As you know, I feel like it’s part of my life’s work to just learn to pay attention…to see where it is that the goodness of God, and God’s presence is showing up in a pretty crazy world.

So this week, I received an invitation to journey all the way over to QA Baptist Church (1/2 block away) and sit in the sanctuary with Pat and Warren Cochrane. Wednesday, July 22nd was exactly 60 years ago since they’d been married. In 1949 Pat and Warren had stood in that exact place and taken wedding vows. And rather spontaneously, we stood and they renewed their vows, now from an entirely different perspective. Think of these words from people now in their 70’s-80’s instead of their teens & 20’s:

…and I promise,

to be your loving and faithful husband (wife);
in plenty and in want;
in joy and in sorrow;
in sickness and in health;
to love, honor and cherish,
with God’s help,
as long as we both shall live.

Holy ground. Paying attention.

We’ve also been paying attention to the book of Romans for the last 3 months. In the first 11 chapters, God’s grace was the prevailing umbrella that one way or another hovered over everything Paul said about God, and about God’s people. And then last week, as Jeff reminded us with chapter 12, it’s as though Paul finally said: in light of this grace…what should/could life look like?

Today we continue that question in chapter 13. How shall we live? And in particular, what does that mean for our relationship to authority? We’re going to read the first 8 verses of Romans 13.

If we’re honest, most of us don’t appreciate the language of submission, or obedience or being subject to some authority. When I was a kid, nothing drove me crazier than trying to argue with my parents and them answering my “why do I have to do that?” question by pulling out the ultimate parental tool: “Because I told you so.”“Children, obey your parents” scripture says.

It bugs us. It bugs us when scripture talks about wives submitting to husbands. It bugs us when scripture tells husbands and wives to submit to one another. It bugs us to be under authority of an employer. In independent, free-willed, autonomous America, who wants to be subject to anything? We even bristle over being subject to God. So when Paul brings up the topic of governmental authority, we’re immediately suspicious.

I’m well into reading the first book in a three volume series by Taylor Branch on America and Martin Luther King Jr. called Parting the Waters. By 1960, the civil rights movement in the United States was beginning to gather momentum. Martin Luther King Jr. was in his early 30’s, and an increasingly visible force in America. The presidential candidates that year, (John F.Kennedy and Richard Nixon) for nearly the first time were considering the strength of the African American vote as important for the election. As a wave of bus boycotts, lunch counter sit-ins and nonviolent protests hit the country, King became a focal point. And the governmental authorities of police chiefs, mayors and governors (even FBI) intensified.

The authority of the state of Alabama was brought to bear directly on King. The State of Alabama, after King had already paid a very questionable tax assessment, still pursued a trumped up charge of tax evasion and began to prosecute the case. For the first time in state history, tax evasion charges were made as a felony rather than a misdemeanor.

King’s supporters took out an ad in the New York Times to raise funds for his defense. When the court declared King innocent, the governor of Alabama filed a $1 million dollar libel suit against King supporters and the NY Times. He also ordered the President of Alabama State, a black university, to fire a dozen of King’s friends and supporters on faculty.

You see, the authority of the state was being used in an abusive manner, but the tone of the country allowed it. And this was just the tip of the iceberg. What does Romans 13 say? “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God.” Could that be right?!?

In 1985, Michael Cassidy, the founder of the mission organization African Enterprise had an interview with President P.W. Botha of South Africa. It was the time of the National Initiative for Reconciliation, and Cassidy had hopes that Botha would support the dismantling of apartheid.

Cassidy wrote: “I was immediately aware on entry to the room that this was not to be the sort of encounter for which I had prayed. The President began by standing to read me part of Romans 13…” Botha used this very passage in Romans to justify the existence of the terrible system of apartheid. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God.”

The examples are easy to come by. Slavery in the United States. The holocaust of Nazi Germany. Romans 13 has been used many times in support of terrible injustices. I suspect that every bone in your body wants to say “No! this doesn’t apply to oppressive or harmful governments!” I’m no different than you. But before we head down that road, we need to consider carefully what Paul says.

1) We can’t dismiss Paul’s words on the grounds that he doesn’t know about oppressive authorities. His world was full of brutal, dictatorial military regimes, including Rome who held the entire region of the Mediterranean (map on front of bulletin). Paul’s day didn’t even know what a democratic government looked like. The oppressive Roman authorities were his world. Paul was not naïve.

2) Further, we ought to listen carefully to Paul talk about the right functions of governmental authority. That might be summarized as “rewarding good, and punishing evil (verse 3 & 4).” Two thousand years later, we might broaden that out, but “rewarding good and punishing evil” is, I think, a fair summary.

Another way of saying this is that authority used rightly is needed due to the inherent immorality of people. Reinhold Niebuhr once said rather famously that (and I paraphrase) “it is goodness which makes civil order possible…it is sin which makes civil order necessary.” So Paul claims that a right function of authority is “rewarding good and punishing evil.”

3) Paul is making the case that part of discipleship, part of following Jesus, is being a good citizen. That participating in community, not stirring up needless trouble, not causing violence are appropriate ways to act as Christians in living out our faith.

We know that Paul was contending with some early believers who thought that becoming “free in Christ” meant the freedom to do anything they wanted, including the freedom to oppose all authority. That’s not freedom. This passage says “no,” there is a Godly use of authority. And most of us could stand to learn more about living under authority. When we reject all authority, we tend to reject God’s authority as well.

4) Paul has good precedent in asserting that God can, will, does and has used authorities that do not know or recognize Him…to work his will. Pharaoh, Assyria, Babylon all were used by God in communicating, disciplining or shaping his people, according to scripture. It doesn’t mean he approves of all they do. Only that God can use government towards his purposes.

The idea that the state is a Christian force, if it ever was true, is clearly not true today, certainly not in this country. That doesn’t mean that God can’t use it. He does.

BUT. What about when authorities and governments are abusive?

In 2002 a group of us traveled into China, and met with several underground church leadership schools. They met in secret, we arrived at night and left at dark, we closed windows in order to keep the sound of singing inside…away from the ears of neighbors, and police. The church met underground because government had made it a crime to gather together for worship. Many of them had been arrested, held, even beaten. So what should they do? NOT gather for worship?

What does a follower of Jesus do when governments not only fail to punish evil and reward good…but even do the reverse? Frankly, this is not the topic of Paul’s writing to the Romans. It’s not the question he is answering. As far as we know, the persecution of Christians was not yet happening. Paul is saying “live your life well. Government has a function.”

But what do we do with governments that support slavery, or the brutality of an Idi Amin, or the ethnic cleansing of an Adolph Hitler. What do we do when an authority is not only not used by God, but seems to oppose Him?

In order to consider those situations, which are so important, we will need to do the things that are so important when we read the scriptures on any topic.

1) We need to read all of scripture- not just one passage, and especially not one passage taken out of context.

• That means on this subject of authority, we also read Revelation 13, when the authority of throne and government is depicted not as an instrument of God, or a force rewarding good and punishing evil, but as an instrument of the devil.
  
• We need to read the story from Acts 5 (Frank read) about Peter saying “we must obey God rather than any human authority.”
  
• Or Acts 4, when Peter and John were ordered not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus, and they replied “whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Or a number of incidents in Paul’s own life, where he came into conflict with religious authority, and with governmental authority, and chose to follow what he felt God called him to do and say. We need to read all of scripture.

2) We need to look at the testimony of Jesus’ own life and death- who was arrested and put to death, unable to please various authorities as he followed his Father’s will.

3) We need to listen to Jesus’ words in the gospels- “give to Caesar’s what belongs to him…but to God what belongs to God.” And make some hard discernments about what belongs to whom. When a corrupt government takes human life, they take something that belongs to God. We are not obliged to stand by, but to work against that. The same is true of justice, which ultimately belongs to God. Our submission to governmental authority, giving to Caesar what belongs to him, doesn’t mean to submit to unjust systems or actions.

In this country, despite many challenges, we are fortunate to have a number of ways of protesting an authority’s choices which are legally protected- voting, picketing, protesting, free speech. Not all are so fortunate.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran pastor executed for participating in a plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler put this to the supreme test, didn’t he? He anguished over his involvement, and never really saw it as other than sinful. But in the end, he decided: “If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”

I think the full witness of scripture in regards to submission to authority ought to take us right to the edge of where to obey the authority would be to disobey God. And then we have to appeal, in all humility, to a higher authority. To the Lord Jesus. Our hope is in the gospel, not the government. We have to do what’s right, before God. And like with Bonhoeffer, that is an immensely difficult task to sort out sometimes.

Now, remember where we started. Paul is answering the question “how then shall we live?” At this point, I wonder if perhaps Paul’s own head is spinning, with the complexities of all of the application to authority swirling around him. Because he takes it down to the most fundamental piece. Seizing on his own words to give whatever is owed: taxes, respect, honor…he says further- have only one debt constantly before your mind- don’t let this other stuff bog you down and miss your calling: Love your neighbor. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love one another.

In a word- do what’s right. Love. Not warm fuzzy feelings, but act in right ways towards the people around you. Love them. Stick with them. Share Jesus. I think part of Paul’s encouragement to live honorably, submit to authority is to not get bogged down with nonessentials, and miss the ministry of the gospel. Do what’s right.

Finally, Paul adds one more note, a note of urgency at the end of chapter 13. Not just “Do what’s right.” But do it NOW. “You know what time it is- how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers…”

This week these little flyers were on cars on QA from a Christian website, predicting a major earthquake and tsunami on the west coast next year with exact dates. It encourages us to sell property and move inland. It also has a pretty good idea of the schedule for WWIII and WWIV, as well as the second coming.

It’s always fascinating to me that Jesus himself said he didn’t know when the end would come, only God did. Yet we have a steady stream of people who know more. The flyer and website has a human urgency- run, flee, protect yourself.

Paul has a godly urgency- to wake up. Do what’s right. Live well. Love. Do it now.

Let’s pray.