Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 7th, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer
Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
A Big Heart
Psalm 119:32, Deut. 30:15 – 20,
Philemon
1-21, Luke 14:25 - 35
Audio of the Sermon available HERE.
I will run in the way of your commandments, [O Lord],
when You enlarge my heart!
Does this Psalm verse remind you of the Grinch? You know, the Grinch who stole Christmas, that green, grumpy guy who lived in a cave on Mt. Crumpet, up above Whoville, the home of the simple, joy-filled Whos? The Grinch and the Whos were neighbors, but our green-furred, mountain-dwelling friend did not consider the Whos to be good neighbors. The Grinch loathed them, with their joyous celebrations and constant cheerfulness, especially at Christmastime. Their glad songs disturbed his dreary dreams, melodies wafting up from the village in the valley, a sound of happiness and joy that the mountain dweller simply despised. The Grinch had no love for his neighbors, and finally this void in his soul drove him to act, to try to steal Christmas. He slithered into town on the night before Christmas, the Anti-Claus, and took all the gifts and decorations, and the Christmas food, trying his worst to ruin Christmas, so that the happiness of the Whos wouldn’t hamper his morbid mid-winter mood.
You may remember the problem: the Grinch’s heart was two sizes too small. No room there for joy. And since he had no room for joy, the joy of his neighbors gave him great pain. His too-small-heart drove him to try to ruin Christmas. Except that he couldn’t. Much to his surprise, despite the loss of their gifts and garlands and great food, the Whos celebrated Christmas anyway, with peace and joy. Because their Christmas wasn’t about things, it was about love, love which caused joyful songs to ring out, even though the Grinch had stolen all the outward trappings of the holiday.
This love-surprise changed the Grinch. Standing on the mountain top, sleigh filled with all of Whoville’s stolen packages and decorations and dinner, the Grinch was suddenly transformed, his heart was enlarged, not two sizes, but three. Love came to him.
In December we sing that love came down at Christmas time. In the case of the Grinch, love came up, from the valley, to his mountain cave. Love came from outside him through the singing of the Whos, love which entered into him and changed him. This change on the inside then caused a change on the outside. The Grinch’s heart was enlarged, and he began to love his neighbor (one of God’s chief commandments, by the way). He slid back down the mountain, returning all the toys and turkey and tinsel. Love transformed him in the twinkling of an eye, from the Grinch who stole Christmas into the Christmas Party Patron, the slicer of the roast beast.
I will run in the way of your commandments, [O Lord], when You enlarge my heart! The story of the Grinch has much in common with our Epistle reading, Paul’s letter to Philemon, a Christian in the Mediterranean city of Colossae. Paul is returning Onesimus, Philemon’s runaway slave, a runaway slave converted to Christianity by Paul while he was in prison, either in Caesarea, a Roman coastal city in northern Israel, or perhaps in Rome itself. The Apostle was returning Onesimus to his earthly owner, Philemon, a fellow baptized believer, and Paul did what he could to make sure Philemon wouldn’t be a Grinch to Onesimus. Philemon has a legal right to punish Onesimus, but Paul wants to make sure his heart is big enough to receive Onesimus back with grace and kindness. Have a heart, wrote Paul, don’t be a Grinch.
The stories of the Grinch and Philemon have much in common, although there are more moving parts in the drama Paul addresses, and the thing at risk is not just an animated Christmas party, but a real life choice between the way of life and the way of death. There are also more players in Philemon’s story, most especially One Big Character, who isn’t mentioned in the Grinch story. Overall, the problem in the letter to Philemon is harder, and so also the solution is better. You could even say that it is Divine.
The problem Paul addresses is harder and more complicated than Dr. Seuss’s problem of unwanted Christmas joy ascending Mt. Crumpet. Paul isn’t worried about just one grumpy green guy picking on a town full of nice people. Onesimus and Philemon each have grievances, and each have guilt. They are real sinners in need of the real Word of God, to correct, and renew their hearts.
Like Philemon and Onesimus, in our lives we are all Whos; all of us have our Grinches who torment us. And, at the same time, we are all Grinches, in small ways and some not-so-small ways. We are all prone from time to time to be irritated by and even wish to crush the joy and goodness that we see in the Whos that live around us, who for some reason we just don’t like. To use the language of the Bible instead of the language of Dr. Seuss, all of us have neighbors who fail to love us, and all of us fail to love all our neighbors. All of us tend to find the speck in our neighbor’s eye, while ignoring the log in our own. We notice, point out, and try to correct the perceived faults of others, without acknowledging or addressing our own faults.
So Paul is understandably concerned about sending Onesimus back to his earthly master Philemon, and Onesimus no doubt doubly so. I’m certain they both spent a lot of time counting the cost of bearing this cross. And yet Paul and Onesimus do it, because they trust that the Third Party to all our neighbor problems will perform the heart expansion surgeries necessary to bring a good result.
In the Grinch story, the Third Party to every squabble on earth is never mentioned. The Third Party is implied, yes, if you remember that Christmas is always about God sending His Son to become a human baby, Jesus in a manger, born to be our Savior. I do not know if Dr. Seuss was being subtle, not explicitly mentioning God in the Grinch, or if he was bowing to the preference of American culture, the preference to never hear about God, except when and where we choose. No matter. Hollywood and modern psychology can insist all they want that all our problems are just between us people, problems to be worked out by us, no divine intervention needed nor desired. But God, who gets the first and the last word, says that every problem between humans is also a problem between those humans and God.
Every horizontal conflict you have is also a vertical conflict. Every difficulty with a neighbor is also a difficulty between you and God. To offend the neighbor is always also to offend God, because we are all His creatures. He has a claim and a concern for all people, in fact the neighbors you have are given to you by God. He created you, and them, and He cares for you through them, and He desires to care for them through you.
This is just how it is, this is how God created the world. The issue behind every instance of un-neighborliness is the constant choice God calls us to be making between right and wrong, good and evil, life and death. But our hearts are too small to make the right choice every time. This is our problem, the problem that causes strife in this world, and within our families. And this is our problem with God, a problem that we cannot solve, because no one can perform heart surgery on himself.
The cure for our too small hearts must come from outside us. In this detail Dr. Seuss is right on track, for Grinch’s heart is enlarged by love that comes from outside him, through the Word of the Christmas songs the Whos sang, despite Grinch’s theft. This outside-in way of transformation is the way it is, the way we need, the way of salvation God loves to follow.
Our profound, complicated problem with un-neighborliness, that is to say our problem with sin, can only be cured by God coming to us. This is the content of Paul’s ministry, bringing God to people through the Word of Christ, the message of forgiveness and reconciliation, the Good News of free forgiveness for repentant sinners, in Christ Jesus. Through this exterior Word, the Holy Spirit comes to souls, and changes them, transforms them, from the inside out. He enlarges their hearts by revealing God’s own heart, which overflows with mercy and love.
God began fully revealing His heart at the first Christmas, sending His only Son, to be the One who would have a heart big enough to tackle all the world’s problem with sin. We see God’s heart in Jesus’ ministry, as He healed, comforted, forgave and fed. God most especially revealed His heart when Jesus, in loving obedience to His Father, gave His all on the Cross, to pay for and wash away our sins. Now, He gives us His loving heart by joining us to Himself, uniting us to Himself through the power of His Resurrection, and the power of His Word. Washing over us in Baptism, filling our Bodies in the Supper.
As he sends Onesimus back to Philemon, Paul builds on this foundation, rejoicing in the work God has already done in Philemon, and then praying that this God-given change will lead Philemon to choose to do the right thing. Paul writes: Grace to you and peace [Philemon], from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, and I pray that the fellowship, the communion of your faith may become effective for the realization of all the good that is among us in Christ.
Notice Paul refuses to appeal to God’s law, even though Paul says that he could, and that he is bold enough in Christ to command Philemon to do what is required. Nevertheless, Paul prefers to appeal to Philemon’s Christian heart, even referencing the love Paul knows Philemon has already shown to others. Paul’s prayer is primarily that Philemon’s fellowship of faith, or communion of faith, will be effective for good. Paul relies on the reality of Christ joining Himself to Philemon through faith in His forgiving love. Paul is asking the Holy Spirit to move Philemon to receive Onesimus as a brother in Christ, and not merely as a runaway slave.
Paul bases his prayer and his appeal to Philemon on his union, his communion, his fellowship with Jesus, because Paul knows the power to love our neighbor comes from outside us, from God through Christ. For by His fellowship with us, by His communion with us, Jesus changes us, from the inside out, renewing and enlarging our hearts.
Paul is asking Philemon, and by extension you and me, to do nothing more in our treatment of others than what God has done and is doing for us. God does not speak badly of you, because by your faith in the Lord Jesus, He sees you as a forgiven, sinless child. God does not mistreat you. Indeed, because of your fellowship, your communion with Christ, He loves nothing more than to shower you with love. God forgives you because Jesus has paid the full price, He took away all your sins by the blood He shed at Calvary.
Paul reminds Philemon of this remarkable Good News, and so the Apostle is God’s heart surgeon, preaching the Good News to enlarge Philemon’s heart, and yours, so that he and you will rejoice to love your neighbor just as God rejoices to love you, with mercy and forgiveness.
One of the deepest pleasures of serving as your pastor is seeing how God gives His people big hearts, and so you go out of your way to care for others. Right now, this is most obvious in the life of David Hill, an elderly ORLC member, who has been struggling for some months now, and has been hospitalized for the last couple weeks. Faithful Christians, from Our Redeemer and from other congregations, have sprung into action to come alongside David in his illness, and in his difficult transition from living independently to living dependently. Many souls are stepping up, as David deals with a move into an assisted living facility, and with the illness that is assaulting his body. Visits, going to meetings, taking care of David’s cat, helping him understand the path ahead of him, bringing God’s Word, praying for David, praying with David. Big-hearted Christians, loving their neighbor: what a privilege to watch it happen.
Strictly speaking, we don’t actually know how Philemon treated his returned slave Onesimus when he reached Colossae. I suspect he treated him well; it is hard to imagine this letter being received as Scripture by the Church, if Philemon had ignored Paul and abused Onesimus. But in the end, how well Philemon responded is not the main point. Even if Philemon didn’t completely come through, the Good News for you is that God has and always will come through for you. The heart of God is big enough to forgive all your sins, and welcome you home, no matter how far away you run, no matter how badly you fail. All of this, and an eternity of joy and glory, all because of and through Jesus, the One who poured out His extra big heart, for the life of the world, Amen.
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