Liberation From Who We Are
Paul’s letter to Philemon is very short, one chapter of twenty-five verses. In fact, most of the letter is presented in our second reading this week. It isn’t exactly clear what preceded this, but we can gather from context clues that Paul is old when he writes this. Philemon is a friend, probably a convert of Paul’s. Onesimus had been a slave of Philemon, but there was apparently a falling out. It seems that Onesimus left Philemon without permission and found his way to Paul. He spends some time with Paul before Paul decides to send him back to his master, back into slavery. But he sends him with this letter, urging Philemon to welcome Onesimus back no longer as a slave but as “a beloved brother.” It isn’t absolutely certain that Paul is calling for legal liberation here, but that very well may be the case. Whatever happens, Paul wants a fundamental change to occur in the relationship of Philemon and Onesimus.
Because the Pauline authorship of Ephesians has been called into question by modern scholars, Paul’s position on slavery isn’t entirely clear. From this passage, one could assume that Paul was in favor of liberation. In 1 Corinthians 12:13, Paul claims that slaves and free people are all equally baptized into the Body of Christ. In Galatians 3:28, Paul indicates that the distinctions between slave and free are completely obliterated by our new lives in Christ. This may point to a philosophy of treating slaves as if they were siblings in Christ without necessarily setting them free in the legal sense, but then again, maybe that is asking too much of Paul. How much does he need to spell it out for us? For Paul, Christianity had a liberating effect on people. If you identify as a Christian, then all other identities are secondary, perhaps even to the point of being negligible.
Our various identities indicate the way we interact with the world around us. Whether we consciously think about it or not, there are certain ways we are expected to behave in our society based on who we are. Gender stereotypes indicate that men work with their hands, know how to fix things around the house, take more risks, and perform stoicism in the most rudimentary way by avoiding talking about their feelings. As a man, I know that society has at least some of these expectations for me. Whether I choose to uphold these stereotypes or deviate from them, my behaviors will be compared against the social standard at least to some extent.
Of course, this phenomenon goes far beyond gender identity. People are defined by their relationships with others. “Parent” is a particular identity that grants society-approved access to certain spaces (daycares, schools, etc.) that other adults don’t have without working there. Parents have certain expectations of them, certain responsibilities on them, and certain benefits. If nothing else, parents are automatically granted the right to tell a young person without kids of their own that they have no idea what they are talking about when they attempt to give parenting advice, no matter how well-read they are on the subject. Parents get a certain amount of respect, unless they are doing a terrible job, and that respect increases tremendously if their children turn out well. The micro-universe of social benefits and challenges that goes along with being a parent means that the world interacts differently with parents than with adults without children.
The identities you may have go on and on. Any group that a study or demographic survey could possibly place you in could be considered an identity: race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, political affiliation, work status, family structure, socio-economic class, housing status, level of education, preferred method of transportation, pet preferences, and so on and so forth. This is certainly not an exhaustive list. All these things and more define who we are supposed to be in the world, what is expected of us, and what we can expect in return. In Paul’s time, your legal status as a slave, freedman, citizen, or whatever other class society bestowed upon you, was one of your most important identities. This determined not only who you were but also who your children could be. Given the significance of this status, it is very interesting to see Paul essentially suggest that Philemon ignore it.
It should be noted at this point that Paul exerts some pretty strong pressure, but he doesn’t force Philemon to do what hel wants. We don’t know if Onesimus was granted freedom or forced to remain in legal servitude. Paul could have gone further to demand liberation. Perhaps if he had pressed harder, abolitionists would have had a stronger position to demand an end to slavery in the United States. Unfortuantely, the Bible was used to justify slavery as much as, if not more than, it was used to decry its evils. Christianity has not had a good track record of taking Paul seriously, when he demands that we see ourselves first and foremost as Christians, ignoring any identities that would conflict with our mission. Perhaps it would have been better for Paul to temporarily lay aside his gentleness and humility of his old age and make some demands for liberation.
We should also be clear that “colorblindness” isn’t the answer to our problems. Simply ignoring identities, especially currently and historically marginalized identities is not liberation. It’s whitewashing. Differences in race and varieties in other identities should be celebrated, not ignored. These differences do not conflict with the mission of the church, rather they enhance it. The church can speak in varied tongues from a wide array of members, reaching more people in more ways. That is a good thing.
However, some of the same identity problems that affected Paul’s churches, still affect us today. Paul would have seen an end to distinctions between men and women, but with only men being invited to the pulpit in some denominations, we have clearly ignored Paul on that point. Furthermore, slavery continues to exist in the world. A disturbing amount of the chocolate we see in our supermarkets is tied to child slavery in Africa. Furthermore, even in the United States, slavery may have adapted into a new form without really changing. Low wages, poor access to housing, excessive medical bills, poor access to insurance, general lack of mobility, and other factors contribute to what some have called wage slavery. Many people don’t have access to better jobs because they either don’t qualify or there are no higher paying jobs in the area. They live in substandard housing, paying most of their monthly earnings to cover rent and utilities, trapped in an endless cycle they cannot break. People who buy property in poor areas are often stuck there, unable to get a buyer to purchase at a price that won’t cost them on their investment in the end. For many people in this country, social mobility and freedom are myths.
If the church is going to be a force for liberation, we must take seriously the challenges our world faces today. We must wrestle with the fact that, though it isn’t necessarily as fixed and confining as it has been in the past, an economic caste system exists in our world. We must recognize the negative effects that identity has on the church, pushing some to the margins and denying them full access. We must acknowledge how faith is negatively impacted for those suffering under the boots of oppression, longing for liberation but never seeing any positive change. But then again, we must see that we are liberated from sin through the work of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim that liberation to others. Not only with our words, but perhaps more importantly with our work, we can help advance the Kingdom, claiming and working toward a world in which there are no more separations based on gender, no more distinction between the wage-slave poor and the excessively wealthy. This is not done by simply ignoring the disparity, but by removing the material conditions that contribute to it, lest we celebrate whitewashing or ignorance masquerading as liberation. We strive for a world in which all have what they need. All have freedom and can dwell in the warmth of God’s love and blessing. We look forward to a world in which we are no longer defined by the identities society thrusts upon us, but rather all are loved by God, all are granted salvation from their sins and freedom from what holds them down, all are one in Christ.
