O, Brother!
Labor Day is in the rearview mirror, students are back in school, and in the evenings you can feel a slight chill in the air. That can mean only one thing: it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I know, I know. Even the retail stores are only on Halloween. What’s with this talk of Christmas?
Actually, I want to bring up a different Christmas song, “O Holy Night.” I want to call our attention to the third verse because it relates to today’s reading:
Truly he taught us to love one another
His law is love and his gospel is peace
Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother
And in his name all oppression shall cease
In researching the song for this sermon I learned that the original lyrics for “O Holy Night” were written in French. And while French is a beautiful language and just about any sentence in French sounds wonderful, a literal English translation of the French falls a bit flat. Translated literally we get:
The Redeemer has overcome every obstacle
The Earth is free, and heaven is open
He sees a brother where there was only a slave
Love unites those whom iron had chained
Hmmm. Noble sentiments, to be sure, but somewhat lacking in musicality and poetry. The English lyrics that we’re familiar with come to us courtesy of John Sullivan Dwight, a former Unitarian minister. Dwight left the ministry to become a music critic, and the reason he is known today is for his translation of this beloved Christmas carol.
As translation is more art than science, Dwight took great liberties with the French lyrics. For example, the original “He sees a brother where there was only a slave” becomes “Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother.” It’s the difference between a passive observation—“he sees a brother”—and an uncompromising promise—“chains shall he break.”
That Dwight would heighten the intensity of the anti-slavery sentiment in the lyric makes sense given that his translation dates to 1855, when slavery was the defining issue in American society, and Dwight, who was from Boston, was an avid abolitionist. For Dwight and countless others like him in the abolitionist movement, slavery was not primarily a political or legal issue but first and foremost a moral issue. This moral vision that condemned owning human beings as property was guided by and grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ, a gospel that dared to speak of the slave as not only an equal but a spiritual brother.
I can’t claim that Dwight had in mind Paul’s letter to Philemon when he wrote “chains shall he break for the slave is our brother,” but it’s certainly in keeping with what Paul writes in this letter. Paul’s point in writing this letter is to urge his friend Philemon to receive his escaped slave Onesimus no longer as a slave but as a spiritual brother in Christ.
Alright, Philemon. First of all, yes, that is how it’s pronounced. Second, this is indeed a book of the Bible, one of Paul’s thirteen letters in the New Testament. Containing just one chapter, Philemon is Paul’s shortest letter. In fact, we just read pretty much the entire letter.
No, Paul is not calling for an end to slavery, but he is doing something equally, or perhaps even more, radical.
Now, for some background. Paul begins by referring to himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. That’s not just a metaphor. Paul writes this letter from an actual prison, possibly in Rome, where he spent two years under house arrest. For what, you might ask? Why, for stirring up trouble with all his preaching about this Jesus figure who had been crucified some 30 years earlier.
Paul addresses the letter to Philemon, a follower of Christ who lives in Colossae, in what is now western Turkey, along with a woman named Apphia who is likely his wife, and a man named Archippus, perhaps their son or a leader of the church. Also included in Paul’s greeting is the entire church in Colossae, which happens to meet in Philemon’s house. In the first century, there was no high-steepled First Presbyterian Church on Main St. in Colossae or anywhere else for that matter. There were no church buildings at all. Christianity was not yet well enough established for that. Instead, Christians met in the homes of well-to-do believers whose houses were large enough to accommodate regular gatherings of the faithful.
As many people of means were in the Roman Empire, Philemon was a slaveowner. However, slavery in the Empire was not based on race, as it was in America. The Romans enslaved entire populations of the nations that they conquered—men, women, and children. Other sources of slave labor were people who had been kidnapped, sold, or born into slavery. The Roman economy ran on slavery. Slaves worked in agricultural fields, in mines, and in the homes of wealthy Romans. By one estimate, about one third of the population of the Empire were slaves.
We don’t know how Onesimus came to be owned by Philemon, but it’s no surprise that he did not enjoy the experience. He escaped and somehow crossed paths with Paul who was in prison. Paul shared with him the gospel, and Onesimus received it with joy.
Here I must say something about the Apostle Paul as a person. As great an evangelist as he was, Paul doesn’t share the gospel like he’s selling a product, as if he cares only about the transaction. He’s not interested in just winning converts, he wants to make disciples. He invests in the lives of the people with whom he shares the gospel. It’s evident in his letters that he cares deeply about the churches to whom he writes, whether he is expressing his affection, as in the case of the Philippians, or his exasperation, as with the Galatians (“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?”).
Here in this letter to his friend Philemon, Paul makes known his great affection for Onesimus, Philemon’s runaway slave. Paul refers to him as “my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become.” He says that he is sending Onesimus, “that is, my own heart, back to you.” My child. My own heart. Paul makes clear that losing Onesimus is akin to losing a piece of himself. Paul wants Onesimus to stay with him, but he opts to send Onesimus back to the man who owned him as a piece of property.
For doing this, Paul has been the subject of much criticism, especially from more progressive modern readers. How can he send Onesimus back to the man who owned him? Slavery is immoral! Paul is participating in an unjust system of oppression!
Our modern, enlightened eyes see clearly the horror and injustice of one person owning another person as a piece of property. We believe in human rights. We believe that every human life has dignity (at least we used to). But here’s the thing. All of that—the evil of slavery, the concept of human rights, the belief that all human life has meaning and worth—these are modern notions dating to the Enlightenment of the late eighteenth century. In the history of human civilization, it’s as if they were conceived yesterday.
In the Roman world of Paul’s day, a slave had no rights because a slave wasn’t even considered a person. A slave was nothing more than a piece of property. Philemon would have been well within his rights as a Roman citizen to do with Onesimus as he pleased…to punish him however he saw fit for running away, even to kill him.
Paul’s not looking any better, is he? Now, let me make the case for the brilliance and the boldness of what Paul argues in this letter. And I’m using “argues” in the classical sense, i.e., not that Paul is having an argument with Philemon but that he is making an argument in the rhetorical sense. Paul was an educated man. He was likely trained in rhetoric, i.e., the art of persuasive speaking. And in this letter Paul applies one rhetorical technique after another in service to his argument. And what is his argument? Paul argues that the gospel of Jesus Christ so radically reorients our relationships that Philemon should receive Onesimus back no longer as a slave but as a brother in Christ!
First of all, while the letter bears the name “Philemon,” Paul addresses the letter to the entire church in Colossae, which means the letter would have been read aloud to the whole congregation. Rather than a private matter for Philemon, Paul has made this a matter for the whole church, thereby increasing the pressure on Philemon to do what Paul asks.
Second, Paul praises Philemon for his service to the church as someone who has “refreshed” the hearts of the saints. Basically, Paul is saying: Your love and your faith serve as an example for the whole community, Philemon. What could refresh the hearts of the faithful more than seeing you relinquish your claim on Onesimus and welcoming him as a brother?
Paul also makes an emotional appeal. As previously mentioned, he speaks of Onesimus as his child, as his own heart. How could Philemon possibly reject the child, the very heart of his dear friend Paul?
Paul refers to Philemon as his partner and encourages him to welcome Onesimus as he would welcome Paul himself. In other words, Paul is subtly elevating Onesimus as an equal partner in the faith. If you welcome him, you welcome me. If I am your partner, he is your partner.
Paul offers to repay Philemon for any wrong Onesimus has done or any debt that he owes to Philemon, which suggests that Onesimus may have escaped with something belonging to Philemon. “I will repay it,” Paul says. Oh, and let me add, “I say nothing about your owing me even your own self.” I won’t talk about that. I won’t even mention it. Not a word.
And my personal favorite, Paul engages in some clever wordplay. The name “Onesimus” means “useful.” “Formerly Onesimus was useless to you,” Paul writes, “but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.” He is useful to you, Paul is saying, not as a slave, for which he was useless, but as a brother in the Lord.
Paul also flexes his seniority over Philemon, saying, “I am more than bold enough in Christ to command you to do the right thing, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love.” And besides, I know you’ll do the right thing. In fact,” I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.”
By the time Philemon finished reading this letter, I’m sure he didn’t know what hit him. Paul throws every rhetorical technique in the book at him—every tool in his toolshed…all so that Philemon will see Onesimus in a new light…in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, no longer as a slave but as a brother in Christ.
No, Paul is not calling for an end to slavery, but he is doing something equally, or perhaps even more, radical. He is arguing that the gospel applies just as much to the slave as to the slaveowner. In a time when slaves were not even considered persons, Paul is saying that the grace of God in Jesus Christ is for them. Christ was crucified and raised and now reigns for the slave just as much as for the free. For as Paul will write in another of his letters, in Jesus Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free.
Alright, then. All of that was interesting. And good on Paul! Turns out he was not just a man of his time. But what does any of this have to do with us? Slavery in this country ended 160 years ago.
Fine. Let’s apply what Paul is arguing to our own context. Who is the Holy Spirit challenging us to see in the transformative light of the gospel…not as some category of person but as a brother or sister in Christ? Might we say that in Jesus Christ there is no longer legal or illegal immigrant, no longer incarcerated or law-abiding citizen, no longer hetero or homosexual, no longer mentally ill or well adjusted, no longer MAGA or woke. No longer Yankee or Met fan. For all of us are one in Christ Jesus.