I am having such a great time here at Bakken. We are about 90 minutes north of Seattle, almost near the Canadian border. This property has waterfalls and the most amazing lush forest you can possibley imagine. It ought to be lush, considering that it is cloudy and rainy every day! It really is a special place, though. A unique feature of the home (among many) is Ray Bakke's collection of over 9,000 books on urban ministry, cities from around the world, global Christianity, and missiology. He has accumulated quite a collection over the years... one he shares with any students who happen to come through the house. I spent a lot of time there during our visit. Ray's wife, Corean, painted a picture for him that is on display in the library. It is a picture of Ray's version of heaven, or him in the midst of a huge library standing on a latter reaching for a book on one of the top shelves. Julie struck up a conversation with Ray's administrative assistant, and she told Julie that Ray reads at least one book every day. I would love to set a goal like that (one book every day), but I think I'll wait until I graduate!
Ray lectured a lot today. He told us about how much can be learned from the New Testament book of Philemon, especially if we look at it from a narrative perspective. Think of the story in five acts, like a play.
Act 1: It is the year 51AD in the city of Ephesus (the text is Acts 19:8-10). Paul has been traveling, and he finally gets to Ephesus. The first thing he does is go to the synagogue in order to reach Jews (which he had tried to do in many cities). He argued with Jews from morning until night for several months, until he is finally got kicked out of the synagogue for good. As an aside, Paul utilized many different techniques to spread to gospel. Depending on the culture of the town he arrived in, he shifted methods as needed. Prior to his arrival in Ephesus here, he had been to Phillipi where there were many women in leadership in that church. He also had gone to Athens, which was a classic university town in which he capitalized on knowledge and reason to spread the gospel. He went to Corinth, which was a blue collar town, and he took up the task of tentmaking. Tentmaking opened up many different doors with nonbelievers, and he was allowed two years with which to spread the gospel message utilizing those means. The point is, Paul was very creative, innovative, and entrepeneurial in evangelizing techniques. Maybe we can learn something from him about how we can be as creative today? Anyway... in Ephesus, after being kicked out by the Jews he turned his attention to the Gentiles. He rented a theater for five hours a day for two years in order to reach them. Because he had set up shop in an urban area (note: urbanization is the spreading of messages that begin in the city and spread out to suburban and rural areas from there... this is why suburban kids from Pine-Richland listen to Jay-Z or Lil Wayne), many people who were living throughout Asia heard his message. Cities are important places for spreading messages! Paul also used the Socratic method to speard the gospel, meaning he utilized questions and answers. He adjusted his meeting places, his messages, and his methods (the three Ms).
Act 2: In about the year 53AD, Paul heads up the river to Laodicia/Colossians (the text comes from Philemon 1). A house church has been planted by a wealthy land owner who had slaves, of which Onisemus is one. Philemon, like an good wealthy slave owner, would go to cities and hit the theaters. At some point in time, he must have stumbled upon Paul's theater in Ephesus because he had accepted Christ at some point and was now a church leader in his area. This again proves the point that if Christians would be willing to engage in cities, istead of running away from them, that there is great opportunity to share the gospel. In this case in Philemon, the gospel bounced up to a small town as a result of Paul's urban evangelism. If you're faithful in the city, stuff is going to happen all over the place. This is a good model for North Way! In this story, a slave called Onisemus stole money in Asia and ran to Rome to get lost in the crowd. He becomes an undocumented illegal alien, an Asian illegal alien living in Rome (can God work through illegal aliens in modern day USA?). At the time, Rome was one of two cities in the world with a population over one million people (the other was Xian, China). It was a good place for Onisemus to get lost. At some point in this journey, Paul arrived in Rome (with six assistants).
Act 3: It is about the year 63AD in Rome (the text is Acts 28:30). Paule by this time was on his third missionary journey. He is under house arrest. His six colleagues are out in the streets, spreading the message of the gospel. They were out in the streets and parks, sharing the gospel, and Onisemus was still out there trying to get lost in the crowd. He bumps into Paul's assistants, and he is never the same. He was discipled by Paul, and after a period of time Paul wants to send him back home. Paul pens a letter to Philemon, which ends up being the only personal letter we have from Paul in the New Testament. Paul basically butters Philemon up for eight verses. Then he sticks a knife in and twists it. Paul calls Onisemus his new son, just as Philemon was once his son. Paul wants Philemon to meet his new brother. It's funny, because Paul never wrote like this anywhere else. He is basically saying... I know he ripped you off, but I want you to welcome him anyway. In terms of context, if Philemon would have received this letter and set Onisemus free, he would have essentially ruined the area's economy which was based on slave labor. It would have set a terrible legal stance for all other slave owners, in terms of freeing slaves. How would that impact the economy? That was a question being asked all over the world in the mid-nineteenth century later on... how will abolishing the slave trade hinder the economy? Many people are asking the same question today... how will illegal aliens impact the ecomony? Are we going by God's economy or the world's economy? After writing his letter to Philemon, Paul assigned one of his assistants to carry it over 1,000 miles.
Act 4: It is 64AD and we are back in Philemon's area. The word got back to him in his small town before the letter even arrived. Onisemus was on his way, and how was he going to be treated by Philemon. Would Philemon obey the law? If so, the law (which was based on Aristotle's philosophy which said that slaves were not people) would have stated that he must be put to death (especially for stealing from his master). Slaves who ran away during that time were branded with a hot iron with a scar visible forever, but slaves who stole from their masters were to be put to death instantly if they were ever captured or returned home. Onisemus fit the category of being executed immediately, because he had broken the law by stealing from is master. Philemon could have sought to have his slave freed upon retrieving the letter, but it would have sent a terrible message to other slave owners that he had gone soft and it also would have been extremely expensive for him to go through that process. Was it worth it to go through all of that? But... Paul had written in Galatians that we are all equals (Jew, Greek, male, female, slave, or free). We must assume that when Philemon read Paul's letter, one thing he didn't do was rip it up (otherwise it wouldn't be in the New Testament). Instead, we have the first ever integrated house church. It consisted of slaves and free people worshipping together. Although the economy in that area suffered, be learn that Philemon took the risk by freeing Onisemus. Although we may not feel comfortable "intermingling" with people who are different than us (racially and socioeconomically), it is still important for us to engage in these areas and try to figure out what to do.
Act 5: The year is 110AD, and we're back in Ephesus (the text is from Ignatius of Antioch). At the end of the New Testament, the greatest church in the near east needs a new pastor. The first pastor of the church of Ephesus was the great Timothy, and the second pastor following him was John. Jesus' mother, Mary, actually attended that church. There was a lot of pressure to fill that position. Who could possible enter into such an amazing legacy? We learn from Ignatius of
Antioch that Onisemus had been selected as the person to replace Timothy and John as the pastor in Ephesus. The best evangelical and catholic scholars agree on this point... it was the same Onisemus as who had been a previous slave to Philemon. Because Philemon chose to free him, despite the economic and traditional backlash that would have occured, Onisemus went on to be one of the greatest church leaders of his era. How does this change the way we view illegal immigrants or poor people in our modern society in light of the way Paul addressed this issue counterculturally during his time? The controversy around Onisemus yielded the first interracial church, and he himself became the leading bishop of the church in the East. It is an amazing story! Sometimes God works through people who we might not expect, in order to reach people who we might not expect. In our modern context... ministry to undocumented aliens may be expensive. It may set back our economy in the USA, but who is going to be the next Onisemus? Will it be worth it for us to take that risk? It, at least, c0mplicates the issue for those Christians who think they have the illegal immigration issue all wrapped up nicely and neatly. What of Onisemus, whose story is shared in the Bible? Who does God favor in the end, the powerful or the powerless, or both? What does the Bible say about that? Ministry to illegal aliens may inevitably be expensive to the US, but is the economy in America more important than the Kingdom of God (which is the eternal economy)? Yes... it is going to be expensive. But is it worth it?
How did all of this get into the New Testament? Ephesus picks the most prominent bishop from the slave class. Also, Paul never lived to see the ending of his play. How many times in urban ministry do we not get to see the fruit of our ministry (this is somewhat true of LAMP). The Onisemus story is a great story... the urban refugee who becme the leader of the entire church. We, as modern day Christians, should be passionate about working with refugees and immigrants (legal or illegal). Yes, it is costly grace. It messes up the economy, of which many Western Christians hold near and dear to their hearts, but it is worth it in God's economy. It is difficult work, but it is worth it. The bottom line... Christians should engage in issues of immigration, and it's all laid out in the book of Philemon.
We also lectured this morning on the New World. the French, Puritans, Anglicans, and Russian Orthodox missional efforts all came to the New World. The French saw the natives as equals, and in the French-Canadian context they married them. The Spanish, influenced by Aristotle, cam to exploit the continent for gold and land. They ruled the Indians through the sacraments, or missions, to keep the Indians in the shadow of the church where they could treat them like children. Diseases and violence wiped out 95% of the native population living in Latin America once the Spaniards arrived. Does anyone hear that side of the story? As an opposite approach, the orthodox missions arrived in Alaska and northern USA by assuming the Holy Spirit was already there and moving in to those areas building upon what was already being done. The Puritans, or the dominant American ideal, represented the city on the hill. Their theology believed that "God hath given me this plantation." When you look around the land, you see the American Indians who represent Hittites and Moabites. The thinking was, don't kill them, just get them out of Canaan. George Washington came into power, and he let the Indians have forty acres and a mule. That was overturned by Andrew Jackson, which was a policy mistake we are still dealing with today. Jackson decided to push all Indians out onto reservations, a decison which still impacts us today. Indians were put onto 500 reservations, and they signed treaties which the US never lived up to.
There were three trails in the US in the expanding western movement. The Oregon Trail, which everyone knows about, wanted to go west and exploit it. In the middle of the US was the Mormon trail, of which the Mormons ended up going west to Illinois with some 50,000 followers who eventually landed in Salt Lake City to seek religous freedom from persecution. The third trail was the native Indian trail, the forced march of Indians called the Trail of Tears. many Indians died along the way. Our history books focus eighty percent on the Oregon trail, paritally on the Mormon trail, and not much on the Indian trail.
Missions had consequences, and the anthropology of the people I minister to has consequences. How do I see the people of Homewood and how do I describe them? The sins of our fathers go down generations. We occupied Indian territories and we forced them onto Indian reservations. Although Ray Bakke is a flag salluting American, he still protests the way we treat the Indians. He believes there should be an American Indian and black slave holocaust museum to go along with the Jewish holocaust museum. We have been an officially hispanic nation since the US stole Puerto Rico. The US also stole New Mexico and California from the Mexicans. They were there before we got there, we forced them out, and now we want to build a fence to keep them out? This US agenda is festering corruption when it comes to Native Americans. How does this change the way we may view the immigration debate? What if they were there before we got there?
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