Lectionary Reflection for Trinity C on Romans 5:1-15

THINGS THAT DON’T MAKE SENSE

Over decades of working with it, I have come to love the Revised Common Lectionary.^¹ Even so, I still sometimes feel that the readings can be a bit forced. Not all of the themes in the Church Calendar are easy to work with, and I understand the challenges the creators of the Lectionary faced when trying to match readings from the different sections of the Bible with the more difficult topics. But there are times when the connection between a reading and the theme of the week feels rather tenuous. Trinity Sunday is perhaps the clearest example of this struggle.

The doctrine of the Trinity, certainly as we know it today, does not exist in Scripture²—it was only developed centuries later by theologians.³ This doesn’t mean that there is no value in the idea of God as Trinity. We just need to be aware that the biblical writers were not consciously developing the doctrine as they wrote, and they did not have the idea of a Triune God in mind. This is particularly clear in the epistle reading from Romans 5 for Trinity Sunday in Year C. In a few short verses, God is mentioned as divine Parent, human Jesus, and Holy Spirit, but there is no clear explanation of the nature and relationship of the three persons of the Godhead. Yet, in these brief references to the three ways God is known to us, there is a kind of lateral connection to the point Paul is making. Both the doctrine of the Trinity and the relationship between suffering and hope, which Paul explores, make little logical sense, at least on the surface. But perhaps that’s where the Lectionary can give us insights into these mysteries that we might not otherwise be able to find.

As much as I suspect the doctrine of the Trinity is rooted in an attempt to understand God, I’m not sure it was ever meant to be logical or simple. Rather, it is an invitation to experience the challenging and complex mystery of God. It’s meant to lead us to curiosity, wrestling, and wonder.⁴ Both suffering and hope are a little like that, too. They often make no sense, they require curiosity and wrestling, and they hold the possibility of wonder.

Suffering is universal, and yet we still struggle to understand it. We aren’t always good at identifying the difference between necessary and unnecessary suffering. We have not yet found a way to eliminate unnecessary suffering from our lives and world, and we don’t always navigate necessary suffering very creatively or healthily. And while hope is an integral part of our human makeup, it is not always a positive quality, and we often don’t understand how to nurture it or draw comfort and motivation from it when faced with life’s unavoidable pains.⁵ Yet, in the rich wisdom of authentic spirituality, it is when we allow the great mysteries of suffering, hope, and the Triune God to speak to one another that we are able to make some sense of them all. And this is where the short passage from Romans 5 that the Lectionary suggests for Trinity Sunday speaks so profoundly.

THE GOSPEL OF PAUL

The letter to the Romans is sometimes viewed as a kind of ‘Gospel of Paul’, because it offers the clearest summary of Paul’s understanding of Jesus’ message and mission.⁶ In the first four chapters, Paul begins by declaring the universal power of Sin over all human beings and God’s solution in Christ, who brings grace, forgiveness, righteousness, and salvation to all. The first five verses of chapter five, then, are a “bridge between the ‘What?’ of Romans 1-4 and the ’Now What?’ of Romans 5-8”.⁷

Romans can sometimes seem academic, conceptual, and theological. While it does give an overview of Paul’s message to a Christian community he had not founded or visited, it was written not as a statement of doctrine, but to address specific struggles facing the Roman Church.⁸ The Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome were struggling to find unity; they were facing hardships from the society in which they lived (which would later escalate into persecution); and Paul himself was facing the possibility of great suffering (which became a reality when he was arrested in Jerusalem and taken to Rome as a prisoner).⁹

Chapter five, which comes after Paul’s discussion of God’s liberating work in Christ, shifts the letter into themes of freedom and hope in God’s grace, and the work of the Spirit who empowers believers to live the way of Christ. This encouraging discourse reaches its climax in chapter eight, which contains some of the most quoted verses about the Spirit and God’s love. As the beginning of this section, 5:1-5 gives a reason for hope when it doesn’t make sense, rooted in what we now interpret as a Trinitarian vision of God.