Refresh My Heart: The Spiritual Art of Request
Rev. Jimmy Moore, preaching
Scripture: Philemon 1-21
Have you ever asked anyone to do anything really challenging ... perhaps to change behavior or to consider a different course of action? How did that go? Has anyone asked you to something that just was not easy? How did you respond? As people of faith, as parents, as friends, as leaders, we often find ourselves longing to be impactful and persuasive. We want to help children, friends, parents and even strangers consider how they are to behave. How can we help influence the life of an acquaintance of the life of a community when changing minds is so difficult to accomplish?
Some of our attempts to do don't work so well. In my counseling work, I pay attention to a distinction Terrence Real makes when discussing asking someone to do something. He says one may employ demand, invitation, or demand. Demand says, "Do this!" and as we have all discovered, only works well in cases of emergency. Invitation says, "Would you like to do this?" Request says, "Would you consider doing this?" Those seem like useful even if overly neat distinctions, especially when the matter at hand is one of spiritual or moral importance.
So, in the Christian Scriptures, there is a very short letter from the Apostle Paul to a fellow names Philemon. Paul has received a runaway slave name Onesimus who "belonged" to Philemon. Paul's attempt is to achieve a reconciliation of sorts between the two, and in the letter, it is intriguing to watch how he carries on this dance, and to notice the obvious, and not so obvious, questions it raises.
We'll pay attention to these things in worship on Sunday, both the story in the letter itself, and the light it might shine on our hope to be impactful in our conversations. The sermon is titled, "Refresh My Heart: The Spiritual Art of Request", and flows from Philemon 1-21. We hope to see you in to worship this Sunday.