Note: This Blog will be taking a Summer Break for the next few weeks.
Sermons will continue to be posted on our sermon blog site which can be found here.
This past Sunday here at Mount Hebron Presbyterian Church, we took a look at Paul's letter to Philemon. An online service can be found here, a transcript can be found here.
Philemon
is one of the smallest books in the canon of Scripture. It is a
personal letter to a man, called Philemon, regrading a slave owned by
Philemon called Onesimus (which means 'useful'.)
Sometime before the letter was written, Paul has
converted Philemon and his whole household to Christianity. Paul then
left town and, when he writes the letter, has now been imprisoned for
his efforts to spread the gospel. Onesimus, hearing of Paul's
situation, goes 'absent without leave' from his Master, in order to
minister to Paul's needs and see that Paul is taken care of.
Paul is extremely appreciative of all that Onesimus is
doing for him. Yet he recognizes that there was a problem. Onesimus
was a runaway slave. He should have been meeting the needs of
Philemon, not the needs of Paul. In another of his letters, Paul had
written that slaves should obey their masters as a way of witnessing
to Christ.
If it were not for the gospel message, the whole thing
could have been dismissed and ignored. But because of His belief in
Jesus as 'Way, truth and life', Paul is not prepared to just let
things be. So he writes to Philemon.
The
basis of his argument is that because in Jesus Christ, Philemon and
Onesimus were now brothers in the faith, Philemon should welcome
Onesimus back into his household. Onesimus had acted upon the
guidance of the One God they all shared a belief in. Paul believed
that “There is neither Jew nor
Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for
you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)
Furthermore,
the work Onesimus had performed had been of great benefit to Paul. In
his letter Paul makes use of Onesimus's name. In verse 11 he writes
to Philemon that “Formerly
he was “useless”
to you, but now he has become “useful”
both to you and to me.” Paul knew that
losing the service of a slave had financial implications and offers
to pay Philemon for any loss of income.
It's a little letter with
a big punch. The institution of slavery was an unquestioned feature
of the Roman world. Either intentionally or unintentionally, here is
Paul saying that our equality in Christ challenged the whole fabric
of the way the world was structured.
Such is not a message this
the world is keen to hear or act upon. The racial tensions of recent
days, ignited by the murder of George Floyd, have revealed that we
can turn a blind eye to the question of inequality, until we are
forced to acknowledge there is a problem.
Let us pray, that the
letter of Philemon will continue, like Onesimus, to be “Useful,”
in guiding our thoughts and lives as we consider difficult and
challenging issues of life and faith.
For some music, a classic
from Sam Cooke "A Change Is Gonna Come”
The
Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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