Sermons

"Romans Romp: First Things"

Delivered from the Pulpit of First Congregational Church

of Anchorage by The Reverend Mark E. Long

on February 7, 2010

Lections:  Jer.  31.31-34

                  Rm. 1.1-14

                  Mk. 1.14-20

Today I begin a "book study" of Romans, but a different sort of "book study."  I have no agenda or primary reading that I wish to dredge out of Paul's words and sentences.  I will share what we think we know about Rome at the time, the social context within the churches, and Paul's possible purpose but I will not go back to the Greek to divine all of this painstakingly word by word.

Paul's meaning at the time was important for the place and time, but what it says to us may be something completely different.  This is where, for me, the neglected person of the Godhead comes in; I am confident the Holy Spirit will guide the seeker of here and now to truth here and now.

I don't even know how long this will take; as with most things I trust that I will be done when it feels right.  There is something else a bit troublesome at the outset; there is the not so small matter of Lent and the Easter season that falls somewhere in the middle of this.  How is it going to fit in?  I have no idea, but again I trust that it will just as Advent fell well into my series on "the fruit of the Spirit."

It is a moment of celebration when religious scholars, those pesky and mostly ignored (at least by the masses) "ivory tower" occupants, agree uniformly on something.  Cue the trumpets; Paul of Tarsus or St. Paul to most of the Christian church is the author of Romans.  Indisputably.

But . . . we are not going to begin there.  We are going to begin our "book study" of Romans with Jeremiah, the optimistic prophet on whom scholars are divided.  Optimistic - wait a minute preacher, isn't this the prophet who forecast doom on Judah- the Babylonians are coming, the Babylonians are coming?  Tragedy is in the air, destruction assured.  Why, yes it is; at least as a symbolic character representing an unknown number of writers and editors across a span of centuries from exile till after trying to make sense of the tragedy and destruction wrought by the Babylonians.

But what can I say?  Pessimism does not make it all the way through Jeremiah.  The latter half of Jeremiah is an oracle revealing light out there in the future, distant but hopeful.  As Jeremiah says, "The days are surely coming . . . when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah."  It will not be like the last one with the ancestors either.  This one "will put [the Lord's] law within them, and [the Lord] will write it on their hearts, and [the Lord] will be their God, and they shall be [God's] people."  Be assured, "the days are surely coming."

Now whatever the writers and editors behind Jeremiah had in mind about the days surely coming, early Christians by the time of Mark's gospel have their own idea.  As Mark puts it in his gospel, "Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news."

Mark writes of a time before Paul writes any letter, but he writes his gospel 10 to 20 years after Paul writes his letters.  So Paul has none of this to go on when he sits down to dictate or write his letters.  In fact, we do not actually know what Paul has to go on when he dictates or writes his letters to the churches.  It does seem though like in Paul's time there is already a tradition circulating that says much the same as Mark, but I am getting ahead of myself. 

As to when Paul's letter to the Roman Christians was written, a part of the letter and a further reference in Acts indicates Paul dictated the letter to Tertius while he was in Corinth near the end of his third missionary trip to Asia Minor.  Internal scriptural evidence indicates that this was probably in the spring 57 c.e.  The letter is in anticipation of his visit to Rome but Paul does not actually make it there for another couple of years.[1]

Letters of the time opened with more than "Dear so and so," but not actually a lot more.  They were generally very simple - the sender's name, the recipient's name, and a brief greeting.  The salutation was followed traditionally then by the sender's "thanksgiving" for the recipient.  Everything else was put in the body of the letter up to the close.  Paul's letter to the Romans is unremarkable in its form, for the most part, except for a most remarkable salutation. 

He opens Romans, his longest letter, with the longest salutation of any of his letters.  The question is why?

What Paul says in the salutation may be a clue for us; he recites what appears to be a developing creed about the "good news," probably used in early liturgies.  "Promised beforehand through his prophets (hello the likes of Jeremiah) in the holy scriptures (no longer just the Torah), the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith  . . . ."  I am going to stop there for a moment.

Paul's lengthy and theological salutation serves to establish his credentials right up front.  In part, his reason is that he did not establish the Roman churches; in fact, v. 13 makes clear he has never been to Rome.  He has ground to make up.  But there may be more to it, which becomes clear as Paul moves through his opening lines.

He begins the defense of his authority by identifying himself with "Jesus Christ" then goes further and claims that he is "an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God."  Next, in a wise move, Paul states this developing gospel that he shares in common with his hearers.

But then something unexpected pops into his litany.  I intentionally ended the litany mid-way through v. 5, as it continues, (backtracking just a bit for clarity) - "we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called saints:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."  The last sentence could be expected.  The part before it most definitely not and pleased some but riled up others.

But give Paul credit; he lays his cards on the table, if not his strategy, right from the beginning.  He is completely transparent.  His greeting puts out his agenda and he reinforces it early (vv. 13) and often throughout the letter.  It is an agenda that will please some and rile up others.  Next week, I will offer why Paul's mission to the Gentiles is a thorny subject with some of the "saints" and the situation that makes it a controversial issue in the most prominent city in the world.

This is how I see it off and running through Romans.  Amen.