Monday, July 14, 2014

Monday, July 14, 2014

Romans 11:1-12

Over the next few days we will be considering a difficult passage from Paul’s Letter to the Romans. I find any sort of writing or speaking on Romans to be challenging. It’s a late and comprehensive work by Paul, and it has been the subject of great masterworks by some amazing thinkers (Martin Luther and Karl Barth come to mind). 

Moreover, whenever Paul gets writing about ‘the Jews’ one must approach the text sensitive to the reality that certain readings of Paul have led, in one way or another, to anti-Semitism and persecution of the Jewish people. It is disturbing how letters written to particular groups of people in a particular time for a particular reason have been used in ways to justify sweeping generalizations and violence. 

So a good way to start is by thinking about who Paul was writing to, and for what reasons. The Letter to the Romans was Paul’s correspondence to a congregation, largely, if not totally, Gentile (non-Jewish), living in (obviously) Rome. Paul’s missionary work was taking him west, and Rome would be an ideal central hub. 

The early movement of Jesus-followers existed within Judaism. The Gentiles to whom Paul was writing in Rome may have found themselves excluded from fellowship with the Jewish community there. Reading the letter is like eavesdropping -- reading somebody else’s mail -- and it just gives us one side, one perspective. But imagine being in such a situation. It is possible that the Gentile believers were harbouring resentment toward the Jews. Paul, then, is informing them that the Jews are still part of the covenant or pact -- God’s plan for the salvation of humankind: “is it possible that God abandoned his people? Out of the question” (11:1)!

These early years of the Church were certainly confusing and difficult. We know that the early leaders of the Church disagreed on certain matters, especially concerning those questions of ‘who’s in, who’s out.’ And when things are chaotic and confusing, we try to find our footing by making sense of everything by looking at a greater plan at work. And this is what Paul does. He comes up with a sort of cyclical way of understanding God’s salvation of humankind (11:11):

1. God becomes known through the revelation to the Jews.
2. This message of salvation is rejected by some, and is extended to others (Gentiles).
3. Those who had rejected it, see the good things at work in the Gentiles, and are then attracted back to it. 

I wonder, did Paul think that this was a definitive answer regarding how God is unrolling the plan of salvation for the world, or was it a just a way of expressing a great mystery, explaining things in a way that would resonate with the experience of his readers? 

No matter what, the good news here is that we are assured of God’s working through history. Even when there is hardness of heart and division, our God is a God who finds a way to bring about good. We can rejoice in how there has been won “a great gain to the world” (11:12), that does away with our tendencies for partisanship. While some of Paul’s words have been interpreted in a way that has entrenched division between peoples, we must remember that Paul is concerned with the amazing turn of events involving Jesus, which has brought about the salvation of all humankind.

- Matthew Kieswetter