Is God Still Speaking?

Philemon 1:1-20

August 14, 2016

Mark S. Bollwinkel

            Preachers usually ignore the letter of Paul to Philemon.  It contains no parables.  It has no dramatic appeal for faith, conversion or service.  One of the benefits of following the church appointed schedule of Sunday morning scripture lessons we call the “lectionary” is that it forces us to consider texts we would rather just avoid.  The Bible has much more to it than the Beatitudes and Ten Commandments.  Sections such as Philemon are difficult to understand or appreciate.

            Philemon is simply a personal letter from the apostle Paul to a dear Christian friend in Colossae (Colossians 4:9) regarding Onesimus a runaway slave.  The runaway slave becomes a devoted member of Paul’s community and a beloved servant.

            Consider that prisons in the first century CE did not have food services, laundries or medical clinics.  It was up to the friends and families of the prisoner to feed and care for them.  There was constant traffic in and out of a jail by such people under the watchful eyes of the guards, vigilant not only for security but for potential bribes.  Such friends and family brought in food, washed clothes and tended the wounds of the prisoners.  Slaves were also allowed to continue serving their master if the master were imprisoned.

            Paul sends Onesimus back to his master Philemon with a letter in hand.  Paul wants Onesimus to meet his legal obligations as a slave.  He wants Philemon to treat his slave with forgiveness.  And!  Paul makes a pointed request for Philemon to donate Onesimus to him and send Onesimus back to Paul because Paul really needs his service while he is in prison.

            There is no appeal by Paul to free Onesimus from slavery.  There is no condemnation of slavery as an institution.  In fact, Paul accepts the institution as “business as usual” (note; I Corinthians 7:20-24, Colossians 3:22-4:1).  One of my New Testament professors at seminary suggests that in the first century 90% of the world’s population were slaves or indentured servants.  Slavery was an accepted and normal way of life.  As such, the apostle wants Onesimus to face the consequences for his illegal flight.  Paul clearly wants and needs the services of a slave for himself while imprisoned.

            This may be hard for us to hear.

            You and I find the notion of slavery barbaric and intolerable.  It is awkward for us to hear Paul, one of our Christian heroes, speak so complacently about such an evil business.

            We forget that the end of legal slavery is recent to human history.  The first nation to ban slavery, England, did not do so until the 1700’s.  Our own nation didn’t do so till just 140 years ago.  Although slavery is now illegal throughout the world it still exists as an underground trade.  According to the US State Department 20-30 million people live in slavery or indentured servitude today, more in numbers than any time in history.

            Slavery was accepted as a normal part of life in Biblical times.  It was not considered wrong.  In the Old Testament we find numerous verses describing the rules and regulations for the treatment of slaves (note; Leviticus 19:20, 25:39-55, Deuteronomy 21:10-14 as a few examples).  Slaves were taken as captives in war.  Adults sold their children or even themselves into slavery to pay off debts.  It was a legal punishment for certain crimes.  Those born to slave parents, became slaves themselves, mere pieces of property for their owner.

            In the New Testament slave labor was considered basic to the economy of Palestine and the Roman Empire as a whole.  No New Testament writer spoke against slavery as an institution.

            Jesus did not condemn it.

            The Bible assumes slavery to be an acceptable part of life, while we find it repulsive.

            No wonder preachers avoid Philemon like a plague!

            Forgive the history lesson but it does raise an important question about how we approach the Bible.  What do we do with these texts?  If the Bible is irrelevant for us today in certain passages, is it meaningless in others?  Can we pick and choose what is relevant and ignore that parts that don’t speak to us?

            The answer to our dilemma really depends on how we are going to read the Bible.

            During the Civil War, Methodist preachers in the south cited verses in the Old and New Testaments to justify from their pulpits the “holy necessity” of slavery.  Today White Supremacists in Idaho, California, Germany and South Africa cite certain Biblical passages to prove their convoluted doctrines of racism.

            The Scriptures were written and compiled over an 1,800-year period, involving hundreds of people.   The Bible contains 66 books, thousands of chapters, hundreds of thousands of words.  Someone can justify just about any crazy notion by picking out a Biblical verse or two as a proof text.  [Please note Genesis 6:4 of the KJV, “There were giants in the earth in those days…mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”  Notice there is no mention of “Dodgers” in the Bible only “Giants”!]

            What if we took Psalm 137, verse 9, out of context, “Happy shall he be who takes your babies and dashes them against the rock!”?

            Frightening, sick and sometimes powerful people have throughout history, and still today, approached the Bible first with their hatred, bigotry and politics in mind.  They have come to the Bible not to listen, certainly not to learn. 

Rather, this is how we should read the scriptures.

First, each and every word, every verse, every chapter must be taken in the context of the whole.  We call the Bible the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation.  Each bit of that whole is best understood in relationship to each other.

Psalm 137 is a song of lament and despair by the Jerusalem exiles, held in captivity in Babylon following the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.  They longed to return to their homes.  They longed to see justice done to those who brutally destroyed their dreams.  These are the people who ignored the prophet’s warnings.  These are the people who wait for the new Messiah to usher in the reign of God. 

Yes, they sing about revenge on the children of their Babylonian oppressors.  They also sing, “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion…how shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”  Their children shall one day leap and sing for joy when Jesus is born in Bethlehem, marking the end of their suffering and the beginning of God’s promise for a new covenant, just as the African slaves in the southern states of American shared their songs and hope in the Gospel.

The Bible records the relationship between a people and the One God, the God of love, who seeks to save them.  Each verse must be seen in light of this overall message.

We do a great disservice to the Bible when we pick it apart, holding up this part while ignoring that part, citing this verse here, while ignoring that verse there.

Second, we need to respect the historical context out of which the Bible was written, respect it for its richness and its limitations.

That the Bible condones slavery does not mean the Bible is irrelevant for us today because we no longer do.

The Bible contains dietary laws against eating pork and shellfish, and mixing dairy product with other foods.  That we now have refrigeration making such injunctions unnecessary does not make their intent irrelevant.  That the faithful believed that the Almighty God even cared about their daily health and safety still speaks to us today.

Most of the Bible reflects a dominant paternalistic culture that de-valued women, considering them as less than full human beings.   We no longer think that way.  That does not make the Bible irrelevant.  It does make Jesus’ respect for, and inclusion of, women in his ministry even more astonishing.

God is a God of history, involved in the lives of human beings.  Thus, their history and circumstance helps to form the Word of God they were given to speak.

It’s crucial for us to know that and understand that history in its own context rather than imposing our own point of view.

Thirdly, we must remember that God is still speaking.

One of the most important things the Bible records is how God continually breaks into human history with a new Word.

Yes, Paul assumed the correctness of the institution of slavery, but listen to a radically new Word from God when Paul writes to Philemon, urging him to welcome his run away slave home “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother”.

Philemon had a legal right to have Onesimus put to death as a runaway slave.  Few masters would treat their slaves as equals let alone as members of the same family yet Paul will go on to write in Galatians that in Christ we are no longer “male or female, Jew of Gentile, slave or free” (3:27-28).

Paul says this in a society that accepts slavery as the norm.  It is a radical breaking of traditional social barriers.  He suggests that there is a radical equality in the Body of Christ that the world cannot understand, an equality that points to God’s promised future when all will be free.

Paul did not think of himself as a social revolutionary.  He does not condemn the institution of slavery.  But his proclamation of the gospel is revolutionary none-the-less.

            This is one important reason that the early church understood the letter to Philemon as sacred.  It’s another example of how God breaks into history with a new Word.  The words in Leviticus and Deuteronomy regulating slavery were not God’s last words on the subject.

            The Word of God is a dynamic and active force in creation.  God did not stop speaking once the Bible was complied as we know it in the 4^th century AD.

            In the 1700’s in England, and in the 1800’s in the United States, God spoke a new Word; slavery was an abomination to be banned from the earth.  Those words might not be found in the Bible, but God’s intent for all people to be considered free, certainly can.  We are called today to continue to fight slavery wherever we find it!

            In the 20^th century, God spoke a new Word to us about the status and role of women.  They are not second-class citizens.  They deserve complete respect, safety and opportunity as all others.  Those words might not be found literally in the scriptures but God’s intent for such equality certainly can.

            If we come to the scriptures with our minds made up about what we want to find there, we will not hear what God is saying, then or now.   The Bible is no historical relic to be kept on the shelf.  It is still the sufficient rule and guide for understanding the Word as it is spoken today.  If we come to the Word with open hearts and minds the Bible can feed us.  It can point us to the direction of God’s constant care.

            So what might God be saying to us today, here in Carmel-by-the-Sea?

            What new and transforming Word might be right in front of us to hear?

            That is, if we think that God is still speaking…

            Amen.