TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME C

[cappie]

In today’s Gospel Jesus says some harsh words related to family. “ ‘If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. .” Tough words.  Jesus wants us to get our attention. When Jesus uses the word “hate,” he’s not talking about hatred as we may think of it, where to feel hatred, we have to feel it, tend it, keep it alive. Jesus is anti- anything we put in place of total commitment to God, anything that can become an idol for us. He’s talking about giving family a higher priority than the God who alone can rightly order all our relationships—will get in the way of being Jesus’ disciples.  Jesus wants all relationships to be subordinate to our relationship with God.  

What’s more, through baptism, through calling us together to be his brothers and sisters, children of God, Jesus makes a new family. Even when our earthly families fail us, we are part of a larger, eternal family.   We find ourselves parented by a God who will not fail us, will always love us, who cares for us, always and forever.  

That is great news! But now we need to hear our second lesson for today, in which we see up close how hard it can be to live as a member of this Christ-centred family.

In his Letter to Philemon, a book in the New Testament  Paul challenges Philemon to do something he probably does not want to do. That is, to take back his runaway slave, Onesimus, not as a slave, but as a brother; to receive him, not as property over which he has legal rights, but as a human being, and a living member of the family of which Philemon, too, is a part—the family of Jesus Christ.

Philemon, who had become a member of Christ’s family, the church, through Paul’s preaching. Philemon, like many householders of his day, had slaves.  One of Philemon’s slaves is named Onesimus, which means Useful, but as it’s turned out, Onesimus has been far from useful to Philemon. He’s run away. He may also have stolen from Philemon as part of his getaway. Onesimus has gone off to Ephesus, where now he too has heard the Gospel preached by Paul and has now become a Christian.

Both Philemon and Onesimus are part of the family of Christ. Both are brothers in this new family. One, Philemon, is a person with the law behind him. The other, Onesimus, has few rights and nowhere to lodge a legal appeal. Both are now members of the same family, a family big enough to embrace them both. But what does that look like, really?

Paul appeals to everything that binds Philemon to Paul. They are old friends. They are partners in the Gospel. Philemon owes his new life, his eternal life to Paul, whose preaching has set Philemon free from his old life to the new life of love in Christ. But Paul also appeals to everything that binds Onesimus to Paul. Onesimus has become like a son, like his own heart to Paul. Paul would love to keep Onesimus with him, but he knows that if he does, it will cause a rift, a split in the family tree between Paul and Philemon.

Reconciliation is costly, and Paul bears the cost himself. He says to Philemon, “If you consider me your partner, welcome him back as you would welcome me.” Paul asks Philemon to do what he should as a brother in Christ, receive Onesimus back, not as a slave, but as the brother he has become.  It must have been hard for Philemon to let go of his legal rights and pay attention to God’s higher law of love, to extend his hand, not to punish, but to reach out to a brother.

What did Philemon do? The Bible doesn’t say. But we do have a letter from a bishop named Ignatius, written sometime before 108 AD, who wrote to the church at Ephesus: “In God’s name, I have received your whole number in the person of Onesimus, whose love is indescribable, and who is your bishop.”

In Christ, we have all received adoption as children of God. We are all made one family in Christ, with enough love and forgiveness for all of us to know, to share, to show.