Romans

"Peter was a Judaizer."
"Not like the Far Right."
...
"What does Bishop Ware say? 'I have been saved, I'm being saved, and I hope I shall be shaved'--sorry, not shaved. Saved."

-- quips from last night's Bible study

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Romans are everywhere.

My sisters have both become involved with Romans. My littlest one appears to be in a casual relationship with a guy named Roman. My middle one has just secured lodging with a group of Navy friends...one of whom is named Roman.

And last night, I attended the first summer Bible study at Christ the Savior-Holy Spirit, of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

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It's been awhile since I've sat with people to discuss a text. There have been the poetry nights, yes, those anthologies of discussion, and in the adaptation of plays you talk about diction and plot, but nothing like those memorable college classes where everyone sat--including the professor--together in a small space, some infinite depths of text to explore, a simultaneous learning.

We began last night, after Vespers.

There were a dozen, at first. More came after we had secured tables and chairs in the basement, and we unfolded more of both as needed. The plastic tables were embossed on the ends: LIFETIME. The partitions were movable, set on wheels, half tall as real walls, and we spread them as our study grew.

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How much is there to say about the epistle? Plenty, but not here--the life of the church is in the reading and the discussion, and all that. Some tidbits, though:

1.) Paul never went to Rome. Except, that is, when he was arrested and beheaded there. The epistle is the only one he sent to a church he did neither founded nor visited.

2.) Romans is long. Like the Roman army, it is large and formidable. Those who know the text well speak familiarly of the climactic fall and rise of chapters 7 and 8. I'm sad to say I'm not well-versed enough to comment.

3.) Peter was not the first Pope. Not even the first bishop of Rome, and who it actually was even Roman Catholics will admit is still unknown. Interestingly, Paul never once mentions Peter in the entirety of the epistle.

4.) Peter pissed off Paul. At Antioch, Paul felt Peter had undermined and betrayed him. While they operated to accomplish the same things, they were radically different (and apparently they really were radicals) in their approaches. Peter was ultra-conservative; Paul was incredibly liberal. Paul's position probably has something to do with #5:

5.) Paul was, above all other apostles, incredibly passionate. In the words of Fr. Steven last night, Remember, Paul had constantly had to defend his apostleship. He wasn't one of the original Twelve, and his experience with Christ is an entirely firsthand account.


Other things can be said, too--I was interested that Martin Luther's "faith alone" concept is a blending of two separate verses. Paul quotes Habakkuk: "The just shall live by faith," to which Luther adds the word "alone." That phrase appears nowhere in the New Testament except in the book of James, who only used the phrase to say that "faith alone without works is dead."

Yowza. No wonder Martin Luther considered James heretical and wanted his book stricken from the Gospel.

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My boss has taken her byline off the adaptation of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which ArtReach will tour next year. This means the play will be written by me, and me alone. My gratitude exceeds words--it will be my first solo project as a professional playwright.

And it's Huck Finn.


At the moment, I'm wrestling with it: How to approach the last 25 minutes of this play? There's a lot of blood and darkness in the story, and this adaptation has to be elementary school-friendly. We can deal with Tom getting shot in the leg, and maybe even Huck's famous "All right then, I'll go to hell." But the deaths?

Then there's the basic question of time. Forget content for a moment. To involve the Duke and the King, set up Jim's capture, bring in Tom Sawyer, play out the failed escape plan, and then to explain such a speedy and complicated resolution--it's gonna be tough.

I don't want to ravage the text. But I also don't want to bore the kids with a superficial rendering of what is truly an amazing, iconic story.

I guess this is what artists call "working."