Romans 16:25-27 (NRSV)
Read Romans 16:25-27 on biblegateway.com
Verse 25Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages Verse 26but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith- Verse 27to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.
Devotion
I grew up in a family of English teachers, so perhaps it is no surprise that I like to diagram sentences. Long, convoluted sentences can be the most rewarding—if also the most challenging to diagram. The process of diagramming untangles a knotted grammatical web to reveal the subject and verb at the heart of a statement. These final verses of Paul's letter to the Romans, which are a single sentence in both the original Greek and the New Revised Standard Version's (NRSV) English translation, provide just such a challenge. Once we strip away the many layers of added phrases and clauses, we are left with this clear idea at the sentence's core: Glory be to God. It strikes me that the life of faith is a lot like Paul's sentence: full of subordinate ideas, including some that clarify and some that clutter, but with a core utterance that sustains us. Glory be to God, indeed!
Prayer
God of glory, as we sift through the layers of our theology and our moments of faith and doubt, remind us that you are our center, and help us do everything to your glory. Amen.