"Useful Indeed" given 9/4/16

What an incredible ruckus one runaway slave stirred up! The slave of course, was the young man Onesimus, who belonged to Philemon. We don't know where Philemon acquired Onesimus, or when. We don't know when the Apostle Paul met master and slave. We don't know Onesimus or Philemon's nationalities, or previous histories. What little we do know, we must infer from Paul's letter to Philemon-- a business letter that somehow found its way into the Bible.

The letter was written while Paul was in prison-- either in Rome around 60 CE, or a bit earlier in Ephesus around 55 CE.. The letter is addressed, not only to Philemon, but also to Apphia, Archippus and the other members of the house church that met in Philemon's home in Colossae. The vocabulary, the writing style, and above all the personality that shines through the words leaves no room for doubt that this letter was indeed written by Paul.

The Apostle was obviously a good friend to Philemon. Doubtless he had stayed in Philemon's house at least once while he was organizing the Colossaen congregation. During that visit, a young slave in Philemon's household must have met and been impressed with Paul. Impressed enough so that at a later date when Onesimus ran away from Philemon's household, he eventually found his way to Paul.

Why did Onesimus run away? We are not told. Did he intend from the start to meet with Paul? We are not told. But it is clear that Onesimus--whose name in Greek is a pun on the title "Useful one"-- somehow or other eventually ended up with Paul. There, the runaway slave named "Useful', who had proved so useless to his master began at last to live up to his name.

Onesimus became a Christian. He served and studied with Paul-- becoming, the Apostle tells us, like a beloved son. He apparently even followed the old man into prison out of a desire to be useful to his spiritual father. What extraordinary loyalty! "Useful indeed", as Paul notes in his letter.

Now however, Paul is faced with a dilemma. The slave named "Useful" has wormed his way into the Apostle's heart. But in doing so, Onesimus has placed Paul in a ticklish situation. As a fellow Christian, Onesimus is now a brother in Christ, no longer a boy but a man, no longer spiritually a slave, but free in his faith.

But in the eyes of the law, Onesimus is still a slave. And indeed as an escaped slave, Onesimus is liable to extreme punishment--torture or even death. On the other hand, for having harbored and sheltered Onesimus, Paul is legally at fault. Under Roman law, Paul has technically defrauded his friend Philemon!

But fortunately, there's an easy out. As an Apostle, as the one who converted Philemon and established the congregation Philemon is part of, Paul certainly has the spiritual authority to send Onesimus back to Philemon, order him to free his slave, drop all charges, and promptly return the boy to Paul. Even a cursory reading of the letter shows us that's exactly what Paul really wants.

Paul however, chooses not to do that. Perhaps he fears to do so because he fears that Philemon is weak in his new-found faith and might refuse. Or perhaps the Apostle feels too close to Philemon, as a friend, to throw his spiritual weight around. Or perhaps, Paul recognizes that it would be good for Philemon as a Christian, to liberate young useless "Useful" out of his own free will.

Whatever the reason, this last approach is the one Paul finally takes. The Apostle recognizes, I think, that virtue forced upon us is not really virtue at all. True goodness must come freely from our hearts, not from fear of hell or mindless obedience to authority. So Paul invites Philemon to be generous.

"Here I am, lingering in jail. I'm sending this beloved child back to you-- although it tears my heart out to do it. I would have liked nothing better than to keep this dear one close to me, to take care of me and look after me, in ways that I know, you-- my equally dear and beloved friend-- would want for me. But, I cannot keep this boy who has become like a son to me any longer without your permission. So I send him back to you-- a formerly useless slave now a useful brother. Let your actions toward him be dictated out of love for me, rather than out of your duty to me (which I remind you by the way, is considerable!)"

Paul is letting Philemon have it with both barrels! He reminds Philemon of his duty to Paul, without actually invoking that duty. He appeals to Philemon's pity for his current imprisonment, while at the same time appealing to his Christian conscience. You don't need a magnifying glass to read between these lines!

What still tends to bother us Twentieth Century readers is the fact that despite all that, Paul actually sent the boy back! Indeed, in the first half of the Nineteenth Century, that fact was used as ammunition by anti-abolitionists. We just don't get it. Young "Useful" the useless slave has become a new person in Christ Jesus and ought to be free! Just as surely, Paul, who had already braved prisons and martyrdom for his faith ought to be willing to stand up to the law one more time for the sake of his beloved convert!

This, after all, was the same Paul who wrote in Galatians 3:28 that there "is no longer such a thing as Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. For you are now all one in Christ Jesus." How could the author of such stirring words send back a slave? This was the same author who wrote in I Corinthians 7:21-22

Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let that trouble you.

But if a chance for liberty should come, take it! For the one who is slave and received the call to be a Christian is the Lord's free man or woman. And equally the free person is now a slave in the service of Christ.

Oh, we can understand Paul's insistence that spiritual freedom is more important that physical freedom. We just can’t understand that Paul literally expected Jesus to come back at any minute and thus believed that the evil of slavery would pass from the world at any moment And we can appreciate the pressure Paul was putting on Philemon to free Onesimus. But even in the light of all that, still we wonder, why didn't Paul just keep the boy?

But let’s take one more look at the letter. Paul hasn't sent Onesimus home to resume his former life as a slave. Onesimus has been returned to Philemon for the service of the Gospel. Paul has sent Onesimus back to Philemon as a "beloved brother". A new relationship now exists between them-- not just a spiritual relationship, but a new relationship in social custom, in values, in affection as well.

Paul proclaims that Onesimus is now more than a slave-- he is a brother-- both as a Christian, and as a man. He calls upon the slave-holder to receive his former property without hesitation or punishment. In order to allow their new relationship to begin with a clean slate, the Apostle offers to pay Philemon “reparations” for any losses he might have incurred. Paul insists that “Useful”, the formerly useless slave receive a blank check promise of forgiveness.

That's asking a lot of Philemon. Could his former owner unconditionally forgive and receive Onesimus as a man, as a brother in Christ, just as if this former slave were Paul himself? "You can have him back--not as a slave but as a brother!" Imagine how the slave-holders of the American South would have reacted to being told that their slaves were now their sisters and brothers! No wonder they kept the Southern churches segregated -- even after the Civil War!

Now the scales of reparation were balanced between slave and master. Amends had been made-- forgiveness granted. By faith, by common humanity, by spirit, Onesimus and Philemon were now brothers. What kind of person enslaves their brother? To consciously do such a thing requires a fundamentally evil person. And none of us thinks of ourselves in that way.

That's why the bigot, the oppressor, the exploiter must always deny the humanity of the slave, the victim, the enemy. From ancient Rome, to the American South, to Nazi Germany, to South Africa, to Northern Ireland and so many other places today-- the hater, the bigot, the Archie Bunker, the big mouth down the street has to assert that the slave, the black, the Hispanic, the Jew, the Arab, the Catholic, the Protestant, the LGBT, the welfare recipient, is some kind of subhuman sinner, somehow less than we are.

So Paul returned Onesimus to Philemon "not a slave, but a brother". Onesimus' fate is in Philemon's hands. What will Philemon do to his new brother? In the best tradition of Jesus, and his parables and teachings, Paul has turned upside down Philemon's view of the world. Paul has forced upon Philemon a revelation, and a call to new life. How can Philemon call himself a Christian and continue to own his brother?

Read between the lines and it becomes clear. The real slave is Philemon Philemon is enslaved to his position as a master. He is enslaved to the social prejudices of his time. He is enslaved to his own class status and racism. Paul is sending a slave home to liberate his master.

We preachers and other moralists go on all the time about how everybody ought to love one another, and how we're all sisters and brothers under the skin. But what doesn't get said nearly often enough is how terribly destructive things like hatred and racism, sexism and homophobia are to the one doing the hating. They twist and distort us. They cheapen and degrade us. They enslave us to our own darker natures, and to the very worst in humanity.

To claim to be inherently better than someone else, to try and categorize others-- their group, their race, their class-- as less than our own will inevitably make us less of a person. Just as Philemon was a slave to his status as master, so does a hater become less and less a person and more and more of a slave-- to their own hatred.

What happened when Onesimus gave that letter to Philemon? Or did he? Did he run again? Until he faced his slavery and his fear and faced up to Philemon, he could not be free. Onesimus’s journey back to Philemon, our life's journey back to Christ-- back to wholeness and sanity and holiness and salvation is a journey to discover and dismantle each and every hard and painful link in the invisible and unique chain of sin and slavery that binds each and every one of us.

And at the heart of the journey lies the question-- whose slave are we? A slave to the prevailing worldly attitudes and practices of this sick society that surrounds us? A slave to our own selfish desires? A slave to our own confused emotions? A slave to addiction, appetite, attitude? A slave to our job, to status, to money? A slave to gender and work and ego and fear? A slave to things and events and relationships that we can only dimly recognize-- much less even name? A slave to our sins, or a slave to Christ?

By the way, there is a postscript to this morning's story. Someone named Onesimus is mentioned in Colossians 9 as one of the bearers of that letter to the community-- and is referred to in it as “one of yourselves”. Then, around the year 115 CE, Ignatius of Antioch speaks in glowing terms of a Bishop of Ephesus, named Onesimus.

If the “Useful” the useless slave was a teenager when he ran away from Philemon's household, it is quite possible that Useful the slave, Onesimus the messenger from Paul, and Bishop Onesimus were one and the same. There is of course, no way to be sure of course, but since I like a happy ending, I choose to believe they were.

As "Useful" the former slave was returned in order to liberate his former master, so can our acceptance of those who are different liberate us and make us more of a Christian, more of the person God intends for us to become. Who knows? When we open our lives to those whom Jesus called the least of his sisters and his brothers, they may well end up doing far more for us than anything we do for them. Sometimes they are the ones who are useful indeed. Sometimes they will end up doing far more for us than anything we do for them. Sometimes they are the ones who are useful indeed.