Sometimes we just do not recognize each other. It’s like seeing someone we knew thirty years ago and we do not recognize them. Except these are people we see every day right now. Failure to recognize all of our neighbors as God’s beloved leads to lots of confusion and fear. Their identity often becomes whatever it is we hate about them. Do we even know their names? Do we refer to them according to God’s love for them? Or do we only see our little circle of look-a-likes-people who talk, believe and look like us as God’s beloveds?
I find it helpful to look back at our Founding Fathers, people who lived here in the 17th and 18th centuries, to discover how disciples of Jesus in the colonies began to see people differently and then to behave differently. Roger Williams, a Baptist and founder of Rhode Island held very strong theological convictions, never compromising them. He believed some of the Native American religions at that time to be Satanic-yet he always showed the most delicate respect and friendship to our beloved Native Americans.
The policies of religious respect and fairness that gradually came to dominate in the colonies and in our Constitution were not inspired by respect for differing religious beliefs and practices. Rather, they were inspired by something more basic-an underlying respect for persons, for our fellow human beings as bearers of human dignity and conscience. Williams never compromised his convictions, but he practiced the peace of Christ with those with whom he did not share faith in Christ. He knew who the Native Americans were-God’s beloved children.
Williams was following the lead of the apostle Paul who was in turn following the lead of Jesus, Messiah and Lord. Because we are now living in a new creation Paul says “we regard no one from a human point of view.” Even when we believe others are going away from truth and decency we never disrespect their fundamental identity as precious, beloved children of God, divine image bearers. This is the discernment Jesus Christ the Lord brings to the world through the instrumentality of the Spirit .
Paul’s discernment was later tested when a slave, Onesimus ran away from his master, Philemon and came to Paul. Aristotle, the greatest philosopher of the era, had defined a slave as a “human tool.” Slaves were not nouns; they were adjectives. They were not human; they were human tools. Runaway slaves were often put to death by their masters.
Paul writes a letter to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus urging Philemon, a member of the Colossian church, to receive Onesimus back into the household and into the Church as a brother. He argues that Onesimus’ life and identity is multi-layered. Onesimus is a slave; but he is also a brother in Christ, a human divine-image bearer, a child of God and a child of his faith father, the apostle Paul.
Paul appeals to Philemon on behalf of his son Onesimus, who “became my son while I was in chains” (verse 10). Paul says he sent Onesimus, “my dear heart, to Philemon.” Paul says he does not send Onesimus as a slave but “better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord” (vs. 1-6). He admonishes Philemon to welcome Onesimus as he would welcome Paul. “If he has done you wrong, charge it to me” (verse 18). Onesimus is no longer an adjective; he is a noun; the precious object of the Lord’s affection. He has received Christ’s redemption from the crippling identity theft he had long endured.
Christ’s Church is the place where we get training in identity recognition. We are equipped with eyes to see “God’s beloved child” written across the foreheads of people of every race, political allegiance and sexual orientation. Then mutual respect and friendship make conversations and relationships possible with people we once feared.
No wonder Paul said “If anyone is in Christ, he/she is living in a new world.”