Father Mike Schmitz

We've heard this from the very beginning, all the way back in the Old Testament.

What we've heard is there is this, it was mutually agreed upon service, right, is the idea behind this.

At some point, yes, could there be abuses?

Absolutely.

But especially in Christian, this, how would I want to say it?

Like Christian slavery, it's basically,

When Christians owned slaves, what they were instructed to do, commanded to do, was to treat their slaves as brothers and sisters, essentially.

And so there's that recognition that we have such a, and rightfully so, a horrible correlation and connotation when it comes to slavery, of course, because we're so familiar with this brutal racist slavery concept.

And yet here in St.

Paul's letter to Philemon, he's sending Onesimus back, but he makes it very clear.

I'm sending him back to you not as a slave, as a brother.

And there is something that I would say, even if employers and employees who are Christians saw each other like this, we'd be in a different world.

Like we'd live in a better world.

Again, we're not talking about slavery here.

We're talking about simply teachers and their students.

We talked about family members.

If we saw each other, not as those who get in our way, not as those who are supposed to serve us, but as brothers and sisters, then we would have a different world.

What Paul is writing to Philemon is a picture of that different world that could possibly be ours.

I don't know if that makes any sense, but just one last thought when it comes to this big issue that exists in our world right now.

So back to Revelation.