At the encouragement of a few members of our congregation I
have undertaken to preach a few sermons based on Paul’s letter to the Romans. As a result, it seems necessary that I offer a few words about my task because frankly, Paul and I haven’t always had the best of a
relationship. I suspect I am not alone in this boat. Whether you recognize it or not, neither have you, the reader. I offer this short reflection humbly only to stimulate your reconsideration of Paul and to point you towards some further reading.
Often it seems like I’ve been dragged into a Paul vs. Jesus
moment, or drawn into a battle of proof texts where someone uses Paul, or one
of his disputed letters, to prove a point of the role of women in worship, where homosexuality stands in the spectrum of sin, where his experience of
“revelation” justifies a spiritual relativism,
where people overwork his “faith without works” (especially Presbyterians) so
that we lose sight of the evidentiary demonstration of faith by love of our
neighbor, and as a basis to focus so tightly on a theology of punishing
personal guilt.
But then I began to read Paul carefully, and to utilize some
really insightful commentaries and books on Paul. I particularly point to the
extended comments of James D. G. Dunn in the Word Biblical commentary; Paul J.
Achtemeier’s commentary in Interpretation; Carl R. Holladay’s treatment of Romans (and the Pauline Letters) in A Critical Introduction to the New Testament; Michael J. Gorman’s Reading Paul and
a nice, short article by Peter L. Samuelson, A New Vision of Righteousness: Paul’s Exhortations in Romans 12-15
published in Word & World, (1990). (The latter influenced the path of this sermon series.) Last, but certainly most important was the
good night’s sleep that let the Holy Spirit stir the pot chock full of those
author’s reflections. When I wake up thinking about a subject I've struggled with, I usually find "something happened."
To begin, we cannot appreciate Paul’s "world view," much less his message about sin and the
forces of culture that oppose Christian activity of the believer without understanding that Paul, a gentile Jew is a Hebrew’s Hebrew. From
his earliest childhood he was steeped in Greek culture and Judaism until it became his intrinsic
nature. He was educated a Pharisee in Jerusalem. We must never forget Pharisees were zealots who
pursued and defended the purity of Judaism. He was full of zeal, it fueled his
early pursuit and persecution of Christians as Jewish heretics. It remains a
fire in him as he pursued Gentiles (and perhaps Jews of the Diaspora) to proclaim
the new message of Christ. We need to put aside our modern (negative) understanding of zealotry and the whole line of thinking best represented by Barry Goldwater's famous comment, "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." Zealotry to Paul is not fanaticism about politics, persecution or religion, it is the pursuit of a pure and true commitment to being part of the body of Christ.
We must understand that for Paul, every committed Christian with priorities in order is a zealot in pursuit of proclamation, peace and purity and love of humankind for Christ's sake. Conflict
within the church is anathema to Christ and also to Paul because the congregation is the body of
Christ, both corporately and personally. Anything that presents to the world an adverse view of a Christian is a sin. Hence we have an obligation to "walk the talk."
The transformation of a Pharisee zealot to a Christian
evangelist is a powerful, if not rationally inexplicable transformation. It requires a total “reset” of Paul’s
theology that brought all people into God’s fold, yet does not abandon the covenant between God and the Jew. This can only happen through the covenant with Abraham, the father of all nations. For Paul, his agony was that his own people, even Jewish Christians, were predominately resistant to that covenant and persecuted him.
Paul clearly forces us to come to terms with the
meaning of revelation of the Holy Spirit, but he leaves the subject a little
unsettled. On one hand we are expected to embrace the reality of his
confrontation with Jesus on the Road to Damascus as a Divine experience. There are no witnesses or testimony about it but his. Yet we must also embrace his
felt need to gain validation of this revelation-inspired ministry by the Apostles in Jerusalem.
Paul’s reliance on
handed down tradition of Christianity is also an always conveniently ignored though obvious issue. There were no written Gospels during
Paul’s time. Most if not all his letters predate the four Gospels. Yet when one reads Romans 12 and hears the Sermon on the Mount ringing in the
background, we cannot escape the fact that Paul was exposed in his fourteen
years in the desert in Arabia and Syria to the fundamental oral tradition that
preserved the essential elements of the life of Jesus. Paul is intimately aware of the recalled words of Jesus. (Was he in the crowd at the crucifixion?)
To read Paul's letters faithfully, like any scripture, requires
prayerful thought and spiritual guidance. I pray that I am doing Christ and
Paul justice in my next three sermons. They will be (working titles):
1. “Do
not think too highly of yourself,” a reflection on Romans 12:1-21 that
addresses the role of Christian community.
2. “Subjection to Authority,” a reflection on Romans 13:1-10
on why neither the leader or the citizen should sleep easy.
3. “Hospitality,”
a reflection on the Honored Guest, or why the congregation keeps its doors
unlocked, ” based on Romans 14:5-9
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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