My parents let me go to the Star Trek movies when I was a kid, even though I didn't really get them. I didn't like them that much. I mean, they were fine, but I liked Star Wars, right? Like Star Trek was to Star Wars when I was a kid, as Go Bots were to Transformers. I mean, if you had nothing else to play with, if you went to somebody's house and all they had was GoBots, I mean, what are we gonna do? Not play? So I guess it'll be all right, but obviously I want to play with Transformers. We go to a movie, there's no Star Wars out, but there's some Star Trek. Okay, we'll watch it, but there's gonna be a lot of boring speeches, and there always were. I like Star Trek better now, I think it's cooler now. But as a kid, yeah, I didn't get it. It was headier and more philosophical. But I do remember certain things from those movies. I haven't seen those movies in a very long time. One scene that stands out to me is a showdown between Captain Kirk, played by young William Shatner, and Christopher, not Plummer Lloyd. Christopher Lloyd, the guy who played Doc Brown in The Back to the Future. Christopher Lloyd's character is a Klingon captain, and Captain Kirk is, of course, a Starfleet captain. He's the good guy. And the Klingon gets the upper hand on Kirk, who's just trying to save his Vulcan buddy, Spock, who's got hurt or he's in a bad situation or something. And the Klingon gets the upper hand, and all Kirk can do is use his words and his ingenuity to try to negotiate because he doesn't have any blasters and he doesn't have any backup and he's gonna get taken hostage. And he says to the Klingon captain, something like, Well, you know, you're taking me, but you should take this fellow here, this Vulcan, also. And the Klingon captain, as a as an audience member, as a kid, you're going, like, oh, good job, Kirk. That's what needs to happen. Good play. But then your bubble gets popped when the Klingon looks right back at him and is like, No. And then Kirk asks the same question that you ask as an audience member. It's like, well, it wouldn't hurt you at all to take the Vulcan from your perspective. Why wouldn't you? And so Kirk's like, why? Christopher Lloyd leans right in there to him and he goes, because you wish it. In other words, I don't know what you're getting at, but I don't trust your motives very much. But I know well enough that if you want it, it probably isn't very good for me. And that stuck with me in a weird way. It kind of created this little kid maxim in my brain when I was trying to be a very good boy and do the right thing, but I couldn't figure out in a given situation what was, yeah, what should I do? And then I would think to myself, like, well, maybe I'm like Captain Kirk, and maybe sometimes I want things selfishly. So maybe like if I wish it, that should make me a little suspicious of my motives. Why do I wish it? And maybe I should just choose the thing that it, you know, kind of impulsively, I don't actually want as much. Maybe that would be better. I may have just explained to you like everything that's latently, deeply wrong with me, even as an adult, just because of that one scene that my parents took me to in that Star Trek movie. Or maybe it's just a quirky way to introduce the concept we're talking about today in the situation with Philemon and Onesimus and Paul from the New Testament, whereby Paul encounters Philemon's runaway slave, probably halfway across the empire, and Paul has to decide what to do after Onesimus catches up with Paul, meets Paul in Rome in his relatively comfortable house arrest situation, and then becomes a Christian. Then also there are laws in play, and also Paul is awaiting trial, and there's just a lot of factors to add up here. But Paul really likes Onesimus, even comes to view him as a son, and Paul ultimately decides I gotta send Onesimus back to Philemon, but I'm gonna send him with a letter to try to get a good result for everyone involved here. And I've read in preparation for our conversations here this season a whole bunch of people's opinions about the letter of Philemon, Christian people's opinions, not Christian people's opinions. And what I find is that there's some people who don't really give Paul the benefit of the doubt here. They read Philemon, and in these words, they see Paul kind of pulling a trick like Captain Kirk was trying to pull on Christopher Lloyd's Klingon Captain. It's like some kind of little like reverse psychology Jedi mind trick. And yes, I understand that given the context of this episode, that's kind of a science fiction mixed metaphor, but we're just gonna roll with it. Some scholars look at what Paul's doing here. To put it flatly, they don't believe him in this middle part of Philemon where he's actually making the request to Philemon. They think that somehow Paul is trying to work over Philemon, and I assume that such scholars would say that the thing Philemon should have done is the same thing that Christopher Lloyd's Klingon captain did, which would be to say, I'm not gonna do that because you wish it. I don't know why I shouldn't, but I'm suspicious of your motives. I've read some people who look at Paul's language and they're particularly put off by the part where Paul's like, I could order you with my apostolic authority that is from Christ, but I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna appeal to you instead. And some people look at that and they're like, oh, that right there. I mean, that's textbook manipulation. Paul is trying to work this guy over. But Paul is proposing the idea that Onesimus be at maximum freed entirely, or at minimum given maximum favored status for someone who is still technically on paper a slave in the context of the Roman world. If I'm hearing them right, according to people who hold this view or have entertained this view, maybe Philemon would hear Paul as trying to work him over a little bit so that he could be the one who ends up with Onesimus, but have Philemon feel like it was all his idea. I don't think Paul's playing games in that way. But at the same time, I think the reason the letter has the tone it has is because Paul knows he shouldn't demand Onesimus be freed and come back and just get to work with him voluntarily. But at the same time, clearly he would really like it if Onesimus were freed or somehow sent back as a member in good standing of Philemon's household to stay with Paul and work with him while he's in jail. Paul clearly thinks really highly of him. So I don't know that I agree with those people, because either way you slice it, it is most obviously beneficial to Onesimus. If Philemon accepts Paul's request on the conservative side, that is, I'm not going to free him, but I will receive him as a brother, great. Onesimus has punishment coming according to Roman law, certainly a reduction of status as well. Maybe he should expect to be sent out to do hard labor. Maybe a normal master would beat him or flog him or do something terrible like that. But if Philemon accepts what Paul is asking him to do, Onesimus is going to receive far better treatment than that. If Paul is indeed asking Philemon to consider setting Onesimus free, then dang, that'd be like winning the lottery for Onesimus. So I do not see here a manipulative Paul who is trying to work over Philemon. What I see here is a very open-ended request that is happening from a great distance and a position of true apostolic authority. I mean, Paul references that in the middle part of this letter, but also from a position of relative weakness. I mean, Paul might never get out of jail, really. I mean, he could be dead very soon. He might be out of the picture very soon. And Paul really does frame the whole letter from a position of weakness. As I've told you before, one out of every five verses in the letter of Philemon includes some kind of reference to the fact that Paul is in prison as he is writing the letter. At the same time, that also gives Paul more moral authority to be like, hey, you know, I'm something on an authority of bondage and having shackles on my wrists. In fact, I can imagine another reality in which Paul might be like, you might notice some of the rust marks on the page. That's from the chains I have on as I'm trying to scratch out this letter to you clumsily. Now, to me, what I see is at this point in his ministry, Paul has had a lot of ups and downs with a lot of people. He's dealt with a lot of controversies in different churches. And it seems like here he has an opportunity where somehow he's accumulated enough goodwill and credibility chips with this guy that he can write this letter, make this request without bossing him around, and know that Philemon will not receive Paul's request, the way Christopher Lloyd's Klingon captain rightly received Captain Kirk's request. Paul believes Philemon will know Paul is sincere. Also, Paul is not ashamed to put the idea out there of Onesimus is very helpful to me. I wouldn't hate having him back. I mean, he doesn't overtly ask, but clearly he's making it obvious to Philemon that like I think Onesimus is great, and I would love to have him hear more. There are just certain pressures that required me to send him back to you. So let me read this very pivotal middle section of Philemon once again to you. This won't be the last time you're going to hear it. And as I read it, I invite you to just put your antenna out for listening for Paul's tone. Is he trying to manipulate Philemon? Is he trying to get Philemon to give him Onesimus back? Is the request he's making here, as you just listen to it and feel it, is this a request for manumission? Or is this simply a request on Paul's part to see Onesimus restored without punishment and even treated better than he ever was before as a Christian brother? And then I want to ask you to just sleep on it. Maybe read it a few times in different translations with your own eyes. Maybe if you have an audio Bible, put that on. Just listen to it a couple times. With somebody's cadence and voice and rhythm that's different from my own, maybe read it out loud and really try to feel what is at the heart of the request and why Paul is asking this way. And then tomorrow we're going to get back together. And in light of this reflection that we're doing here on Paul's motives and how Philemon would receive this, and in light of some of the situational stuff that we've talked about for the last two days, we're going to get back together and we're going to try to tackle that what if history question, that being, what if Paul didn't send Onesimus back? All right, I'm going to read this pivotal part one more time and I'm just going to, we're just going to end it. There'll just be music at the end. All right, here we go. Pivotal part of Philemon. Philemon 8. Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love. I then, as Paul, an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus, I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. I am sending him who is my very heart back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I'm in chains for the gospel. But I didn't want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do will be spontaneous and not forced. Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good. No longer 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. So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.