The Power of Truth

“I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.” (Philemon 10-12)

You may not be familiar with these verses. They are taken from the shortest book in the New Testament – Paul’s letter to Philemon.

Philemon—the man to whom the letter is addressed – was part of the early church in Colossae and quite possibly a pastor. He seems to have been a wealthy man, and, like many wealthy men of his day, he owned slaves, including at least one runaway slave named Onesimus.

Paul had connected with Onesimus while he was on the run, perhaps while trying to disappear into the crowd in Rome. Paul was in prison there, and Onesimus may have been imprisoned alongside him. How Paul then managed to send Onesimus back to Philemon, though, we don’t know. However it happened, Paul sent the runaway back to his owner, carrying with him this letter that included a joke.

The man’s name, ‘Onesimus,’ is Latin for ‘useful’ (a good name for a slave). Paul jokes, “Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.” (verse 11). Ha! Ha!

If this were the whole story of the letter to Philemon—that Paul found a runaway slave and returned him to his owner – I don’t think it would have found a place in the New Testament, and if it had, it would be an embarrassment to to the church today. Even so, in a world where the institution of slavery had never been called into question, Paul’s letter to Philemon was radical, and it speaks to us still. Paul writes:

“Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back for the long term, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So, if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.” (verses 15 to 17)

Most of us have grown up accepting the maxim penned in the American Declaration of Independence—“that all men are created equal.” Moreover, most of us would agree with its author (Thomas Jefferson) when he said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” It seems so obvious to us today that every human being is of equal value and equal dignity. Go back to the time of Paul, though, and these truths seemed far from self-evident! Indeed, slavery had been part of human civilisation for over 5,000 years. It’s one of the oldest and most persistent institutions in recorded history.

In terms of self-evident truths, no two things on earth are created equal, and in the jungle, the powerful devour the weak. This seems to be the self-evident pattern of the created order. Why should it be any different in human society? The idea that a slave was a brother—an equal in Christ—was not self-evident. It was scandalous!

Tom Holland, in his book Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, argues that Christianity’s greatest legacy is its moral inversion. The cross, once a symbol of shame, became a symbol of divine love. The last became first. The slave became a brother. Holland suggests that even secular humanism owes its deepest convictions to Christian theology—especially the belief in the equal worth of every person.

This letter to Philemon is a microcosm of a revolution. Paul doesn’t abolish the institution of slavery, but he undermines its foundations. He declares that Philemon’s slave is more than ‘useful.’ He is his brother! And so, Paul starts sowing the seeds that would eventually lead to the worldwide abolition of the institution of slavery under the leadership of great Christian activists like William Wilberforce.

Of course, the problem with Wilberforce’s Slavery Abolition Act, which abolished slavery across the British empire, is that it was enacted in 1833, which meant it took almost 2,000 years for the seeds sown by Paul to finally become truths that seemed self-evident. Is this how the Gospel works—not through dramatic displays of power but through the force of truth slowly eroding corrupt institutions from within?

The early Christians did transform the world in this way. Yes, Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Empire in the fourth century, giving the church enormous power, but it was the power of the church as a persecuted grassroots minority that led Constantine to adopt this new religion in the first place, and it can be argued that the church has always been most powerful when it has no institutional power.

Paul had no real power over Philemon, and we’re not told the outcome of his appeal, though we do get a tantalising clue in a letter written by Ignatius of Antioch in the year 107. Ignatius refers to a bishop named Onesimus in his Epistle to the Ephesians, and he praises him warmly.

I wish we had more power. I wish we had the power to stop the Gaza genocide. I wish we had the power to free Dr Hassoun in Syria. I wish we had the power to do a lot of things, and I can’t understand why so many in the church who do have power aren’t using it more aggressively to solve these issues. Even so, the real power of the faithful has always been more subtle, and it’s the power that’s on display in Paul’s letter to Philemon. It’s the power of truth, and as we see it here, it is personal, prayerful, and full of grace.

Our Sunday Eucharist

We had another wonderful Sunday Eucharist last weekend, and a big thank you to Doug Pyeatt and Rev. John Queripel for joining me on the panel.

I think our discussion on the Gospel reading was particularly fruitful, and it gave me the opportunity to share some good memories about my first meeting with George Galloway and even from my days running a youth group in the early ’80s. That discussion is republished at the end of today’s newsletter, and I commend it to you.

As per usual, I’ve pasted the two most popular shorts from last Sunday below. See all the shorts on our Sunday Eucharist Instagram page, or watch the entire broadcast on our YouTube channel.

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday of the month which means we can look forward to having the dynamic duo of David Baldwin and Tom Toby with me on the panel. I do hope you will be there as well. Invite your friends by referring them to the Facebook Event Page or the Streamyard event page.

We broadcast, as usual, from noon (Sydney time) via TheSundayEucharist.com, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia or Streamyard. I do look forward to sharing this Eucharist with you. 😊

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What’s On?

Sunday, September 7 – Our Eucharist from noon @thesundayeucharist.com, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia or Streamyard)
Tuesday, September 9 – Boxing at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm.
Wednesday, September 10 – Online Bible study here at 12.30 pm
Thursday, September 11 – Boxing at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm
Saturday, September 13 – Boxing at Legends Gym in Kensington from 3 pm.

In closing today, let me say something more about dear Dr Hassoun of Syria. I don’t have any update on his current situation, but I have received more details about his arrest and mistreatment and about his heart condition that led him to seek medical help in Jordan.

I received an email this week from Haytham Manna—a prominent Syrian human rights activist now living in Paris. Haytham helped found the Arab Commission for Human Rights (ACHR) and later became spokesperson for the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCC). He currently lives in Paris (a safe distance from his Al Qaeda-controlled homeland) but this has not stopped him campaigning for the Syrian people.

Mr Manna has submitted a petition in support of Dr Hassoun to the United Nations, to the Vatican, to the World Council of Churches and elsewhere. The petition is signed by eighteen international human rights organisations. You can read the petition here on prayersforsyria.com.

Along with the petition, I received a detailed account of Dr Hassoun’s arrest and mistreatment, and I’ve included that in the post, though I want to warn you that it’s not an easy read. I’ve also included two graphics of Dr Hassoun’s medical reports, though these will only be of interest if you can read Arabic.

I think of my dear friend in prison, and I wonder what he would say to us were he able to send us letters from prison in the way Saint Paul did. I have a feeling that, like Paul, he would be worrying about the Onesimuses of this world rather than focusing on his own pain.

I so do wish I could speak to him. For the moment though, our communion in prayer will have to suffice.

Your brother in the Good Fight,