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Learning for Life: Cultivating a Student Spirituality
Week 21
Brian Walsh, University of Toronto
Empire and the Gospel for Rome
21.1 Which Gospel?
“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures” Romans 1.1-2
So Paul began his letter to a community of Jesus followers who lived at the very centre of the Roman empire. Nothing too remarkable, it would seem. But note for moment the repetition of that seemingly innocuous and decidedly Christian word “gospel.”
If we understood that the word, “gospel” is not a term unique to first century Christianity, perhaps this opening salutation would begin to take on different and more significant meaning. You see, “gospel” is a politically loaded term that has its most immediate range of meaning in the context of the Roman empire. A “gospel” is an imperial pronouncement, an imperial decree, a proclamation of good news from the empire. News of the expansion of the empire, the vanquishing of her enemies, the ascension of a new emperor to the throne, a birth in the household of Caesar – all of these were ‘gospels.’ They all told the story of the empire in all of its glory.
When Christians described the story of Jesus Christ as a ‘gospel’ they knew full well that they were engaging in an imaginative act of subversion. In the empire there was only one source of gospel, only one source of truly cosmic good news – and that was Caesar. The church countered this ideology with an alternative gospel, an alternative story of redemption that opposed the Pax Romana with the Pax Christi. They proclaimed that Jesus, not Caesar, is Lord and Saviour of the world. That kind of thing could get you in a lot of trouble.
At the beginning of a letter written to Christians at the heart of the Roman empire, Paul seems to delight in describing the message of Jesus as a “gospel.” It’s almost as if he wants to make sure that the community knows that theirs is a story that is a radical alternative to the story of the empire.
So here’s the question. Do we live in an empire? Is the Pax Americana parallel to the Pax Romana? What is the “gospel” that dominates our culture and our lives? And what would it mean to believe in the gospel of Christ in the face of the false gospel of our times?
Prayer: Vision, Lord. Vision and discernment. Help us to be so deeply rooted in the gospel of Christ that we will have vision for your Kingdom and discernment of false paths, idolatrous stories, deceitful gospels. Amen
21.2 Whose Story?
“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scripture, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord….” Romans 1.1-4
If you lived in Rome, you knew the story. It was impossible to escape it. The murals on the walls, the statues throughout the city, the spectacles at the coliseum, the images in the market and the baths, the sacrifices in the temples, and the civic holidays all proclaimed one story and celebrated one lord of all. The story of the Pax Romana and the lordship of Caesar. This was a story of imperial rule and conquest, of the blessing of the gods, of the new age of virtue, of the inevitable spread of an ever beneficent Roman rule and civilization.
All empires are rooted in stories. Rome was no exception and neither is contemporary North America. Whether it is the myth of American Manifest Destiny or the myth of the age of peace inaugurated by Emperor Augustus, the principle remains – without a narrative that tells the story of the emergence of the present order of things as somehow blessed by the gods, an empire cannot be sustained. And that is why empires do not take kindly to folks who proclaim a story that deviates or subverts the dominant mythology.
So it is not surprising that when Paul proclaimed a gospel alternative to the authorized gospel of the empire, he did so by telling a different story. And that is exactly what he does in the very first sentence of this letter. This is the gospel of God, not the imperial gospel of the gods, so it will be a gospel that tells a different story from the myth that has captured the imaginations of most people in Rome.
In a society that despised and persecuted Jews, Paul says that his gospel is rooted in the Hebrew prophets. In a society that traced power through the imperial family tree, Paul says that Jesus is a descendant of King David. And in the face of a mythology that accredited divinity to the emperor after his death, Paul proclaims Jesus as Lord and as Son of God because he has conquered death through resurrection.
Caesar or Christ. Conflicting stories, conflicting lords. Whose story will we believe? Whose lordship will we confess?
Prayer: Resurrected Lord. Yours is the story of redemption. Yours is the story of life renewed. Help us to so live out of your story that our lives bear witness to your Lordship. Amen
21.3 Jew first, then the Gentiles
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first, then also to the Greek.” Romans 1.16
Jews had a stormy history in Rome. They had frequently been expelled from the city over the years. Indeed in 49AD Claudius had expelled them because of riots within the Jewish sector concerning the Christ. It seems that conversions to Jesus in the Jewish community had caused considerable tensions, so Claudius threw all Jews out of Rome – Christian Jews included.
In 54AD, however, the emperor Nero rescinded Claudius’s decree and had allowed Jews to return.
Now consider the situation. For five years the church in Rome had developed and grown as a Gentile community with no Jewish membership. When the Jews were allowed to return, Christian Jews obviously found the Christian communities and began to worship Christ with their Gentile brothers and sisters. No problem, right? Wrong. Remember that Jews were generally despised in Roman society, and it is clear that Gentile Christians were not always immune from the prejudices, racisms and elitist attitudes common to citizens at the heart of an empire.
But Paul will not tolerate any such racism. So he says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God that brings salvation for everyone who believes: first to the Jew , and then to the Gentile.” Here Paul reverses the imperial order of priority and insists that the counter-imperial gospel of Jesus is to the Jew first, and then also to the Gentile. The gospel of Rome might have always been willing to discard the Jews, but the gospel of Christ is bold to proclaim that despised Jews actually have a priority in this story of salvation – they come first. And while such an identification with the Jews might be shameful in the eyes of the empire, Paul says that he will not be bound by such imperial notions of shame.
There is nothing new about racial profiling. Imperial regimes always scapegoat certain groups. Imperial stories always view some people as threats to civic order, shameful pollutants to society. What the empire counts as lowly and shameful, the gospel will embrace and honour. We are called to do no less.
Prayer: Forgive us our racisms. Forgive us when we are complicit in the oppressions of the empire. Fill us with the embracing love of the Kingdom. Amen
21.4 I will not be ashamed
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first, then also to the Greek..” Romans 1.16
Paul will not accept imperial notions of shame, nor will he be bound by a shame that is imposed on the believing community by the empire. But what if the community engages in shameful things from the perspective of its own story, its own gospel? From the rest of this letter it seems pretty clear that the way in which Jews were being treated within the Christian community was shameful. In this instance the “gospel” that is being lived out in the community is indeed “shameful.” So perhaps when Paul says that he is not ashamed of the gospel, he is saying that in the face of clearly shameful things that are happening in the gospel community, he will not be ashamed of the gospel anyway.
Now we’re getting close to home. You see, there are a lot of shameful gospels out there.
When the name of Jesus is invoked to baptize ideologies of national security that legitimize military interventions around the world, I am ashamed. When Christians embrace a gospel of ethnic purity and turn a blind eye to genocide, I am ashamed. When global capitalism is accepted in the name of an idolatrous gospel of wealth that wears a thick veneer of Christian spirituality, then I am ashamed.
But even all of this is too external – it is too set in an us/them kind of dichotomy.
Do you really want to know when I’m tempted to say that I’m ashamed of the gospel? When I experience in myself and in my brothers and sisters an academic elitism in our life at the university so that we hardly even notice, and certainly don’t take any time for the cleaning staff, the parking officers and cafeteria workers – then I’m ashamed. When someone comes into our midst who doesn’t ‘fit’ and we are all uncomfortable, well, then I’m ashamed as well.
But I’m most tempted to say that I’m ashamed of the gospel, ashamed to be known as a Christian, when I experience in my own heart, in my own life, and in the life of the Christian community, enmity, betrayal, back-biting, malice, gossip and an unforgiving spirit. When I meet those kinds of things in my own life and in the life of the church that is supposed to be my lifeline, then I’m not sure who I am anymore, I’m not sure who Jesus is anymore, and I find myself tempted to be ashamed of the gospel. Do you ever feel that way?
Prayer: It can be debilitating, Lord. This shame that weighs down on us. The shame of Christendom, the shame of the church, the shame of our own shameful ways. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us, and forgive us. Amen.
Quote: “Then will there by no time for sorrow, then will there be no time for shame.”
U2, “Playboy Mansion,” Pop (Island/Polygram, 1997)
21.5 Whose Justice?
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first, then also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”” Romans 1.16-17
If there were three things that the Roman imperial mythology proclaimed with utmost clarity they were that Caesar was the saviour of the world, that imperial proclamations carried great power, and that the great goddess Iustitia (Justice) had smiled upon the empire and blessed it with a righteousness that had been unparalleled in all of history. And in these two thematic verses at the very beginning of his epistle to the Romans, Paul put the empire on notice that the gospel of Jesus Christ deconstructs each of these pretentious claims.
Do you remember when President Bush announced the “War on Terror”? Do you remember the short-lived name that this new military intervention was given? “Operation Infinite Justice.” The White House withdrew from that name rather quickly because of religious (mostly Islamic) objections to the blasphemous arrogance of any nation presuming that it can enact an ‘infinite’ justice. But the Bush regime was clearly standing in a long imperial tradition. Empires always view themselves as the epitome of justice and invariably cloak their claims to justice in the language of religious ultimacy. This isn’t just an “American” justice, this is the essence of justice, an infinite justice, precisely because the American empire is self-evidently a force of goodness in the world, a force of salvation. And when a proclamation issues forth from the heart of this empire – that is, the White House – then it carries great power that the rest of the world had better respect.
Paul will have nothing of such imperial arrogance. So he countered the empire with his own radical and all-encompassing claims. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that comes with power, not the false gospel of the empire. This is a gospel that has nothing less than the power of salvation. And if salvation is found in this gospel, then the gospel of the empire is a sham. Jesus saves, not Caesar, not the free market, not the power of America. And if you are looking for justice – a real justice that restores all of creation and puts to right all that has been distorted and broken – then you will need to look beyond the fraudulent self-serving charade of justice in the empire to the justice of the kingdom of God.
Prayer: Forgive us, Lord, our complicity in empire. Come in the power of your gospel to save us. Amen
21.6 What Salvation?
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first, then also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” Romans 1.16-17
What is salvation and how are we saved? For many of us salvation is the forgiveness of our sins so that we will be saved from damnation. It is, if you will, our ticket to heaven. And we acquire this salvation ticket through our faith, that is, by believing that we are sinners and that Jesus died for our sins.
Such a view of both salvation and faith is decidedly not what Paul is talking about in this passage. In fact, such an escapist understanding of salvation rooted in the act of an individualistic personal faith would have been alien to Paul’s thought. Here’s a rule when reading Paul: always read St. Paul with Jewish eyes. Remember that Paul is a Jew and his understanding of the world, though transformed through his experience of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is nonetheless, deeply rooted in the Scriptures of Israel. That is why he quotes the Old Testament so much. And we need to look for the meaning of his language first and foremost in the context of the traditions and worldview of Israel.
So consider the notion of salvation. To be saved is a matter of being rescued from some real peril. And while our individualism reduces that peril to an after-life of damnation, Israel’s peril was always much more immediate. Salvation language in Israel is invariably related to the geo-political, military and cultural threat posed by the empires all around them. It is in the face of Egyptian slavery, Assyrian attack and Babylonian captivity that Israel calls out for salvation.
Salvation is always in the face of empire. And the gospel, Paul writes, is the power of God for salvation. It is, quite literally, the dynamite (from the Greek word for power, “dunamis”) that explodes in the midst of oppression and sets the captive free.
Personal soul salvation and imperial captivity go hand in hand. There is nothing that the empire wants more than for its subjugated peoples to find personal solace in a religion that will pose no threat to their imperial overlords. Such religion has no power, it has no dynamite. In the face of our own imperial captivity we desperately need a gospel that will set us free.
Prayer: Set us free, Lord. Set us free from our allegiance to empire. Come with salvation power to liberate us from the empire so we can live in the kingdom. Amen.
21.7 Whose faith?
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first, then also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”” Romans 1.16-17
The concert has come to an end and the band members have, one by one, left the stage. And yet the crowd is still singing, “How long? To sing this song? How long? How long? How long to sing this song, to sing a new song.” It is, of course, a U2 concert and the band has returned to their concert closing song, “40”. And as the crowd sings, they may not know that they are singing a refrain from the psalms of Israel, but there is something in this lamentful question, “How long?”, that echoes deep in everyone’s heart.
The question, “How long?”, reverberates through the psalms and prophets of Israel. Indeed, it is sometimes screamed in the face of God with deep lament and frustration. Paul taps into that tradition by citing Habakkuk at the end of this passage. Habakkuk begins his prophecy by asking, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?” (1.2) How long must Babylonian cruelty and oppression continue? How long must your people suffer? How long before you make good on your promises to your people?
God’s answer is to give Habakkuk a vision of Babylon’s demise – a vision that seems impossible in the light of the geo-political evidence all around him. And in the midst of this vision, it is revealed to the prophet that “the righteous one shall live by faithfulness” (2.4).
Whose faithfulness? Well, the translation tradition of Habakkuk goes two directions – God’s faithfulness is suggested by the Hebrew text, and human faithfulness is indicated by the Greek translation of the Hebrew. Perhaps Paul picks up on both traditions and leaves it deliberately ambiguous at this point of the letter.
The question in the face of empire is, will God be faithful to his promises, faithful to his own call to a righteous justice, even in the face of such overwhelming imperial power? Paul’s answer is that the good news of Jesus has an empire-overturning power precisely because in Jesus the embracing and forgiving power of God is revealed. And it is revealed through God’s faithfulness in Jesus Christ that calls forth our faithfulness as subjects of his coming kingdom.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have revealed the righteousness of God. In you we meet justice in the flesh. In your life, death and resurrection faithfulness is embodied. Lord, in a culture of spiritual promiscuity and brand loyalty, we dare to ask that you make us into a people of faithfulness. Amen.
Copyright © CRCMA 2008
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