THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act VII- Acts and the Pauline Epistles
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 14

(READERS # 1, # 2 AND # 3 EXIT)

VOICE FOUR:            Alone!  That’s the way I felt when I arrived in Rome.  Alone in one of the largest cities in all the world.  I hadn’t thought it would be that way.  Freedom had been my greatest desire, my ultimate goal.  It wasn’t that Philemon was unkind, it was just the idea of having to serve someone—the same someone for ever and ever.  I just couldn’t bear the thought of taking orders all the rest of my life.  So I left.  It really wasn’t hard.  Philemon trusted his slaves.  He sent me to the marketplace that day with a pretty substantial amount of cash and instead of doing the shopping I bought a ticket on a ship to Rome.  Rome—and freedom.

                                    Freedom!  What a mirage.  All I did was exchange one master for many.  Here I’m controlled by the need to earn enough money to keep body and soul together.  And that’s not easy when you’re a runaway slave.  Here I’m controlled by the weather, forcing me to seek shelter from rain and cold.  I’m controlled by anyone who discovers my secret and blackmails me with threats to turn me in.  If there are a million people in Rome—I have a million masters.

                                    Oddly enough, I’ve only found one man in all of Rome who is really free—and he’s a prisoner.  I suppose it is strange that I found him at all—but he says that God did it.  He doesn’t find that strange at all, but I do.  God is the last one who I would think would want anything to do with me.   

                                    I had been here just a few weeks when I met another runaway from Colosse.  He told me that he had become a follower of the Way, the Christ ones, and he invited me to come to a prison house for a Bible study.  That seemed unusual to say the least, so I went with  him.  Imagine my surprise when I walked into the room and came face to face with Paul.  He was an old friend of my master Philemon, and I expected him to have the Roman guards clap me right into chains.  But he didn’t.  He treated me just like all of the others who were there.  He told us about the Lord.  When he said Christ would make us free, he really caught my attention.  Freedom was what I had wanted all along.

                                    So now I’m on my way back to Colosse.  I’m going back to Philemon and I’m going to tell him that I am ready to be his servant once again because now I’m really free.  Paul promised me that he would understand.  He’s sending a letter with me that he allowed me to read before sealing it.  It’s quite a letter.  He tells Philemon that I am useful now, both to Paul and to my master.  He asks Philemon to receive me the way he would receive Paul if he were visiting.  And that’s not all.  He begs Philemon to take me back, not as a slave, but as a “beloved brother.”  Those are his exact words.  A “beloved brother.” 

                                    Talk about freedom.  God has made me His son and now Paul is asking my former owner to accept me as a brother.   I don’t know everything there is to know about this Jesus yet.  But I do know this—once I was bound, but now I’m free.