Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! We've been reading the Bible clear through this year. We are finishing the New Testament, so read along with me. But first, let us pray: 

Father,

When the fullness of time had come, you sent your Word in the One who said, “Whoever sees me, sees the Father.” No revelation can surpass this until Jesus comes again. By your gift, the Church continues to receive unfathomable riches from the inheritance handed on from the Apostles and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit.

Let the Spirit who inspired the writing of today's pages "guide me in the truth and teach me" to follow Jesus ever more closely, until he calls me to follow him to the Kingdom where he lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.

Today's chapters are Romans 13-15.

After all that theology, it sounds like Paul is finally starting to talk in Chapter 13 about things we can all understand: taxes, tolls, respect for authority! His words have sometimes been used to argue for "a passive populace that pays its taxes and defers to those in power," writes Esau McCaulley, a Scripture scholar whose doctoral advisor was N.T. Wright. But, McCaulley notes, "Romans 13:1-7 asserts the sovereignty of God over the state. Paul says that the state's policing duties should never be a terror to those who are innocent." (Roman soldiers carried out what we today consider police work.)

The final chapters of Romans are very practical but, as you would expect from the man who will give us the great "hymn of charity," his guiding principle is love of neighbor as "the fulfillment of the Law." This is an especially delicate question in the mixed-ethnic community of Rome, where the Jewish Christians are observant of dietary restrictions, while the Gentiles will eat just about anything (kind of like New Orleanians). Paul knows that this brings the risk of scandal to people whose faith may not stretch quite that far. Should those who feel they know better go ahead and act on their more enlightened convictions, regardless of the sensitivities of community members? You already know what Paul will say, but how will he express it? By seeing the other person as "one for whom Christ died." Jesus is always the model and ideal of Paul's life.

Paul ends on a tone that recalls his opening notes, proclaiming his apostolic calling as the Apostle to the Gentiles, but now with a priestly connotation. As an Apostle, Paul is not simply an "announcer" or communicator of a message, he is carrying out a liturgical role, and the sacred offering he makes (he uses the language of sacrifice here) is the Gentiles themselves, who are consecrated by the Holy Spirit. This is something utterly amazing: the Gentiles who enter the Body of Christ through Paul's proclamation of the Gospel have become participants in the Eucharistic offering, and were, in Chapter 12, exhorted to offer themselves as a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God. This is what we also are invited to do every time we participate in the Mass. This is why at the end of the Offertory, the priest invites us: "Pray...that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable..." 

Start reading here.

For additional background

N.T. Wright's Paul: A Biography is the book I would recommend to someone who wanted to read one (only one) book that combined the life and letters of St Paul. Written by a noted Scripture, this is a flowing narrative that is scripturally enlightening and historically sound. Wright gives the reader a way of following Paul through the Acts of the Apostles and the writing of his letters, making Paul the person that much more approachable, and the letters themselves more readable as a result of having a social and historical context. 

Anglican priest and Scripture scholar Esau McCaulley delves into key passages of Paul's letters (among dozens of other biblical books) that were historically twisted to uphold the institution of slavery and racial injustice in the United States. His book, Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope, is especially addressed to Black readers, but I found it extremely relevant to the questions American society is facing. McCaulley looks at several key areas in which the Scriptures have been kept from speaking fully to the American situation: policing, politics, justice, outrage. He brings his broad knowledge of the Word of God, the books we have been reading this year, to bear on the issues. (I have dozens of paragraphs marked for further reflection.)