A Plea for Useful

September 6, 1998

8:45 & 11 o'clock services

Wollaston Church of the Nazarene

-Philemon 10-

If you fish or sail in salt water you need to know at least something about tides and currents and channels. When I first went fishing on my own for flounder - you can ask my sons John and Steve - I nearly got stranded on shoal. But I'm a fast learner, and soon I learned a little about reading tide charts and watching weather fronts and seasons of the moon. It was all new and wonderful for a mid-westerner like me.

For years I owned a little boat. (I named it Conference. That way the office people could say that the pastor was in Conference for the rest of the afternoon.) I found that TIDES AND CURRENTS DO NOT DETERMINE DESTINATIONS. That is what rudders and engines and sails are for. While you don't dare ignore the tides and currents, you also never get anywhere if you let them dictate where you go and how you fish. When you can, you make them serve you. When you can't go with or against them, you cut across as best you can with your destination in mind.

[When one nor'easter threatened my boat at mooring at Squantum Yacht Club, I took the launch out to the mooring, and slipped the cable and started around Moon Island for the boat ramp at Boston Gas ramp in Dorchester. Just as I started from the mooring I saw a man waving his arms at me back at the Yacht Club dock, and maneuvered back to pick up John Stark. John has forgotten more about salt water and boats and fishing than I will ever know, and he wanted to go along for the fun of the roller coaster ride into the nor'easter. Just as we were about to go out of sight around Moon island one of the club members said to Jim Stark, who was watching his dad and me through binoculars, "Look at those two fools out there!" Jim said, "That is my pastor and my father!" We respected the elements, but were willing to take the risk for the safety of the boat and because we really enjoyed the ride!]

THE TIDES AND CURRENTS OF LIFE CANNOT DETERMINE OUR ULTIMATE DESTINATIONS. WE CAN GO WHERE GOD INTENDS FOR US TO GO!

IN THE TINY BOOK OF THE BIBLE, PHILEMON, which is actually a personal letter from the first century we have the story of how two men were challenged to take a voyage across the strong currents of their day. Behind this personal and private letter is the story of Onesimus and Philemon and the course they felt they had to take across the tides and currents of their culture.

TO THE CITY OF COLOSSE in western Asia Minor THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST CAME ONE DAY in the message of Paul the apostle. A church was established Among the households affected was that of a wealthy man named Philemon.

In that day when a man converted so did his whole household, his wife, children, servants, and relatives. Among the servants slaves, really- was Onesimus. Whatever his real name had been, he has been named "Useful."

"Useful" may have been officially baptized, but he watched his chance and one day he escaped, and took with him a sum of his master's money. He made his way into Europe, to Rome a thousand miles from Colosse. In that huge city slaves could melt into the population and be free forever. But there in Rome Onesimus, Useful, just happened to meet again the very preacher who had baptized him back in Colosse.

It is impossible for me, or for you or anyone to know what the tides and currents of culture were really like back then. We don't know, either, how Onesimus decided he needed to go the thousand miles back to the east to face Philemon. The Bible does not condone slavery in any form. But evidently Jesus was making demands on Philemon that seemed hard if not impossible. Onesimus knew he had to make good what he had stolen. And so Paul wrote this letter. And Onesimus set off to deliver it himself.

Think of the cost these men had to pay to face the tides and currents! The cost to Onesimus is obvious. He risked his freedom and his life. But the cost to Philemon was great as well. He would be branded as a slave-coddler. He would be vilified by other wealthy people in his society. He might even encourage slave-revolt.

Jesus made demands on both these men because he knew they could make the destination he set for them. The letter doesn't tell us what happened next. But tradition tells us that not only was Onesimus received and forgiven, but that he became the pastor in Colosse. Onesimus was one of the early bishops in Asia Minor.

JESUS HAS A WAY OF CHALLENGING EVERY ONE OF US to cut across the popular currents and tides of our times. The strong tides today tell us it is fine to be religious, but that we don't need to get carried away by our faith. It is not the central thing around which to build our lives.

The strong currents today say that morality is relative and comparative. "I may not be perfectly honest in my dealings, but I am not nearly as bad as my neighbors."

The accepted channels even in evangelical circles tell us that if we have the proper views on abortion and say the right words about family values then we are spiritual, and good Christians. Jesus challenges us to dare to be honest with ourselves and with Him, and with one another! Our faith must move beyond "experience" into the realm of relationship. He asks us to dare to follow Him no matter which way the tides are running and the wind is blowing.

(CONCLUSION)

It only makes common sense if you are fishing or sailing in salt water to know something about the tides and currents. It only makes good sense if you are living for Jesus in a secular, pluralistic world to understand a little bit about the way the winds blow. You may have to run for cover some times. You may have to wait while a northeaster blows over. But the winds and tides do not determine your final destination.

WHEN WE WERE BUILDING THIS SANCTUARY eighteen years ago we had quite a discussion over just how the steeple would be. We all agreed this building should be a testimony in itself to the worship of God and the fellowship of the church. It is Georgian Colonial in architecture inside and out and (except for the elevator and wall-to-wall carpeting) as authentic as some gifted members of our building committee could make it.

That committee thought a nice weather vane on the steeple would add a great authentic touch to a New England house of worship. Protestant churches in colonial times did not have crosses on their steeples. But in my stubborn way I insisted I did not want a church that seemed to say to the neighborhood "This is the way the winds are blowing just now!"

A church is not primarily to tell people which way the wind is blowing, but which way it is to heaven. So without any visible hard feelings the steeple went up without a weather vane and without a cross. I confess I may have hidden some pain! And the steeple really looked "bare" up there 100 feet in the air!

But then Wesley Angell, a great member of our board who knew more about building than anyone, noticed that the steeple was not perfectly straight. Sure enough, it had been damaged in the installation, and no one had seen it but Wesley. The steeple had to come down for repairs. And in the meantime the committee got back together. They inquired how much a cross would cost. And you can see what happened!

Since that day when a crane carried the cross 104 feet to the top of the steeple more than 6,500 days and nights have passed. There have been hurricanes and blizzards and foggy nights and blistering hot days. The wind has blown from every point of the compass and with every intensity from dead calm to full hurricane. But the cross stands there reminding us that there is a Way to heaven, and that if we will follow Jesus nothing can ultimately defeat us from the destination He has for us here in this life, and in the one to come.

Prayer

Hymn #97 Be Still My Soul