Bearing Witness
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
Proper 11/ Ordinary 16 A/ Pentecost +10
Romans 8:12-25
Theme: Setting ourselves free to will and to live
“12So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. 18I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
We continue this morning in Paul’s letter to the church at
That phrase at the beginning of verse 18: “the sufferings of this present time” came to mind yesterday as I stood by Helen’s bed in the hospital.
I realize that can mean many different things to each of us, but it was made patently clear that at one point or another those sufferings, whatever they are, give way to ‘the glory to be revealed’ to each of us.
Paul was writing a word of hope and encouragement to a people who had undergone what for us would be unimaginable persecution and suffering, who were still reeling from it. It is unclear if they were still undergoing the worst of the persecution – this passage would seem to indicate that they were still dealing with SOME degree of it – but it IS clear that they were intimately familiar with the suffering he is speaking of.
Let’s back up a little bit, to verse 14: (read vv 14-17) Paul is saying something incredibly comforting, incredibly empowering, incredibly liberating. To people who had felt abandoned – who may have actually BEEN abandoned by their families after their decision to become followers of Christ, he is saying that they do still have a heavenly parent – a loving God who has taken them as his own. To those who were LIVING out the reality of being slaves to their Roman masters, Paul is saying that though they might be slaves here on earth, they are not just not slaves in the eternal realm, but they are children – beloved children – of the master of creation – and in being children, they become heirs – fellow heirs with Christ – and heirs of what? Heirs of the unspeakable riches that come with being loved and known and accepted completely by a God who defines love through giving himself up for us.
The hymn “Family of God” carries that phrase in its lyrics: “Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod, for I’m part of the family, the family God.” I can hear my cousin Rob and Uncle Babe standing next to the piano as Aunt Elaine played it, singing at the top of their lungs. We hardly ever had a family gathering that didn’t somehow, someway wind up with part or all of the family standing around a piano somewhere, singing about being a part of a family beyond those of us gathered there.
That phrase ‘Abba, Father!’ that Paul quotes in verse 15 is one that I’m sure has been explained time and again as we’ve read and studied Jesus’ use of the term; Abba is the word for ‘Daddy’ in Aramaic. We can hear it as one of the earliest words to form on the lips of babies in first century
That is the relationship that Paul was praying for the folks in
And it is for that love that Paul reminds us our spirits bear witness alongside the Spirit of God to the world around us – not only TO the world, but also BESIDE the world. He speaks of Creation as being in the process of giving birth – how much more graphic can you get than to talk about groaning in labor pains? – And what is being birthed in creation is what is being birthed in each of us – the
And here is where he is speaking to us today: he says that Creation is not the only thing that is groaning, but that we are as well – we who have the first fruits of the Spirit – in other words, we who have … for lack of a better way to put it, a more DIRECT communion with the Spirit of God – groan towards the redemption of our bodies, waiting for that adoption by God.
That speaks to the hope we live in. The promise of God’s presence gives us hope in what would otherwise be hopeless situations. It brings us peace in the middle of terrible circumstances. It calms our spirits in the face of life-changing trauma. It gives us patience when by rights we could be knocking down doors and walls and yelling and screaming for answers.
What does this mean for
It means that we live out the hope, the peace, the love, the patience, the kindness, the gentleness, the self-control that we read of as being the fruits of the Spirit – that same Spirit of God that we live out of that makes us children of God.
Let’s pray.
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