Up from Slavery

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church, based on the book of Philemon,
September 9, 2007

Intro and Background

On April 4, 1864, in a letter to Albert Hodges, Abraham Lincoln wrote, “If Slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Today this seems obvious to us, but as Thomas Sowell points out in his essay, ‘The Real History of Slavery’ (in Black Rednecks and White Liberals), “…for thousands of years, slavery was simply not an issue, even among the great religious thinkers or moral philosophers of civilization around the world.” (pg. 116).

Slavery has been common throughout the world and actually gets its English name from the Slavs of Eastern Europe, who were so often taken as servants to the rest of the world that their very name became synonymous with servitude. While we typically think of white traders taking Africans to America to be sold, it must also be remembered that between 1500 and 1800 “At least a million Europeans were enslaved by North African pirates.” In India, the original Thugs kidnapped children for the purposes of enslavement, and “the Ottoman Empire regularly enslaved a percentage of the young boys from the Balkans, converted them to Islam and assigned them to various duties in the civil or military establishments. (Sowell, pg. 112).

And down to today, there are Christians in Sudan being kidnapped and sold into slavery, often sexual slavery, to their Muslim neighbors.

We will remember of course, that the Hebrews were slaves of the Egyptians for 400 years. The Bible even contains various regulations concerning the ownership of slaves. And both the Greeks and the Romans kept slaves without scruple. It is within this context that Paul writes to Philemon, the owner of a runaway slave.

It seems that a young slave named Onesimus had stolen some money from his owner, Philemon, and run from Colossae to Rome. Some four or five years later, he met up with Paul, who was in prison awaiting trial before Caesar. Onesimus becomes a Christian and makes himself useful to Paul, learning from him all the while.

Paul’s Appeal to Philemon

Now Philemon was an intimate friend of Paul’s. He was a well-to-do man and had a house big enough to hold church meetings – a common practice in the early church. In fact, the Roman basilica style church is based on the early Roman homes. Paul shows the depth of his relationship with Philemon in verse 7, “I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.”

He thanks God ‘always when he remembers Philemon in his prayers, because he has heard of Philemons’ love and of the faith that he has toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints, and he prays that the sharing of Philemon’s faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing…for the sake of Christ” (v.4,5).

Paul’s object in writing to Philemon is to intercede on behalf of Onesimus urging him to accept the runaway as a new brother in Christ. The tone of the letter is full of deference, courtesy, tact and humility.
Notice he appeals, he does not demand Philemon to comply. He could command obedience but he prefers to appeal on behalf of his child in the faith,Onesimus.

I think that Paul knew he was skating on delicate ice in dealing with this runaway slave. Against the background of our own American slavery, we can easily imagine what might have awaited Onesimus as a returned runaway. Therefore, he approaches Philemon gently –not in a heavy handed manner, but with love and remonstrations.

Paul appeals to the common bond in Jesus Christ to bring these two men together. We can imagine Paul saying, as he did to the Galatians: There is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus…(Gal.3:28). He says to Philemon that Onesimus was dead and useless to him, but through the Lord, there has come to be a unity between the two men that transcends the bounds of the secular law. The challenge to Philemon is to look to the higher law and recognize the claims of the Brotherhood in Christ – a brotherhood which supercedes the dead requirement of the law. And there is the reminder in the word ‘forever’, that the Kingdom of God is eternal, that our relationships with our Christian brothers and sisters go on without end.

Paul then offers to pay any debt that Onesimus has incurred with Philemon, but the implied message is that Philemon owes Paul big time, and Paul is now calling in his favors from Philemon. “You owe me your own self, and I want some benefit from you in the Lord…so refresh my heart,” he says. “ And by the way, prepare me a place, because I’m going to come visit you soon…

The Christian Response

This very short letter, with its gracious spirit, was read throughout the world for 18 centuries before circumstances allowed for the formulation of a document asserting that, “All men are created Equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…” Only in America and England did these ideas gain a substantial foothold, causing the end of the slave trade within 100 years of that first declaration.

In this country, we alone fought a bloody civil war to decide this issue. The English eventually paid the slave owners for their ‘property’ much in the same way the government would reimburse a land holder for taking his property to build a bridge or road.

The English then used their worldwide hegemony to force the abandonment of the slave trade in places as far flung as Brazil and Zanzibar. The Gospel imperative, pushed by conservative Christians, forced the end of the slave trade all over the world.

The Contemporary Challenge
The excellent movie, Amazing Grace portrayed the 40- year struggle by William Wilberforce and others to end this vicious trade. Wilberforce stood as a prophet crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God!

We too are called to stand as prophets crying in the wilderness. We are called to stand against the apostasy of those church leaders who use their positions of authority to tear down the church and promote other religions.

We are called to advocate for the weak and the defenseless, the unborn who face the butcher’s knife, and those who, even today are being forcibly taken into slavery. We are called to help people find freedom from other forms of slavery such as legalism and addictions of all sorts.

And, as Paul demonstrates, we are challenged to do all these things in a spirit of love and grace towards those we seek to change. I love the words of St. Francis, “Wherever you go preach the Gospel; if necessary, use words.”

Friends, this week, let us seek the Lord and ask him how we may serve Him in winning the lost to Christ and also in winning Christians to a higher standard of faith and behavior. AMEN.