2025-09-07 Pentecost 13

Scripture Readings

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!

Today we have a scripture reading from the book of Philemon. In fact, this is the only scripture reading we have from Philemon. It is St. Paul’s shortest letter in the whole Bible and it might as well be a postcard rather than a full fledged lengthy letter. But we could say it is the postcard that packs a punch! It’s really that old cliché of “good things come in small packages” – diamond rings, dynamite … bacon (now that you pay the pound-price for 375g). There is a whole lot of good stuff in this very short little letter.

What makes this letter to Philemon stand out is that it is a personal letter, sent from St. Paul to an individual. Most of the time, the New Testament letters or epipstles are sent to churches – like if Regional Pastor Haberstock wrote us a letter and we read it publicly on a Sunday morning. But this letter is to a person, almost like reading a private email or a postcard. Why would somebody’s private mail make it into the Bible to be read by billions and billions of people? Well, it’s a little letter that has a big lesson. It’s really about forgiveness personified. How many countless sermons have you heard about God’s forgiveness for us in Christ our Lord?! Hopefully all of them! But the point of hearing and listening to God’s forgiveness so much is that it would rub off on us. It’s like walking into a bakery. When you go into Maple Leaf Bakery over on South Hill, the smell of fresh baked bread, cinnamon buns and lemon poppyseed loaf wafts all around you. And when you leave, and get back in your car, you smell like a bakery! It’s a wonderful thing! As it is with God’s wonderful forgiveness of our sins and wrongs in Christ our Lord. It’s wonderful to give that forgiveness to others.

So what transpired in this short little letter? Well, there was a guy named Philemon. He converted to Christianity through St. Paul’s preaching and lived in Colossae. He also had a slave named Onesimus. Slavery in the Roman Empire wasn’t much like the “slavery” that comes to our minds. For us, we hear slavery and automatically think about the southern United States and the plight of black people. But in Rome, slavery wasn’t along racial lines. Anyone could have been a slave – doctors, philosophers, mine workers, you name it. . In fact, if a slave had an education, he was considered more valuable. It all came from Rome’s practice of enslaving people they conquered rather than slaughtering them. This was a common practice done by all people groups on planet earth. And, the Roman government quickly figured that slavery was a good source of income. 4% sales tax was levied on anyone who purchased a slave. I guess somethings never change! Even to this very day, slavery is still prominent world wide with an estimated 28 million people in forced labour and another 22 million in forced marriages. So the problem of slavery is far from gone.

Back in Biblical times, it was just as prominent as it is today. Philemon had a slave named Onesimus. But something tricky happened. Onesimus took off on Philemon, providing for his own needs from the stolen treasury of his master. To give this more perspective, this was a very risky move, punishable by death! Onesimus takes off and goes to hide out in Rome. It’d be like a criminal fleeing Moose Jaw to the shadowy underbelly of Calgary. But it is there where he would run into the Apostle Paul who was in jail for preaching the Gospel of Christ. Now this is where the rubber hits the road and the forgiveness flows. Paul calls to mind the kind of person that Philemon is – “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints … I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.” Philemon is no slouch of a Christian. He’s a top notch guy. He’s faithful, kind, loving, and compassionate. Paul appeals to his honour and conscience before boldly asking him to accept Onesimus back – not only as a guilty slave who needs forgiveness – but also as a brother in Christ!

Accept him back? Forgive his theft and treachery? Release him from slavery and treat him as a full-fledged Christian brother?! Was Paul joking? Was he playing a clever prank on him? The short answer is no. No he wasn’t! He meant every word. Put yourself in his place. Maybe you’ve actually been in Philemon’s place before. Someone has wronged you. Maybe they even stole from you! How easy is it to look that person in the face? How easy would it be to give them a hug and tell them “peace be with you!” – and actually mean it? The answer is: “not that easy!” But forgiveness generally never is … easy. First of all it betrays our sense of justice, making someone pay for their actions or words against us. It forfeits any attempt at revenge. It empties itself of wrath. It runs out to greet the person, even when he is a long way off, to celebrate the goodness that God has done in bringing someone to repentance. It betrays all the logical, commonsense we have!

And this is exactly what St. Paul has in mind for Philemon. Onesimus – whose name literally means “useful” – had become un-useful in his sin. But he repented of his wickedness, receiving the Lord’s forgiveness in Christ through St. Paul, and had become “useful” once again. So radical is God’s forgiveness in the lives of His people! So incredible is grace and so out-of-this-world is mercy poured out! There is nothing else like it in the entire universe! What the world needs now is … this kind of love and mercy in the lives of God’s people. St. Paul even goes to bat for Onesimus, the forgiven slave, when he writes “if you consider me your own brother, someone you would break bread with and are one with in the Lord, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account and I will pay it back to you” (17-20).

We don’t know what happened next. The letter ends as somewhat of a cliff-hanger! We’re confident that Onesimus went back to Philemon, in fact we are pretty sure of it because St. Paul sent him with a bunch of other people who also delivered letters to the Colossians and the Ephesians. But, did Philemon forgive him? Did he receive him back or did he turn him over to the authorities? St. Paul wrote “Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say” (22). St. Paul can be this confident because he knows Philemon takes the Gospel of Christ to heart. The love of God that would stop at nothing to forgive, to restore and to renew severed relationships – not even death on a cross or the depths of hell – would prevail as it always does.

Most likely, we will all be in the place of both Philemon and Onesimus during the course of our lives. The wronged one and the one who wrongs. Will we be quick to forgive, quick to abandon wrath and embrace mercy? Will we return not only to the Lord our God, when we blow it, but also to the people we have wronged and plead for their forgiveness? Will we be the ones to do “even more” than we are supposed to do for the sake the Gospel? We are all the same: sinners forgiven by God’s grace. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Amen!