Slavery, freedom and forgiveness

We don’t very often come across readings from Paul’s letter to Philemon – and that’s for good reason because actually we have heard almost all of the letter this morning. It’s an extremely short book - but one which has a lot in it. 

Paul is writing to Philemon probably when under house arrest in Rome. Philemon was a wealthy member of the Church in Colossae whose slave, Onesimus, had run away to Rome. When he was in Rome he had been led to the Christian faith by Paul and Paul was now writing to Philemon to ask him to take Onesimus back – not as a slave but as a brother… And Paul shows the depth of his commitment as he offers to pay back anything that Onesimus owes to Philemon. 

And so there’s a number of things that come to mind when we read this letter.

Firstly there is the obvious worry we might have about slavery – what was common then is all too common in the world still and whilst slavery seemed to have been accepted for so long, today we would all agree that it can never be right to ‘own’ another person… 

We don’t know how Philemon treated his slaves, but for whatever reason Onesimus ran away seeking freedom, and he found a greater freedom than he can surely ever have imagined as Paul helped him to get to know the love of Jesus… In many ways, Onesimus had broken away from slavery and had found perfect freedom. 

Secondly we have the commitment of Paul. We are all commanded to share the good news of Jesus. We may not be good at it at times. We may be a bit scared of doing it, but it’s what Jesus commanded us to do… Paul risked everything, and here, under arrest again, he has been sharing the gospel. And he doesn’t stop with the person converted and move on to the next person. He shows his love and his commitment as he works for Onesimus to try and lead him back to a home, perhaps to family, to a place he will know – and not as a slave but as a brother in Christ… 

Then we have the message to Philemon. Whatever we may think of slavery today there is little doubt that Philemon would have felt tremendously wronged as Onesimus ran away – he was important property and the natural thing would have been to punish him, perhaps very severely…. But Paul is asking for Philemon to take him back, without punishment and not as a slave, but as a brother. He is asking for Philemon to reward Onesimus. It’s a big ask !

So, we have the escape from slavery into freedom, the commitment of Paul as a disciple of Christ to other people and the request for forgiveness given to Philemon…

And each of these things are relevant to us today… There is of course a need to find out about and fight slavery. It comes in all kinds of different forms with people trafficking being big business. There will be people who try to escape and some will make it but many won’t simply because they have nowhere to escape to, but as Christians, as the Church, we need to be both praying and working to offer people everywhere hope in life… 

One of the greatest gifts we can ever give to someone who is struggling is hope, and we have that hope in Jesus. During his ministry on earth he didn’t hide in some spiritual bubble but lived amongst and worked amongst and ministered to real people with real needs and real fears and he stood up for those who were struggling and he fought injustice… 

As his church today, we are called to do the same. We are called to help people out of slavery, both literal and spiritual, and offer them hope… 

And so we’re challenged to ask ourselves, who are the slaves today that we can help. Yes, it will be those we watch on television or read about who are sold off, often being promised a better life, but actually into a miserable existence…. 

But perhaps also there will be those closer to home who are living in a kind of slavery… People who have no hope, who don’t know where to turn for help, perhaps sometimes people who have made a complete mess of their lives through their own fault – but we are not called to judge… We’re called to love… 

And then we think of the commitment of Paul as he approached Philemon to take Onesimus back. Perhaps Paul could have thought he’d done all he needed to do. He’d shown Onesimus a better way, he’d shown him Jesus, and he could have left him to it… 

But that’s never the way of discipleship. As Christians we have a duty to support each other in good times and in more difficult times. We have a duty to encourage each other… we have that duty we keep hearing about – to love !

Our gospel reading today (Luke 14:25-33) highlights our need for commitment as Jesus teaches a large crowd about the need to give things up if we want to be his true followers… The Christian life is an incredible life – it is about peace and hope and joy and love but it’s not always easy because those things so often conflict with the way of the world – and Jesus understood that to live as one of his followers, to offer his good news to others and share his love, it would be costly for his followers…. 

Few of us like to address the issue very often because we know it could mean us being unsettled in some way, but there is a desperate need to address the numbers of people who now profess to be Christians in this country… We have a gospel message which is literally life transforming and we need to find ways, better ways, of telling people about it… 

It will sometimes be costly, it will sometimes be unsettling, but when it is, let’s remember the lengths that Jesus went to in order to show his love for us - because we were that important to him… 

Paul understood commitment and he followed wherever he was called whatever the cost… 

And finally we have that plea for Philemon to forgive Onesimus and welcome him back, not as a slave, but as a brother…. We’ve thought before how difficult forgiveness can be. We’ve thought about perhaps the injustice of being called to forgive people who don’t even appear to be sorry and Onesimus could easily have fallen into that category.

He has run away from Philemon – perhaps he’s taken property and in that culture there was little thought about grace and forgiveness. It was a brutal society but Paul was speaking the culture of the gospel – a gospel of hope and of forgiveness…. Anger and a desire for retribution may all be natural but they’re not spiritual. Somebody once said that if you approach someone with a clenched fist you can’t shake their hand… 

And perhaps we shouldn’t forget that maybe Onesimus may have had some forgiving to do as well – maybe his treatment hadn’t been good. Maybe he had memories that he needed to put behind him… Forgiveness is so often a two way thing. 

Forgiveness is needed for the person that has done wrong, but forgiveness needs to be given for the good of the person who has been wronged too… 

There's a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an advert in a Madrid newspaper. The advert read: Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. On Saturday 800 people called Paco turned up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers.

People are so often living in guilt and they need hope, they need to know forgiveness, they need love… 

We celebrate, we embrace, we enjoy a gospel of reconciliation and hope and love and we’re called to live that gospel. 

And just as a little aside almost at the end of our reading, Paul adds in his letter to Philemon (v.21), ‘I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask’…. Paul knew Philemon’s faith was real. He knew that he understood about forgiveness and Paul was basically saying ‘move on’… 

And so we’re called to break down the barriers of slavery, to help people out of desperation, whatever that desperation may be. We’re called to be committed in our living out of the gospel message, regardless of the cost of that commitment. And we’re called to forgive time after time when we’ve been wronged and to know when we are forgiven… 

God loves us – his love is unchanging, his love is immeasureable – may we live our lives transformed by that knowledge and desperate to share it… AMEN