Sermon: Subject Not Obedient, Romans 13:1-7

by Joanna Lawrence Shenk

It’s estimated that at least five million people were in the streets yesterday across this country to protest Trump’s military parade and even more importantly, his authoritarianism. History has shown that nonviolent protests and civil resistance movements that activate 3.5% of a population have the power to win. I would say that yesterday was good practice along those lines (we need 11 million in the streets to hit 3.5%), AND what it takes to beat back authoritarianism is people STAYING in the streets. 

There was also a smaller nonviolent resistance effort happening in SF yesterday that was successful in protecting our vulnerable immigrant neighbors. As some of you may have heard, on Friday loads of recent immigrants got text messages telling them to come to ICE appointments on Saturday and Sunday in SF. It is totally unprecedented to have weekend appointments, so it seemed like almost certainly a deportation trap. 

Rapid response calls went out, and at 7:00 am on Saturday morning, 100s of community members were at the ICE address resulting in ICE never opening the door. Those gathered (including Jim Lichti of FMCSF) sang, chanted, and peacefully held vigil in front of the building until 4:00 pm. This morning I was able to join for the first hour and ran into a number of friends connected to Faith in Action and the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity. Lawyers were present yesterday and today to counsel people who showed up. Those who had appointments took pictures at the address to document that they had been there. Media coverage was present this morning, as well as throughout the day yesterday. Whether or not the text messages from ICE were a hoax, our community sent a strong message to ICE that we will protect each other. 

I know some of us have accompanied people to immigration court and others have shown up for rapid response. This is the kind of thing that’s most important right now. The No Kings march was an amazing energy boost, reminding us that we are not alone, here and all across the US. AND we are in a moment that will demand us to take risks and show up sometimes when it’s not convenient. I don’t know what that means for each of us, but our presence in the streets is crucial right now to protect those who are vulnerable and beat back authoritarianism. This moment calls for noncooperation in a massive and sustained way. 

Last week the podcast I co-host for Mennonite Action released an episode with Annabeth Roeschley who is the director of the Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBT interests. This organization, as many of you know, was the first of its kind in Mennonite circles to advocate for LGBTQ inclusion in the church and provide a safe space for queer Mennonites. BMC is celebrating 50 years next year!

In conversation with Annabeth, they noted a recent article that highlights how dangerous it is for everyone when any group starts losing their rights. This process is called de-nationalization. The author of the article, M. Gessen, is a recent immigrant and also a trans person. 

Gessen quotes “Hannah Arendt, who fled Germany in 1933. Arent later wrote that long before Jews, Roma, gays, communists and others could be herded into death camps, they had to be “denationalized” — excluded from the society that guaranteed their legal rights. 

Gessen goes on, “Enlightenment thinkers had posited that just by virtue of existing, each person has inalienable rights. Arendt, however, observed that the ‘right to have rights’ could be guaranteed only by a political community. Without a state to claim them as their own, people have no laws, no courts and no political mechanisms for protecting rights.”

Recent examples of de-nationalization in this country include: When the president asserts that there are only two genders which are established at conception. Or when green card holder, Mahmoud Khalil, is held in detention for speaking up for Palestine. Or when folks new to this country are fasttracked for deportation when they show up for their immigration appointments. 

In the global realm de-nationalization has been the reality for Palestinians for decades now, and we see the utter barbarity that it has and is subjecting them too in Gaza and the West Bank right now. As a people rendered stateless, they have no rights and no protections. What’s happening in Palestine can happen anywhere where people are denationalized. 

That’s why Palestinian statehood is so crucial and why organizing for a free Palestine is connected to speaking out against the othering and disappearances and denationalization of immigrants, queer and trans people, and all those targeted by Christian nationalism. On the one hand what’s happening nationally and globally is very scary, and on the other hand, we have so much power as we stand together across these identities and movement to both resist this violence and create the world we need. 

Because 100s of people showed up at the ICE building on Saturday and this morning again, our neighbors are being protected. This is one example of what it looks like to beat back authoritarianism. 

A big part of our call as Mennonite Christians in this time is to challenge the narratives of Christian nationalism and Christian Zionism that support the denationalization of people deemed unworthy of rights. Because of this calling I decided I finally needed to preach on Romans 13 and figure out what the heck it’s saying. This is a passage often quoted by “Christian” people who want to maintain an oppressive status quo. It was used to justify slavery in this country and cruel immigration policies, like family separation.

Let’s hear the passage…

Romans 13:1-7 (NRSV)

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. Do you wish to have no fear of authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

To be honest, that passage makes my skin crawl every time I hear it. I imagine I’m not alone. I’ve done a lot of study to figure out what is going on with this text, and my primary source is the book “Romans Disarmed” by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat. 

Romans 13:1-7 seems so counter to what we’ve learned in our narrative lectionary series about the prophets and Jesus. And frankly it is also counter to Paul, who is said to be its author. It also flies in the face of Anabaptist Mennonite history, where we have often found ourselves in trouble with the State. So here’s my first attempt to try and make sense of it. 

Based on our narrative lectionary series it’s weird, because the God of the Hebrew people is very clear that kings are not a good idea and that their rule will be oppressive. So the prophets come along to call them out, and I would say, do not bow to their authority. The same is obviously true of Jesus. His movement was a threat to the authority of Rome and for this he was killed. 

How could Paul possibly be saying that Rome – the empire that killed Jesus – is appointed by God to maintain order and justice? Paul is later also killed by this empire. 

For context it’s also important to note that when we hear this passage used by Christian nationalists, they are assuming that the government is “Christian.” In Paul’s day it was unfathomable that the Roman empire would be “Christian” – it was the greatest persecutor of the movement. This message was written to people who were without power as far as the empire was concerned. Almost all of them were non-citizens, people without rights, who could be deported and imprisoned and killed by those in power at any time. 

Furthermore, in the chapter just before, Paul is exhorting the followers of Jesus to not conform to the patterns of this world, to be a community of mutuality rather than hierarchy, to extend hospitality to strangers, to reject violence, and overcome evil with good. 

So when Paul starts out Romans 13 and talks about how there is no authority other than from God, he is actually undercutting the authority of Rome. He is saying that God – embodied in Jesus who was killed by empire – has ultimate authority. 

Mennonite theologians have also pointed out that being “subject” to the governing authorities does not mean being obedient to them. For example, when we do NVDA, we knowingly risk arrest, and if the authorities come, we submit to the arrest as a way of pointing out the injustice we are seeking to confront. Subject to the laws but not obedient.

In writing these words Paul is being a realist about the violence of Rome. He doesn’t want vulnerable people (non-citizens) living in the heart of the empire to unnecessarily capture the attention of those who could do them harm. The threat of violence was ever present. I know this also rings true to us – in our public witness we do not want to endanger those who are especially vulnerable. A couple months ago we had an article published about our congregation in the SF Chronicle anonymously for that very reason. 

Brian Walsh, writes: “If I were to summarize what I think Paul is up to here, I would say that he is calling us to be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves. The slave says, ‘yes Master, no Master, whatever you say Master,’ obeying her Master in everything, bringing no attention to herself, as she quietly plans the escape of her fellow slaves along the underground railroad.”  

As we seek to beat back authoritarianism, we both advocate for lawmakers and laws that keep people from being denationalized, while also standing with and as vulnerable people to protect each other when the state does not. In our noncooperation, we recognize the power of the state to do violence and do not seek to provoke that violence unnecessarily. And in all things, we act with courage and take the risks that are ours to take knowing that God’s power is greater than any state or empire. 

As I bring this sermon to a close, I want to offer a contemporary rift on Romans 13:1-7 from “Romans Disarmed,” which the authors have titled “Watch Your Back around the State.” 

Now I know what you are thinking.
I can already hear the question:
What about the state?
I can already hear the objection:
Aren’t we called to be a law-abiding people?

I know too well how you have interpreted my words on this matter,
I know that somehow I have been interpreted to say
that all Christians should obey the ruling authorities,
regardless of how violent, unjust, and cruel those authorities might be.

Really?

Do you think that I could call for such a radically alternative body politic,
as I have just done,
and then in the very next breath somehow call for blind obedience
to the regime of the empire?

How could I call for total obedience to Jesus

and also require such obedience to Caesar or any other regime?

How could I call for blessing our enemies at one moment
and then require obedience to the war machine of the state in the next?

Or perhaps I should put the question to you.

How could you have ever read what I said in Romans 13
apart from what I had just written in Romans 12
and indeed in the whole letter?

How could you ever interpret my words as legitimating the rule of the empire, 
when it was the empire that persecuted our people and put our Lord on a cross?

And how could you ever have read my words about the state
apart from how deeply rooted I am in both the Torah and the prophets?
Haven’t I been quoting those texts throughout my letter to you?

So listen up.

Yes, if we are to be the alternative body politic that I am talking about,
then we have to seriously consider 
our relationship to the ruling authorities. 

And here is my word to you.
Listen closely to what I am saying.

The state has no self-appointed divine authority.
Saying “God bless America” is presumptuous 
and “America First” is blasphemy.
All authority is rooted in the God of Jesus,
the very God that the empire rejects in its embrace of idolatry.
While the state might appear to be in control,
all the power that it seems to have is only temporary.

Ironically, the state’s power is granted by the very God
its actions betray.
The gods it really serves
have no power,
no authority,
no ability to bring life. 

Submitting all governmental rule to the sovereignty of God,
we demote arrogant and totalitarian rulers. 
But knowing that these are violent regimes,
we urge caution:
watch your back around the state. 

While we grant no ultimate authority to the state,
because God is the final authority,
we are wise to be careful around the state. 

The state does, after all, bear the sword.
It may present itself as a benevolent force of law and order,
but the taser guns come out pretty quick,
along with the stun grenades, tear gas,
and finally lethal force,
especially if you are Black or Latino,
Undocumented or Indigenous.

So if you get on the wrong side of the regime,
Fear is a healthy response.

I know this seems to be contrary
to the subversive ethic that I’ve been talking about. 
if we are called to be living sacrifices, 
then they not take that as far as it will go,
and let ourselves be sacrificed before the violent state?

I’m suggesting you choose your battles.
For some of us protest, resistance, and defiance
are not only possible but necessary.
But others should have a healthy fear for those to whom fear is owed. 

Be careful with the authorities.
Don’t mess with the Homeland Security folks if you can help it.
Don’t cheaply bring the attention of the FBI or ICE to your community.
This is no game.
Don’t expose your vulnerable neighbors unnecessarily. 
Some folks really should be feared,
but don’t allow such fear to be the last word
On the way you comport yourself in this world. 
(Pages 313-315)

May we be a people of courage – not conformed to the pattern of the world that seeks to divide us from one another. May we stand together protecting each other, in body and in spirit, from attacks on our dignity and our neighbors’ dignity. May we have the wisdom to know when to confront the state as well as when not to draw its attention. And may we seek the Spirit’s guidance to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves my friends. Amen.