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The Feast of Pentecost / Confirmation Sunday, 05/24/2015
Sermon on Romans 8:22-27, by Samuel D. Zumwalt
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
SPIRIT-FILLED!
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
To fully understand and appreciate what St. Paul has to say to us today, we need to back up to the beginning of chapter 8 to read the whole chapter. Especially important to today’s second reading are verses 18-21. Let’s hear those verses. Paul writes: “18For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
Throughout much of the letter to the Romans, Paul is looking back to the Garden of Eden and the first three chapters of Genesis. In today’s lesson, Paul is thinking particularly about God cursing the ground because of human sin. Because humankind fell into sin all creation was thereafter affected (3:17ff). Ever since the fall, humans suffer, and creation groans like a woman in labor. What will be is not yet. How things originally were is long gone. Both humans and creation are caught in an in-between time: between what was and what will be!
Now Paul is writing here to Christians – those that are already baptized and already believing. And Paul is also writing to a conflicted church made up both of Jewish and Gentile Christians who don’t always see eye to eye. And in that church, all seem to be wrestling with both their own brokenness and the brokenness around them.
That’s a good place to jump into this text.
The problem with brokenness – whether it is our own, someone else’s, or in creation itself – is that it produces suffering. And nobody likes to suffer. Case in point, visit any pharmacy and note how many shelves are devoted to reducing or alleviating suffering of any kind.
Suffering does something to each of us. Some give up – even taking their own lives. Some become embittered and push that suffering onto others – especially those closest to them. Some give up and then embrace their brokenness as a badge of honor, demanding that everyone affirm them just as they are. Some give in to hopelessness and become shadow people. But suffering can be a great teacher if we will learn from it.
Suffering, whether emotional or physical, can lead us all to focus on our own will, namely, wanting what we want instead of what God wants. At our darkest and lowest moments, we can despair of God’s love and God’s goodness. At our most self-centered moments, we can curse God and embrace our selfish will as the highest good for us. The victims of our selfishness are, again, usually those closest to us. But sometimes the victims of our selfishness are simply nameless and faceless at the time. If you want a good example, look for the roadside crosses planted by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. If you want another good example, hang out at clinics and emergency rooms where someone’s hard-working, full-time employees come seeking medical services but have no health insurance of any kind.
There is a cautionary tale in all of this. What we practice becomes the pattern of our lives. In the worst case scenario, as C.S. Lewis wrote, the person who practices selfishness exclusively will finally hear the Father’s sad verdict: “As you wish – your will be done!” But that is not the Christian story. That is not your story or mine.
To the baptized and believing, Paul writes words of encouragement. Christ Jesus, God’s dear Son, has suffered and died for your sins and even for those that are not yet baptized and believing! He has broken down the wall of enmity between us sinners and the Father. Christ Jesus has died and has risen to open the doors of Paradise to all who believe and are baptized!
In Holy Baptism, our gracious heavenly Father liberates us from sin and death by joining us to the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son Jesus. The Father claims us as beloved daughters and sons through no effort or merit of our own. He fills us with His Holy Spirit as a kind of down payment – Paul calls it the first fruits. Right now in this in-between time, we aren’t yet fully adopted because our broken bodies, living in a broken creation, are still in bondage to decay. Our bodies, along with creation itself, are going to die. As children of God, we become aware of how far we are yet from the Kingdom of God. We groan like creation itself – groan to be fully adopted – for all hostility to God to be taken away – for all brokenness to be healed!
Thus, we have hope having been marked with the cross of Christ and sealed with the Holy Spirit forever in Holy Baptism. We have hope, because the Holy Spirit knows the Father’s good and gracious will even when we cannot see it ourselves because of our brokenness. The Holy Spirit is praying with us and for us as He shares the Word and Sacraments with us today. The Holy Spirit is praying for the Father’s will to be done in us – even when we cannot and do not want to hear the Father’s will. The Holy Spirit is praying for us, because He knows that if we know the Father’s will it may lead to further suffering – emotional or physical – as we face up to the end of our own will and to the eventual end of life as we know it.
Paul says to the Romans, and to us, that the very best we can hope for now in this in-between time is to learn to wait patiently for the end of our brokenness and indeed for the end of all brokenness when we will finally and fully be adopted as beloved daughters and sons of God.
The Holy Spirit is praying and working in us to create not so much people resigned to their doom but people living hope-fully in the promise of what we will someday be in God. We are His dear children in promise – people of the promise!
For both our confirmands and all the other worshipers on this Day of Pentecost, I want to remind you that you will always spend your lives in an in-between time. First you are in-between childhood and adolescence. Then you are in-between the late teens, early 20s, and adulthood. Then you are in-between single and married or between married without and married with children, or between working and retirement, or between retirement and God’s last great surprise. In short, you will always be in-between while you are breathing. You will be, as Martin Luther said, both saint and sinner, both a child of the promise and a broken person living in a broken world.
What you need to hear today is that how you live matters! How you face the suffering that comes your way matters! How you choose to spend your time, your talent, and your treasure matters! Your life matters, because in Holy Baptism, God claimed you as His own dear child. The more conscious you are of who and whose you are the better the choices you will make. But when you forget who and whose you are, I promise you it won’t be pretty – and sadly, you may not be able to see how badly you’re messing up at the time.
Perhaps you have heard someone talk about that little voice inside your head. Perhaps someone said that was your conscience. Let me say that sometimes that little voice is the voice of the Holy Spirit, but only insofar as that voice is normed by the Holy Spirit’s book, the Bible. For sometimes that voice is your own selfish voice or someone else’s critical voice. And sometimes the Holy Spirit uses the beloved voice of a dear parent or grandparent or mentor to break through your resistance...but, please remember, the Holy Spirit’s voice cannot contradict the Holy Scriptures.
Paul tells us today that the Holy Spirit is praying for us according to the Father’s will. You can be sure it’s the Holy Spirit if that voice won’t let you get away with celebrating your brokenness or let you get away with feeling indifferent or even good about the suffering of others.
Now you need to remember this. You cannot rescue others from their own bad choices. You can confront them, care for them, pray for them, and show concern for them in ways that are God-pleasing. But you cannot be their God. You cannot be their Savior. The job has already taken by the only One who has the relevant experience and power to do what is needed...God’s Beloved Son Jesus!
To our younger people in particular, I want to remind you to be very careful about whom you choose to marry. Many a believer has been led astray by trying to rescue someone who is not yet entirely willing to surrender her or his life to the God who made them and the God that wants to redeem them in Jesus Christ. Do not confuse neediness with love. Do not confuse attraction with compatibility. Do not confuse someone saying nice words about God with observable devotion to God. Anyone can talk a good talk, but you know a Christian by the fruit of her or his life. Christians pray daily, worship weekly, study the Bible, serve God, have spiritual friendships, and are generous with God’s things.
I invite the whole assembly this weekend to join me in praying for our confirmands in their in-between living. I want these young people, and indeed all my listeners, to live hope-fully as children of God – children of the Promise.
May the Holy Spirit fill each of us today with a burning awareness of His presence! May that same Holy Spirit give us patience in-between what was and what will be – even in suffering! May the Holy Spirit bring each of us here safely and joyfully to that day when we will finally be fully adopted as children of God!
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Bemerkung:
Romans 8:22-27 © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers]