“All About: Thinking Christians”
Phil asked me the other day if I would offer some reflections on our mission statement, which says: All About: Thinking Christians, Living Diversity, Seeking Justice. So, I want to thank him for this suggestion. Today the topic is “All About Thinking Christians.” The text for this theme is Romans 12. I want to look at chapters 12 and 13 together and then offer some ideas on how I think these texts fit our situation as we continue to talk about our mission focus for 2023.
Paul is writing to a church in Rome, the heart of the Roman empire. An empire that not long-ago crucified Jesus. After Jesus’ death, his followers spread out. They did not all stay in Jerusalem. They scattered. Thomas went to India, someone else went to Ethiopia which is where the first Christians were in Africa, some think that Mary went to the south of France, Somebody started the church in Rome. And there was no New Testament until late in the fourth century. Scholars tell us that what we think of as the New Testament was not formally recognized until 389 or later. The first Christians had other books in their theological library. They read the first and second letter of Clement, the Teachings of the Twelve, and others. Some people think there was a collection of the sayings of Jesus called “Q.” This was a dynamic period in Christian history. The church was growing. One of the questions we have to consider is how did this happen? How did the church in the first century not only survive, but grow.
Paul is planning on going to Rome and he writes this letter as a way to introduce himself. In Chapter 12, he encourages his readers not to be confirmed to the world, do accept the standards of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind and your heart. He encourages members of the congregation to think about your gifts and talents and how you will use them for the benefit of the community, and then in the second half of Chapter 12, he tells them to “let love be genuine” and live in harmony with each other. Chapter 12 is all about life in the community of faith. Then in Chapter 13, he switches gears and talks about the church in the world and the relation of the church to the governing authorities. Try to imagine the scene. The Romans killed Jesus. There were religious persecutions. No doubt there were Roman informants in church meetings. So, Paul writes in Chapter 13, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God.”
That sentence and the rest of the chapter are subject to interpretation. It is possible that Paul is making an argument for what is called the two kingdoms theory–political leaders rule in the world of politics and economics, church leaders rule in the spiritual realm, and never the two shall meet. That’s one way to interpret the text. The other way to interpret the text is that Paul is making an argument that governments are accountable to God, they are subject to a higher authority. Remember Martin Luther King, Jr. said that he was a drum major for justice and that he “maladjusted to injustice.” I think Paul is saying something like that. Empires then and now rule by military might and economic exploitation and raw political power. Empires then and now would have us believe that as it is now, so it was in the beginning and shall be forever more. But, Paul says, it ain’t necessarily so. Every government is subject to, accountable to, a higher power, to God. I think that Paul is sowing the seeds for nonviolent civil disobedience in Chapter 13. He goes so far as to recite the Ten Commandments, and to say that rulers and people of privilege and power have to abide by these standards.
Which brings me to the cross and why the early church grew as it did in the first and second centuries. A few of us met last week for a more extended conversation about the cross and the wedge blade and symbols on the communion table. We said that the cross is an austere symbol. It is a brutal and cruel symbol. It is a symbol of state sponsored terrorism and torture. It is a symbol of the ultimate power of the empire. I’ll let you use your imagination. The cross was not only used to torture and kill enemies of the state, it was meant to intimate any and all friends of this enemy of the state and shame them. There is simply no limit to what a superpower will do to hold on to power. That is what the cross represents.
What I believe happened is that the early Christians took this symbol and turned it into a symbol of resistance. They used the symbol of the cross to represent the cruelty of the state, and then to say, there is a better way, a more excellent way. We can organize our communities around life- affirming values instead of tools of terror. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Love one another. That’s what Chapter 12 is about. There are two contrasting pictures of society placed side-by-side. Look, Paul says, this is what happens when people live in communities based on values of honesty, respect, genuine love. As a symbol of resistance, the cross calls the church to be a contrast society practicing nonviolent resistance in the heart of a violent empire.
What does this idea look like in the real world? Think of Gandhi in India. The Salt Tax was an instrument of British oppression, until Gandhi made his famous march to the sea. Then salt became a symbol of India’s liberation. It was not the only symbol of liberation, but it was one of the symbols of nonviolent resistance to the empire. Think also of the pink triangle. In Nazi Germany the pink triangle was a symbol of oppression, homosexuals had to wear it. Today, there are pink triangle parks in many countries. The pink triangle is a symbol of nonviolent resistance.
Last week in our congregational conversation we talked about putting up a large rainbow flag, and a barn quilt. It would be our way of saying we stand in solidarity with all members of GLBTQ+ community, dedicated to nonviolent resistance to a state legislature than seeks to violate the most basic rights and privacy of every person that does not comply with their decree. Let love be genuine. Last week we identified a list of issues that concern us as justice issues. The list is not exhaustive. To use biblical language, our list is our way of saying to the principalities and powers that there is a more excellent way. Things do not need to be this way. And that is why the early church grew–it offered people a way to participate in an alternative society.
But, if this is just a social action agenda, issue de jour, topic of the day, we will grow bored and tired in less than three months. We will find ourselves in an endless game of whack-a-mole. That’s why worship is so central. It is important to be spiritually grounded in some community and in some defined value system. Why am I doing this? Why do I care?
So worship has a structure to it. We gather in praise–we are glad to be alive and to be part of a community that actually cares about us and lets us care about each other. And then there is confession–the recognition that the world is messed up and sometimes so are we, but that’s not the last word, because tomorrow we get to go at it again.
That’s why the communion table is so central. It connects us with each other, and prepares us to go out again. If I were a tad more organized, I would have asked Lisa to bring her MOM’s t-shirt to put on the communion table to say spiritually and physically we are with the people going to Topeka tomorrow to lobby for gun control. The legislature is not going to change. But what is important is that their unwillingness to listen to reason does not change us. As I have been thinking about this it seems to me, we could have symbols every week that connect us with issues we identify and the world around us.
It’s all about thinking Christians–thinking about how we let love be genuine in this community and in the community beyond.