Philemon Injustices

Today, we come together to worship God. We do this in several ways.

Worship is inherently giving honor to that which is greater our creator. For those who are a part of the tribe, the simplest form of worship is giving back to Him who provides us all we have. The ushers will be around with baskets or go online and give at each churches website.

Today, we will jump back into the book of philemon. The truth is this one page wonder was too rich in material for us to do one week on. It’s a personal letter from Paul to a house church leader and his family. It's a one page wonder because it deals with the issues of inequality, injustice and racism.

I have had more conversations on these three topics in the past two weeks than I have had since I took black theology, liberation theology and systematic theology in seminary. Each discussion has led me to remember a sweet time of honest communication with my brothers of color. We didn’t have an agenda. We had a curiosity to know and to be known. We wanted to be heard and not judged. We wanted to find the Christian ideal, not society’s latest rallying cry. We longed for unity. The kind of unity spoken of by Jesus.

I will never forget being in a class and listening to the distinctives of black theology when the subject of reparations came up. Reparations for slavery is a political justice concept that argues that reparations should be paid to the descendants of slaves. We discussed the government and the idea behind reparations and the Case for Reparations - Two hundred fifty years of slavery, Ninety years of Jim Crow, Sixty years of separate but equal, Thirty-five years of racist housing practices and so much more. By the end of the class discussion, we agreed not many in our society or our government would ever favor paying reparations so what might be the next best option. We discussed a public admittance and apology from those with power and privilege. As we sat quietly pondering what that might look like, I stood up and apologized as a representative of the majority and admitted and apologized. As I sat down, everyone was dumbfounded as I asked now what can we do, as the church, to end systematic racism together. Where can we both teach a doctrine (an understanding) of what it means to be a christian in a melting pot of humans all created by God.

The reality is the scriptures we have chosen were used to justify slavery in the early 19th century and at the same time forgiveness. The America’s pro-slavery folks referred to Philemon as “the Pauline Mandate.” A Biblical sanction of American slavery and a legal brief or outline for what one should do if a slave runs away. However, both interpretations represent poor biblical study to justify societal problems they were never meant to address.

Philemon is a message from Paul to us about the dangers of the extremes of judgement and acceptance. A warning we all need to hear now.

The airwaves are filled with judgement. Media is fanning the flames of both sides of the racism, injustice and inequality loudspeaker. Notice I didn’t say debate or discussion because there is little debate taking place. I have seen good people say, do and post the most judgemental and critical statements on both sides. If social media has taught us anything, we all have some inherent biases and fears.

The reality is rarely will public figures or their statements represent the Christian worldview - where the sanctity of life is paramount. As a Christian we believe we all are created by one God who came out of love for us and commands us to love to the same extent.

So this morning, let's show God how much we appreciate His sending his son to earth to take care of our problem which had the potential of blocking us from being connected to Him, now and for all eternity.

Our position in heaven should always override our situation in life. When we stop focusing on our rights and focus on our responsibility and when we stop judging others and accept them as created by God, only then will we begin to diminish the effects of racism, classism, economics and even injustice.