Philemon: Call to radical social change!

Background to reading:

• shortest of Paul’s letters
• a personal note but also to be read at the house church
• a slave named Onesimus has wronged his owner and run away from his owner, Philemon, who lives in Colossae.  He has encountered Paul and been converted.  Paul pleads for forgiveness for Onesimus.

Read the letter!

I wonder if you’ve ever received a letter you’d have rather not?
I wonder if you’ve ever had to write a letter you’d have rather not?

This letter from Paul is one of those!

It’s seriousness is probably hard for us to understand because we don’t understand slavery.  The letter asks Philemon to forgive a slave who had wronged him and run away, in fact not only to forgive but to welcome him back as a brother!

Why would that be difficult?  (Ask – master/slave relationship reaction of other slave owners)

The story has three principal characters, and a few others in the background.

FIRSTLY, PAUL:  I put it to you that he didn’t want to write the letter because it meant sending away his friend Onesimus.  It also risked offending Philemon and getting him offside with the church at Colossae.

SECONDLY, ONESIMUS: I’m sure he didn’t want to deliver the letter.  The consequences for him could have been quite severe.  He took an enormous risk.  (Explain)

THIRDLY, PHILEMON: he didn’t want to receive this letter!  It puts him in quite a difficult position.  One easily imagines he was none too keen to take Onesimus back!  I can imagine him looking forward with some anticipation to the opportunity to teach this run away slave a lesson; to the satisfaction of revenge – a dish best served cold!

Now he has Paul asking him to take Onesimus back as a brother!  For goodness sake, what next?

Unfortunately for Philemon the letter id not easily put aside – it applies some not so subtle pressure.  Did you notice that?  i.e. vv. 17-22.
(Read. and comment.  Partic. v.17 “accept him as you would me …”
v.19  “I say nothing about you owing me your own self ..”  I beg to differ Paul, you’ve just said a lot about the debt Philemon owes you!!
v.21  ‘confident of your obedience…”
v.22  “prepare a guest room”!  O, and by the way, I’ll be coming to check up on how things have gone, and I expect to find Onesimus alive and well!

What we actually have in this fairly innocuous looking little letter is a call to radical discipleship, that is as relevant to us today as it was to Philemon nearly 2000 yrs ago!

One suspects that when Philemon converted to Christianity he would have had little expectation that he would be called on to institute radical social change!
He would have had little expectation that he would be called upon not  only to forgive a runaway slave, but to risk being ostracised by his neighbours and other slave owners.

This one act may well make him a social outcast.  (e.g. film amazing grace – William Wilberforce)

Perhaps for us to, as we come to worship Sunday by Sunday, there is little expectation that our faith will cause us much grief.  In a recent conversation I had someone referred to faith as a crutch to lean on.  But it was the experience of most NT Christians, and it is the experience of many Christians around the world today, that rather than being a crutch to lean on their faith actually causes confrontation and places in front of them difficult decisions.

We looked at this letter at home group on Thursday night.  Someone said Paul was asking Philemon to “stand out form the crowd”, someone else put it, “to go down in history”!

This was an invitation to radical social change!  And while we don’t accept slavery in Australia today, none-the-less this remains as relevant for us today as it was for Philemon.

To accept God’s forgiveness means change!
If we accept forgiveness, we also must forgive!
We do not have the luxury of holding a grudge.
In many ways we do not even have the luxury of choosing our own friends. 

I’d be curious to know just how it was between Philemon and Onesimus.  For Philemon to accept him back required forgiveness, trust, it meant making himself vulnerable – what’s to say Onesimus won’t run away again?  Maybe he’ll even take the family silver with him!

Some years ago Don Hinson wanted to help a bloke with a family who was out of work.  He asked Ian Christensen to take him on, which he did.  Now he turned out to be a pretty fair worker and things turned out alright.  But it might not have.

What if it hadn’t?  What if this bloke just didn’t turn up one morning to milk the cows?  He could easily have just taken a few tools and shot through.  Imagine he did that, then he met up with Don again and they talked, and he said he was sorry, etc.  So Don writes a letter to Ian asking him to take him back on.

Does he risk it?  Are you feeling the dilemma that Philemon was in?

In a congregation this size there are bound to be people you don’t get on with very well.  There may be someone, or more than one, who has hurt you.  Paul says forgive them and treat them like a brother or sister!

Being a Christian demands radical social change!  It’s not an option, it’s an expectation!

Traralgon 9am; Traralgon Sth  9th Sept ‘07
Philemon