Sermon for 9^th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 12)

Text: Romans 8:26-39 If God is for us, who can be against us? (verse 31).

God is for us.

It’s not hard to become discouraged and anxious when we seriously consider what is happening in our world and the community around us. 
Is it just me or do others feel the same way – have people lost any sense of what is right and wrong?
We see this in violence toward others and the destruction of property, and in self-focused behaviour that ignores the needs and feelings of others.  
We see the increase in domestic violence and harm to young children,
the never-ending resorting to bombing, shooting, stabbing and even using missiles to resolve differences or to make a point.  
What about the intolerance of those who are different ethnically and religiously,
the lack of understanding and compassion for those who have nothing and are looking for safety, security, shelter and a place to call home.

We are developing a culture in Australia, in fact it’s a world-wide phenomenon, that is very much me-first, selfish, and lacking in compassion and understanding of the feelings and needs of others. 

No-one cares anymore.  There was a time when we knew everyone in the street and if someone needed a hand, neighbours were quick to jump a fence to do what they could.  Today, we’re lucky if we even know who lives next door.  We are living longer but are we living any better. 

Just before our reading today Paul writes how all creation is groaning with pain because of the effect that sin is having on every thing and every person.  The apostle says, “It is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God’s gifts also groan within ourselves” (Romans 8:23).  God did not create us to live in a state of pain and suffering in body or mind which causes us to groan and sigh.  He created humanity to live in peace and joy and love.  To be in the image of God.  To be like God and consider one another just as the three persons of the Trinity live in perfect peace and harmony.

Even though we have been adopted as God’s children and live with the Holy Spirit guiding us, leading us with faith and hope, we still find ourselves groaning under the weight of the trouble that comes our way in this life. 

Maybe the weight of trouble is making you groan right now.  Trouble doesn’t avoid any of us.  It can beat us down, keep us awake at night, create anxiety, blind us to what is real and make our trouble seem even bigger than what it really is.  Because we are so immersed in anxiety and pain, we become isolated and miserable. 

Today Paul states boldly in Romans 8, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  God is on our side when those whom he loves are faced with “trouble or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death” (Romans 8:35).  God is on our side.  He gives us total victory over all things that threaten and hurts us.

Sometimes we can feel as if we are walking through a dark valley.  The events in our lives are taking us places we don’t want to go.  The future is unclear and so dark.  The paths are twisting and winding and confusing.  We are afraid.

We pray but we don’t know what we ought to pray for.  Perhaps we feel more like shouting at God for what seems to be a lack of action on his part. 
Sometimes we don’t know what to pray for.  Should we pray for the healing of a loved one or that our loved one gently passes from this life to eternal life?
Because we are in the middle of so much trouble and pain, sometimes we can’t find the right words to express our needs.  Maybe the best we can do is groan or sigh or even say nothing.

God understands.  The Holy Spirit comes to our rescue.  Paul writes, “We do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express (Romans 8:26).  The Spirit knows what’s in our hearts.  He knows what our groans and sighs and mumblings mean.
We are reminded that the Spirit is our Helper when we think there is no way out of our trouble. 
He is our Comforter giving us hope and peace – assuring us that everything is not all gloom and doom – “if God (the all-powerful, all-loving, all wise God) is for us, who can be against us?” 
He is our Reminder always whispering in our ear and sometimes even shouting when we aren’t listening, saying, “Even in the darkest valley and the deepest confusion, you are my own dear child.  I will be with you all the way to the end of your days.  Do not be afraid.  Simply trust my love for you.”

Life is hard.  Life is tough.  In fact, it’s so tough that no-one gets out of this world alive.  Paul goes on to assure us that in all that is against us in this life, God’s love stands by us.  He says, “We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).  Whether the good that Paul is referring to happens in this life or in the next, is immaterial to Paul.  We trust God’s love to work out what is the best for us. 

As we walk down the dark valleys of suffering and trouble, we may have our ideas what God ought to be doing to get us out of this mess, but God’s love will always choose what is best for us.  In the meantime, the Father has his arms of love and comfort around us, assuring us of his presence; he lovingly understands our situation and will guide us to a joyful and peaceful end of this dark valley of trouble.  We trust God’s wisdom that what happens is always in keeping with God’s goodness and his overflowing love even though we may not be able to see it at this very moment.  We trust his promise at our baptism, “I am with you always”.

Paul uses language reminding us that we are his dearly loved children, set apart, called, justified, glorified (Rom 5:30) – we are his, he has given up everything for us, even his Son who died for us (Romans 8:32), his love will always work out the best for us (Rom 8:28).  So, the apostle concludes when we are in the darkest valleys of trouble “If God is for us, who can be against us?  (Romans 8:31). No-one can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:39).

God embraces us as a Father embraces a weary child.  He gives strength to our exhausted bodies and minds.  He inspires and motivates us with the knowledge that we are his and that while we are on this planet, he has a purpose for us being here.  We aren’t here just taking up space and using air – we are here because our Father wants us here and even though our bodies and minds are weak, he will provide us with the strength that we need until the day he will walk with us into our heavenly home.

Let me tell you about Joanna.  She went to work, paid her bills, smiled when people asked how she was, and said, “I’m fine,” even when she was anything but fine.  But inside, Joanna was barely coping when one trouble had barely ended before another began, and she wondered how much more she could bear.

For many years Joanna prayed.  At first her prayers were full of trust.  “Lord, help me.”  “Lord, heal me.”  “Lord, show me the way.”  But when the pain kept coming, her prayers became shorter.  Then, for a time, they stopped altogether.  She looked at the broken pieces of her life and wondered, “If God really loves me, why has he allowed so much hurt?  If God is near, why do I feel so alone?”  She did not stop believing in God, but she doubted whether God still held her, whether God’s love was able to love her so tired and wounded as she was.

One evening, after a particularly hard day, Joanna sat alone in her room with tears running down her face.  From the bottom of the darkest valley where her faith seemed to be at its weakest, she remembered a verse she had learnt at Sunday School, “If God is for us, who can be against us?  ….  Nothing can separate us from the love of God…”

Joanna began to see her life differently.  God had not been absent on the days she felt abandoned.  He had been there in the neighbour who brought a meal, in the friend who sat with her and said nothing, in the doctor who listened carefully, in the strength that somehow came when she thought she had none left.  

God had been there in every breath, every small mercy, every morning she managed to rise again.  He had not promised Joanna a life without valleys, but he had walked with her through every one of them.  But he had promised that on her worst days, he would never leave her.  Even when she doubted his love for her, he did not let go of her.

And so Paul says to the Romans and to us who are walking along a dark valley and a winding path not knowing where it is leading, where trouble and distress are meeting us on every side or one event after another, “If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  …. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us!” (Romans 8:31-32, 35, 37).  

If the Father was prepared to go so far as to allow his own Son to bear the anguish of the cross for us, to suffer such cruelty and humiliation, he will not stop now.  His love has gone this far and will continue.  Just as he walked with Jesus in the dark valley of suffering and death because of the love for his “firstborn” (referring to Jesus), so he will also walk through every dark valley for every son and daughter – for every one of us.

Because Christ’s love for us is so deep, so powerful and so generous
he is right there beside us in the very frequent ordinary matters of every day –
when the pain in our bodies won’t go away;
when grief cuts deeply;
when anxiety, uncertainty, and frustration torment us;
when we doubt and wonder if God really cares what is happening in our lives;
when our heads hang low in shame and guilt.

At precisely these points Jesus meets us.  Down here in the valleys, down here in the gloom and sadness, down here unexpectedly with us ready to embrace us and remind us that he is our loving father, brother and saviour.  Jesus knows what it’s like to be in a dark valley and walks with us assuring us that he will lead us like a shepherd leading his sheep to a brighter future.

Down in the valleys, where the struggles are the hardest, that’s where our loving God says to us again, “Trust me.  Believe me when I say to you, “You are my child, my dearly loved child.”
“Nothing can come between you and my love for you.”