Dearest family,
Thank you for your attention on Sunday. An entire epistle in a single message – the day of miracles has not passed! But needless to say, I cannot summarize the all the internal intricacies of Paul’s argument in a short pastoral letter. You will have to download it if you did not hear it, and probably do so even if you did. It was a ot to absorb! But let me reiterate why I bothered to bring this epistle to the pulpit.
First of all, because I want you to know that when there are big and challenging cultural and societal and institutional evils, like racial irreconciliation, the gospel has something to say about it, but importantly, has something to say that is not just rhetorical and general, but something that penetrates our own houses and our own hearts, and as we see with the very personal relationship of Philemon and Onesimus, it creates the grace space to be vulnerable, to be accessible, to confess, to forgive, to receive, to release, to commit to the shared responsibilities of sitting at the same Lord’s table – to grow and mature in a walk of faith together that is new for all of us, and to refuse the lie that it cannot be done because the weight of social and cultural and racial pressure is stacked up against us, as it was against Paul, Philemon and Onesimus.
Secondly, because this letter is the piece of New Testament that has been such a divisive text in American race relations in the body of Christ; because a deeply unresolved and submerged history comes to the surface whenever it is mentioned; because it has been a weapon used against black slaves by professing Christian white slave-owners; because its truths were so misinterpreted that it was excised from the canon and the consciousness of the black American church, thus robbing them of precious truth about the power of the gospel to break the bondages and heal wounded relationships and reconcile the irreconcilable – because of all these racially bent reasons, I wanted to bring it to the pulpit, to confess my sorrow at all I have learned of this history of exegesis and its contribution to the pain and anger of African-American Christians for generations. I wanted to ask for forgiveness, at a place of identificational repentance with the generations of pastors who used this text as a means of abuse in the support of slavery. I wanted to recover its simple gospel power and powerfully persuasive appeal for my life and relationships, and for yours.
But thirdly, and especially, I wanted to publicly recover it for all my beloved African-American brothers and sisters who are part of this community of faith, Christ Our Shepherd, and give this letter that was stolen from previous generations, back to you to make it yours – the gospel affirmation that we are brothers and sisters in the flesh as well as in the Lord, and that we need each other’s faith in order to live reconciled lives, and live healed of the traumas and woundedness of our false identities and the consequences of our own sins, as well as the sins of our fathers.
Throughout these three messages on both observation and interpretation of the text, I have sought to bring the writings and thoughts of African-American exegetes and scholars to bear on the discussion. I began my message on Sunday by quoting Professor Lloyd Lewis and I closed it with an observation, a hope of his. He writes that this is a time of choice “for black exegetes to claim Philemon as their own and as an indication of good news and of a new arrangement for blacks. I believe that African-American people who study the Bible and who are concerned with issues of human freedom and liberation can take heart from Paul.” And so can, and should, white Americans who love the Bible. So let’s together make this text equally our own, as an example of the power of the gospel to break evil contracts and restore us into reconciled covenantal relationships that will, to use Paul’s words to Philemon and the church in his house, “appeal…on the basis of love.”
The grace of God takes all the legitimate and justifiable grounds of our decisions to separate or withdraw from under our feet and invites us to walk by faith on the water of fellowship and reconciliation. Of course we bring the jumble and brokenness of who we are to the conversation but the primary issue is not who he or she is, or what he or she has done, but about who Christ is to us, and what he has done for us. It is not about evaluating our brother and sister so much as it is first about elevating Christ. If you just look at me, you’ll find plenty of reasons to reject me. But if you look first at Jesus, you’ll find plenty of reasons to accept me – not least of which is that he has already accepted me. So for my sake, for our sake, for Jesus’ sake, let us always first see each other “in Jesus” even as Paul appealed to Philemon to see Onesimus the same way. When Paul sees things in Christ he sees Onesimus not as a slave or a runaway renegade but as a “brother” and as a “son.” He sees Philemon not as a slave-owner but as a “dearly beloved…fellow worker and partner.” Onesimus will see Philemon not as a master but as a brother and Philemon will see Onesimus not as a slave but as a brother. And you will see……..not as a …….. but as………. (Fill in the blanks.)
Pastorally yours,
Stuart