Year C, Pentecost 13 Philemon 1-21
I
imagine that many of you can see the disconnect between baptizing a person into
the Christian faith while still maintaining that the person can be owned. Some might assume that the enslavers just
weren’t thinking that way, as if it didn’t occur to them that baptizing
enslaved people might then lead to different kinds of freedom. Evidently someone was thinking that way
because in 1667, the General Assembly in Virginia felt the need to pass an act
that said being baptized doesn’t exempt an enslaved person from bondage. In other
words, being baptized didn’t make you free, at least not if you were African. The words that were used in the baptismal
service was that the individual being baptized was “grafted into the body of
Christ’s Church”[1]
But according to lawmakers at the time, being a Christian didn’t give someone
rights in this life— only the next.
Of
course slavery wasn’t just in the United States. It was happening during Jesus’ life as well,
not quite in the same way. At the time,
slavery didn’t last a lifetime. People
were usually freed by the time they were 30.
In Paul’s letter to Philemon, we heard a little about slavery in the
ancient world. Philemon is the 3rd shortest book in the Bible…which
means we have the rare opportunity to discuss an entire book of the Bible in
about 10 minutes.
The
other unique thing about this letter is that it’s to a person rather than a
community. Why would a personal letter
be included in our sacred text? If you
read the entire run on first sentence, you will see that it’s not just directed
to Philemon and a few others, Paul included “the church in your house.” At this time, it was common to worship in
people’s homes. There were no Christian
churches, so new Christians organized around a home and family. This letter was directed to an individual,
but it was meant to be shared with the community, which meant it had wider
implications than just a few people.
Paul knew that and evidently those who put together the canon of
scripture saw that as well.
Most scholars believe that Paul was
a prisoner when he wrote this letter and that was possibly how he met a man
named Onesimus who was an enslaved man who escaped. During Paul’s time with Onesimus, he was
converted to Christianity. It’s not
clear whether Onesimus was in prison with Paul or was simply helping him while he was in prison. Prisons at this time were truly horrible places
and your needs (food, clothing, etc) had to be provided from someone on the
outside. Since Paul wrote about how
useful Onesimus was, it’s possible that he was supporting Paul while he was
imprisoned. This letter is asking
Philemon to forgive Onesimus (because he escaped) and possibly free him.
Since
Paul can often be rather offensive and unconcerned about the feelings of the
person receiving the letter, I find the tone of this letter fascinating. On the one hand, I want Paul to write
Philemon and call him out as a hypocrite because he should obviously see why
being a Christian and owning someone is wrong.
But Paul is uncharacteristically careful in how he handles this
confrontation.
He started how he often started
letters, he told the receiver how he prayed for them and thanked God for them,
in particular, “for your love for all the saints.” When Paul referred to “saints” he was
referring to all Christians. He was
reminding them of the compassion they already exhibited. He then went on to
say, “though I am
bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet
I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love…” What frustrates some modern readers, is that
Paul never explicitly told Philemon to give Onesimus is freedom, nor did he
condemn slavery as a whole. Instead he
asked that he should receive him “no longer as a slave but as more than a slave,
a beloved brother.”
The point
might seem clear to us, but during the time when slavery was still around,
slave holders used this text to defend slavery. They said, “Look, Paul wasn’t
telling Philemon to free him, he was just asking that he not be punished for
running away and that since he was now a Christian, he should be treated just a
little better.” I think Paul was arguing for freedom. He later said, “So if
you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.” Treat this man who was formerly enslaved as
you would the apostle Paul…the man who was highly respected in this community. Paul also later shared that Philemon became a
Christian because of Paul, which means Paul would have been held in high esteem
by Philemon and his family.
Notice the familial language that Paul used. He referred to Onesimus as his child. He said
that Philemon should consider him a beloved brother. You can’t enslave your child or your
brother. Paul didn’t appeal to
Philemon’s humanity or sense of justice.
He appealed to his Christian faith, his compassion and understanding of
what it is to be a Christian. When we
say that we are siblings in Christ, we mean that.
Now
you might thing I am avoiding the Gospel, but the truth is I really wanted to
preach on Philemon. However, they are related. Here is the 30 second
explanation of the Gospel. Jesus was
using hyperbole to get people’s attention.
He was not advocating for us to hate our family. But he was saying that people should
prioritize God, even over family. That
doesn’t mean we are taking love from our family, as there is not a limited
supply of love. It means we are expanding who we can love. All Christians are our family. And if all Christians are our family, then we
really need to consider more carefully how we treat one another…which is why
Philemon is in the Bible…which is why the men who put together the Bible 1800
years ago thought, this one page letter needed to be remembered for a very long
time.
Now
you might be thinking, what about people who aren’t Christians? Are we allowed
to treat them poorly? No. There are
plenty of other places in the Bible that talks about how God loved people from
all faiths. But in Philemon, Paul is
talking about how we can use our Christian faith to guide us in how we treat
the people who are considered less than.
Just imagine for a second if we could just get Christians in the world
to actually do that…even if Christians were just treating other Christians
well. That would be some serious
progress.
Now
the reason Paul’s tone in this letter matters is that it can guide us in how we
make certain arguments. It’s satisfying
to label people as hypocrites and bigots.
But it never accomplishes anything.
Paul could have just told Philemon what to do, but he wanted it to sink
in. He wanted Philemon to know why he
was freeing Onesimus and expanding his family.
Because then he could be an example for others as well. The other thing that made a difference in
this situation is that Paul already had a relationship with Philemon. He even said at the end of the letter, please
make up a guest room, because I am planning to visit. Philemon knew that Paul was going to check on
Onesimus. Paul was showing him how
committed he was to this situation with his words and actions.
What
makes this letter so incredible is that not only does it teach us how our faith
informs how we treat others. It also helps
us talk to others when we are trying to help them see something that might be
quite obvious to us. Just like Paul
wrote in his letter, we must appeal to others on the basis of love, not anger
or righteous indignation. Love.
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