[Uucf-bible] Lectionary May 29, part two. Paul and "those" sections of Romans

[RevRonRobinson at aol.com]

Next up is from Paul's letter to Romans. There's a lot to cover in this 
section which covers both the current hot topics of the Bible and 
homosexuality/same sex intercourse, and the theological debate over the translation 
traditionally given here of "faith in Jesus Christ" when many contemporary scholars 
retranslate it as "faithfulness of Jesus Christ". Note even the footnotes from this 
NRSV text. The KJV here if memory serves correct even has a more ambiguous 
and poetic and closer to the truth, to me, rendition of it as faith of Jesus 
Christ. I have written here before about Paul and the new perspective and again 
recommend folks to the more academic ReReading Romans by Stanley Stowers, or 
some of the newer Paul interpretations like John Gager's and John Dominic 
Crossan.  

On the subject of Paul and the reference to unnatural passions that comes 
from the passage in this week's reading, here below the selection is something I 
wrote recently about it, and hope to hear other voices and other's 
commentaries and what you've found helpful in these texts; as well as continuing 
questions. blessing, Ron

Romans 1:16 - 3:31
16 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 and also to the Greek. 17For 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.’a 18For the wrath of God is 
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by 
their wickedness suppress the truth. 
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it 
to them. 20Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine 
nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the 
things he has made. So they are without excuse; 21for though they knew God, 
they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in 
their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. 22Claiming to be wise, 
they became fools; 23and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for 
images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or 
reptiles. 24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to 
the degrading of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the 
truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the 
Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26For this reason God gave them up to 
degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, 
27and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, 
were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men 
and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error. 28And 
since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind 
and to things that should not be done. 29They were filled with every kind of 
wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, 
craftiness, they are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, 
boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents,b 31foolish, faithless, 
heartless, ruthless. 32They know God’s decree, that those who practice such 
things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who 
practice them. 
2
Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in 
passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are 
doing the very same things. 2You say, ‘We know that God’s judgment on those 
who do such things is in accordance with truth.’c 3Do you imagine, whoever you 
are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, 
you will escape the judgment of God? 4Or do you despise the riches of his 
kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is 
meant to lead you to repentance? 5But by your hard and impenitent heart you are 
storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous 
judgment will be revealed. 6For he will repay according to each one’s deeds: 7to 
those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he 
will give eternal life; 8while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not 
the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. 9There will be anguish 
and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 
10but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also 
the Greek. 11For God shows no partiality. 12All who have sinned apart from 
the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the 
law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not the hearers of the law who are 
righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 
14When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law 
requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. 15They show that 
what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own 
conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps 
excuse them 16on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus 
Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all. 
17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your 
relation to God 18and know his will and determine what is best because you are 
instructed in the law, 19and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a 
light to those who are in darkness, 20a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of 
children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, 21you, 
then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against 
stealing, do you steal? 22You that forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You 
that abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23You that boast in the law, do you 
dishonor God by breaking the law? 24For, as it is written, ‘The name of God is 
blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’ 25Circumcision indeed is of value 
if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become 
uncircumcision. 26So, if those who are uncircumcised keep the requirements of 
the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27Then those 
who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you that have 
the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28For a person is not a 
Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and 
physical. 29Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is 
a matter of the heart—it is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives 
praise not from others but from God. 
3
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2Much, 
in every way. For in the first place the Jews were entrusted with the oracles 
of God.d 3What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the 
faithfulness of God? 4By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be 
proved true, as it is written, ‘So that you may be justified in your words, and 
prevail in your judging.’e 5But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice 
of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I 
speak in a human way.) 6By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7But 
if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I 
still being condemned as a sinner? 8And why not say (as some people slander us by 
saying that we say), ‘Let us do evil so that good may come’? Their 
condemnation is deserved! 9What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have 
already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin,f 
10as it is written: ‘There is no one who is righteous, not even one; 11there 
is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. 12All have 
turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows 
kindness, there is not even one.’ 13‘Their throats are opened graves; they use 
their tongues to deceive.’ ‘The venom of vipers is under their lips.’ 14‘Their 
mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’ 15‘Their feet are swift to shed 
blood; 16ruin and misery are in their paths, 17and the way of peace they have 
not known.’ 18‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’ 
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under 
the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held 
accountable to God. 20For ‘no human being will be justified in his sight’ by 
deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 
21But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is 
attested by the law and the prophets, 22the righteousness of God through faith 
in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction,g 23since all 
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are now justified by 
his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God 
put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through 
faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he 
had passed over the sins previously committed;h 26it was to prove at the 
present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has 
faith in Jesus.i 27Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By 
that of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28For we hold that a person is 
justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. 29Or is God the God 
of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 
30since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and 
the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31Do we then overthrow the law by 
this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. 



aOr The one who is righteous through faith will live [back]
bOr God-hated [back]
cGk lacks You say [back]
dGk they [back]
eGk when you are being judged [back]
fOr at any disadvantage? [back]
gOr through the faith of Jesus Christ [back]
hOr a place of atonement [back]
iOr who has the faith of Jesus [back]

Here is some of my recent comment on part of the above passage:
In his groundbreaking work, ReReading Romans, Stanley Stowers makes the 
persuasive case that Paul here is writing about the need for those Gentiles (both 
women and men, because here there is in the Bible a reference to women's 
same-sex practice) who are becoming followers of Jesus and living in new Christ 
community (at a time right before everything was to be changed, he thought) to 
"exchange one myth for another." The repetition of the word exchanged here in the 
passage is often noted to reinforce Paul's rhetorical meaning. 

The myth they were giving up was giving in to their "promiscuous practices" 
shall we say sanctioned by their dominant culture, and as often noted may have 
been more of an allusion to child abuse anyway, with no conception of 
orientation or monogamous same sex relationship (not that that part of the arguement 
will get you too far with some folks anyway <g>). Stowers argues that Paul is 
primarily concerned with the relationship of the Gentiles to the social order 
of Judaism to which he still saw the Jesus-faith intricately connected (you 
don't have to be circumcised, okay, but you do have to be changed, so to speak) 
and to some extent a relationship with the purity culture of the Temple which 
was still much the center of faith even if symbolic for those away from 
Jerusalem. He says Paul makes same-sex and gender issues a part of his concern 
because it was an anxiety producing issue of his world. It would have been almost  
impossible for Paul to have imagined a world without the Temple, a world with 
no end in sight, a world with experiences such as contemporary same sex 
partnerships. 

Of course, you can also point to where a few "chapters" later Paul makes the 
radical claim that "God is for the unrighteous" (meaning all, particularly 
those caught in Gentile culture).  But then, once people start to go deeper into 
Paul through 1:18-32, and through 3:22-26, they might have more than their 
thinking about God and homosexuality challenged <g>; they might have their whole 
faith and understanding of Paul and the early followers of Jesus challenged, 
which is true for UUs too.