
Through faith, we are bound to Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. At the same time, there is something that is created in the Body of Christ that transcends all divisions that the world might put on our fellowship. And it enables us to love each other in ways never imagined.
The Gospel passage today is at the top of the list of the “Hard sayings of Jesus.” These are the parts that we don’t really like because they don’t make sense to us.
When we hear Jesus say things like, “hate your father and mother,” we are tempted to explain it away. Jesus is talking about what we love. We should follow Him before all other things, people, whatever. / Yes, it’s all about Jesus. But we run the risk of spiritualizing His words in a way that makes Jesus sound narcissistic. He’s talking about so much more.
Jesus wasn’t starting a novel religion. He wasn’t establishing a new organization called the church. He was establishing something completely new… different… eternal. He was creating a spiritual reality that would surpass all other bonds that previously existed throughout history.
He was establishing the Body of Christ. Something birthed in This Present Age but that would come into its fullest expression in The Age to Come. This new reality would entail a bond of love and connectedness that would surpass all other social bonds on earth. He is saying that if you love me you will love my whole body… the Body of Christ.
By God’s design, the Body of Christ is a spiritual organism connected as if we were individual parts of a human body dependent upon each other. Our purpose is so unique it is as if we were being fashioned together as individual stones in a temple, all stacked together to build a magnificent temple for the spirit of God to dwell.
This would have been utterly mind blowing. The body of Christ was to command love and affection well beyond natural commitments. It would be as if you hated father and mother.. He’s not saying you are to hate. That would violate the fifth commandment. He’s using hyperbolic language to say you must love Christ and his body above all things.
What fundamentally characterizes this transformation is Love. And reading Paul’s words to Philemon regarding Onesimus gives us a picture of what he is saying.
This Philemon passage is so profound. Paul’s words drip with love and concern for Philemon AND for Onesimus. Paul is so serious about his request that he states categorically that if there is any debt owed to Philemon, that he, Paul, will pay it out of his own pocket.
This letter is written at the end of Paul’s life. He’s in prison in Rome. And a young convert, Onesimus, has been caring for him. Paul has grown so fond of Onesimus that he treats him as a son. And it’s come out that not only is Onesimus a runaway slave… but he’s the slave of someone who is also very close to Paul… Philemon. Imagine THAT conversation!
Paul and Onesimus face the quandary of what to do next. Eventually, Paul sends this letter to Philemon… likely with Onesimus carrying it to deliver it to Philemon! Philemon receives this letter and reads Paul asking him to receive Onesimus… no longer as a slave but as a brother in Christ.
The fact of Onesimus’s conversion has turned absolutely everything upside down. Everything about who he is now, the very nature of him being a brother in Christ, means that all barriers… all class structure… everything that could possibly divide Onesimus from Philemon… has now been eliminated.
In Christ, they are co-equal as brothers. And the choice that Philemon faces is to acknowledge this as reality or cling to the world and the culture around them for justice.
Like Jesus’s words, Paul reminds us that our first relationship is to one another as members of the Body of Christ. It has nothing to do with family ties or responsibilities, social status or anything predicated on this world. Instead, we live as those who have DIED to this world and now live in Christ. We are now brothers and sisters, children of God, co-heirs of eternal life and bound together by love.
Paul loves Onesimus so much that he will not let him flee. And he loves Philemon so much that he saw in this moment, the opportunity to forge the deeper bond that unites us all in Jesus Christ. This letter is Paul pleading with Philemon to do what is right… not out of compulsion but out of love. Onesimus’s conversion changed absolutely everything. And Philemon had the opportunity to walk in this new relationship.
In sending Onesimus back, there is a greater healing to take place. A broken relationship is restored. A man is formally freed from slavery. And… fascinatingly… there is a mention by Ignatius of Antioch, an early church father, of a Bishop in Ephesus named Onesimus. Who knows… it could be the same man.
I believe God is calling US to deeper community… to a deeper bond of love for each other. And that says a lot because I think we do a pretty good job of caring for each other around here. However, God is calling us to something new. I honestly don’t know quite what this looks like. But it involves us seeing ourselves as members of something bigger than the temporary statuses and structures of this life.
What hit me like a lightning bolt recently is this… We will never Bear the Redemptive Image of Christ to a Broken World unless we are first doing so, right here, with each other. If we are not representing the gospel of Christ to each other… throughout the week… in OUR moments of darkness and struggle… We will never be a light of truth and hope to a world that is so profoundly broken.
And I’m not talking about Saturday nights or Sunday mornings. I’m talking Monday morning when the reality of our own brokenness sets in. I’m talking Tuesday when the surgery doesn’t work out like it was supposed to… or the call from the doctor was more than you can handle. I’m talking late at night when the depression hits.
Are we there for each other throughout the week? Are we meeting with each other regularly? Are we speaking the Gospel to each other that reminds us there is a reason to hope? Are we yearning to hear our Gospel hope spoken from the lips of the Body of Christ? Or is church just a social club where we endure the preacher’s long-winded sermons so that we can get to the coffee and gossip?
{Conclusion}
Whether you came to faith at 18 like I did, as an adult, or you were baptized as a baby… you belong to something much greater than anything you can see with your eyes.
We are the Body of Christ. By design and decree we are united to each other; and we are all we got. And it is God’s abundant grace that we have each other.
And because grace is spoken on the lips of the faithful, God has chosen YOU to speak hope to the person next to you and the person across the aisle from you.
How is God calling us to deeper fellowship?