Philemon 1-21
This year marks 400 years since the
first African slaves were brought to the English colonies in America. In August
of 1619, in what is now Hampton, Virginia, the first captured Africans were
brought ashore to be sold as slaves. The state of Virginia has created events
and exhibits to commemorate this date, for the purpose of education and to
promote reconciliation and healing.
In a recent Bible study we
talked about the ways in which our awareness of slavery and its effects has
changed over the years. When we were taught lessons about the history of our
nation, slaves were always in the background. It’s almost as though they were
not really people, but backdrop.
Indeed, that is how slavery happens.
When we regard some peoples as less than human, we can justify doing what we
want with them.
Slavery has a long history in the world.
It goes back to biblical times. This letter from Paul to Philemon is a letter
about slavery.
The letter is unusual for Paul,
because it is short. And because it is addressed to a person – Philemon –
rather than a church. And because it is
written for only one purpose. Paul wants
Philemon to grant freedom to his slave Onesimus.
It was kind of an unusual request
because, in the ancient world, slavery was normal. It was not restricted to the people of one
particular race or tribe. Slavery was
what the powerful people did to people who were powerless.
We know that the people of Israel were
enslaved by the Egyptians for hundreds of years before they were led out of
slavery by Moses. And we know that the
people of Israel, once they were established in their own land, also practiced
slavery. We know this because the law of
Israel addressed it – not the question of “if” it was acceptable, but the
questions of “how” it was acceptable.
We know that in the Roman Empire
slavery was normal. Some of the stories
in the book of Acts tell about slaves, such as the woman who had a spirit of
divination and was used by her owners quite profitably. Some of the epistles have instructions
pertaining to how slaves should behave, and from this we see that at least some
Christian households owned slaves. All
of this seems far away and strange to us.
And that is why it seems odd to us that Paul treads so delicately around
the question.
But treading lightly and artfully was
probably the only way for Paul to approach this, if he wanted to be heard.
He chooses his words carefully. He is complimentary; he is encouraging, humble,
and threatening, all at the same time.
Paul is using whatever he has at his disposal to bring about the result
he wants. This is clearly a reform that
is important to him.
Onesimus has come to be with Paul, who
is in prison. Most likely, he ran away from his master and now finds himself in
a particularly difficult position. But
he has found an advocate in Paul, who regards Onesimus now as a son. “Formerly he was
useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me,” he writes
to Philemon. Useless, perhaps, because
he has run away from his master; useful now because as he appeals for
forgiveness and liberation, he offers both Paul and Philemon a chance to
practice extravagant love.
Paul wrote the words, “for freedom
Christ has set us free,” and, “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer
male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” These are from the latter to the Galatians, but Paul wrote similar words to the very church
in which Philemon was a member, the Colossian church.
It is not possible to be
brothers and sisters to those we refuse to see as fully human. Paul felt it was
time to bring out this truth. Inevitably, eventually, it would lead to the
understanding that slavery is not compatible with Christian faith, although it
would take many hundreds of years, nearly
two thousand years, for the church to fully embrace it. And, truthfully, we
still bear the scars of it -- as a nation and as a church.
Being reformed takes
time. But the scriptures we hear today
tell us it is God’s work – to re-form us, reshape us.
We see it so well in this
story from Jeremiah. “Go down to the
potter’s house and I will let you hear my word,” the Lord says to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah watches the
potter working a lump of clay into a vessel, something that will be useful – a
cup, a pot, a bowl. But the clay becomes ruined in the potter’s hands. It became misshapen or torn, somehow not
salvageable, the potter knows. And so he
picks up the clay and begins the process again.
A shapeless lump will be formed into a useful vessel.
“Can I not do with you
just what this potter has done with the clay?”
says the Lord to Jeremiah.
And so God continues,
through the work of the Holy Spirit, to reform and reshape us, when we have
become less than useful to God’s purposes for reconciliation and love.
Again and again we need
to be reformed. Until we can look at every man, woman, and child as a fully
human being, just like us; beloved of God just like us.
Being reformed is hard
work, but God is patient.
How will God reform
us? Where are the blind spots, the flaws
which make us less than useful? Each one
of us may answer that for him or herself; each of us may offer our personal
prayer to God, to reshape us closer to God’s image, closer to God’s original intent
for humankind. But let us pray also for
the church, that God will reform us into the church that Christ desires: a community
called together in Christ; where we may grow together in faith and grace; and
where all of God’s children are
welcomed with love.
Photo Credit: By Gary Bridgman - Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1892183
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