Dear father Paul,
Onesimus,
a liberated person in Christ Jesus, a freed slave from Philemon.
To
Paul, my dear father who showed God’s grace to me as a fellow prisoner at Rome
– also to Timothy, Epaphras, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, to Junia, Lydia,
Priscilla, Phoebe, Tabitha, Chloe, and several other women whose names have
been forgotten and erased, who supports
Paul and his fellow workers in Christ – and to the house churches that you keep
travelling and writing to:
Grace
and peace to you from God our liberator and the Lord Jesus Christ, who has
freed us from all bondages.
I
always thank our God for your passion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Specially
I thank you for your letter to Philemon appealing him in love to seek
reconciliation with me. I know your love for Christ, love for church and your
love for people. I thank you for building partnerships among people
transcending the barriers of class and ethnicity, thereby giving a true meaning
to koinonia. Your love and discipleship for Christ has given me great
joy and encouragement in strengthening our church for love, because you my
father and brother have refreshed and inspired the hearts of God’s people.
Therefore, I prefer to appeal to you on the basis
of love as you have appealed to Philemon in my case. It is none other than
Onesimus – a man to be judged by the content of the Christian character and not
to be judged by the colour of my skin or by the status I previously held as a
slave for I am freed from slavery and bondage by Christ Jesus and I remain to
enjoy that liberation Christ has granted to me.
I appeal to you my as a son who shared prison and prison experiences
with you for we both experienced suffering under the empire and knew what it
was to be in chains, although my chains were different than yours. Formerly
when I was a slave, I was considered useless, was treated as a property, looked
down as a sub-human and was subjected to all kinds of humiliation for I was
perceived as a non-person.
As
I explained to you the kinds of torture and suffering me and my household had
to endure because of slavery. Those sufferings made me strong as a person to
resist them and stand for a just system where all human beings are treated
equally. For the cause of promoting life, for the cause of envisioning a just
society and for the cause of giving a liberative legacy for my children, I had
to ran away from Philemon. I was imprisoned for such a cause, and that’s where
the love of Christ encountered me through your fellowship.
I
specially want to thank you for taking my debt on you and proved how important
a Christian value it is to cancel debts on poor people as an important
Christian discipleship marker. By taking my debt on you, you have shown me in
practice the love of Christ who took my debts on him on the Cross, for I could
experience it in my life. Thank you also for writing to Philemon to receive me
as he would receive you, once again emphasising the importance of welcome and
reception to anyone and everyone by the love of Christ. In that reception as
exhorted by you my brother Philemon has received me as a brother, as a member
of his family. I knew what it was to be a slave in his household once, and I also
have experienced his love as a family member, which was because of the love of
Christ. Ever since then Philemon has treated me as a partner in the mission of
God for we continued to work together for the realisation of God’s Kingdom here
on earth. Many wondered what a beautiful sight it was to see the master and his
previous slave work together as brothers and partners, which was just because
of the love of and for Christ.
On
a final note, dear father Paul allow me to appeal to you to call any practice
of any form of slavery as sinful and unchristian, for in Christ we are all one.
Any form of racism, casteism, gender discrimination, patriarchy, trafficking,
child labour and such other practices, which are modern forms of slavery does
not fit into the gospel of Jesus Christ, and therefore we as a Church should
resist such forms and stand in solidarity for justice in every given context. Christ
has come to set people like me free and I believe and will work to liberate all
people who are chained in any form of bondage as a gospel imperative for me.
You
are always welcome to come and stay with us and enjoy our African hospitality. My
wife and children and all our Churches join me in sending their greetings to
you.
The
grace of our Lord and Liberator Jesus Christ, the love of God, who calls us to
freedom and dignity of all people, and the communion of Holy Spirit who
partakes in all our struggles for peace be with us all now and forever.
Your fellow worker in Christ,
Onesimus
@rajpatta
September
2019
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