Faith, Authority, and the Courage to Love
Exploring Rev. Heather Schoenewolf’s sermon from October 18, 2026
What happens when following the rules and doing what is right don't seem to be the same thing?
Laws and institutions help maintain order and protect communities. But history reminds us that people in authority can also cause great harm.
In her sermon “In Christ Alone,” Rev. Heather Schoenewolf explores this tension through Romans 13:1–10. How should Christians respect governing authorities while remaining faithful to God's call for justice and love?
Scripture readings (NRSV): Matthew 21:23–27 and Romans 13:1–10
A Difficult Passage for a Complicated World
The apostle Paul wrote to Christians living under the Roman Empire. The early church included Jewish and Gentile believers learning to live together while navigating a society whose values often differed from their own. Paul encouraged Christians to respect governing authorities. But does that mean accepting everything those authorities do?
Heather acknowledges that this passage is difficult. History offers countless examples of governments using their authority to oppress rather than protect people. Understanding Paul's message requires reading beyond a few isolated verses.
The Law of Love Comes First
Heather points out that Paul's instructions about authority are surrounded by teachings about love.
Romans 12 calls believers to practice genuine love, overcome evil with good, and resist conformity to the world. Later in Romans 13, Paul returns to the command to love our neighbors.
“The fundamental law that believers are called to follow is the law of love.”
— Rev. Heather Schoenewolf
Laws serve an important purpose, but they should promote the common good and protect people, particularly the vulnerable. Christians may disagree about particular policies, but love provides a shared foundation for considering what is right.
Consider: How might starting with concern for our neighbors change the way we approach disagreements?
When Faith Challenges Authority
The Bible includes many examples of people whose faith led them to resist those in power. Heather recalls the Hebrew midwives who defied Pharaoh, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refusing to worship an idol, Esther protecting her people, and the magi choosing another road rather than cooperating with Herod.
These stories remind us that obedience to God sometimes requires challenging earthly authority, especially when that authority causes harm. Courage can mean refusing an unjust command, protecting someone vulnerable, or finding creative ways to do what is right.
Martin Luther King Jr. and the Birmingham Jail Letter
Heather connects these biblical examples with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail. In April 1963, King was arrested during peaceful demonstrations against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Eight white clergymen publicly criticized the protests and encouraged pursuing change through established legal channels. King responded with a letter explaining the distinction between just and unjust laws. He argued that unjust laws may require conscientious, nonviolent resistance, undertaken openly and with a willingness to accept the consequences.
His response challenged fellow religious leaders to consider whether maintaining order had become more important than pursuing justice. The question remains relevant today: When does faithful citizenship require more than following the rules?
Learn more: Letter from Birmingham Jail — Stanford University's Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
What Does “In Christ Alone” Mean?
Heather returns to a central conviction of the Reformed Christian tradition:
“Jesus alone is Lord of all.”
— Rev. Heather Schoenewolf
This doesn't mean disregarding laws whenever we disagree with them. It means participating responsibly in society while recognizing that no human authority is beyond moral examination.
As Presbyterians, we seek wisdom through Scripture, prayer, conversation, and shared discernment. At CPCBA, our commitment to being a welcoming, inclusive community and a Matthew 25 congregation calls us to put God's love into action, especially through compassion, service, and concern for others.
Questions to Carry Into the Week
When might respect for authority conflict with our responsibility to protect others?
Are we listening to those most affected when considering whether a law serves the common good?
Where might faith call us to speak up or act differently?
How can we approach difficult disagreements with both conviction and humility?
The Conversation Isn't Finished
Heather closes with an invitation:
“May we discern, may we discuss, may we act in accordance with the justice and the peace and the love that is central to the reign of God in Christ.”
— Rev. Heather Schoenewolf
Living faithfully in a complicated world requires wisdom, courage, humility, and a willingness to keep learning together. At CPCBA, there's room for honest questions, thoughtful disagreement, and the shared work of putting love into action. As Heather reminds us, the conversation isn't done.
“In Christ Alone” was preached October 18, 2026, at Community Presbyterian Church of Ben Avon. Explore more sermons or join us for worship at cpcba.org.
Read the Sermon
We really need to pray before we dive into this, right? Let us pray.
Loving and gracious God, we come before your word with humility and hope, trusting that as we read these ancient words, we will find you there. And we will find the resolve and the wisdom and the courage to live out the love to which you call us. So may the words of my mouth and the meditation on all of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God, for you are our rock and our redeemer.
Now, as I have said before, many of the sermons for this fall are informed by the questions that were written on the blue pieces of paper that we gathered at the beginning of the summer. And this passage was one of the questions raised in those summer months.
So as we are proceeding to think through some of our Reformed theology, one of the pillars of the Reformation was the doctrine of “in Christ alone.” And so let us consider the authority of Jesus Christ as we consider the authorities of this world and how we hold those tensions together.
And please know there's a lot more to say than I can include in this time together. So if anyone wants to do an eight-part study with me on this passage, I have materials enough to consider this text for ages.
Friends, as we know, there is often this push and pull that we experience as a people of faith in a fallen world. We talk about it all the time, about how we are to focus our hearts, our minds, our spirits, and our actions on the will of God in a world in which there are so many forces that compete for our attention and our allegiance, for our money, for our time.
Now, Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome, and it's clear as we read the words today that the church in Rome was feeling their own similar tensions. Sure, they did not have to see how much time they were spending in front of screens or how many times they were adding things to their Amazon shopping cart. But the people of faith all of those years ago are trying to figure out that which we are trying to do today: How can we live as a people of God in a complicated world?
So, situated within the seat of the Roman Empire, we know historically that Rome was a vibrant and diverse city. The followers of Christ in that day emerged both from Judaism as well as from among a community of Gentiles who were accustomed to worshiping many gods under pagan traditions of that day.
Okay, this is the historical context paragraph, so stick with me.
It was clear that Christ followers were striving to understand what it meant to follow Jesus together, even as their backgrounds had given them different foundations for the work of faith ahead.
Now, also historically, this work of faith was complicated by the fact that Emperor Claudius had, just eight years before this letter was written, expelled all of the Jews from Rome. And so there was nearly a decade where the Roman church flourished, but under Gentile leadership.
Now, under Emperor Nero, who was emperor when Paul wrote this letter, the Jews had just returned to Rome. And the church in Rome was trying to hold together the question of what it meant to follow Jesus. Did Gentile believers need to follow Jewish law in order to have access to Christ? How could these cultures, these differences, these understandings come together?
Paul's letter offers advice about how the church in Rome can live as a people of faith in this diverse and vibrant and complicated landscape under the leadership of fallible humans.
Let me point out one ironic point. One thing that is ironic in this text is that Paul himself never visited Rome. In fact, Paul planned to visit Rome on his way to evangelize Spain, but was himself executed just outside of the Roman gates under the decree of the emperor.
So, if we want to make a muddy passage even muddier, there you go.
And yet, I will never forget a professor in seminary saying to our class, “If you want to be changed, if you want to live your faith to the fullest, read Paul's letter to the Romans.”
And he went on to list all of these heroes and sheroes of faith whose own journeys were transformed after reading Paul's letter to the Romans, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Reformed theologian in Germany who was a pacifist and a teacher about how the church should come together.
And I can see why this professor said this letter is a fundamental text in how to live as God's people. There are words all throughout this letter that anchor my own personal spirituality and call us to community together.
And then there's the passage I read today.
And I will confess that these particular words are difficult for me to hear and challenging for me to preach. And there's one reason why. You could probably shout it out from the pews, couldn't you? Many of you might even share my discomfort.
For Paul's words challenge believers to follow the authorities of this world and identify them as appointees of God.
And yet we can name that there is a long historical list of earthly authorities who have gotten it wrong. Human history is fraught with individuals and governments, all of whom are in seats of authority, that simply have perverted God's will.
They have not worked for the common good, but have rather hoarded power and manipulated their authority for selfish gain. From their seats of authority, they have instituted abuse, oppression against God's own beloved children. They have used their seat of authority to enact violence in opposition to God's command to love.
We can name many of these regimes in history. Consider South Africa under the reign of apartheid, Nazi Germany, and even the United States when its laws authorized the enslavement of African individuals. And the list could go on.
So what are we to do when we hear Paul's teachings in these verses? How are we to hold the tension created by these words? And the reality, too, that Paul was martyred by the regime that he is advising believers in Rome to follow.
See why we need an eight-week study on this?
All right. So, some commentators suggest — and I think there's merit to this — that Paul is offering these words as a tactical protection for a church that's trying to take root in a city where there is a powerful government known to be at odds with believers.
Much like Jeremiah's advice to the Jews who were in exile — you know, there's that famous verse from Jeremiah 29 about building houses and getting married and planting and reaping what you sow, and for the welfare of God's people to be bound up in the welfare of those under whom they live in exile — Paul advises the early church to settle into the society in which they live, to follow laws, to avoid making trouble.
And if trouble emerges, Paul advises them to live into a higher standard of conduct, to live into the love that Christ had modeled for them.
Now, there are other commentators that point out that laws are important. At their best, they are designed to prevent chaos and keep people safe, just like the wise ones in the front pew shared during our time with the children.
The design of these laws is much like the Ten Commandments issued by God, the Ten Commandments that Paul referred to in our text for today: laws that are there to ensure the common good, to secure the welfare of all people, especially the vulnerable, and to name that human beings need some structure and some accountability and some guidance in a complicated and sinful world.
And so Paul affirms the need for civic governments for these reasons and invites God's people to be subject to their authority and to adhere to the rules that are designed to ensure the welfare of all citizens, including them.
Now, the tension in this passage is not so much about following rules, right? We follow rules all the time, and we know if we do not stop at a red light, danger will ensue.
But the question, the tension in this passage, is whether or not Paul's words offer a blanket permission to all seats of authority. Is Paul endorsing any model of authority or any tactic of governance?
And so this tension leads us to wonder: Is every citizen to submit to the authorities of the world for the sake of submission, regardless of the laws that they issue? And what is it that God's people are called to do when the government is an agent of tyranny and oppression rather than a source for the common good?
Even muddier, right?
So in order to best unpack what Paul is writing here, we need to do what we need to do.
First, we cannot just lift the first seven verses of this chapter out of their context and write them on a poster or a pillow. We have to consider where they're situated within the letter, the entirety of Paul's letter, and within the entirety of Scripture itself, and within the context of its historical interpretation.
And so it's helpful for us to first note that the words that we heard today were not the only words that Paul wrote to that church in Rome. The first seven verses of this chapter are the meat in a sandwich of teachings on love. So you need to go back and read chapter 12 and the whole of chapter 13 after church today.
The fundamental law that believers are called to follow is the law of love. And this law is, in many ways, countercultural.
Paul tells the believers — the verses immediately before this verse and immediately after remind the Christ follower — that we are called to continually examine the standards of the world and not to choose a path of conformity, but rather to continually live into the ethic of love that inspires us to use the gifts God has given us for the common good.
And second, when we look at the arc of the entirety of Scripture, we read several stories — you could probably again shout them out from the pew — where those who are people of faith, where sometimes the call of faith puts us at odds with authority in the world and our obedience to God calls us to challenge that authority.
We herald the Hebrew midwives who disobeyed Pharaoh's decree to kill every Jewish baby boy. We emulate Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who refused to bow before a golden idol as the king decreed.
All summer we discussed the book of Esther and how she, with courage and creativity, was called to navigate the complex dynamics of her social location and worldly authority in order to protect and free God's people.
And every year we mark the reality that those magi, they did not listen to Herod. They returned by another way.
These are only a few examples of how people of faith employed courage, how they listened to God's command when it was over and above the command of earthly authorities that were asking them to participate in violence.
There is a long line of saints throughout history who actively live their faith not by submitting to unjust civic authorities, but by subverting them, particularly when the government was causing harm — and this is key — causing harm to God's people or demanding that the government be worshiped in place of God.
Many of us have heard how the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested on Good Friday in 1963. He was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, for leading a peaceful anti-segregation march without a permit.
Now, on the same day as his arrest, eight white Alabama clergymen wrote an open letter to Dr. King, which was printed in the newspaper, urging those who had been protesting with him to withdraw from these demonstrations and advising that any case for inequality should be taken up in a court of law.
So Martin Luther King Jr., from his jail cell, wrote a letter in reply to these clergy, and this Letter from Birmingham Jail became one of his most noteworthy teachings. I think that his remarks have some wisdom to offer us, or at least some insights for us to ponder.
He wrote: "One may want to ask, ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’ The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws, just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that an unjust law is no law at all.
He goes on to say that we should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was legal and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was illegal. And in his words he goes on to raise the question of what then are we to do?
So Martin Luther King goes on to say sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance he says, “I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now there's nothing wrong with having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the first amendment privilege of peacefully of peaceful assembly and protest.”
He writes, “I hope you are able to make the distinction I'm trying to point out. In no sense am I in no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law as would the rabbid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy.
“One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”
Clear as mud.
So, people of faith, what are we to do?
Well, I submit that we are to function within a civil society according to the laws that govern us, understanding that the purpose of laws is to restrain evil and work for the common good.
And we likewise have a spiritual and moral imperative to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, who is the highest authority to whom we submit.
Jesus alone is Lord of all. There is no dimension in earth or heaven that is outside of the realm of God. And the whole of Scripture and the theology of our Reformed faith reminds us that we are to submit to the authority of God in Christ and that Christ's call to live into love is central to our obedience.
This, Paul says, is fulfillment of the law.
So friends, in this muddy and complicated world, may we do the work of our faith together.
May we discern, may we discuss, may we act in accordance with the justice and the peace and the love that is central to the reign of God in Christ.
As we together pray, come Lord Jesus, come.
And let's keep talking about the hard stuff. The conversation's not done, is it?
Let us pray.
