Slave or Beloved Brother?: A Clear Choice

It is not often that a reading during our services comprises virtually an entire book from the Bible. But that is the case today in the reading from the Letter to Philemon. The entire letter has twenty three verses, and we just heard twenty of them. Moreover, this short letter poses some serious and fascinating problems and challenges for us. So, I will dispense with my usual custom of speaking on the gospel of the day and instead focus on Philemon and his slave Onesimus.

Let's review the situation. Onesimus is a runaway slave who seeks protection from Paul, who is himself in prison at the time this letter is written. Onesimus is converted to faith in Jesus Christ. Philemon, the slave's owner, was apparently the leader of a house church and well known to Paul.

It appears from the wording of the letter that Onesimus has caused Philemon some kind of trouble, probably economic. Whether the trouble arises simply from his running away or whether he did something else, such as stealing from Philemon, we don't know. But it is clear that Philemon would at least be justified in feeling he has been wronged by Onesimus' defection. Roman law was quite clear about the relationship between slave owner and slave, and the entire social and economic structure of the mighty Roman empire depended upon the preservation of that relationship.

In his letter, Paul appeals to Philemon. He asks him to receive Onesimus back not as a slave - as Philemon had a right to expect - but as a beloved brother, a dear one. After making this request of Philemon, Paul reminds him that he would be justified in commanding him, as his father in faith, to accept Onesimus back as a beloved one and not as a slave.

But Paul backs off from being heavy handed and commanding Philemon to do that. Instead, he tells Philemon that previously Onesimus was useless to him but that now he is useful to both Philemon and Paul because Onesimus has been transformed by his new faith in Jesus Christ. So Paul extends to Philemon an opportunity to be transformed too. Paul says: "I wanted to keep him with me, so that he might be of service to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel; but I preferred to do nothing without your consent, in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced." (v. 13-14)

Isn't the same often true for us? We have opportunities given to us all the time to do a good deed voluntarily. How often do we seize that opportunity?

Tomorrow is the day the Episcopal Church celebrates the life of Alexander Crummell. Crummell was an African American who, because of his race, was driven out of an academy in New Hampshire, dismissed as a candidate for Holy Orders by the Diocese of New York, and refused admission to The General Theological Seminary. Then, when he was finally ordained by the bishop of Massachusetts in 1844 he was excluded from participating in the diocesan convention.

That academy in New Hampshire, the Diocese of New York, General Seminary, and the Diocese of Massachusetts all were given opportunities to treat Crummell as a beloved brother, and they threw those opportunities away. Those institutions were given an opportunity, just as Philemon was, to act as though they had been transformed by the gospel of love of Jesus Christ. But they all chose to act by the comfortable social conventions of the times.

Crummell, however, was given the gift of perseverance. He went on to receive a degree in theology from Cambridge University and then to become a missionary in Liberia, West Africa where he helped establish the church there with native clergy.

In this time and this place we also are given opportunities to resist the unjust and repressive conventions and norms of our times just as Philemon was and just as those institutions connected to Alexander Crummell's life were. We have the opportunity to resist racism and sexism in all its forms in our country and throughout the world and on this campus. We have the chance to fight against the norms of our society that allow gay people to be made fun of and discriminated against and even beaten and killed. We are given the opportunity to work for justice and freedom for all God's people even when we would have to buck the system to do so.

We don't know from this letter what choice Philemon made; we don't know the rest of the story. We can see how Paul leaned on him in this letter, but we don't know whether Philemon was strong enough in his faith to go against the tide of the Roman system. As I have mentioned, the empire depended upon slavery to exist. In this country we think of slavery in terms of the bondage of African descendents, which was an oppressive system of two races and two classes. But Roman slavery was more pervasive and a much more central part of the entire economic and social system even than African American slavery was, and much more complicated, multi-layered, and multi-faceted. It is doubtful that very many people ever thought to question the Roman institution of slavery. So it would have been an extraordinary thing for Philemon to have embraced Onesimus as a beloved brother and not as a slave.

We have to imagine that Philemon worried about what the neighbors would think if he did as Paul asked. He would have known that such a move would have been seen as extremely threatening to other slave owners and as undermining the social system of the day. After all, if you freed one slave, where would that lead? Where would it end?

But we also have to imagine that Philemon, as the head of a house church, a leader of the Christian community, had something else to worry about. The contents of Paul's letter surely would have been known to others. And the expectation that Paul had that Philemon would be transformed by the love of Christ would also have been the expectation of those Christians in Philemon's household. They would be watching closely for Philemon's reaction. Was Philemon's talk of Jesus Christ just so much bunk, or did it make a difference in his life and the way he related to his world? Was he a hypocrite, or was his faith for real?

The only way for Philemon to have truly received Onesimus as a beloved brother was to manumit him, to free him completely from any duty to him. If Onesimus had wronged Philemon, as Paul's letter suggests, then Philemon would also have had to forgive Onesimus as well. These were the Christian things to do under the circumstances, but they would have been exceedingly difficult things for him to do. Paul was asking a lot of Philemon, just as Christ asks a great deal of us now.

The return of Onesimus as a Christian with Paul's strong support gave Philemon a choice. He had to make a decision. There was the safe, socially acceptable, legally justifiable choice to keep Onesimus as a slave. And then there was the choice, informed by the gospel and the command of Jesus to love one another as he loves us, to free Onesimus and embrace him as a beloved one, as a dear brother. Would Philemon choose to deny his rights as a Roman citizen and slave owner? Or would he choose to deny his identity as a Christian? His neighbors and his house church were watching and his choice would reveal whether or not he himself had truly been transformed by his faith in Jesus Christ.

Just so, my brothers and sisters, the world is watching us. As we leave this holy place all eyes are upon us. We are asked by the gospel of Christ to embrace all people as beloved brothers and sisters and by so doing free ourselves from the shackles of slavery. What will our choice be? Will we resist intolerance and injustice on this campus and in all our dealings with others? Or will we accept the world the way it is? If we say we are Christians and yet act in the ways of a hateful and unjust world, we give scandal to all we say we stand for. Others are watching us. How will we choose?