God makes that which is worthless, priceless!

      I wish I had greater clarity about what to preach this week.  I settled on Philemon because people have been asking questions or commenting on trafficking and modern slavery, and it is an important teaching in our own parish history.  But I could have been easily swayed to preach on the dangers our Christian Nationalist friends should see in Jeremiah’s warning this morning.  And the Gospel lesson might need a reminder that the word translated as hate by our translators today should be more or first understood comparatively.  When clarity is not present, blame the preacher; but do feel free to grab me this week if I did not choose what you needed.

     Today is the only time in the three-year cycle of the lectionary that we read from Paul’s letter to Philemon.  So, if you do not know it or remember it, that can be a large part of why.  Those who like to tease their friends can tell them I preached such a great sermon on the letter today that you felt called by God to read the whole book.  Before you groan, we read all but 4 verses of the book.  So, if someone is impressed that you ran home and read the whole book of Philemon, you know they do not know their Bible that well.  Philemon is actually the third shortest book, when it comes to word count.  I will leave it to you to figure those out for your studying pleasure!

     The entire subject of Paul’s letter is slavery, which is why it has been important in our past as a parish and as those who live in the South.  Of course, the slavery of Rome was different than the slavery of the South in the lead up to the Civil War.  But, as one survivor once reminded me, slavery and oppression are all the same.  Once you lose control of your life, there’s no good.

     To put the letter in context, though, we need to remember that when this letter was written, likely around AD 60, there were maybe 300,000 citizens like Paul and maybe as many as 10 million slaves.  Historians like to argue over the numbers, so you may read there were as few as a 100,000 citizens and 5 million slaves; and you may read higher numbers.  What is important to us is the response to runaway slaves.  Rome was constantly on guard about the numbers game between the upper class and the lower classes.  There was often a genuine worry that the slaves could overwhelm the upper class by sheer numbers.  So, when a slave escaped, it was an event.  Everybody in the community was on the lookout for the runaway slave.  Punishment for capture depended a bit on how the slave had worked prior to running away, any crimes they committed while free, and the on the temperament of the slave owner.  Those that got off the easiest just had to do the most menial jobs after their punishment.  Some returned slaves were beaten and/or branded with an F for fugitive on the forehead.  Some were maimed to prevent future flight.  Some were sold into an Ergastulum, think the worst prison imaginable, or even to gladiator schools.  The perceived worst were killed in tortuous ways, often by crucifixion.

     I assume everyone has seen the movie Spartacus with Kirk Douglass.  That rebellion was the fear of every community in Rome.  Though Crassus eventually defeated the army of freed slaves, and crucified them along the way back to Rome as a warning to others who shared their thoughts, communities were ravaged by the slave army before their defeat.  No one wanted a repeat of that!  That’s the context of our letter today.

     A slave deemed worthless by a man named Philemon, whom we think lived in Colossae and certainly Asia Minor, has run away.  For reasons known only to the slave, he has made his way to Rome, where he has encountered the Apostle Paul, who is imprisoned – we read about that at the end of Acts, for those who want more details.  Paul writes the letter, telling the recipients that Timothy is with them.  That greeting is likely important for two reasons: to let them know that Timothy sends greetings and that Paul’s decision to write this letter is VERY intentional.

     Paul greets Philemon, Apphia, Archippus, and others in this house church hosted by Philemon.  This will be important in a few minutes.

     Paul shares that he prays for them always and hopes that they may perceive all the good that they may do for Christ, and he tells Philemon and the others that the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through them.  All that serves as the leadup to Paul’s purpose in writing the letter.

     Paul states that he could command Philemon to do what he is about to ask, but he wants Philemon to choose to do the right thing on the basis of love.  Yes, Paul plays on Philemon’s sympathies by reminding Philemon he is old and now a prisoner, but Paul really wants Philemon to make the right choice here.  Think weird Barbie and Stereotypical Barbie in the movie last year.  Weird Barbie offers Stereotypical Barbie the opportunity to discover the reason for the portal and to close it or to stay in Barbieland.  Stereotypical Barbie choose to stay.  Weird Barbie offers the choice again.  Stereotypical Barbie again chooses wrong.  Weird Barbie tells her she has to go to the real world or learn to live with cellulite, she just wanted to give her the opportunity to think she was in charge of her own fate.  It’s kinda like that, except Paul really wants Philemon to choose based on love.

     It turns out that Philemon’s runaway slave has made his way to Rome and met Paul, who has shared the Gospel with the slave.  In fact, Paul has so discipled Onesimus that he will be the one returning the letter and risking his life or well-being!  Paul tells Philemon he preferred to keep the slave, but he wanted Philemon’s consent.  And Paul writes that maybe this is why Onesimus was separated from Philemon for a while, so that Philemon might have him back for ever.

     Then comes the big ask: If you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would me.  Charge his debts to my account.  Understand, the who community would be in an uproar over the runaway slave.  Bounty hunters have likely been employed.  Philemon will be taking a real risk, if he does not severely punish Onesimus and make a public spectacle of his return.  That’s likely the reason Paul does not command Philemon but rather prays he makes the right decision out of love.

     Paul is, of course, not done.  Paul tells everyone in attendance he is writing this letter in his own hand.  We have a lot of doctors in this congregation, so we have a lot of illegible handwriting in this congregation.  Paul does not see well.  He always has someone like Timothy or Luke write the letters he dictates.  I have seen his writing on the walls of that prison.  Imagine a doctor’s writing but with peaks and valleys.  You read it going up and down and complain that he cannot write in a straight line.  That’s what Paul’s writing was like.  It was expensive, too.  Papyrus cost money.  Meandering writing wasted papyrus.  This is so important to Paul, though, he writes it himself, aware of the challenge and the expense to drive the point home to Philemon.  Paul knows what he is asking.

     Paul, of course, writes that he will say nothing about what Philemon owes him.  By writing that, he is of course reminding Philemon what Philemon owes him, namely the sharing of and hope found in the Gospel of Christ Jesus!  Like Onesimus, Philemon was persuaded by Paul’s arguments that Jesus was the Messiah of God.  Is it passive aggressive?  Maybe?  I think it aggressive.  Paul has given this letter to be read to the congregation meeting at Philemon’s house.  The leaders have been praised by Paul, as has Philemon, and now Philemon must make a decision in front of them.  Reject Paul and reject the Lord, or do the right thing for the right reason knowing the risks and potential cost.  Paul has set the table to make sure Philemon does the right thing, as many of us often do with our children or valued employees.

     The letter is important in our history in that it was one of the ways in which our predecessors made the courageous decision to allow their slaves to worship at Advent.  Others read, and still read, this letter and, because Paul does not condemn slavery outright, decided God thought slaves the natural order of things.  Quintard and our predecessors read it to understand that a slave cannot truly be a brother in Christ or adopted son of God.  For their understanding and decision, they were labelled Yankee Sympathizers.  They were mocked and shunned.  Initially, they were not even allowed to join the Confederate Army.  But they were correct.  God wants all people to come to Him, of their own free will.  More wondrously, He entrusts that invitation to men and women like Paul or Apphia or Philemon or you or me.  He trusts us to make the right decision based on our understandings of what He has done for us, just like Paul trusts Philemon.

     It is a good story for us individually and corporately.  Like the house church at Philemon’s, our ancestors made good and bad decisions.  Through it all, God was at work, discipling, maturing, and transforming.  It would be a good story if I ended there, but there is a Paul Harvey more to this story as there often is in the Gospel.

     Some in the modern world and Church condemn Paul for not outright condemning slavery, as if he was not a someone in his own context.  We are able to evaluate such things because our context is very different.  Such people like to fuss about Paul in this letter because we do not know how Philemon chose.  Since it was not commanded by Paul, Philemon might have continued to enslave Onesimus and punished him accordingly.

     For the most part, Philemon disappears from history.  He appears in one sentence in the letter to the Colossians, where Paul dictates he is sending Onesimus back.  But that is it.  Except for some other extent writings.  They are not Scriptural so we must acknowledge that we cannot accept them with the same certainty or trust.  But Philemon is listed in early Church writings as one of those killed in the mid-60’s in the great persecution of Nero.  The early Church considered Philemon one of those who was willing to die and eventually did die for his faith.  How do we think such a man would have responded to that letter we just read?  Would he respond out of fear, or would he have responded out of love, trusting God to keep His promises to Him?

     Onesimus’ story is also pretty cool.  Some extant literature has him dying as a martyr with his former master in Colossae.  But other literature speaks of Bishop Onesimus.  On the one hand, we can accept that God was so at work in the life of a useless slave that He transformed that worthless slave into a worthless bishop!  I know, I know, the real play on words is a worthless slave into a useful bishop, but I could not help myself at the joke, and, as one of our 8 o’clockers asked between the services: Can there be a truly useful bishop?  There can, with God’s help and God’s grace!

     If Onesimus died in the Nero persecution, the story is no less amazing.  Within a few short years of our letter, in a world where cell phones, e-mails, texting, and other forms of instantaneous communication did not exist, somehow this story was known.  This letter and its results traveled throughout the Church, and three men took the name Onesimus at their consecration, indicating they wanted to be a useful bishop to God.  Or, given the fact that Onesimus is not exactly a common name, our Onesimus survived, was eventually consecrated a bishop, and served three dioceses.  In either case, it worth remembering and sharing.

     And reminding.  The same God who worked in and through people like Paul, Apphia, Onesimus, Quintard, and all our predecessors at Advent, wants to work through us.  That same transformative grace that made them all worth remembering and considering makes the same possible for you and for me.  Reminded of that truth, and nourished by His Body and Blood, we are sent out into the world to be those clay vessels which He shapes and finishes, and leaves as His marker of salvation in the world around us!

 

In His Peace,
Brian+