Romans 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor 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.

Inseparable

God who loves us more than we can imagine, help us to believe in that love to the very core of our being. Grant that we would return that love as your faithful servants. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you our rock and our redeemer. Amen

It really, absolutely doesn’t matter where you are or what situation you are in, God is with you. There are a million conversion stories of people in the depths of drug abuse or criminal behavior or any number of awful situations who run into Jesus and realize the great, overwhelming awe-inspiring love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Some of us are lucky enough not to have traveled to that depth of despair. Most of us have faced some crisis that has torn the fabric of our souls in ways so tragic we wondered if we could survive. That dark night of the soul that descends on the believer causing us to doubt everything we know. That darkness that threatens to swallow us whole. As the kids say, if you know you know and believe me if you don’t know, you never want to know.

Those are the times we rely on the Spirit to intercede for us. Paul has spent the last few sections of his letter to the Roman church talking about sin. Now he is talking about how the Spirit intercedes for us. When we are at the edge of sin or death or fear, we cry out to God, and the Spirit takes our anguish and forms it in ways that God understands. God can hear our anguish and our despair, and God does not leave us to work it out on our own. God walks with us right into the depths of whatever it is we are facing. There is nothing in death or in life no angels, no rulers, nothing that has happened and nothing that will happen that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing. Not even the sin that we wallow in. Not even that which we would not do but cannot seem to help doing. Nothing. Nothing can separate us because God is with us. The Spirit dwells in us. And the son of God has saved us.

Can you hear the good news? Here in this place. Here in this very room our salvation is accomplished. We are no longer slaves to sin and death and fear. We are the beloved children of God, children in whom God delights. Do not fear the depths of night because God’s mercies are new every morning and there is no night so dark that the Spirit cannot guide us.

28 We know that all things work together[r] for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.  You have probably seen this verse on a coffee cup or a t-shirt or one of those decorative signs people hang in their living rooms. All things do work together for good for those who love God, but it may not be the way we want them to. It may not be that God gives you the best spot in the parking lot. It may not be that God keeps you from losing your keys and having to search for hours. It may be that in the depths of the pit; God sends someone to remind you that you are not alone. You are not stuck in that pit. The radiant love of God is already surrounding you. You will rise up from that pit and cling to Jesus who has already judged you and found you welcomed to the kindom.

If God is for us, who can be against us? Again, this is a popular verse to put on cups and shirts and signs. This is a potent reminder that God is on our side. Now listen carefully, God is not on our side because we are better than anyone else. We are all created equal in the eyes of God. That radical equality is foundational to our understanding of who and why God is for us. The people who first heard Paul’s words were not the wealthy elite of society. They were a small band of believers who faced ridicule for their belief in a man who was executed by the Romans. They were mocked for not participating in the social gatherings. They lost their families and their incomes and their social standing because they chose to follow Christ. They were not in any way privileged.  They bore more in common with the refugees to our country than to us. And God chose them through Jesus. And God chooses us through Jesus not because we are special but because God gave Jesus to reconcile us to God.

And that is a difficult thing to understand. We can argue just how that happened. How the redemption occurred. People, theologians, have argued that for centuries. It is enough for us to know that through Jesus we have been reconciled to God and this is not the kind of reconciliation that we have with estranged family or friends. That type of reconciliation that bears scars and takes a lifetime to believe is truly resolved. No, this reconciliation is so deep the scars are no longer visible. It is complete and we only have to remember that all of the garbage of our lives has been transformed in a way only God can transform, only God can reconcile us so completely. Only God can change our way of understanding life so that we can see how everything works out for the good for those who love God.

This sermon series is called “Good News for Tough Times.” It is a series that could be preached any time. Tough times are ubiquitous. This world is a mess. We have this idea, what I call the arrogance of the present, which says that the time we are in is the worst time in history. All the children are the worst they have ever been. The news is the worst it has ever been. The environment is the most in danger that it has ever been. All the things are the worst, but they have been the worst in every generation. This world is just a mess all the time. That is why we cling to desperately to Jesus and even to Paul’s words.

Life is hard. It can be nasty and brutish and often far too short. We sin so routinely we sometimes don’t even notice. We fail to live up to the standards God would have us uphold. We are just a hot mess in a world of hot messes but and oh beloved, hear this above all else, but

There is nothing neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor 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.

Nothing. We are so bound up with God that we do not need to fear death nor sin nor loneliness nor grief nor regret nor anything. We are set free from all of that to live as children of God. And it is for this we can say, thanks be to God. Amen

Romans 8: 22

Labor Pains

God of mercy, be with us this day we pray. Grant that our groaning under the pain of life would be exchanged for the hope of adoption. Help us to hear your words of hope and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

Each month, I lead a Bible study at a local long term care facility. It is one of my favorite activities because I never know what direction the group will take. Last week, I brought in this passage of scripture thinking we would talk about how difficult childbirth is and how all of creation is groaning as it waits for the kindom of God to be fully established. That is not how the study went at all.

One woman immediately said, “labor pains were nothing compared to the stuff we go through later in life.” She saw the beauty of childbirth and those labor pains that promised a child a great gift. The laboring was only a small part of the joy. It is the other things in life that have no apparent happy ending. It is the waiting for a miracle that never comes that is harder. It is watching helplessly as a child makes mistake after mistake never reaching their full potential. It is the tragedies that befall us day by day, those are the things that make us groan in despair, clinging desperately to a hope of redemption, a hope that somehow this will be made better. A hope that as the children of God adopted into God’s family, we will be redeemed to an abundant life where the labor pains lead to freedom.

Another woman jumped in and told the story of her adopted son. She and her husband had waited 10 years to adopt a child. They finally got their son at nine months old. There were miracles surrounding that adoption. A missed opportunity for a job that would have taken them far from Southeast Kansas became the opportunity for them to have their child. They could see the great things God had done for them and they were happy. Their labor pains spread out over ten years were rewarded with the redemption of hope. And, if I stopped the story there, it would be an excellent example of the joy of hope being realized. But that was not the end of her story. She lost that son when he was 11 to an unstoppable disease. Her labor pains came again after she lost her child.

She continued to hope. She hoped so hard for the things God has promised that she lived a good life, a faithful life, a life worthy of being called a saint. See, it isn’t our tragedies that define us. It is our ability to hope in the Lord, our God that defines us. Our strength is drawn from the knowledge that we have been adopted into the family of God. We are Jesus’ sisters and brothers having become heirs to the promises of God. But that does not mean we will not face trials. This is good news for troubled times that even though we groan in labor pains we do not do so as those without hope. We are children of God and God is the fulfillment of our hope.

Paul is trying to describe something that is hard to describe. He wants to make the point that our present sufferings pale in comparison to the glory about to be revealed to us. This glory is the glory of God seen in the redeemed children of God.

All of creation is groaning to see the kindom of God revealed in its entirety. We can almost hear that groan as people in Paris die from the heat. 41 million people there suffered through the stifling heat. Heat as bad as that in 2003 and 2025.

 We can almost hear that groan born on the wind of the fires engulfing forests. At least 12 states and Puerto Rico are under threat of wildfire. The land is literally burning up as we watch helpless to stop it with firefighters losing their lives.

We can almost hear that groan in the shattered buildings of the latest earthquake. 4,800 people were killed in the earthquake in Venezuela. Over 16000 were injured and tens of thousands remain missing according to a Wikipedia article.

 All of creation is groaning in labor pains waiting for the kindom to be established, waiting for the new Jerusalem to descend to the earth and remake everything.

We are called to care for the environment. We are called to do what we can to support our ecological home. Simple things such as recycling can have an impact on our world. According to AI, there are currently 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic trash in our oceans. That is the kind of death and decay we can fight against even while we groan in our hope that creation will be reborn, redeemed like we are as the children of God.

  The labor pains of hope bear the joy of the redeemed of God. We are not caught in the web of sin and death. We have been reborn into the everlasting kindom where the glory of the Lord shines on us and within us. In Jesus’ life death and resurrection, we have been redeemed to live as those set free from the bonds of sin and death. We are free to live as beloved children but while we are free, we are also tasked with making the world a better place. We are called to care for all of creation even if it is only in small ways.

We can recycle. We can call for different legislation. We can plant trees. We can take time to pick up trash. And we can do all of this knowing that we are children of God. We do not need to fear the labor pains because labor pains lead to joy to hope and to a new birth.

A birth of hope and joy and peace and goodness, gentleness, and self-control. A birth that reminds us that we are grafted into the family of God through the life death and resurrection of Jesus.

We do not need to fear the pain of life. God has already covered us in God’s glory. We are already beloved of God. Even as we await the coming end of the age and the reign of God, we can rejoice in God’s goodness. Even as we face the trials of life we can hold fast to the love of God, knowing that God delights in us as a mother delights in her child. We can know that no matter how we enter the kindom we are received by the God of mercy. We call our Abba Father knowing we are heard and loved and are soon to be resurrected into newness of life for which we can say, thanks be to God Amen.

Set Free

Romans 8:1-2

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit[a] of life in Christ Jesus has set you[b] free from the law of sin and of death.

God of abundant grace, help us to know that we have been set free from the law of sin and death. Let us live into the joy of righteousness and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Hamartiology is the study of sin and how sin impacts our lives and our relationship with Jesus. One might think sin is a simple straightforward thing. It isn’t. Sin is more than eating too much ice cream. Sin is a society where some people have ice cream and others are starving. Sin is more than lying on your taxes. Sin is a system where the wealthiest pay the least and the lower classes are paying the most. Sin is systemic as well as individual. And, many times we don’t even realize we are sinning and even more difficult is trying to withdraw from the sins of our society.

I think that is part of the reason why so many of our siblings in Christ choose to live in ways that are very different. The Amish are an extreme example. They have chosen to opt out of our current society to live in a manner they find more Christ like. I cannot attest to the success of their endeavor. I can look at their horses and buggies and know that they are not part of the general society.

We are part of our society. We are neatly engrained in the systems that govern us. We buy and sell at the market place. We bank. We have houses and property. We pay our taxes. In fact, most of us would not stand out from our society. And, perhaps we should. Perhaps what God has done for us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is so awesome that we should live a life set apart from those who are still captured by sin and death.

Paul tells us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We are in Christ Jesus when we admit that Jesus is the Christ, the Lord of our lives. This seems a very simple statement but within that statement is a turning away from our society.

Our society wouldtell us that wealth is the marker of worth. Jesus tells us it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to enterthe kindom of God. When we have the wealth we need to be successful in our society, we tend not to rely on Jesus to help us through tough times. When we have what we need, we are less willing to strive to changes the systems that have made us successful while others faulter. When we are full, it is hard to remember what it feels like to be hungry and we even forget to be hungry for Christ.

The systematic study of sin leads us to the question, where did sin begin? We have an answer in Genesis. The snake was the craftiest of all creatures and he told the woman if she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil she would become like God. So, she ate and gave it to her husband to eat and together they ushered sin into the world. The sin was trying to be like God, to know as much as God, to be as exalted as God. What they received instead was a division from God. They received hard work, even toil, as a consequence of sin. They earned death by disobeying God’s direct instruction. God is serious when God tells us how we should behave and what we should do.

You remember Jonah and his sin. God told him to go to Nineveh and proclaim God’s judgement on it. Nineveh was a thriving city. I  imagine it was built on systems of oppression. Perhaps only those born in Nineveh could live in Nineveh. Perhaps they refused to care for the widows and the orphans. Perhaps they cared more for their wealth than for those little ones who God so loves. Whatever their sin, it was great enough for God to send a prophet to warn them to change their ways.

But, that prophetwas Jonah and Jonah sinned. Jonah did not believe God would protect him. He feared that if he went to Nineveh something awful would happen. He even saidthat if he went and proclaimed that God would destroy Nineveh for their sins, that if they repented, God would decide not to punish them. Jonah wanted them to suffer. That was another sin in a long line of sin. Jonah heard God’s call and went the opposite way. You might remember that God was not amused by this sin of Jonah’s. God sent a storm. A storm that would destroy the boat Jonah was on. Jonah realized he couldn’t run from God. He admitted his sin and told the sailors to throw him overboard. That could have been the end of Jonah’s story but God is merciful abounding in steadfast love and God had a big fish swallow Jonah up and spit him out near Nineveh. God did exactly what Jonah thought God would do. Jonah proclaimed God’s wrath. Nineveh repented and God chose not to destroy them.

God tells us how we should act. Micah tells us we are to act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with our God. Jesus tells us we are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts souls minds and strength and that we should love others as we love ourselves. Neither of these are easy especially in our culture that tells us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, to overcome every obstacle by ourselves because we are meant to win. In this society of participation trophies we have taught everyone that to compete is to win. God calls us to work together humbly and we strive for individual glory. And this study of sin would be enough to wreck us. If we believed that sin was the final word. If we felt that all we were was sinful beings cooperating in sinful systems to win sinful prizes.

But, God.

God has set us free from sin and death. Now there is no condemnation in Christ for the God of the universe has had mercy on us.

Even though we ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and in so doing brought the law. The law that tells us how we should live and what we should do. The law that holds us to certain activities. The law we can never accomplish because we are mortals and made of flesh that sins so easily. Our minds drift so quickly from thoughts of our savior to thoughts of our savings.

Even though when God calls us to difficult places we flee. We try to run as far away from confrontation as possible. We are no longer peacemakers we are the guardians of the status quo. Even though our hearts wander and our love for God fades. Even though we forget God’s mercy. Even though we shrug off God’s grace. Even though we sin in so many ways and so many times and we participate in systems that oppress and even though we do not search our hearts for the sin that drives us from relationship with God and with one another. Even though we forget to act justly and forget to love mercy and we walk arrogantly with God. Even though we cannot fulfill the law, God in Christ has fulfilled it for us.

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Does this mean we are free to sin? No, not at all. It is instead a call to greater effort. We are to strive toheal the world and ourselves of sin as much as we can which is possible because of the grace of God found in Jesus. We do not have to fear death because the power of death has been defeated. We can strive to live faithful lives  knowing that if we mess up, there is grace, abundant scandalous grace that will restore our relationship to God and it is for this amazing grace and freedom from sin and death that we can say thanks be to God Amen.

Romans 724 Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this bodyof death? 25 Thanks be to God[b] through Jesus Christ our Lord!

     Broken Bodies, Broken Spirits

God of wholeness, knit together ourbroken places that we may be strongenough to resist the evil we try to do. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

    We are broken. We were created good. That is what Genesis tells us.God created humanity, male and female God created them and God called them good. We are all created good. But then the man and the woman decided that they wanted to be like God. They wanted to know the difference between good and evil. How much better for us would it have been if our ancestors had not wanted to know the difference between good and evil. What if we had just decided things were good enough and left disobedience to the snakes? But, we don’t work that way. For some reason or another we crave knowledge. We crave knowing what it means that the stove is hot. Even as tiny people, we want to test the boundaries. Toddlers hear the word no and find a way to test why they were told no. It is what we do.

     We are broken in other ways, adult ways. Our hearts know what is right to think and instead we think what is evil. Our bodies know what we should do to be healthy and we do what will make us sick. Our souls know that we should crave only Jesus and yet we fight daily to stay in Jesus’ will, falling down so often that we have to pray forgiveness. God forgive me for my willful disobedience. Forgive me and set my feet on right paths again. Forgive my evil thoughts and replace them with good.

    This is a terribly simplistic example, the kind of example I remember from years before because it makes something deep simple. This pastor, a young guy just learning how to preach, told us about his great sin. Every night he would have a scoop of ice cream. He knew he shouldn’t but he couldn’t wage that war against the flesh and every night even though he did not want to, he ate that chocolate indulgence and called it good.

    Yes, I would like to think the worst thing all of us are wrestling with is eating ice cream. But, I get a text every morning that shows me who is in jail that day. Almost every morning someone has done something bad enough to get caught and incarcerated. And, I want to think we get better with age but I have sat on a jury for a murder trial and convicted an eighty year old man of killing his son and grandson. Or maybe a job, a calling could keep one from sinning, but you know better. How many pastors have committed sins against humanity and against their parishioners? How many denominations have covered up these sins in order to keep their good names?

And even if our sins are more the ice cream variety, they are sins.

Paul laments Wretched person that I am! Friends we are wretched. We arecaught in bodies that do what we do not want them to do. We are surrounded by a soul that forgets its maker and plunges into despair instead of praise. We are trapped in a mind that thinks evil things of ourselves and others O wretched person that I am!

And now you are thinking why on earth did I come to church today. This is the place where I am supposed to gaze on the grandeur of a grace that seeps into all the dark and broken places of my life. This is where the word of God found in Christ Jesus is proclaimed. This is the safe place in the world where for a moment in time we are transported to the very throne of our creator.

And beloved I tell you we are there. We are at the throne of mercy but we cannot experience the depth of that mercy if we are hiding from the evil in our bodies. We cannot know the overwhelming glory of grace if we are hiding our sin from ourselves. How do we know how clean we are wiped until we face the dirtiness of our thoughts. I don’t know what you are struggling with. I hope it is ice cream level stuff.

  So where is the good news in the midst of all this sorrow, all of this wrongness? This is the word of God for the people of God, that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

  The youth group I was part of for the motorcycle group would do this experiment where they would take a clear glass of water and put some food coloring in it. They would say that is sin. Sin is so much a part of us that God cannot love us. Yes, they really told young people that they were so bad Jesus couldn’t love them. Then they would mix some chemical in a cup of clean water. When they poured it in the “sin” cup, the water would turn white. This was an illustration of how God’s love would clean our soul. It is a good enough illustration but it misses one important point.

   We are never so far gone in sin that God does not love us. That is the scandal of grace, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ did not wait until we were good enough. God looked at Adam and Eve and had mercy. God didn’t even wait until they repented. God saw that they realized they were naked and God clothed them. They offered excuses for their behavior and God cared for their needs. They disobeyed and while their were consequences God did not remove God’s pronouncement that they were good. They were still good even as they sinned.

Boom, mind blown, we do not have to be good to be forgiven. Even more inexplicable, we do not even have to be repentant. God’s grace is always there, always ready to wash us clean, always calling us to deeper relationship and yes, when we are faced with grace like that we lament, Oh my wretched body, how can we look on grace like that and not confront our own evil. How can we see the love of God and not bear witness to the paltry nature of our own love that even while we try to do the right thing we are lacking in every way but Jesus.

Jesus Christ has died for our sins. Jesus Christ has reconciled us to God. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is all sufficient to save us from ourselves. Ah rejoice beloved we are not captive to sin and to death and to fear. All of that has already been defeated. The good news of Jesus Christ is that we are free to live according to the will of God found in Jesus and nurtured through the Holy Spirit.  Paul says, thanks be to God through Christ Jesus!

Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God that the sins of our body are forgiven. Thanks be to God that the sins of our minds are forgiven. Thanks be to God that the sins of our Spirits are forgiven. Thanks be to God that our sins do not define us. We are not dirty glasses of water. We are glasses of already forgiven water. We are beloved not despised. We are the children of God loved despite our brokenness and loved into wholeness. We can rejoice because our sins are forgiven through Jesus Christ our lord and our savior for whom we can truly say, thanks be to God. Amen.

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