The Authority of Authorities

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 -- Week of 5 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 962)
Psalms 72 (morning) 119:73-96 (evening)
Wisdom* 13:1-9
Romans 13:1-14
Luke 8:16-25 *found in the Apocrypha

The opening section of Romans 13 troubles me. I'm also bothered by a similar passage found at 1 Peter 2:13. Here's a portion:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Romans 13:1-3a

For the Lord's sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. ...Fear God. Honor the emperor. 1 Peter 2:13-14, 17b

It is easy to understand these admonitions in the context of the early Church's life in the Roman Empire. As followers of one who was executed as a capital criminal and an enemy of the state, suspicion surrounded this new religious movement. Rome could be incredibly efficient and violent when dealing with those it regarded as enemies or conspirators. For the Church to survive, it had to convince the authorities that it was not a threat. To appeal to a wider audience, the Church could not be seen to be a seditious movement. Early Church leaders were at pains to convince those who might threaten them that they were not a threat to the governing authorities.

But in so many ways, the gospel that Paul preaches is a direct challenge to the empire and to the civil religion of emperor worship. Many of the fundamental claims of the Church directly confronted the claims of the emperor. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Son of God. Coins and inscriptions throughout the Empire declared that the divine Caesar is Lord and is Son of God.

So on the one hand, Paul and the first letter attributed to Peter offer these admonitions of respect for the authority of the empire and for Caesar, and on the other hand they lead an organization that undermines the claims of empire.

These writers are not naive. They know that innocent members of their community have been arrested, punished and occasionally executed as traitors of the state. They want to establish a prima facia case that the state has nothing to suspect from their movement so that they won't be threatened and persecuted.

But these words, that instruct obedience to the state and presume that governing authorities do God's work through their institutions for punishing bad conduct, stand in contrast to much of the Biblical witness. God called Moses to challenge the authority of Pharaoh and to lead the people into freedom. God raised up judges to liberate the people from oppressive powers. God anointed the prophets to speak truth to authority and to proclaim God's will for justice. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God -- what the world would be like if God reigned instead of Caesar. Jesus stands forever as a testimony of God's triumphant peaceful challenge in the face of the violence of the powers and principalities.

Except as words of accommodation to threat, these messages from Paul and from 1 Peter cannot stand as immutable and timeless truths. Unfortunately they have been used historically to quell movements of freedom and to justify institutions of oppression. When liberal innovators began to argue on behalf of representative government and democracy, many Church leaders opposed them, using passages like these to invoke God's purpose on behalf of the Divine Right of Kings. (After all, you see only Biblical examples of monarchy, not of elected government.) The notion that a representative government should be of the people, by the people and for the people had to assert itself in the face of many Biblical proof texts when monarchy was the tradition and the norm. George Washington and the founders of our nation appealed to a higher authority and to more fundamental rights when they resisted authority in the name of God.

More than a few conflicts have pitted Biblical proof texts and traditional practice against more universal values and the higher calling of justice and liberation. Slaves, democrats, women, and gay people stand in a notable tradition among those who have challenged the traditional interpretation of scripture in the name of God.

The rock on which their challenge has stood is the rock that Paul shifts to right after his paragraph about being subject to the authorities. Paul echoes the Gospels, saying, "Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." And justice is love extended into the communal sphere. Therefore, whenever love and authority are in conflict, love trumps authority. That is a revolutionary notion.

Lowell

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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

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Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas