It’s one of a few examples of Lectionary malpractice that Romans 13 is not read in its entirety during the three-year cycle. Romans 13 is a controversial and contested text and responsible interpretations of it deserve a hearing in the church. However, most readings dealing with Romans 13 tend to stop at verse 7, thus making it sound like Paul is offering a treatise on the God-given authority of the State, when in fact, v 1-7 must be read within the entire context of Paul’s letter to the...

The Problem with the Problem of Suffering The question is often asked, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The author of First Peter seems to turn this question on its head, asking instead, “Why wouldn’t bad things happen to good people?” Peter upends this philosophical conundrum because of the cross-shattered lens through which he looks at the world. Like seeing through a fractured pair of eye-glasses, Peter cannot help but look at the world through the lens of the cross and...

We’ve not been trained to read Romans well in the Protestant tradition. This unfortunate circumstance makes passages like this difficult to fit into what we’ve traditionally held to be the main argument of Romans. For many, the central idea of Romans is justification by faith, or salvation by grace, but what we ultimately mean is that we are saved by a choice. The image that accompanies this is of a long line of individuals, capable of making the one important decision in life: to accept the...