Romans 13:1-7: “Creative Trouble”
Recently I have encountered this text from Romans being utilized in discussions regarding how the two elements of Christian identity and United States citizenship fit together. It seems on the surface, if one was simply to take Paul at his word, to submit to the state, nation, empire, human governing institution, etc. is a good and noble Christian thing to do. I mean the final line of this passage says it all; essentially, pay to each what is due. If something is honorable, then honor it. But, is everything in government honorable? Furthermore, I am confused as many readings of this passage misconstrued the concept of submission with allegiance or nationalism. Why are the two inherently linked? I think this has to do with the distance in which many of us read the text.
As the saying goes, “Context is Queen!” (coined by one of my female professors). Paul is not writing these words to middle class Americans struggling to figure out their place in this nation or who to vote for in the election. Neither is Paul writing to Roman citizens. Paul is writing to the Roman church; who, at this time, is predominately Jewish. There was a large population of Jews in Rome during the first century, and it was thought that Christianity was just some crazy off-shot Jewish cult. Now, there were Roman citizens who were members of the church, but they would of been in the minority. Paul’s audience was predominately Jewish believers who where living in Rome in 54-62 CE (as some scholars date the writing). They were outsiders of the political system, they had no voice to change policy or speak in the public square. The church was a ragtag bunch of immigrants without a vote, who where pressured by both Roman and Jewish communities for their non-compliance to society as a whole and dedication to a Jewish rebel who was hung on a tree. Nero was the emperor, who ordered state sponsored persecution of the Christian community in 64 CE. This was not a comfortable place for the church to be.
I am a white male who fits nicely into the middl-class America. Paul is not writing to me. I can vote, I have socio-economic pull in my community, I have a voice in the public square, I am not oppressed, nor pressured to conform to a certain systemic cultural pattern. I am the pattern. To read this text form this vantage point, and understand that Paul’s intent is for me, is erroneous. I have to look past myself.
David Dark, author of The Gospel According to America, tells the story of Bayard Rustin, a young black Quaker, and his ordeal with injustice and racism in the segregated United States in 1942. His tale is of standing up for justice, not backing down in the face of oppression, and exposing the powers of social systemic evil. He later becomes a companion of Martin Luther King, Jr. and helps organize the March on Washington in 1963. Rustin says, “I believe in social dislocation and creative trouble,” (Dark, 143). This is how Rustin describes his “submission” in the face of an unjust authority, submission that got him hauled off to jail and beaten by the police, time and time again. In many ways, if Paul were to have written Romans in 1942 Bayard Rustin would be his audience. And, I think that Bayard would have taken the words to heart, for he lived out Paul’s decree to honor what was honorable. Bayard honored God. He gave to Caesar what was Caesar’s, even if that meant his blood and tears, but he gave to God what was God’s, his life in the fight for justice.
Biblical scholar David A. DeSilva states, “With regard to the authorities, then, Paul advises a demythologized submission. The believer is thereby distanced from national and political ideologies and self-legitimating propaganda, and invited to view the governing authorities from the view point of how they serve God’s purposes. Submission, however, does not rule out criticism and prophetic direction,” (An Intro to the New Testament, 636.) We are not tied as Christians to a nationalistic identity, but we as follows of Christ are to understand ourselves to be at a distance. Not as “other-worldly” and withdrawn, but to engage in “creative trouble” and prophetic witnesses to the Kingdom.
Tags: Chritian Identity, Creative Trouble, David Dark, David DeSilva, nationalism, Paul, Romans 13:1-7
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