God of Slaves

Lenten Vespers, Week Four

Exodus 21: Free the Slave

When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt.  If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.

Deuteronomy 5: You Were Slaves

Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

Matthew 5: Love Your Enemy

You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Homily:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

St. Patrick was Welsh, not Irish. And, as we are often reminded, St. Patrick’s Day isn’t even all that big a deal in Ireland. Then again, the Irish-American population is seven times the size of Ireland’s own, so perhaps they might consider following our lead on this one.

St. Patrick’s Day came to be celebrated in America first as a political movement, then as an ethnic festival, and finally as yet another drunken bacchanal. More’s the pity, given how wonderful the story of St. Patrick truly is. In previous years I’ve preached upon both his writings and his miracles, but this time around I think we ought to address the elephant in the room: slavery.

St. Patrick was a slave. He began life as a wealthy young man, a Romanized Celt living in Britannia. The name Patrick, after all, derives from “patrician.” He was seized in his youth by Irish pirates who sold him into slavery to a man named Miliuc. After six years of suffering—mostly spent in lonely isolation and exposure to the elements as he shepherded Miliuc’s sheep—Patrick received a vision from God leading him to freedom. After a truly miraculous journey both by land and by sea, Patrick escaped to Europe, was reunited with his family, and became a priest.

Then came a second vision: that of an Irishman crying out for Patrick’s help. And so Patrick returned to the Isle of his enslavement in order to preach a Gospel of forgiveness, mercy, and liberation to the very people who had torn from him his youth. He met with great resistance, but also with great success. And ever his concern was for the poorest and lowliest of all: his fellow slaves. I find it particularly significant that Patrick is said to have converted a certain Pictish slave to Christ, a woman who would later give birth to St. Brigid—arguably the only Irish saint more influential and beloved than Patrick himself.

Christianity flourished in Ireland, not by the sword but by the Word of God. Pagan druids eagerly became Christian monks and nuns. The dark gods were driven out, as we commemorate in the legend of Patrick casting out the snakes. When the Dark Ages fell upon the Continent, Ireland kept the light of the Gospel, and of education more generally, burning brightly for the world to see. Irish missionaries brought Christ to the kings and queens of Europe, who had largely been baptized without knowing what all Christian baptism entails. Thus from the chaos of collapse rose the glories of the High Middle Ages of the West.

All of this—the salvation of our very civilization—because one slave went free, and returned to show love and compassion to his former masters. We should all be humbled by this. We should all be thankful for this. We should all take a lesson from this, from the mysterious workings of the God Who loves slaves.

Slavery is a very thorny issue in the Bible. On the one hand, slavery seems, at least on paper, to be accepted in both the Old and New Testaments. People, we read, may be bought and sold. Yet is this not in direct contradiction to the underlying spirit of the Ten Commandments, which rail against treating people as if they were things and loving things as if they were people? Does slavery not fly in the face of the Exodus, the foundational story of God’s own people, who were slaves of Egypt, the mightiest nation the world had yet known? The entire story of the Bible is one of God liberating the enslaved: those in bondage to masters, in bondage to nations, in bondage to sin, in bondage to death.

Slavery, believe it or not, began as a form of mercy. When one ancient army defeated another, enemy soldiers could be protected, conserved—conservare in Latin, from which we get the word “servant.” Better to take them in than to kill them all. Biblical slavery forbids the mistreating of servants, physically, sexually, or otherwise. Slaves are to have their families cared for, and are to have the same standard of living as their master. God mandates rest for the slave, and, crucially, that slaves be manumitted every seventh year, without debt and financially secure. Slaves in the Bible may also own their own property and buy their own freedom. So, not a great system, but certainly better than slavery as it developed in the Americas.

Slavery has existed in every society on earth throughout the wide span of history. Before industrialization, manpower was of immense value. Yet the only movements to abolish slavery have come from the Bible: from Christians and from Jews. Yes, the Bible has been used to justify owning other human beings. But it has also proven the only basis for liberating them. It was Judeo-Christian principle that produced the Enlightenment’s Rights of Man. It was British evangelists who ended the international slave trade. It was New England Protestants who burned with abolitionist furor before and during the Civil War. Was not the Kingdom of Judah, they reminded us, destroyed by God for their refusal to manumit their poor slaves?

It cannot be doubted that God’s will is for all men to be free. Yet it cannot be denied that it took us a very long time to come to this conclusion, and fully to enact it. Would it not be better, we wonder, for God simply to unveil the entirety of His plans for us right up front, to be clear and forceful in His will? Surely that’s how we would act, were we God. Of course, Moses tried that very tact with Pharaoh, to no avail.

But God is patient and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. His plans unfold over eons; His promises are steadfast across generations. Oftentimes we wonder why God waits so long to act, when He wonders the same about us. The Bible takes the world as it is, not imposing external authority but revealing the hidden and underlying meaning already present, if obscured, within a fallen Creation. Truth must be revealed, not imposed. It takes time to coax barbarians into civilization. It takes time to prepare a violent world for a Prince of Peace, Who is willing to die—even die on a Cross—merely for slaves. And, bafflingly, for the slave owners as well.

On this commemoration of all that Christ has done through the life and ministry of St. Patrick, let us remember the poor, the oppressed, the victimized; those people who are treated as things, treated as property, treated as subhuman. Remember that we were all slaves once—slaves to Egypt, slaves to our egos, slaves to sin and death and hell—and the Lord our God brought us out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, shattering those who would stand as our fetters.

The God Who cares for slaves will not forget His people, and He will come to set them free. On that day may we be counted with those through whom God works to bring the liberation of the Gospel—to Israel, to Ireland, and to all the peoples of the world.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.