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Good afternoon, I am paul hooker, I'm Associate Dean for ministerial formation and advanced studies here at Austin Seminary and it is my pleasure to introduce to you our 2020 jones lecturer dr Beverly roberts given to the

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seminary owes a great debt in fact a great many debts to professor given to for kindness is she has extended down through the years to this place, including most recently and none more so than her ability to

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step in graciously. As our originally advertised jones lecturer , the reverend dana Hughes was forced to cancel because of a death in her family. Ted made reference to this yesterday in his original remarks at which time

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he promised that Beverly would receive a kidney given Ted's proclivity to designate and delegate responsibilities. Some of us are a little worried exactly whose kidney he had in mind. Professor Govinda has an international reputation as a

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scholar of new testament and especially of pauline literature, a reputation she has earned over many years of diligent scholarship and writing and equally brilliant and memorable teaching. Since 2013, she has held the position of distinguished

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professor of New Testament at Baylor University, and she is the Helen HP Manson Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis in Merit to at Princeton Theological Seminary. In addition to Baylor and Princeton, her teaching career

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has included service on the faculties of both Columbia Theological Seminary in decatur Georgia and Colgate Rochester divinity school in Cold in Rochester new york. In each of these , she has distinguished herself as a superb teacher and

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mentor of students, Professor go ventas. Academic interests have focused principally in the theological and historical interpretation of the pauline corpus. She is the author of numerous books and articles a list far too long to mention

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here, but it includes such titles as Our mother ST Paul, published by Westminster John Knox in 2007 , or the Acts of the Apostles. Published by Abingdon in 2003, 1st and second Thessalonians, again

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by Westminster john Knox in 1998. And this is but the very surface. Her most recent book reflects her interest in the study of romans, a subject about which we are to hear more in a few

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moments. The title, when in Romans, an invitation to linger with the gospel according to Paul, began as the curry lectures delivered in this room in 2015, and was published by Baker Press in 2016

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, and she is presently at work on a volume on romans in the new Testament Library. She said that she's not sure she's going to complete it before she dies. We'll hope Professor Gavin to is a

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much sought after member of boards and societies in her field. She serves or has served on the editorial boards of numerous professional journals and currently serves as editor at large for christian century. She was elected president

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of the Society of Biblical Literature, The international flagship for biblical scholarship. Serving as president in 2016, she has been honored with multiple honorary doctorates and holds the position of extraordinary professor at Stellenbosch University in South

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Africa. Professor Gavin to is a graduate of phillips University and holds the master of divinity from Union Theological Seminary, where she studied with such new testament luminaries as Raymond Brown and J luis martin. She earned

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her PhD from Duke University under the direction of W . D. Davies professor given to is married to dr William given to she is mother to the reverend Matthew. Given to pastor of the university Presbyterian Church

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here in Austin and mother in law of our very own dean of students. Sara Kenney given to she is a ruling elder of the presbyterian church and I am proud to say that she is a personal friend

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to my family and me a relationship Beverly we cherish very much. Please help me. Welcome to the pulpit of Shelton Chapel. Our 2020 jones lecturer. Dr Beverly roberts given to. Okay, mm hmm

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. Mhm. Thank you, paul for that very gracious invitation. Introduction and thank you to the women of First Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth for their continued support of this lecture ship. The robert jones lecture

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ship. As for dr Wardlaw. Mhm. Some years ago I had the privilege of attending a reading by the incomparable Toni Morrison. Mentioned already today, she gave it as a fundraiser for the local crisis

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ministry. I have never forgotten her opening words. This woman of so many extraordinarily crafted words said simply , Thank you for knowing you could call on me . I don't have myself confused with Toni Morrison,

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but I want to borrow her words directed to you . Thank you for knowing you could call on me . That's what friends do. Now. Having taught the letters of paul for more decades than I'm going

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to enumerate. And in numerous settings, I have learned to anticipate certain uncomfortable questions. The most persistent has to do with paul's attitude toward women. I have prayed earnestly to be delivered from that question before

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I die. It is not going to happen Next . In line comes the second half of Romans one with its remarks about same sex relations these days. However, Questions about Romans 13 are in the ascendancy

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. The questions exploded. Of course, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions invoked romans 13 to buttress the government's practice of prosecuting those who cross the border illegally. But in my view, the more interesting case is

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actually that of professor uh pastor Robert Jeffress of 1st Baptist Church of Dallas. Some of you remember I take it That in 2017 he drew on Romans 13 to support President Trump's right to use whatever means necessary

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to stop evil. In that case, the evil of North Korea's kim jong un. Apparently he did not recognize kim himself as a ruling authority, nor was Romans 13 at the forefront of his thinking,

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When in 2014, he posited a connection between President Barack Obama and the Antichrist. Even a brief study of the long history of interpretation of Romans 13 reveals that none of that is surprising, not even a

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little bit people who have sometimes commented on this text . People have been commenting on this text since the early centuries of the church is life and contrary to what I often find, people have supposed many have

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done so with genuine concern about its use and abuse . In fact, the earliest commentators on romans already are struggling with how to make sense of the passage Origin of alexandria, writing in the third century,

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assured his readers that paul did not mean christians should obey those authorities who persecute the faithful Origin, went on to invoke Peter's response to the Jerusalem authorities. In acts five, we must obey God rather than

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humans. Late in the fourth century, Saint Augustine identified areas in which christians were required to submit to the authorities, respect the provision of services, the payment of taxes, but Augustine also insisted that believers

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should not obey earthly authorities in religious matters. He invoked the saying of jesus, render unto caesar, the things that are caesar's and to God, the things that are God's Across the centuries, Romans 13

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has had many defenders, including Queen Elizabeth, the First, the apartheid regime of South Africa and the late Supreme Court Justice, antonin Scalia just to name a few but many readers have attempted to moderate its

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use or abuse painting sloppy strokes here with a very large brush, There seemed to be three avenues of interpretation. First, there are the canonical pairings of the kind that origin suggests. The admonitions of romans

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13 about respecting authorities are moderated by citing other canonical text like Ext five, we must obey God rather than any human authority. Others, including Carl Bart site, The Beast of Revelation 13 as evidence that

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scripture does not always assess authorities positively. In this way, paul's admonitions are balanced out by the apostolic declaration that obedience to God's supersedes, obedience to any ruler and that indeed, there are rulers who are

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unjust. A second strategy is to look to the for an explanation in the historical context of the letter , Erasmus, for example, suggested that there were christians in paul's day who were refusing to obey their

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rulers and paul was concerned to maintain order for the public good. So the pious must obey even bad rulers. Of course. Uh Erasmus did not reflect on the fact that one groups, order can result

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in another groups oppression, Calvin observes that this passage seems to have been forced on paul by some great necessity more recent appeals to the context. The historical context suggests that paul writes ironically, or that this

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is a kind of hidden transcript. In other words , paul doesn't really mean what he says, and the insiders will catch his hints. That's a very clever way of getting out of things. I don't

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myself find it terribly convincing. A third strategy turns to theories of interpolation. Some of you remember that word from seminary, it still makes you break out in a cold sweat suggestions that these lines don't come

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from paul at all, but were inserted inserted into an early copy of the letter at a later period . Most often, the suggestion is that someone was writing toward the end of the first century who composed

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and inserted this passage. Someone more in Sync. Say that with the author of 1st Peter. That again is rather nice theory, but there's no manuscript evidence for it, and it has found very few

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proponents with so many approaches and so little agreement. We may appreciate the comment of ernst Kazman about this text he wrote. It is becoming continually more difficult to know what is really happening in the guerilla warfare

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. Of the specialists in which there are so many shots fired and so few targets hit so many issues confused and so few decided. Now you may be waiting for me to pull out of my pocket my

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bible, scholars, magic decoder ring and give you a solution to the problem. If I could do that, I would. But I don't think this is a text that can be fixed. Buy more

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and better. Exa jesus, if we're honest, it is a very peculiar text and I mean that quite apart from its history of interpretation nowhere else in pulse letters, does he comment on respecting governing authorities

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? Indeed, in second Corinthians 11, he offers a litany of his own experiences with the authorities. A litany that scarcely qualifies as evidence or of their good intentions. That is to say, most of

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us don't think of being imprisoned or being beaten as tokens of goodwill as Professor Stephen Friesen, across the street at the University of texas has observed when paul composed these lines, he had scars on his body

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from unjust floggings by rulers and authorities. Perhaps more important, this passage seems to conflict with the first half of romans. Paul goes on to great lengths in the first half of the letter to depict human

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beings, all human beings as subject to the enslaving power of sin, even when human beings know what is right and work to pursue it, that we still produce evil apart from God's action. In jesus

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christ, paul writes, humanity is unable to do what is right, goes at this for some length , But then comes Romans 13, which claims that rulers both know and serve the good. An assumption

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that is hard to reconcile with his earlier argument That all human beings are subject to the power of sin . Do you see the do you see the problem , their detention? In other words, the problem

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of Romans 13 is not just that we have a lot of evidence that rulers are not always intent on doing good boy. Do we have evidence? The problem is also that the text seems to contradict the

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rest of the letter. So things are worse even than you might have thought. So, what can we say? A few observations. First of all this part of the letter, Chapters 12 through 15

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. This part of the letter has as its general purpose, the strengthening of these house churches greeted in Romans 16, paul has not been to Rome, but he almost certainly knows that these are fragile communities

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. How could they be otherwise? These are people with new convictions. They are marginal socially. Uh from what we can tell, these are member groups that are somewhat artificial. That is to say they're

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not formed along professional lines of work. They're not formed strictly by family in the ancient world that makes them fragile from the get go, paul hopes to promote the common good, the corporate good. That's

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obvious when he introduces in the previous chapter, Chapter 12, the language of the body of Christ And it persists throughout his admonitions in Chapter 15 that differing groups should welcome one another as they have been welcomed

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. So it seems reasonable That 13127 also intends to protect these fragile gatherings from harm. Paul says things like rulers are a terror too good not to good conduct, but too bad. If you do what

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is wrong, you should be afraid for. The authority does not bear the sword in vain. Then there are commands at the end of the passage about paying taxes. This may mean that paul is afraid

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specifically of their involvement in some kind of tax revolt . He may be worried about to potentially harmful result of that behavior. So he urges them pay your taxes respect to the authorities. The bottom line is

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this The passage should be read in the larger context of his desire to protect these believers from harm. Second, paul is not writing for the authorities. This is crucial. That point holds whoever the authorities

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may be, and it is by no means clear whether he's talking about local authorities, minor officials or the emperor himself, whoever paul has in mind, he's not talking to them. He's talking to communities

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of believers about their attitudes, their conduct. So when people have taken this passage out of context and wrapped it up and handed it over as Paul's doctrine of the state, they have performed a bizarre exige

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ethical alchemy. Paul is not teaching roam about its business. He is certainly not giving the governing authorities in every time and place permission to do what they like. No way know how so. All right

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. That gets us started. This orients our steps in the right direction. What else can we say first? We need to look carefully at those comments about the authorities. Paul does not write to them

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, but he does write about them. Following that initial call for submission comes an explanation. There is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. That's the N. R

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. S. V. Which you have on your handout. I want to quibble with that a bit . There's a word play in the greek that's hard to capture. It runs something like this. Let

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everyone be ordered under the authorities that exist, for there is no authority except under God and those that exist have been ordered under God. He reinforces this introductory remark when he goes on to assert that resisting

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authority amounts to resisting God. Later still, he identifies the authority as the agent, the DEA Khanna's of God, God's light or God's God's servant. As I already mentioned, this passage has no counterpart

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elsewhere in pulse letters. But curiously earlier in the letter, he does make a passing comment about one particular human authority, namely the Egyptian ruler. Pharaoh . Pharaoh makes a cameo appearance in Romans nine when

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Paul offers a rather peculiar retelling of Israel's history. First he recalls Israel's God's creation of Israel through the miraculous birth of Isaac. Then he narrates God's unilateral choice of Jacob over Esau saw a choice god makes

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before the twins are born and on the basis of nothing whatever accept God's will. Since that choice seems unjust based on nothing having to do with the twins themselves, Paul cites Exodus 33 19. God has

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mercy on whom God pleases. Then he turns to the quintessential outsider, the enemy, the ruler, the authority pharaoh. Drawing again from exodus paul sites , God's words to pharaoh. Reading with astonishing selectivity

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, paul writes, I have raised you up for this reason so that I might demonstrate in you my power and so that my name might be spread throughout the whole earth, consistent with the story he is

00:24:07.100 - 00:24:25.550

telling. Paul emphasizes God's role in putting this authority in place. Now in the scripture poll is reading , which is apparently deceptive agent. God says to pharaoh, you have been kept for this reason.

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But Paul writes, I raised you up for this reason. The change is tiny. It's the sort of thing people like me get paid to notice in the exodus account. The notion is that pharaoh already

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exists and God preserves pharaoh for that reason, But that's not how paul tells the story impulse presentation. God brings pharaoh into existence for God's own purposes. Another slight difference is even more important. Exodus claims

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here and elsewhere. That God hardened pharaoh's heart. You remember the story, But Exodus also says at more than once that pharaoh hardened his own heart. They had a kind of cooperation going Exodus nine.

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When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the Thunder had ceased. He sinned once more and hardened his heart. He and his officials. So the heart of pharaoh was hardened and he would not

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let the Israelites go for paul. By contrast, the action is entirely one sided. It is all about God. God has mercy on whom he wills have mercy. God hardens the one whom he hardens

00:26:00.840 - 00:26:18.440

from paul's point of view. None of this has anything to do with pharaoh's desires or abilities, or attitudes toward doing either good or evil. Paul displays no interest in pharaoh's wishes at all. They are

00:26:18.440 - 00:26:40.010

not important for the story of God's dealings with Israel , looking at paul's comments about this one, authority , pharaoh helps us just a little bit to understand what's going on in Romans 13, when Paul writes

00:26:40.010 - 00:26:57.350

that authority is established by God, he's making a statement about God, not about any authority or ruler . Pharaoh is of no interest to paul, apart from what God did with him and in him.

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And I assume the same must be said of the authorities in Romans 13. When Paul says that the authorities are established by God, he is not exalting the authorities, He's still in just the opposite.

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He's putting them in their place, their subordinate place . If you don't get that, let me try this again. I brought you into this world and I'll take you out. Who do you think you

00:27:33.170 - 00:27:49.010

are? Okay? I don't do that very well . But second, paul's treatment of pharaoh helps us see that when he comments that the authorities act for the good, he does not necessarily mean that they

00:27:49.010 - 00:28:04.040

will the good or that even that they will do the good to be sure they are said to reward the good and to punish evil, but they do that as God's servants. So, what about that

00:28:04.040 - 00:28:19.860

word servant. In verse four, the authority is God's servant for your good. And again, in verse six, the authorities are God's servant, busy with this very thing. As I've already mentioned,

00:28:19.860 - 00:28:40.620

two different greek words are used there. The first is diagnose, deacon. Minister servant, then lie to her God's servant or a minister. These are terms paul elsewhere applies to himself to Phoebe. Do

00:28:40.620 - 00:29:00.180

not forget Phoebe to other christian leaders. So again , that language seems to elevate the authorities and again , we missed the point. Those labels are not badges of achievement. They say nothing about qualifications or

00:29:00.180 - 00:29:22.060

character. Paul didn't go through the ordination process. The designation not in the presbyterian church at least. Okay, the designations set the rulers out again in relationship to God, as is the case with Paul's

00:29:22.070 - 00:29:41.940

own leadership. After all, in first Corinthians 15 , he freely announces that he himself was unfit to be an apostle because he resisted the church itself. So neither does being called a servant of God.

00:29:41.950 - 00:29:59.050

Mean that the governing authorities will do what is right . We cannot attach to those terms, the notion that they set people apart who are free from wrongdoing or who are exempt from divine judgment, and that

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my friends applies to leaders within the christian community, just as much as it does to those outside. So All of this helps us to contextualized pulse language . In chapter 13, we see that they've been

00:30:17.020 - 00:30:30.000

brought into existence by God for God's purposes, although he doesn't say so. The implication is also that they could be taken out by God for God's own purposes. We see this worked out in the case

00:30:30.000 - 00:30:48.510

of pharaoh, the only human being in romans who might be identified as a ruler or authority. But there are other powers at work in this letter, powers that turn out to be far more dangerous than

00:30:48.510 - 00:31:06.880

pharaoh. More dangerous even than the emperor. More dangerous even than his latter day successors. Here I have in mind, paul's early discussion of sin and death, He doesn't refer to sin and death as

00:31:06.880 - 00:31:19.470

authorities or rulers. He doesn't use the same terms , But he does speak of sin and death in kingly terms. I've given this to you on your hand out so you can see it in Romans five

00:31:19.480 - 00:31:37.500

. When he takes us on that elaborate comparison of the work of Adam and the work of Christ, he characterizes the time of Adam as one of sin and death. The RSV of 5 17 says death

00:31:37.510 - 00:31:55.640

exercised Dominion more literally than I'm a literalist. What paul writes is that death ruled as a king. It's basha, loose bass luo, it's the word from which we get to the kingdom of God by

00:31:55.640 - 00:32:13.530

salutes the king. Similarly, in 521, he claims that sin ruled like a king through death. These two rulers even had power over jesus himself. At least, I think that is implied in the

00:32:13.530 - 00:32:32.280

statement in Chapter six, that death no longer lords it over him. Using the verb cure you out . The language of ruling and lording and over continues . When paul warns the romans against submitting again to

00:32:32.280 - 00:32:49.540

send Sin and death have been defeated in the case of jesus christ, but their destruction is not yet total. So sin and death are ruling powers but not alone. The end of Romans eight, which

00:32:49.540 - 00:33:08.990

you all know very well acknowledges that superhuman powers continue to assault what paul calls us God's people that they continue to separate. Try to separate us from God's love. They make themselves known in tribulation and hardship

00:33:08.990 - 00:33:28.300

and persecution and famine, nakedness, peril. The sword experience is brought on by the powers he names at the end of the chapter they persist, but they will not prove able. Two separate humanity from

00:33:28.300 - 00:33:50.170

its rightful lord pulse, highly rhetorical. List of the powers is exceeded only by his words of assurance who will separate us. We are in the wonderful translation of robert, ju it we are super victors

00:33:51.340 - 00:34:09.970

, paul returns to this assurance at the close of the letter. God will quickly put satan under your feet. In other words, God has real enemies . Yet human authorities or powers are not among them

00:34:10.640 - 00:34:27.860

. The enemies of God may use those rulers and authorities. I think that is at work in that list in Romans eight, including the sword and persecution . But so those are the things that try to

00:34:27.860 - 00:34:50.440

separate us from God. Yet the human rulers themselves are not narrowly identified as God's enemies. So, for those of you who are just emerging for near post lunch snooze. four things so far, 13127

00:34:50.440 - 00:35:09.430

reflects Paul's desire to protect believers from trouble with authorities . 213-127 is not meant as an address to the authorities, a license to do whatever they wish three Pharaoh in Chapter nine gives us an example of pulse

00:35:09.430 - 00:35:30.780

thinking about human authorities And number four, God does have enemies, but they are super human, anti God powers, not human beings, not even corrupt rulers. one more step is needed, which is

00:35:30.780 - 00:35:44.560

to go back to the immediate literary context of the passage, You all know that rule, We read everything in context. We don't take verses out of place, you know that right as Paul opens this

00:35:44.560 - 00:36:00.850

portion of the letter about community life, he's obviously writing about relationships within the community. He begins by drawing on the language of the body of Christ that he used 1st and 1st Corinthians 12, and he

00:36:00.850 - 00:36:16.970

uses that analogy to encourage Christians to put their gifts , their charismatic gifts to work in generous service to one another. At the end of the chapter, he warns against repaying evil for evil and encourages them

00:36:16.980 - 00:36:35.920

, urges them to seek peace with all people. They are not to seek revenge. So, somewhere in the middle of Romans 12, it seems that Paul changes his focus. He ends his remarks about

00:36:35.920 - 00:36:53.500

life within the congregations and he starts to talk about believers and people on the outside maybe, but where the answer to that question is not at all clear . Are there those on the inside who are to

00:36:53.500 - 00:37:09.130

be regarded as persecutors? Paul could have in mind outsiders who behaved badly, but you know, in Romans 14, they've got some pretty serious food fights going on our their persecutors inside the community, all

00:37:09.130 - 00:37:24.850

of Chapter 12 maybe about life inside. I'm not trying here to set those questions out to fix them for you. I'm simply saying That it is by no means easy to know whether the second half of

00:37:24.850 - 00:37:46.580

romans 12 has to do with us or with zam The lines are not as clear as is usually supposed and of course that is my point. The firm drawing of such sharp lines between the inside and the

00:37:46.590 - 00:38:01.820

outside is alien to this letter. Spoiler alert, that's what I'm going to talk about tomorrow. We need to read carl bart more on that tomorrow, that takes us back. However, for the moment

00:38:01.910 - 00:38:21.330

to the human rulers. Of course paul doesn't present them as members of the community, but he also does not treat them as enemies. This refusal to re if I the human authorities, even the authorities

00:38:21.340 - 00:38:39.050

as other to classify them as enemies is no accident . They are not part and parcel of the we of faith, but paul will not make them into enemies. Now, I don't pretend for a moment

00:38:39.060 - 00:38:51.400

that I have answered your questions about this text. Even as I go through, I can think of some more of my own. I never promised you that I could. I have no bible. Scholars

00:38:51.400 - 00:39:08.570

decoder ring my my comments aim to show the limits and the content of this passage. Governing authority is to be respected on the understanding that the source of all authority as God. That is to say God

00:39:08.570 - 00:39:24.170

is the ruler. Pharaoh himself is one of those authorities raised up by God. Paul is not licensing government to do as it pleases, demanding blind obedience from the government. To the extent that the governing

00:39:24.170 - 00:39:42.030

authorities wish to draw on this text in any time or place they need to take with it the rest of the letter Perhaps most, especially the end of Romans eight with its trash talk directed to any power

00:39:42.040 - 00:40:01.080

that would threaten God's beloved, which means all of God's people, which means all people. This text that seems to give license and comfort to tyrants, can give no license and comfort to tyrants. Now

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that all seems reasonable enough. I like it. Huh? You probably like it too, but I was taught a long time ago that no text is finished with me unless it has also made me squirm

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so to closing observations far less comfortable, at least for me. First of all, paul's comments about respecting authorities forcefully remind us that we are part of this world as such, we have a responsibility to

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participate in the world as it is. Even while with all creation we are groaning for redemption. We do not have the option simply to withdraw into ourselves or behind church doors and hope that somebody else makes

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it better to be sure there are days and seasons when we need a fast from engagement, even from the news for our own mental and spiritual health and to be there for others, we must have those

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seasons. But that does not mean that we can adopt the strategy of letting the world go its merry way while we withdraw into ourselves or our families or our congregations and wait for something better to come along

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. The all of God's grasp does not permit us to leave the world for others. Building little enclaves of the like minded is not consistent With the God who handed his son over on behalf of weak Godless

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sinners. And if you don't understand that line, you need to Reread Romans five. The so called Benedict option is not appalling option. Second and last . I think that Romans 13, especially coming as

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it does immediately after Romans 12 calls us to confront our tendency to make that other one into an enemy no matter who, that other one maybe This is the place at which I personally am most challenged by

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Romans 13 and I don't imagine I'm alone, but paul would have us remember that in jesus christ. No human is God's enemy. Having been reconciled to God, we may not vilify others, whether the

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authorities or their supporters or their critics. We may not do that without real peril to the body of christ. To know God's redemption for ourselves is to know that no one is beyond God's grasp. So

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instead of vilifying others, we work for change. We do not leave the world and we pray, we pray for guidance for strength, for endurance. We pray for God's world for all of it,

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and we seek God's wisdom and grace for all. Remembering that we to exist only because God has raised us up for God's purposes. Thank you very much