Gentle Reader,
On Sunday July 23, I preached for the first time as a member of the pastoral team at my new church. (I’m not sure at what point I’ll stop thinking of it as my “new” church). As usual I was incredibly nervous right up until the point I began speaking., and then became nervous again as soon as I finished. I don’t know if the Holy Spirit works that way with every preacher, but that’s how we roll. God makes it very clear that I do none of this in my own strength or power.
I share the text with you today for two reasons: First, as always it is my hope to encourage and teach. Second, this was a redemptive moment for me. One year ago to the day of this sermon I knew that I was released from my previous church after a long, difficult season of searching and wrestling that I had expected to result in a different ending.
If you’d like to listen, you can do so here.
May you sense God’s love for you today.
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My name is Marie and I am one of the pastors here at SVNC.
And you know, a year ago today I did not imagine myself here with you, saying that, getting to learn from and about God together. I didn’t really imagine anything at all. You see, my road shifted suddenly. The direction I thought I was going…well, that path was no longer mine to walk. And whatever new path was open to me, I couldn’t see too far ahead. In fact, I really only had just enough light to take the next step. And sometimes, maybe even often, I wasn’t sure I could take that next step. It was hard and strange and confusing…but also good.
I think about all this, about the last year and the path that led me here, every time I open my pill case. See, I live with chronic illness and I struggle with anxiety. So every night before I go to sleep, I pop open that day’s container, pour the pills into my palm, and make sure I swallow every single one. If I don’t, I’ll be miserable in the morning. But here’s the thing about the pills: they don’t make the illness go away. They just make it so I can function, which I’m grateful for. But sometimes the nausea or a pounding head still gets me. It’s that hard and good again.
As I look at your faces today, and I remember those of you who are watching from home, I think it’s safe to say that you know what I’m talking about. Your stories are marked by the themes of hard and good.
These are themes we find throughout Scripture, but especially in Romans 8, which is where we’ll be today.
Before we read our specific set of verses from this chapter, we need to get a handle on some context. The Apostle Paul has never been to Rome. He’s never met these people. So, guided by the Holy Spirit, he decides to write his longest letter to them. To people he doesn’t know.
That’s the thing about Paul – he’s intense. Excitable. He loves a good run-on sentence. He’s constantly interrupting himself. His words crackle with a holy energy, one that is focused on one thing only: Christ. He is utterly, completely, wholly devoted to telling others – anyone, everyone, any time, everywhere – about Jesus. Christ has so captured him – his mind, his heart, his imagination – that there’s nothing else he can do with his time or his life. Which is pretty wild, considering that when we first meet Paul back in the book of Acts, he’s persecuting and murdering those who know and love Jesus.
That says something about God, doesn’t it? Something about who God is and what God will do. It’s important for us to keep that in mind. God is both the main character in and the author of Paul’s story…of every story. God is at the center of every scene.
So, Paul writes this letter. He spends the first seven chapters working his way through that story of beginnings. Of where we started, and how we got here. Paul insists that God is real and that God created. Then – Adam and Eve and a snake and some fruit. A problem called sin. And this sin is both personal – our individual choices to ignore God and do what we want – and cosmic – every atom and all the things inside the atoms turned a quarter turn to the left and nothing works quite like it’s supposed to. It’s a problem that runs deep and wide, impacting and effecting everyone and everything on this planet.
It’s a problem that we can’t fix. We don’t even have sense enough on our own to know we should fix it. God, who could have left us alone in our mess, chooses to extend love, grace, and mercy to us. The Infinite Lord of creation enters into the world as a squalling baby. Jesus lives the life we could not live in our own strength and power, dies a death He did not deserve, and then walks out of the grave three days later – yes and amen! Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the solution to our sin problem.
When we choose to admit to this reality, to place ourselves in God’s hands, to accept the majestic gift of glorious grace and enter into redemptive relationship with God through faith in Christ, we are set free. And so, Paul declares in the gorgeous words of Romans 8:1, “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Yes and amen again!
But there’s still nine whole chapters left.
Like I said, Paul can get wordy.
Where does he go from here? What else does he have to say?
So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
– Romans 8:12-25 (NRSV)
We have two chunks here. And at first, it can be kind of hard to see how they’re related. So again let’s remember that God is the main character. Keep an eye out for what God is doing, what aspects of God’s character are revealed in these words. Additionally, it’s good for us to keep in mind that the chapters and verses are not included in the original letter. There’s no clunky, mechanical breaks. For all his run-on sentences and self-interruptions, Paul does have a flow of thought. To help us begin to see that flow, I want us to keep two words in our minds as we get into these chunks: presence and patience.
Presence
Paul begins the first chunk by telling us that we have an obligation to God – but this doesn’t mean that we’re stuck in a boring life of dull duty. Eugene Peterson puts it this way in his Message paraphrase: “God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!” Our call is to lovingly obey God, to understand that God is the Ruler of our lives. This doesn’t mean our lives will be stripped of all color and joy. No, we get to find real color and joy. We get to leave all of our old selfishness and insecurity and just…junk. All the things that cast gray shadows over our lives – we get to let it all go.
We get to do that because of what Christ has done for us. Our obligation to God is one that is rooted in love and gratitude. “It is the sacred and binding debt owed by all the children of God to separate from sin and be holy to God. … [because] Christ is our life” (Greathouse and Lyons, NBBC Commentary, 248). We are to be as captured by God as Paul is. Christ, and nothing else, is our life. God directs how we live, and gives us the grace and the power to live that way. This means that we get to be truly ourselves. Exactly who God made us to be. Beyond that, when we are full of God’s Spirit, energizing love courses through our veins and we see everyone around us through the lens of grace. Because we are transformed in a moment and across a lifetime, because we experience the freedom found in holy obedience, we want others to have the same experience.
We get to bring good news to the weak and weary. We get to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. We get to work toward freedom and justice for everyone. We get to say, “There is more. There is better.”
Hear these words from Dr. Michael Gorman: “God’s Spirit is not a spirit that creates slaves and thus fear of a tyrannical, abusive master who is ready to condemn and punish. Rather, God’s Spirit lovingly creates a family of adopted children” (Romans Commentary, 200-201). Really hear that. God is with you, and with me, and with us together. And God has no dark side. God is the Good Father, and we are God’s children. We get all the benefits and rights of being in that family, the most important of which is the presence of God. Really hear that, too. The gift is not only what God can or will do in and for and with you, though God can and will do good things in and with and for you. The presence of God is the greatest and highest gift you can ever receive. You have it, right now, today. And if you don’t, you can. God is here.
Patience
Paul could have stopped at 8:1 when he tells us that we’re no longer condemned. He could have stopped here with the reminder that because we are God’s children, we are to live as God wants us to live and as God empowers us to live. That would have been awesome.
But it’s not the full story.
And we know that.
Christians are Revelation 21 and 22 people. We know that God is real and God is present and that God is going to make everything right. We know that one day there will be no more tears or pain. No more darkness or sorrow. But right now, today, we’re still living in a Genesis 3 world. Everything is still turned a quarter turn to the left. We still have to take pills. We still cry. We still ache. And the pills and the crying and the aching – it leaves us with questions.
Why does that loved one have cancer?
Why did that baby die?
Why did that relationship end?
Why did the path shift?
Where is God in that?
How can God be good and present with us on the one hand, and the world be so full of suffering on the other hand? How can both of these things be true?
They just are.
I know, you were hoping for a better answer than that. But I don’t have one. The truth is, nobody does. Life can be confusing, hard, or just boring. And yet God is and remains ever good.
Paul personifies creation here in the second chunk. Does every blade of grass, every leaf on the trees, every rock, every snowflake – does it all literally groan, literally cry out to God for relief? To be turned back a quarter turn to the right? Maybe. God understands and interacts with what God has made in ways that are beyond our comprehension. But the point here is that though everything has been affected by the problem of sin, there is still hope. Despite the present and ongoing troubles, there will be restoration. There will be peace. Revelation 21 and 22 echo through our days.
But for now, all of creation, and us in and part of creation, lives with anticipation. With longing. With questions.
And so Paul encourages patience, an attitude, a mindset, that we can have by virtue of the Holy Spirit within and all around us. Instead of removing us from this Genesis 3 world, God enters into it with us. Dr. Gorman again: “…even the Spirit participates in this suffering…groaning while giving aid to, and interceding for believers” (Romans Commentary, 207).
The questions you have, the doubts with which you wrestle, the pain you grit your teeth through – God is here.
Presence and patience. The presence of God is the source of our patience, and as we grow in patience we more readily notice God’s presence. The one feeds into the other.
These two chunks, written in bold font and with vivid words, show us the path we walk. A path sandwiched between two truths.
We are adopted. We are made new. We know how the story ends.
We cry. We wonder why so much doesn’t make sense. We become exhausted.
Paul offers a single word in the face of this tension – “Father!”
A word to which God responds.
God is right here.
Verse 15: “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.” You and me and us together, we get to call out to God again and again. We get to sit with God. God is never too busy, is never annoyed, is never on vacation. When we are too tired, God is here. When we don’t understand, God is here. When we mourn, God is here. When we have barely enough light for the next step, God is here.
God will see us through every moment of doubt and pain. God will bring wholeness and peace to all of creation. Did you know that we’ve got evidence for that? I’m not up here just saying nice things today. Our hope, our confidence, is based in the fact of the resurrection. Christ really died and Christ really lives. That’s the crucial piece that finishes the puzzle of hope.
If you know Christ, then you know that Christ is alive and that the Spirit of Christ lives within you. You are never alone. You are never without comfort. You are never without access to peace and wisdom. Whatever the test results are, what the balance in the bank account is, the promotion you didn’t get, the number of pills you have to take each night – God is with you. You are with God. And that changes your perspective. God does not cause the hard, bad, sorrowful things. Never. But God most certainly holds you every time those things hit you. God guides you through them.
In moments of sorrow when we look down, our gaze will take in the nail-scarred hands of Christ holding our own hands when we don’t have enough strength to maintain a grip. Our Savior knows. Our Savior understands.
Our path leads us toward God, and we travel it with God. God is the main character, in the good and in the hard.
So look up again today, friends. Our Good Father is at the end of the path. And right beside us. And all around us.
When will all things be made right again? I don’t know. Nobody does (and if they tell you they do, they’re probably trying to sell you something). What I do know is that when my path shifted a year ago today, God was there and led me here. And every time I open my pill case, God is there and reminds me that one day I won’t need them anymore. God leads and God reminds you, too.
Those reminders are spoken in quiet, gentle tones that our soul’s ears hear by the God who is here. Our hope, our life, is in Christ alone.
And Christ walked out of the grave.
There is nothing that will stop God from redeeming, restoring, rescuing, freeing all of creation, in God’s good timing.
So this current suffering, we can get through it patiently by the power and presence of the Spirit of the Living God.
GRACE AND PEACE ALONG THE WAY,
MARIE
Image Courtesy of Vince Fleming