Philemon 1-25 “An
Appeal on the Basis of Love”
Has anyone here ever done any
work on a family history?
Worked on a genealogy or a
family tree?
Put together a family
scrapbook, looked thru old documents and letters?
Dave and I each have
relatives who have done some of this for our families.
Sometimes a person even makes
some amazing discoveries about family members.
A little over a year ago, in
the middle of March 2006,
my grandmother died at the
age of 99, just a few weeks short of 100,
or so we all thought.
But then my sister did some
digging around and discovered that although we had always celebrated her
birthday on April 4, there was no record to support that.
Instead she found a baptismal
certificate which showed her date of birth as Mar 4.
My grandmother was actually
100 when she died.
My sister discovered some
evidence to support a different story.
One of the things I’ve
noticed about this family research
is you never have all the
evidence.
You can have newspaper
clippings, records and certificates, journals, photos, and stories you were
told. But all these are still only
pieces.
It’s your imagination that
weaves the pieces into a story.
Today’s scripture is like
that. It’s not a story. It is only a
piece -
a very small piece in the
picture of Paul’s life
and the life of a man named
Philemon.
This is a letter - the
shortest of Paul’s writings
that we have preserved in the
New Testament.
It’s a letter that follows a
classic form for letters
written during this time in
the Greco-Roman world.
In these letters there was
always a greeting.
That was followed by an
expression of thanks.
Next was the body of the
letter, the reason why it was being sent.
Finally, there would be a
closing which included an exchange of greetings,
and in these early letters of
the Christian church, a benediction or blessing.
(They probably taught this
form in middle school language classes)
But behind this little letter
there is also a story.
Like everything else in the
Bible, scholars have studied this letter.
Here’s the story they have
pieced together:
During the first century of
the church, the early Christians met in homes.
Philemon is a leader in one
of these house churches and he gets this letter from Paul.
Paul is talking to Philemon
in the letter,
but it’s actually addressed
to and heard by the whole church.
It’s kind of the same thing
as copying someone on an email or letter.
We do that when we want
someone to know about something.
In the letter, Paul is asking
him to reconsider his relationship with Onesimus,
a slave belonging to
Philemon.
It’s not clear whether Onesimus had run away,
but there was some problem
between him and Philemon,
and somehow he ends up with
Paul.
Paul, who is in prison,
converts Onesimus,
something he tends to do
while he’s in prison.
Seeing how he has become a
Christian,
Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon, asking that he no longer
consider him a slave,
but rather as a brother, a
child of God.
Paul makes this appeal based
on love, but he also uses skillful diplomacy
and careful wording to
encourage Philemon to consider his request.
Paul begins with “I would
rather appeal to you on the basis of love.”
Then he goes on to encourage
Philemon to make a voluntary decision, not a forced one.
Paul adds that he will repay
him for any wrong
that Onesimus
has committed.
Yet he reminds Philemon that
he himself owes a debt to Paul -
the debt of his very life in
Christ.
Finally he adds - even though
he had earlier said
he wouldn’t command anything
from Philemon -
that he’s confident of
Philemon’s obedience.
This letter is an example of
skilled rhetoric, careful diplomacy.
But its more than that.
What this letter tells us is
that Paul was asking Philemon to live and act differently because of his faith
in Jesus Christ.
He makes his appeal to
Philemon on the basis of love.
Because of this love, this
agape love demonstrated
in the life of Jesus Christ
and God’s persistent grace,
Paul expects Philemon to act
different, to make different decisions, to be different.
He makes an appeal on the
basis of love.
Love is the foundation of our
Christian life together.
Love one another. Yada yada yada. We’ve heard it a million times in
church.
That’s all well and good, you
may be thinking.
But you don’t have to work
with my boss.
You don’t have to live with
my family.
You don’t know the kids in my
school.
You do not have my next-door
neighbor.
Nobody would be expected to
love those people.
But that’s just the whole point.
The Christian challenge is not just to love one
another when it’s easy,
it’s to love one another when it’s hard.
If we as the church don’t try to do this and keep on
trying to do this-
then who will?
Paul is asking Philemon to
put aside
What ever would keep him from
acting on the basis of love.
Maybe it’s pride, or greed
that Philemon needs to let go of.
Maybe it’s his concern about
what other people will think.
Maybe he’s worried about how
he’s going to run his business.
Maybe he’s angry at Onesimus.
Maybe he’s afraid of losing
control. Or having his authority questioned.
Although Paul may be asking
Philemon to free his slave,
what Paul is really doing
is inviting Philemon into the
freedom of being bound to Christ.
A kind of letting go of our
human controls, so God can be in control.
I came across a poem in a
prayer book this week that speaks to this.
Abandonment is not just hanging loose.
It is letting go.
It is a severing of the
strings by which one
manipulates
controls
administrates
the forces of one’s life.
Abandonment is receiving
things the way one receives a gift
with opened hands
and opened heart.
Abandonment to God is the
climactic point in anyone’s life.[1]
We don’t know how Philemon
responded to Paul’s request.
I’d like to think that this
was a climactic point in his life.
A point where he opened his
hands and his heart to God
and let go of whatever would keep him from acting on
the basis of love.
But we don’t know.
This letter is only a piece
of the story of a couple of lives
in the world of the early
church.
But if we read this letter as
sure and certain evidence that to follow Jesus Christ is a call to a different
way of being, a different way of living, the radical way of love,
what would we see 2000 years
later in our own Christian communities?
In this letter, Paul pushed
so hard for making decisions on the basis of Christian love. Surely, he meant this to be a predominant
practice among Christians today?
Can we see the evidence in
our lives?
Would we take God to work,
for example? Would we try to work
through an office issue with a colleague, rather than get her in trouble with
the boss?
Would we make an effort to
understand someone in our family and not think the only solution is to change
them to be like us?
Would we talk to our
neighbors about the barking dog rather than call the police?
Would we consider the
question what would Jesus do, as we vote?
Would we care about those who
don’t have the basics – basic food, basic clothing, basic shelter, basic health
care?
Would we pray and work for
the children who lack these basics?
Would we behave differently
in our churches when we have our inevitable disagreements?
Would we build bridges
through our conflicts rather than walls dividing us?
Would we listen more and talk
less? Would we bear one another’s
burdens?
Would we consider all
viewpoints and not be so quick
to judge people as either
right or wrong?
Would we, having done all
that, finally live into the vision that Paul wrote about in another letter
- the letter to the Galatians - when he
writes:
For in Christ Jesus you are
all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is
no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are
one in Christ Jesus.
[1] Sheila
Cassidy, Good Friday People (London: Darton, Longman & Todd; Maryknoll,
N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1991) as reprinted in Resources for Preaching and Worship - Year C: Quotations, Meditations,
Poetry & Prayers, Ed. By Hannah Ward & Jennifer Wild, (