Philemon had a problem. In the epistle for today St. Paul wrote his old friend about an escaped slave, Onesimus. Somehow Onesimus had found his way to Paul and there he became a Christian due to his preaching. As a result, Paul felt close to this escaped slave, even calling him “my child.” However, St. Paul, as a good Roman citizen, knew he could not harbor a fugitive slave so he sent Onesimus back to his owner, Philemon, accompanied by a letter from him. In this letter Paul reminded Philemon that he owed him big time. After all, Philemon had become a Christian due to the preaching of St. Paul as well. So the Apostle asked Philemon to receive Onesimus back “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me.” Paul concluded “if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.” Here’s is Philemon’s problem – how can he heed Paul’s request and still retain his own livelihood? His wealth and enterprise depended on slaves. In Roman society runaway slaves traditionally were beaten and then had their foreheads branded with the letters FUG, for “fugativo,” fugitive. If Philemon defies Roman custom and receives the escaped slave, Onesimus, “as a brother” he has a good idea what will happen. All of his slaves will get the notion that they can improve their lot by becoming Christians as Onesimus did. Then he would have to treat them all as brothers. If he freed Onesimus and sent him back to Paul, as Paul suggested, pretty soon all of his slaves would run away and expect to be freed after they were baptized. The impossibility of holding onto the Christian values of love and unity while treating other people as slaves is squarely in Philemon’s lap. Philemon had a problem.
Paul had a problem as well, a problem he does not seem to be aware of. Paul had preached that in Christ we are “neither male nor female, slave nor free, Jew or Gentile, but all are one.” He preached that, but he still presumed on the structures of Roman society that he was familiar with. The apostle still thought of women as being of secondary status as in the Roman system. He did not find the institution of slavery to be incompatible with the Christian faith. He urged believers to be part of the system of empire that relied on war and conquest to achieve its ends. Paul’s problem was that he was willing to accept a society that itself had to change in order for Christians to be able to thrive. As the example of Philemon demonstrated, living as Christians would require changing the structures of society where slavery and sexism and violence are acceptable. Paul’s problem was that he received as a given the norms of a society which were in direct conflict with gospel values.
Philemon had a problem. Paul had a problem. We have a problem. Hey, who are we kidding, we have a boat load of problems. We are fastly but surely damaging the earth, our common home, as Pope Francis reminds us. We are experiencing that greatest migration of peoples in human history due to war, poverty, violence. We accept as normal reports of dozens of people being shot every week in the city. We don’t question that the Greater Chicago Food Depository needs to feed hungry people at over six hundred agencies while at the same time 60 million tons of fruits and vegetables are thrown away every year in this country. And that is not to mention family issues, health concerns or financial worries. You get the idea. We’ve got problems. We don’t know how Philemon dealt with his problem. Paul didn’t concern himself with his problem. What are we going to do about our problems?
And Jesus throws another problem on the pile for those of us who follow him. “Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” How are we to do that? The word translated as “renounce” – “renounce all his possessions” – means something like “say good-bye to” or “walk away from.” So Jesus is not saying we are supposed to give away our IphoneX or that new Mercedes Benz. To get what he is driving at we look at the image he used of “hating” one’s father and mother, wife and children. With typical Semitic exaggeration (hyperbole added for emphasis my mother would say when told us “get down off that chair before we broke our neck”) Jesus is telling us that to become his follower requires that we walk away from, say good-bye to, the notion of something as mine. This is my family. This is my idea. This is my time. To be a disciple of Jesus means learning that everything that we have and all that we are comes from God. Being a disciples does not mean adding something to what is already there. I’m a son. I’m an athlete. I’m an American. Oh, and I am also a Christian. Rather, to follow Jesus requires orienting everything in light of who God is, not who I am. A disciple is someone who understand that whoever we are and whatever we have comes from God. Everything is a gift. By holding onto things as mine I am not open to receiving the gift God wants to give.
Once upon a time a Polish patriot died. When he got up to the Pearly Gates St. Peter told him he was a good person and he could go into heaven. However, when he tried to enter the alarm went off as he went through security. “What is that in your hand,” St. Peter asked. “This is the soil of Poland,” the patriot answered, “and all my life I have fought for her and I will never let her go.” Peter explained that we can’t bring anything into heaven of our own it is all of God but the Polish patriot stubbornly clung to the soil of his native land. Peter showed him the joys of heaven and explained the sorrows of hell but nothing budged the patriot. Finally, he had an idea and soon a child was playing before the gates of heaven. The patriot was delighted to see the child and in a short amount of time came to care for her. While the child was playing she proceeded to trip and was going to fall so what could the patriot do but open up his hand to catch her before she hurt herself. So child and patriot entered into the gates of heaven hand in hand.
