The book of Philemon is a fun little journey into the world of the early church. If Paul met Onesimus in prison, then there is a good chance Onesimus did something to get there. He may have stolen from his master, or perhaps something else. Whatever the case, Paul is asking for Philemon to take a different approach than was his right, and that’s the life of the Church. Even if we might have the right to take something or inflict pain, we must reframe that situation through the lens of Jesus and our citizenship in his Kingdom.

(For this cycle through Psalms, I am reading from Robert Alter’s “Hebrew Bible” translation, which is particularly poetic.)