Given at First Congregational Church of San Francisco
Sunday, September 9, 2001
Rev. Wilfried Glabach
minister@sanfranciscoucc.org
 

Today we heard a brief note to Philemon from Paul. It resembles the most personal letter. The verses you hear today, 1-20, make up the entire letter, save a few last verses where Paul asks Philemon to prepare a guest room for him and some final greetings.

This is it, the entire letter. It is the only letter in the Second Testament, which is addressed to only one person. The rest is addressed to entire churches or communities of people.

So why is it here? How did it survive the process, when bishops in the first centuries decide which letter to include and which not to include?

We are quite certain that Paul wrote other letters to individuals and communities alike. So, how did this one get included? We are not totally sure about that. Was there a personal interest?

The fact remains that it is there tucked away between Titus and Peter in my Bible. It is hard to find when you flip through the pages. In many Bibles it takes only one or two pages.

The story is quite simple and even common for this time. Onesimus, whose name means useful, had somehow left the home of his master. His master is Philemon. Most think he probably run away, perhaps after committing some minor offense that was punishable by flogging or some other punishment that he decided he did not want to face.

When this happened, for whatever reason, in those times it was common for the slave to seek out someone the master respected in order to plead his case for him? This is what brings Onesimus to the prison, most likely in Ephesus, where Paul is being held.

So, here is this slave, free but on the run, seeking out this prisoner, Paul, who is imprisoned. He holds the card of freedom for Onesimus. It is an interesting story. Philemon, on the other hand, is back home. Probably wondering what has happened to Onesimus, perhaps even angry. We are not sure...

But from this letter we do learn a great deal about Philemon. We learn that the church met in his house. This level of hospitality distinguished a select group of early Christians. It is highly probable that Philemon was of high social status. He apparently not only gave his home but even his life to the cause, as Paul describes him as someone who was a "friend and co-worker."

Paul is unusually lavish with his praise for Philemon. Some have suggested that his was his way to make a good case for Onesimus, but most find no reason for this to be the truth. It instead suggests that Paul had great respect and love for Philemon, and thus felt that his letter would be read and heeded.

It is quite conceivable that Philemon is even a financial contributor to Paul's ministry. Philemon is most likely a convert by Paul, and now so is Onesimus, one of Philemon's slaves. You can imagine that this small letter became a huge centerpiece of the debate about slavery during the Civil War.

For me this letter is really a letter of revaluing. And though, it is not really supposed to, it goes with the Gospel from Luke quite well. We have to think about what is important for us in our life. Our personal freedom or our faith. Jesus is challenging us about what it means to be a disciple. Great crowds may be following him. But how many will go the distance? Where do we place our ultimate trust?   In the Gospel we are told that to become true disciples to Christ we must be honest to our feelings and give up all our possessions. We must turn them over to Christ. We must revalue them.  We must see them for what they are, gifts, but far from eternal.

The letter from Philemon is just that, a revaluing of relationships. If we hold this letter in the light of the Gospel, we can focus not on the fact that Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon, but on the fact that Paul asks Philemon to revalue his relationship to Onesimus.  Thus, the text calls us today to revalue all our relationships in the light of the Gospel, in the light of Jesus Christ.

I remember that somebody in my old congregation told me that he had lost his faith in God. A 14-year-old neighbor boy, 15 years old, murdered a young girl. And so, he could no longer believe in God that would allow that to happen. But this girl was not the first child to be the victim of such a senseless crime. All too many persons have had similar fates.

Murder for whatever reason, is as old as Cain and Abel. If human suffering and the infliction of human evil are sufficient to shake faith, why was faith shaken only when the victim happened in the neighborhood?

In Christ, everyone is my neighbor, my son, my sister, and my friend. That is revaluing. The anguish of suffering anywhere is sufficient not to snuff out of faith, but to galvanize faith to compassionate action.

You might want to think of it in another way. Love given without freedom is not love at all but instead ingratiating, a sales job. Conversely, love received without permitting freedom dies like a flame in a vacuum. An embrace from one whom cannot refuse to embrace amounts to a mere dutiful gesture. And freedom without love dies too, although it may be a slower, more deceptive death. Love given with freedom, love-permitting freedom - that is revaluing relationships.

We often read this letter as the hopeful liberation of one man, Onesimus. But this letter is really about the liberation of three men. Onesimus flees the whip and the chain.  Paul was liberated on the road to Damascus. Paul wrote from a physical prison, but he was writing from total freedom. Philemon, the slaveholder, was, if he heeded this letter, invited to spiritual freedom, and out of the confinement that Paul once knew so well.

It is a beautiful letter. I am glad it made it into the canon of scripture we call the BIBLE. I haven't preached about it in Germany. It is not known whether or not Philemon took the hint and let Onesimus return to be the old Saint Paul's comfort for what time was left him, but there is at least one good reason for believing that such was the case.

Years later, when Paul was dead, another saint by the name of Ignatius was in the same jail. The Bishop of Ephesus has sent some friends to visit him, and Ignatius wrote asking if a couple of them could be allowed to stay. Ignatius in his letter used some of the same language that Paul used in his letter to Philemon, almost as if he was trying to remind the Bishop to something.

And what was the name of that bishop wrote to? It was Onesimus. That is a fact. There is no proof he was the same slave-boy grown old with a mitre on his head. But for me it is very tempting to believe so.

If he was, then he refreshed the hearts of not just one old saint but two, and was more true to his name useful that Paul lived to discover.

That is revaluing. That is love that comes through true freedom. That is intended to be our life in Christ.

Amen