Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Faith was never intended to be a private gift that we keep to ourselves. The citizens of Jesus' Kingdom have different qualities, an essential trait if we are to show what life in that Kingdom is like and might be like.

Having found ourselves in the fortunate place of the Kingdom of Jesus, our order of business is to conduct ourselves as citizens of that Kingdom. Forgiveness and love are the hallmarks of that place, and perhaps those two are difficult enough to be the whole list of objectives. They aren't an end in themselves, though. We are aiming for new selves, a preview of the newness that will come with sharing the resurrection of Christ.

Holding together any group of people for any length of time can prove diffiucult. How is this done in the Church? Hopefully, this passge by Paul is that method: unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, equipped by our Lord for the work that is is his own.

Paul certainly has a sense of purpose, not only for being one of God's people, but for the plans and purposes of God playing out at just the right time. The way God was understood when Jesus came, because now we know that Jesus is how God looks. Paul was one of many who had to change their view of God.

What brings the Church together is nothing of human doing, it is all God. Circumcision is no longer the covenant sign between us and the eternal, but is Jesus himself, the eternal embodied.

The initiative of our salvation comes from God: showing mercy sending the Son, making the way to the Father through his death, seated with Christ because of what he did. None of that was our work, it was all God's, because setting things right is what God is about.

Paul finishes his view of who Christ is: not only our example, not only the Son of God through whom we claim our inheritance, but also the fiber that holds all things together. This is more than a man who came to earth and preached sermons: it is who God is, and what God looks like.

Paul considers Christ more than the life that walked on earth to show us what God is like, he is also the one who seals us as God's children. The heirship of the Son of God is ours as well, because it is his redemption that set us right with God.

Philemon had a fair claim over Onesimus, and probably wasn't a bad master. Paul seems to have confidence in him as a believer. However, Paul isn't asking Philemon to do something within his rights, but to consider Onesimus as a fellow brother. This would have been somewhat radical, and would have required a sacrifice on the part of the owner. We don't have an answer from Philemon to Paul's challenge, but if Paul was a good judge of character, then Philemon may have indeed made good on this.

Paul is casting a vision of a different kind of community, bringing masters and slaves closer to equality. (More about that tomorrow!) He also paints, with this list of names, a picture of how that community was already working: Luke, who wrote; Epaphras, the prayer warrior; Nympha, a woman who hosted a house church. The Spirit was at work to do more than just eat bread together.