A Sunday School teacher was telling the story of Abraham and
his sacrifice of Isaac. With great drama, she made the narrative
come alive - the three-day journey to Mt. Moriah, the pain of a
father about to lose his boy, the child-like trust of a son, the
hard stones of the altar to which the lad was lashed, the flash
of the knife poised to strike. Suddenly a little girl became so
nervous she shouted, "Oh, please, stop - the story is terrible,"
and she began to cry.
Laughingly and with wonderful confidence, another child
exclaimed, "Oh, Mary, don't be silly. This is one of God's
stories and they always come out right." (1) I say Amen!
So, I think would the Apostle Paul. Our lesson is from his
letter to the Romans. Through the first eight chapters, Paul has
been traversing the theological landscape - he has been
reflecting on the pervasiveness of human sin, the impotence of
the Law to make us righteous, God's judgment, the plan of
salvation, justification by faith, the inner conflict between
right and wrong, suffering. Now, like a magnificent attorney in
summation of his case, Paul reaches his soaring conclusion:
Romans 8:31-39
YES! This is GOD'S story, and it WILL come out RIGHT! Paul
has the unshakeable confidence that if God is on our side,
nothing can ultimately defeat us. Why is the Apostle so certain?
He recalls the incredible price paid for our redemption - if God
"did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all" -
incredible generosity, amazing grace - can you imagine that God
would withhold anything else? Of course not!
But Paul knows that we will have concerns. We may have no
doubt about God's power, but we may have serious doubts about our
own worthiness. Perhaps our own failings will convince God to
abandon us. Paul says NO - "It is God who justifies." It is God
who has established this relationship with us and given us a
clean slate; it is Christ who died for us and rose again who
keeps that slate wiped clean.
A young man was observed to enter a Roman Catholic church at
midday to kneel at the altar for a very few seconds and then
depart. Day after day the scene was repeated. The priest's
curiosity was stirred so one day he stopped the young man and
asked why he did it and why his devotions were so brief. The lad
replied that he had to come during his lunch break and that he
had time for only a very brief prayer before reporting back to
work. "What do you say?" asked the priest.
"I say, `Jesus, it's Jimmy,'" replied the lad. The priest
was deeply moved.
Sometime later that priest stood in a bedroom...Jimmy's
bedroom. Jimmy had not much time left. The priest reported that
as he stood there in the silence, he heard an unmistakable voice:
"Jimmy, it's Jesus." (2) Even death cannot "separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
But sometimes death is less of a problem than life. We are
under attack from "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."
Paul understood. There must have been moments when he wondered
how he would continue for even one more day - he had suffered
imprisonments, beatings, was often near death. To his friends in
Corinth he wrote,
Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes
minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I
was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a
night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly
on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in
danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen,
in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in
danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger
from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and
have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and
thirst and have often gone without food; I have been
cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily
the pressure of my concern for all the churches. (3)
In the brief lesson this morning he rolls off a similar
litany of adversity: "hardship or persecution or famine or
nakedness or danger or sword." For Paul, this was nothing
exceptional, just day-to-day existence. We have a different set
of day-to-day problems: tax audits, house payments (or
foreclosures), cavities, arthritis, leaky roofs, crab grass,
lawsuits, sleepless nights, noisy neighbors, flat tires, $4.00
gas, even boring sermons. Life may suffer no crushing blow but
simply drags on from one day to the next with no apparent
meaning, no aspiration, no adventure, no joy. Then add to the
list the big things that DO shake us to the roots: failing
marriages, rebellious children, abusive parents, dying loved
ones, cancer, bankruptcy, alcoholism, drug dependency,
unemployment. Paul's word is that not one of those, not the
little things or the big things or even ALL those things put
together can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord. (4)
That is good news. The good news to Christians in
California whose lives have been charred and burned in recent
weeks is that wind-whipped wildfires cannot separate you from the
love of God in Christ Jesus. To Christians in the Midwest along
the Mississippi, the good news is that massive floods and massive
misery and massive clean-ups cannot separate you from the love of
God in Christ Jesus. To Christians in the Middle East, the good
news is that despite the devastation of your homelands by the
armies of the "Christian" west, nothing can separate you from the
love of God in Christ Jesus. To you and me living comfortably in
Warren but sometimes faced with moments of quiet desperation, the
good news is that nothing can separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Oh love that wilt not let me go;
I rest my weary soul in Thee
Yes, there are moments when we feel like the little girl
sitting on her bunk at summer camp and crying her eyes out. "Are
you homesick?" asked the counselor.
"No," she whimpered, "I'm HERE-sick."
We know what she means. But remember, this IS God's story -
you are a part of it; I am a part of it; this whole wide world
and everything it holds is a part of it - and the story WILL come
out right. Nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus. When
a prayer is whispered, he is there. When the scriptures are
opened, he is there. When the bread and cup are shared, he is
there...with a love that won't let go.
Amen!
1. G. Ray Jordan, Beyond Despair, (New York: MacMillan, 1955), p. 163
2. Robert Luccock, If God Be for Us, (New York: Harper Bros., 1954), pp. 21-22
3. II Corinthians 11:24-28
4. H. Michael Brewer, "Preaching on the Lessons," Church Management - The Clergy Journal,
Oct., 1990, p. 23
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