Committed

Romans 8:26-39

Back in 1985 Pat and I participated in a partnership mission in Australia.  Several teams from Texas travelled to New South Wales to work with Baptist churches in Australia’s most populous state.  We were assigned to the Tumut Baptist Church in Tumut, NSW, a small town about 250 miles west of Sydney.   It’s on the edge of the Blue Mountains where The Man from Snowy River was filmed.  They are called that because of the bluish cast to the mist surrounding all the Eucalyptus trees.

 When we left our hosts gave us a gift, a two-record collection of Australian folksongs.  It had several pieces by Andrew “Banjo” Patterson including “The Man from Snowy River,” “Clancy of the Overflow,” and, of course, “Waltzing Matilda.” (In fact, I think there were about four versions of Australia’s unofficial national anthem.)  The records also included some excerpts from a radio show popular in Australia during the Depression, The Road to Gundagai. (That title is also taken from another song by Patterson and we actually saw that famous road.)

Anyway, I recall a couple jokes from the show.  A swagman (tramp, to you and me) was telling about his problems.  He knocked on one door and when a man answered he said, “Pardon me, mister, do you have some old clothes to give me.”  The man looked him over and said, “What’s the matter aren’t them you’re wearing old enough.”  The swagman then told this story, “I knocked on a door and quickly got down on me hands and knees to eat grass off the lawn.  When the lady opened the door, I said, ‘Lady, I’m so hungry I could eat grass,’ and she says, ‘O you poor man, go around back, the grass is much longer there.’”  The swagman concluded by saying, “Things are crook, things are crook all over.”

We might agree that “things are crook all over;” we’re facing some tough times.  I won’t list all the problems we’re facing together because you know them.  They’re changing the outlook of the best of us.  We’ve come to the point where a pessimist believes the world is going to end tomorrow while an optimist believes it will probably last until next week.

At the same time, as individuals we are facing challenges.  Some may involve our health, some our jobs, some our families, some our finances.  We try hard to laugh rather than cry but sometimes the laughter turns to crying.

This morning I want to talk about commitment.  Certainly we need to be committed to our faith, to our families, to our churches.  But that’s not the commitment I want to talk about. 

Almost anyone who has been around the church long knows that Romans 12 presents a picture of the Christian’s commitment to God.  But we need to keep in mind that Romans 8 pictures God’s commitment to us.

Paul’s lofty words present God’s commitment.

God is Committed to Hear Us.

Paul says:

26. In the same way the Spirit also takes hold with us in our weakness, for we know not how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

27. And the Searcher of Hearts knows what the Spirit's meaning is, because his intercessions for the saints are according to the will of God.

I don't understand all Paul is saying here.  Clearly Paul is saying God wants to hear us but it's also clear Paul's talking about an experience which is very precious, private, and sacred. I do know there are occasions when we are wrestling with our persistent failures, when we don't know what to do next, when we don't know what direction to go; yet, deep within, we know we want what God wants for us. Paul seems to be saying that on such occasions, if we open ourselves to the Spirit, He may enable us bring before God the yearnings we can't verbalize.

I believe it's possible to pray contrary to the will of God.  At the same time, I think it's very unlikely that anyone might pray against their own will. We're just not made that way. Yet, those who sincerely desire God's will to prevail admit there are times when they just don't know how to pray. Beyond a simple, "Thy will be done," they are unable to put that desire into words.

Perhaps, the Spirit helps us pray in such a way that our inmost desire to embody God's will in our lives finds expression.  Or, perhaps the Spirit doesn’t need words to know our desire.

In Bruce Almighty, Jim Carrey plays Bruce, a TV reporter who is temporarily allowed to take over God’s responsibilities in Buffalo, NY.  In one scene Bruce suddenly begins to hear the voices of the thousands of men, women, and children who are praying to God.  It’s a cacophony; Bruce can’t make sense of any of it.  If we believe God can distinguish your voice and my voice from all the others calling out to him, then surely he doesn’t need to “hear” voices at all.

In essence, Paul is saying our weaknesses, our lack of knowledge, our pitiful insight can be overruled by God's presence in our lives.

God is Committed to Benefit Us.

Someone has called Romans 8:28 “a soft pillow for a weary soul.”  Although this verse has been misapplied to some tragedies and even used to make sufferers feel guilty for mourning the loss of a love one, it still contains a great promise.

It promises that nothing happening to us can keep God from accomplishing his good work in us, from finishing the work of redemption Paul has been describing in the previous verses.  The ultimate “good” is to become like his Son.  In the end, whatever life may throw our way, whatever the world may do to us because of our commitment to Christ, whatever the depth of our personal pain, if we remain attuned to His Spirit, God will do his good work in us.  That good work will be seen as we become more and more like Christ who redeemed us.

We usually apply this verse to God’s overruling the impact of bad things that happen to us.   That’s certainly legitimate.  But it may have wider application.  We can see the reality of God’s commitment to do us good when he trumps the power of our own foolish decision.

I’ve been looking at the life of Samuel Sewall.  Sewall was a politician and judge who lived in New England during the late 17^th and early 18^th centuries.  During the last thirty years of his life, he actively supported missionary efforts, he argued for the basic rights of Native Americans, he was among the earliest non-Quaker writers against slavery; and he was a pioneer in arguing for greater freedom and legal protection for women.

For all of this, you might have never heard of Samuel Sewall if he hadn’t been involved in an event that took place almost forty years before his death in 1730.  In 1692, Samuel Sewall was one of the presiding judges at the Salem witch trials.  He helped condemn some nineteen persons to be hanged.  Then, five years later, in 1697, Sewall publically repented of his involvement with the hysteria and asked for God’s forgiveness.  He was the only judge to do so.

God is so committed to us that, if we open ourselves to him, even our own failures can’t keep him from working out his good in our lives.

God is Committed to Love Us.

Paul opens his final arguments by asking us to be reasonable.  There’s a kind of logic at work here.

What then shall we say to these things? 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 with him graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

He asks us to consider the logical implications of what he’s been saying since chapter one.

If you’re ever tempted to question God’s commitment to you, look at the cross.  If you’re ever tempted to think some enemy will overwhelm you, look at who’s on your side.  If you’re ever tempted to let your own guilt at your failure or tempted to allow some accuser to shame you, look at who’s justified you, the Judge of the highest court in the universe.  If you’re ever tempted to believe you have to do more to earn God’s favor, look at who died for you.

Now, Paul turns to those things that sometimes happen to us, things which we might imagine to threaten to keep God's "good" from becoming a reality in our lives.  It’s quite an inventory of trials, troubles, and adversity.

Listen to Paul’s great claim, this time from the New Living Translation.  

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?
(As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)
     No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
     And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
     No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The phrase “or anything else” provides an interesting thought.  It embraces anything that might happen to us.  One commentator wrote, “Paul is suggesting that if he has omitted anything in his catalog …, then the reader can fill in the blanks with any other problem. Paul is convinced that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It’s still sometimes a puzzle about why God allows things to happen that might cause us to question his love, his goodness, his control.  But maybe when we’ve experienced these things and come away with the assurance of God’s love intact, we have a clearer view of his commitment to us.

One writer likened God to a master chef who takes various ingredients and produces a wonderful meal.

Very often, when Pat is preparing a new recipe she warns me that it includes some ingredient I don't particularly like—onions, green chilies, celery—and then adds, "But you won't be able to taste it."

I usually respond, "Seems like a waste to put it in."

She, of course, argues that the dish wouldn't be the same without the ingredient. Now, I have to admit, most of the time it works; the dish is good.

You and I may wonder how God can take some objectionable experiences—experiences we’d like to avoid, mix them with a lifetime of other experiences, both mundane and joyous, to produce a wondrous result—the image of Christ in our individual lives.  But that's what our loving God is committed to do.

Conclusion

If you were here last week, you heard the story of Kethia Sirena.  She’s the Haitian teen who was severely burned when she was three and as a result her upper arm was scarred and fused to her side.

Then a couple years ago she came to the attention of volunteers from Blacksburg, Virginia, who were doing mission work in her remote village in the Haitian highlands.  One of those volunteers had helped build a bridge and a school for her village, a school named after Austin Cloyd, a student killed in the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.

Here’s the story from a Blacksburg news outlet.

Bryan Cloyd and Pastor Reggie Tuck went on a mission trip to Haiti in July of 2009. It was in a small hut of a church that he first met, then 11-year old Kethia Sirene.

"She was severely burned. Her right arm was totally not useful. She could move her fingers a little bit, but had no other use of her arm,” said Cloyd.

When he got home to Blacksburg, Cloyd told Kethia's story to another church member who's a doctor at Lewisgale. [That’s Dr Rick Boyle]  He helped get the hospital on board to pay for a surgery to free her arm.

After years of planning and jumping through hoops, like getting a temporary visa for Kethia, he says he can't believe she's finally here.

"I get kind of choked up, get tears in my eyes just thinking about the enormity of the individual contributions,” said Cloyd.

Cloyd's daughter Austin was on the victims of April 16th. It was her death that inspired him to first go to Haiti to help.

I asked him “The reason you have been doing so much in Haiti is because of your daughter. What would she think of this?”

After a pause he responded, “Jarett I think these are the sorts of things Austin would have really loved to do. She was able to do some as a high school kid, but I guess these are the sorts of things she would have loved to spend her life doing. I'm glad to be able to do some part of that and I hope that she's praying along with us.”

You should know that Kethia has had her surgery and is recovering.  The cooperation of the Baptist and the United Methodist churches in Blacksburg has inspired the whole community to pitch in to help.  But right now, I want to focus on the Cloyd’s who lost their daughter in the Virginia Tech attacks.

No right thinking person would point to this story and say, “See, the killings were a good thing.”  That’s not what this passage is about.  I’m sure the Cloyd’s wouldn’t say this compensates for their daughter being murdered.

But what the Cloyd’s story does show is that the certainty of God’s commitment to us can keep us from being consumed by any tragedy. 

Whatever challenge you’re facing, face it knowing God is committed to you.