Dear Friends in Christ,

In my first article for the Bell and Tower, I bring to your attention the epistle for this coming Sunday (Philemon 1-21).

In this shortest of epistles (fewer than 400 words) Paul addresses a wealthy Christian (Philemon) who owns a run away slave, Onesimus. That slave is sharing a prison cell with Paul who has come to regard Onesimus as a brother in Christ.

Paul makes the case to Philemon about why he should free Onesimus, though, indeed, in the mind of elder Paul, older Paul, senior citizen Paul, one Christian owning another Christian just doesn’t fly. How can the egalitarianism so intrinsic in the new Christian movement tolerate such an abomination (my word, not Paul’s)?

Paul is highly diplomatic in his appeal to Philemon. He leaves Philemon a lot of room to reach his own decision while at the same time imploring his recipient “to welcome him as you would welcome me.”

Renowned New Testament Dominic Crossan regards this little epistle as “authentic Paul” as opposed to other epistles identified as “inauthentic Paul” that were composed under the famous leader’s name. The man who boldly proclaimed that in Christ there is neither slave nor free for all are one (Galatians 3:28) is the same man who prompts a slave owner to receive Onesimus as a brother.

Clearly, this short story was not told in slave-holding states of the United States.

In fact, it would have been marginalized in any setting that encouraged a hierarchy of some folks being better than others. Perhaps this brief letter influenced and helped convert slave owners to join the ranks of former slave owners.

Additional implications of slavery and enslavement can be further explored as addictions, habits, and compulsions that devalue life and block receptivity of Jesus’ words, “I have come that you might have life and more abundantly.”

We might even imagine the gentle words of Paul as those of Christ, who beckons us all into closer communion with him.

Your fellow traveler,

—Richard