A few years before Jesus was born, in the town of Priene in Asia Minor, an inscription was carved into stone. It celebrated the Roman emperor Augustus's birthday, declaring, "the birthday of the god was for the world the beginning of the joyful messages...which have gone forth because of him." Rome itself was filled with the emperor's servants, who were often called "slaves of Caesar." To us, slave is never an honorable title. But those who represented the greatest ruler in their world often had it inscribed on their tombstones.

In AD 56 or 57, the apostle Paul spent the winter in Corinth. While the city's ports were closed, he had time to pray and write the letter to the Romans. When spring came, Phoebe, from Cenchreae, the eastern port of Corinth, was likely the woman entrusted to carry the letter westward to Rome. Most of the Christians in Rome had never met Paul, so the first thing they would hear is how he introduced himself.

My final job title at a global ministry was "Innovator." Each month, I wrote a report for the managers at our headquarters to share emerging trends and prepare us for what was next. I'm fascinated by the newest technological advances. Paul started Romans by talking about what is old.

When I was doing campus ministry at Harvard, a student contacted me in distress, saying he was questioning his entire faith. So we met up at "ABP" or Au Bon Pain in Harvard Square. He told me that in his religion class, they'd learned that the best scholars agreed that the early Christians had slowly developed the idea that Jesus was God over decades. So he wanted to know, "If the first Christians didn't believe that Jesus was God, why should I?"

As I watched The Empire Strikes Back again, I felt like a kid hearing Yoda tell Luke, "For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us." Then I had a disturbing thought. Isn't this how we often talk about God's grace? "For my ally is God's grace, and a powerful ally it is. God gives it, makes it grow. His grace surrounds us and binds us." What is God's grace? And how is it different from science fiction?