Philemon 1-21
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
In the song “Alice’s Restaurant” sung by Arlo Guthrie, a song about the draft, he tells the story of being arrested for dumping a load of trash off the side of the road and then going to his army draft examination where he had to explain the arrest to the sergeant; he reacted to the sergeant’s suggestion that he was not good enough for the military by saying, “You’ve got a lot of *** gall! His point was that the army wanted him to go out and shoot and kill other human beings, who were the enemy, and burn and destroy their property, so being a litter bug should not be an issue. But the song is not what I want to talk about.
Philemon, a Christian, probably a convert who came to faith after listening to the Apostle Paul, now a leader of a congregation, was sent a letter, written by Paul himself. The letter was not about how to live a right life; it did not espouse any theological or doctrinal guidelines, the letter was about a runaway slave, owned by Philemon. Paul, while sending the runaway slave back to Philemon was in this letter asking Philemon to, not only release the slave Onesimus and forgive him, but also send Onesimus back to Paul, so that Paul may have his help. We have no factual documentation, to tell us how Philemon responded, but I might have if I were him, quoted Arlo Guthrie, “You’ve got a lot of gall” and told Paul to but out and get his own slave if he wanted one. Remember, at that time slavery was an accepted institution. There were different kinds of slaves, some that only had to work off their debts to be freed, many who were captured in war and there were others of the kind we usually think of who were bought and sold. A runaway slave had little in the line of rights; the law, both Roman and Jewish, was completely behind the slave owner.
Note: Paul did not say that slavery was wrong. Paul simply (though there was nothing simple about it) wanted Philemon to give Onesimus (Philemon’s slave) to him, so that Paul would have the help he wanted. If Paul were to have outlined the evils of slavery, we might see this differently, but no, Paul simply wanted to borrow Philemon’s slave like he might borrow a donkey. Actually, that is not exactly true. Paul outlines his love for Onesimus, that he looks at him as a son, who has contributed greatly to Paul’s ministry. The issues for Philemon were great; I very much doubt that Philemon’s response to Paul was “You have a lot of gall” but it would have been justified. Philemon (though) had to take into account the effects of receiving Onesimus back, now as a Christian brother. Assuming he had other slaves, what might be the effect of such an action, on the other slaves? How could he possibly maintain discipline? Why would the other slaves be willing to do their jobs? What was to keep the other slaves from escaping as well and going to Paul? Sadly, it took more than 18 centuries, for humankind, for the most part, to outlaw slavery. That is not to say that everything is good and right even today, but that slavery is no longer an acceptable institution.
As far as the letter to Philemon, Paul no doubt had a lot of gall! Unfortunately, we do not know what Philemon did. If Paul received a letter in return, we do not have it; if Onesimus was sent back to Paul we have nothing that says so; we can do little more than wonder and maybe think about how we ourselves might have responded. There is one interesting piece of history, that may relate to Paul’s request and Onesimus ’ outcome. History records that there was a Bishop Onesimus of Byzantium from the year 54 to 68. Some believe him to be the same Onesimus. If that is the case, Philemon certainly did not, respond to Paul that he had a lot of gall. Philemon likely sent Onesimus back to Paul, as Paul with a little arm twisting, had requested. The thing we need to understand is that Paul was a man who was listened to. More importantly, Christianity was something that was accepted as having the authority to direct people’s lives. It seems that it turned out to be just as Jesus said in today’s Gospel, that to follow him, you had to be willing to hate, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers. Following Jesus was to be priority-one and so if Philemon did as Paul had asked, he put everything that he had in peril because of what he believed was a higher good. That meant he had to re-evaluate the socially acceptable standards of his time and make changes to his life so that he may embrace Onesimus, his slave, his runaway slave, as a brother, at least a brother in faith and send him back to Paul.
But here, Paul made no ethical justification other than he wanted Onesimus sent to him and that Philemon would benefit by having a new brother in Christ. The early church was much better at living with diversity than we are today. At least within their worshipping community, socio-economic groups sat side by side, slaves next to slaves owners, rich next to poor, black next to white, brothers and sisters in faith, all. Maybe it was just the reality of there being just a few churches and them far between, but within the few churches they had, the people of faith mixed. Did you know that the Lutheran church has been described as the whitest Christian denomination in America? A lot of people felt that the person who wrote this had a lot of gall writing it, but it seems to be true. Without a doubt people choose to go where they want to go, and that is as it should be, but we need to ask the question, as we look around at all the white faces sitting here, are we doing something wrong or are we simply failing to reach out to those of other ethnic and racial populations or are we systematically steering those who are different from us away? I do not believe that we are intentionally steering people away, but we will be wise to evaluate our church, to be sure that we are not in some way keeping people away who are different from us. We look at our church building as God’s house; we say that we are a part of the Body of Christ; God’s house is open to all and the Body of Christ is strengthened with each and every addition. Let’s make sure that St. Peter’s is a welcoming place for all.