Daily Devotion for Easter 2021

Scripture Reading: Philemon

I've enjoyed working through the earliest letters of Paul starting with 1st Thessalonians and then moving to Galatians and then ending with 1st and 2nd Corinthians.  Of course, there is always debate over which was the earliest and how we might ascribe a chronology to the epistles.  But this particular order worked out to cover each of these four letters by looking at one chapter each of the forty days of Lent.  

While I didn't cover Sundays this year, I usually wrap up the series on Easter Sunday and so I thought I would look at Philemon on Easter since some scholars place it next in order.  The fact that it was only a chapter seemed to lend credence to this idea as well!

How are broken shackles an
image of the resurrection?

As we look at Philemon, it definitely has some important themes of resurrection which coincides well with Easter.  Paul is writing to Philemon who is likely a member of the church at Colossae with a rather specific request in the faith.  It seems that Philemon's slave Onesimus has made his way to Paul and become a Christian.  Paul is sending Onesimus back with the instruction that he would no longer be a slave but a brother in Christ.  

Here Paul is asking Philemon to put the theory of Galatians 3:28, "there is no longer slave or free...for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" into practice.

Paul is willing to cover any cost but also emphasizes Philemon's own debt to him by stating, "I say nothing about your owing me even your own self."

And in case Philemon is having other thoughts about how he will treat Onesimus, Paul lets him know that he's going to be coming for a visit.  He doesn't state explicitly that things better go the way he has laid them out but it is pretty easy to read between the lines!

As we consider a living resurrection faith on Easter Sunday, Paul's letter to Philemon shows us practical value.  Our idea of a risen Lord is put into reality when we conform to his teachings and find our own freedom in bringing love and respect to places in the world where they are absent.  

Onesimus finds resurrection in his own physical freedom - he is no longer a slave.  

Philemon finds resurrection in granting freedom to Onesimus and seeing him as a brother in Christ.

Paul finds resurrection in the guidelines he lays out - they were surely followed or this letter would have been destroyed rather than copied!

How is resurrection present in your life today?  Where might you add life to the world around you?

Prayer for the day:

Living Lord, we know in our hearts how we should treat others.  But often our heads justify lesser behavior.  As we celebrate Jesus risen from the dead, this reminds us that suffering and cruelty are not the final word.  Help us to see that our participation in them is a denial to the resurrection faith that we claim.  May you rise again in our lives so that our actions might reflect resurrection for all.  We pray these things in the name of the risen Christ.  Amen.

Photo by GPS via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.

All scripture quoted is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Daily Devotion for Lent 2021 - Day 9

Scripture Reading: Galatians 4 (NRSV)

Within this part of the letter, Paul is continuing to make the appeal to Gentile Christians that they need not adopt Judaism in order to be faithful to Christ.

Paul speaks of being heirs through the Holy Spirit and uses the image of slavery and freedom.  When he speaks of "observing special days, and months, and seasons, and years" in verse ten, he is speaking of the practices of Jewish fast-days among other seasons that observant Jews followed.  

Halloween costumes are not harmful to
Christians (maybe to dogs - see Batman above)
if they are not used as ways to make faith
in Christ conditional on them!

These are not harmful to the Christian unless they are seen as primary for the faith prior to their commitment to Jesus Christ.  Some Christians avoid secular holidays like Halloween or Thanksgiving out of a more strict reading of this passage.  Others may even avoid secular celebrations of Christian holidays like Christmas or Easter.  As we look at this passage within its context, Paul would likely say that these observations would not help or hinder one's faith necessarily.  If they began to replace our faith in Christ or if they were prioritized over our faith in Christ (such as these observations must come first), then Paul would tell us to throw them out.

When Paul makes the allegory of children of the covenant coming through Hagar (the slave girl) and Sarah (where Jewish people claim their lineage), he switches common understanding and claims that Hagar represents Mount Sinai which is where Moses received the Law.  Paul is trying to say that those who remain under the Law are children of the slave Hagar.  Because Sarah is a free woman, her children come through the promise.  Paul references Sarah through Isaiah 54:1 in verse 27 since Sarah was barren for so much of her life before she bore Isaac.  The Isaiah verse originally referred to the Jewish people who were in exile as the "barren."  

It was originally meant as a comfort to those lost in exile.  Their descendants would eventually thrive.  Now Paul suggests that the Gentiles have become the children of Sarah through faith in Christ.

He is likely making this argument to refute the Judaizing Christians who made the claim that the Gentiles were children through Hagar and thus, subservient to they who claimed their descendance through Sarah.  

This is a further movement of assurance to the Gentile Christians that leaps from the previous chapter's declaration that "there is no longer Jew or Greek" in Christ.  

For us today, it continues to call us to humility.  We are to look at the world and see how God values all people.  For those of us in Christ, we may subtly prioritize ourselves above others from a spiritual sense.  We may not consciously think ourselves superior but it may come through in our interactions with others.  

How do we extend the grace we have received to others?  As we see Paul's radical argument of assurance to a people that were not raised with this understanding of God, we may see that he understood grace only to be effective if you were willing to give it away to others.

This is always a check against current power structures within the church.  They should always be serving those who are not yet in Christ.  When they begin to be self-serving, we are losing the urgency and passion that we see in Paul.

Prayer for the day:

Loving God, we give thanks for the love we have in Christ.  It gives us assurance of your forgiveness of our sins.  Help us to see this as a gift that we do not use up.  May we remember that we are not diminished by others claiming this gift but rather we find greater clarity of identity.  We open ourselves today to re-examine our motives for faith.  We pray these things through this same love of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 

Photo by Mike McCune via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.

All scripture quoted is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.