Preaching the Book of Romans

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LOUISVILLE — With readings from Paul’s letter to the Romans popping up frequently in the lectionary in the months to come, Dr. Lisa Bowens’ presentation last week for the Synod of the Covenant’s monthly preaching workshop proved timely and helpful for lectionary preachers.

Bowens is Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. Her webinar, which can be seen here, was on “Preaching the Book of Romans.” Bowens’ talk is 88 minutes and was hosted by the synod’s executive, the Rev. Dr. Chip Hardwick.

Bowens noted that scholar Harry Gamble has said that Paul’s letters are “missionary minded” and written for newly formed congregations whose faith and witness he wanted to nurture and maintain. Think of Paul as a pastor, Bowens said, “watching over his congregations and attempting to help them see new identities in Christ and how to live out that new identity in the midst of a hostile world.”

“Paul is often writing these letters on the run,” Bowens said, “as he’s trying to address different issues in his congregations.” Except for Romans, Paul’s letters are written to congregations he started. The letters were read aloud by a person appointed to interpret the letter. In the case of Romans, that was Phoebe, who’s often called “the first interpreter of Romans.”

“By entrusting Phoebe with the communication of this letter, Paul established a precedent that we follow today — whether we recognize it or not — every time we listen to Scripture being read and explained,” Bowens said, quoting Amy Peeler and Jennifer McNutt. “Anyone who takes up Romans and shares it with others walks in the footsteps of its first interpreter, Phoebe.”

“People have had a few questions about Romans through the years, to put it mildly,” the scholars said, “and Phoebe would have been the first to respond to those.”

According to Bowens, Paul wrote the letter from Corinth in 55-58 CE. The congregation had been around since at least the early 50s and perhaps the 40s, Bowens said. The letter was written to both Jews and Gentiles.

Romans comes in four sections, Bowens noted: chapters 1-4, 5-8, 9-11 and 12-16.

The thesis for the letter is contained in 1:16-17. Bowens’ colleague, Dr. Michael Gorman, says that in this thesis statement, “Paul announces that the gospel is a power — a force unleased in the world … [the gospel] is a speech-act that makes something happen, that causes a transformation.”

“We might say that God does what God is: the righteous God acts righteously; the God of justice creates justice; the faithful God practices fidelity; God the savior saves,” Gorman explained. “God’s faithful, saving, justice-making power makes right that which is wrong and out of kilter with God’s intentions. It is restorative, establishing that which ought to be but is not. It is thus justice, not in the sense of vengeance but in the sense of making right.”

“God is making right all that has gone wrong with the world,” Bowens said. “God’s power is bringing justice into God’s Creation.”

In 4:13-25, Paul discusses Abraham as a figure of faith. “Paul links God’s actions with Abraham and Sarah to God’s action in raising Jesus from the dead,” Bowens noted. “He is doing interesting exegetical work here.”

“Abraham’s story is a God-story. It’s a story only God could write,” she said. “It’s our story as well. We are part of the narrative of God’s creative power. As Abraham believed in the life-giving God, so too are we called to do the same.”

The second section, chapters 5-8, contain some of Paul’s best-known themes: the love of God shown in Jesus’ death and resurrection, the reality of affliction, Jesus overcoming the effects of Adam’s sin and disobedience, freedom from sin, life in the Spirit, and the triumph of God’s love over all powers, human and superhuman.

An “interesting episode” in this section is Paul’s lifting up of Adam, she said. “Paul utilizes Adam to show how sin and death have been at work in the world since the beginning,” Bowens said. But “what happens because of Adam is overturned by Jesus,” as Paul writes here.

Romans has historically been an important book in the hands of Black preachers, Bowens said. Lemuel Haynes fought in the Revolutionary War, learned Latin and Greek and became the first Black person ordained in America. In an essay, Haynes “uses Romans to push back against the idea that slavery was a blessing,” employing Romans 3:8 and 6:1.

“Just as in Paul’s day when people were saying, ‘Let’s do evil so that good may come,’ Haynes argues that slaveholders are like those in Paul’s audience who want to continue to commit evil (engage in the slave trade) so that good (civilizing Africans and causing them to become Christians) may come,” Bowens said. “The apostle’s answer to his readers in the first century is the same answer he gives to Haynes’ audience in the 18^th century: ‘God forbid.’”

Zilpha Elaw, who ministered during the first half of the 19^th century, faced “a lot of opposition” as a Black woman preacher, Bowens said. “She lifts up Phoebe as an example. She says it was strange indeed if [Phoebe] was required to receive the commissions of the church in mute silence and not allowed to utter a syllable before then.”

Bowens offered a brief look at chapters 9-11 before completing the webinar by exploring chapters 12-16 and then asking a few questions.

Chapter 13 “is a pivotal chapter in this letter,” says Gorman, according to Bowens. “It’s used to justify obeying government rulers in all contexts. It’s among the most difficult, disturbing and possibly dangerous of all Pauline texts. It’s been used to support the divine right of kings, blind nationalism and unquestioned loyalty to rulers — even tyrants.”

As scholar Susan Eastman points out, Paul was addressing a specific situation in Rome —dissension over unfair taxes. Collecting taxes during this time “was a brutal undertaking,” according to Eastman. Tax collectors would extort the payment of taxes from people. They relied on the governing authorities who had the power to impose taxes.

However, as Paul pointed out, a ruler’s authority comes from God, and not from their own claims to power. God can withdraw that authority.

“We must always remember that Paul’s words on submission to government come in the context of a Bible that shows God active in history to bring about his purpose,” says Esau McCaulley, another scholar. “God lifts up and God tears down.”

Speaking specifically on the 13^th chapter, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said he’d “be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws.”

“Conversely,” King said, “one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’”

Bowens left participants with a few of Gorman’s questions to help them as they prepare their summertime sermons on pericopes including Romans:

• What does the text say about the identity and mission of the church in the world today?
• How does the text speak out against empire and imperial powers?
• How does the text urge us to embody concern for the marginalized and the outcast?
• What does the text say about the character of God? The character of the Spirit?
• How does the text call us to participate in God’s mission?
• What powers that could deceive, seduce and harm the world or the church does this text unveil and challenge and call us to unveil and challenge?
• How does this text call us as God’s people to be both different from and involved in the world?
• What does the text urge us to believe? To hope for?
• What does the text urge us to do?