Reading 2:To Rome, with love, from Paul
Reformers reading Romans. Indeed they did! Martin Luther claims in his preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans that “This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is our purest Gospel. “He goes on to say that …therefore every Christian should make this letter the habitual and constant object of his study.”
Paul’s letter to the Romans was written before he had ever been to Rome, though he was eager to go there. The Christian Church in Rome was not founded by an apostle. We don’t know exactly how it came into being, but it’s possible that Jews traveling to Jerusalem for the festivals heard the witness of the apostles and believed. By the time Paul writes to them they are a thriving community and Paul greets many of their leaders by name.
Why was Paul writing to the Romans at all? He is hoping, he says to them, to have their support for a missionary trip to Spain—but first, he needs to go to Jerusalem to deliver the offerings taken for the saints there. He wants to introduce himself to them carefully in order to earn gain their trust. And he wants to see that they have the benefit of clear teaching. To that end he sends them the longest and most systematic of the epistles. These teachings on God’s grace, faith, and justification that were meant to strengthen the faith of the Roman church became a touchstone for the reformers, and can be that for us as well.
When Paul finally made it to Rome it was as a prisoner. He spent several years there under house arrest, training church leaders. Tradition says that he was beheaded as a martyr in Rome.
If you were writing to someone you had never met about the heart of your own experience of faith, what would you want to make sure to include?
Gracious God, may Paul’s words to the church in Rome bring clarity and grace to our own faith, and to our witness in the world.
–Pastor Beth Kearney is retiring after 25 years on the NC Synod Bishop’s staff. Her greatest joy has been watching the Holy Spirit call a new generation to proclaim the gospel. She is looking forward to life at Lutheridge.
