Pentecost Eight

The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – July 26, 2020 | Romans 8:26-39 | The Rev. Beth A. Schlegel |

Romans 8:26-39

²⁶The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. ²⁷And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
²⁸We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. ³⁰And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

³¹What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³²He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? ³³Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. ³⁵Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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What do you pray for?

The richest man in the world walked into a pediatrics ward of a large hospital. The children did not know who he was. They only knew he had come with cake and ice cream and balloons and toys.

He invited each of them to make a little wish that he might be able to fulfill.

Some of the older children asked for electronics and help with their medical needs.

The youngest asked for their mommy or daddy or for a pet.

One young girl asked him if he thought she was beautiful.

I wonder if their wishes would change if they knew who they were talking to?

What wish would you ask the richest man in the world to grant?

• Pay your rent or make your car payments for a year?
• Cover your out-of-pocket medical expenses?
• Send you on an all-expenses-paid vacation?

Maybe those are too small –

• A million dollars for our hospitals in Tanzania
• Or 2 million for our local schools
• Or the funding of Covid testing for our whole nation.

Forbes says that Jeff Bezos, CEO Of Amazon, is currently the richest man on earth.

But we know someone even richer than he is.

Someone capable of more than his billions could ever achieve.

We know God.

And while God is not in the business of wishes, God does answer prayer.

I think we sometimes make a mistake when we pray. We think God grants little wishes, like the man in the hospital.

• Help me pass this test
• Make the light turn green
• Make my significant other love me
• Give me a suitcase of willpower
• Let my boss give me a raise

What God really wants is for us to pray for God-sized things

• Daily bread for all people
• Healing
• Forgiveness
• Mercy
• Relief from suffering
• Peace
• Restoration
• Wisdom
• Discernment
• An end to racism and violence
• The kingdom to come on earth as in heaven

Sometimes, though, we just do not know how to pray.

• There is news that is so devastating that we have no words.
• There are circumstances so overwhelming that we are utterly helpless.
• There are pits we find ourselves in that seem without bottom and without escape that make it hard for us to pray.
• There are times when we are sobbing so hard we can barely breathe, let alone talk or think.

 

In these times it is of great comfort to know that we are not alone. The responsibility for prayer is not entirely on our shoulders.

 

The Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.  That Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

 

The Holy Spirit is the breath of God – and from our baptism, that breath of God is in us. And that Spirit breath prays for us as only God knows and hears because it is of God.

 

The Spirit prays in us beyond words.

 

 

No matter how weak we are, In Christ, we are never alone.

 

Because of the Spirit of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ in us from our baptism, there is nothing in all creation that can separate us from God’s love.

 

 

The Spirit prays for us according to the will of God –

• The will of God for our life, for our salvation, for our redemption, for our forgiveness, for our restoration.

 

I’m sure some of you have had the experience of praying for something that did not happen the way you wanted.

Maybe a healing that did not occur or a job you did not get.

 

I think the Spirit translates some of our prayers from what is our will to what is God’s will. So when we look for our will to be done, we think God hasn’t answered our prayers.

 

In those situations, we are wise to consider that God has answered according to God’s will – in a different way than we had imagined – but in a way that makes known the kingdom of heaven.

 

God’s answers to our prayers sometimes move us from where we are comfortable  and think we want to be

to a new place, a place of vulnerability and unfamiliarity, a place where trust in God is everything.

 

This can be scary and sometimes painful– we tend to be creatures of habit, seeking out the familiar.

 

But God is always calling us into a future we cannot fully see and that is not the same as the old creation.

God is calling us into a life that is beyond our wildest dreams or imagination.

So when our prayers and the prayers of the Holy Spirit in us begin to stir us out of our comfort zone,

We need to remember the promise of Jesus: “I am with you always. Nothing can separate you from my love.”

And ²⁸We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.