1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this 7th Sunday after Pentecost is taken from Romans 8:18-27. It’s entitled, “The Holy Spirit, Who Prays for Us,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. In Psalm 139, the psalmist asks, “Where shall I go from your Spirit?” He meditates on the places he might go. If he goes up to the heights of heaven, God’s Spirit is there. If he goes down to the depths of Sheol, God’s Spirit is there. If he goes to the farthest parts of the sea, even there, God’s Spirit guides him and holds him. The Spirit of God overwhelms the psalmist. He sees the Spirit every place he goes. And so, it remains for God’s people today.
3. Look to the heights of heaven and you can see the Holy Spirit. In Genesis, the Spirit of God hovers over the face of the waters. Time begins and creation takes shape. Look to the farthest reaches of the sea and you can see the Holy Spirit. The disciples gather together for prayer in a house in Jerusalem on Pentecost and suddenly the Spirit does more than hover over the world; he descends into it, in a flash of flame and the wildness of the wind. He fills mouths with speech and hearts with wonder, clothing God’s people with power from on high and sending them forth in mission to the ends of the world.
4. Today, as we contemplate Paul’s letter to the Romans, I’d like to take you to one more place. The place to which I’d like to take you is a hallway. A hallway in Florence, Italy in the Galleria dell’Accademia. Here, voices are hushed and sounds are silenced. There is little to hear in this place. But there’s much to see. This hallway is part of a museum and, as you stand there, you’re surrounded by 4 unfinished pieces of stone. It’s as if time itself has been frozen. An artist was working but stopped in the middle of his work, leaving 4 pieces of marble. The edges are rough. These rocks look like they’ve been cut from the quarry and dragged to this place. And yet, emerging from these blocks of stone are the beginnings of figures. Some have no faces. Others are missing arms, hands, feet. But, you can see the beginning of 4 figures. They are slaves. Begun by Michelangelo but never finished. His work has been frozen in time. What they once were, rough blocks of marble, is gone. What they will be, beautiful sculptures, isn’t yet here. Instead, we stand here in the hallway in the midst of an awkward moment. We can see the future, slowly taking shape, and yet the past is painfully with us, as figures appear before us locked in the stone.
5. In our text this morning, Paul invites us into a hallway like this. He asks us to see how we are caught right now in the middle of God’s greater work. Paul begins by saying, “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18). Suffering and glory held together. Like rough stone, our present world is filled with suffering. God had originally formed a beautiful creation. Wherever one looked, one could see God’s fingerprints and it was beautiful and it was good. But, Adam and Eve, brought death and suffering into God’s creation. They disobeyed God and brought God’s curse into the world. “The day you eat of it, you shall die,” God had said and now God came and subjected the beauty of creation to the bondage of decay. Such punishment was set in stone and only God could free his creatures and bring about a new creation. This is the glory that Paul has seen in Jesus Christ. The beginning of a new creation. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the promise of a new and never-ending life. God has begun his work, and like this glimpse of figures in stone, it’s only a matter of time before the full glory of God is revealed.
6. So, Paul writes to the Romans to help them stand in this painful moment. And his words come to us to help us stand here today. In Christ, we’ve been made into the children of God. This is certain. His death has destroyed the power of sin for you and his resurrection has brought you the promise of a new creation. But, what we are isn’t fully seen. Take a deep close look at God’s people, Paul says, and you will see a people, suffering and groaning because they desire to be free. We stand, positioned between the sufferings of this present world and the glory yet to be revealed. And in this place, the apostle Paul asks us to meditate on our situation and to trust in the work of the Holy Spirit.
7. To meditate on our situation is like taking a good close look at these figures in stone. If you look closely, you will see that each of the figures Michelangelo carved is different. One is young. Another is older and bearded. One slowly awakens and another is busy working, bearing his burden in the heat of the day. While each of them is different, one thing remains the same. All of them are slaves. Young or old, working or sleeping, all are slaves in the eyes of the world.
8. So, too, for God’s people. If we meditate on our situation, we can see deep suffering among God’s people. In America, Christianity used to be a strong cultural force. Prayer was said in public schools. At graduation, high schools would hold baccalaureate services led by ministers. In December, one could find a nativity scene displayed in the public square. That connection between Christianity and American culture is dying. We find ourselves being pushed further and further away from public notice, written into a smaller corner of the public square. Such experiences are scary. It looks like we won’t survive. Some might even wonder if God has abandoned us. Unfortunately, some American Christians have confused the power of God with the powers of this world. To them, the strength of God and his church are related to the strength of America as a Christian nation. Now, as American culture turns against Christianity, Christians can begin to wonder about the love and blessing of God. Has God abandoned his people? How can we be God’s people, the church, in a non-Christian nation? To such a situation, Paul’s words offer hope. Listen to the apostle Paul for he offers you, today, God’s love and blessing in this letter.
9. Paul knew the suffering status of Christians in this world. In Rome, Christianity wasn’t a legal religion. Christians sought to worship one God in a city that had many gods. Christians sought to confess “Jesus is Lord” in a city that confessed “Caesar is Lord.” Christians worshipped a person who had been associated with insurrection, was publicly tried, condemned, and crucified. This suffering Jesus ruled over a suffering people. Christians were pushed off to the side. They were meeting in small homes rather than beautiful churches. They were populated by slaves rather than powerful rulers. Soon, they would experience persecution. They would carry their dead into caves and tunnels carved underground and hold worship services there in the dark.
10. “If I make my bed in Sheol,” the psalmist cries, “You are there (Psalm 139:8).” When persecution shoves you into the darkness of death, into that place where you open your eyes, but you can’t see God, God is there. That’s Paul’s message. The Spirit of God is there, even in the darkest places of death. Open your ears and you will hear him. You will hear the Spirit of God, crying out in this place with you. Crying out for you. This is what Paul is revealing to the church in this letter. The world is groaning as it awaits the revelation of the sons of God and the new creation. God’s people are groaning as they are locked in positions of slavery and rejection by this world. But the apostle Paul reveals one more thing. The groaning of the Spirit, who is praying & interceding for you.
11. Paul writes, “Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27). In these words, Paul joins groans with a glorious vision. On the one hand, the Spirit prays for us with groans too deep for words. There are times when we’re at a loss for words. The suffering we’ve seen in this world, the longing we have for the new creation is so strong that we can’t find words to express it. What do you say when you go to a child’s funeral? You stand there, next to her parents, your heart filled with groans that words cannot express. What do you say when your wife tells you the doctor said it was cancer? How do you respond when an earthquake strikes in Haiti, a hurricane in New Orleans, a terrorist in New York? We have trouble speaking to one another, and even more trouble speaking to God. At moments like this, Paul asks us to listen. To hear the groaning. The Spirit takes our suffering and puts it into prayer.
12. But, the groans of the Spirit, are joined to glory. The glorious desires of God for his people. For all creation. One of the interesting things about Michelangelo’s unfinished sculptures is how he approached carving figures into stone. Michelangelo believed that his work as an artist was to free figures from the stone. Though his work is unfinished, we can catch glimpses of his master plan. The glorious vision of these figures was there in the mind of the artist and, only through time and effort and the removal of stone did that vision slowly come into being.
13. In a similar way, Paul talks about the glorious vision of God seen by the Holy Spirit. Paul says that, “the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:27). The Spirit knows not only the mysteries of our suffering, but also the mysteries of God. God’s vision of a new creation. You have been joined by baptism to God’s new creation in Christ. God is shaping our lives, forming our faith, working in sometimes painful ways as he continues his promise to bring about the kingdom. We can’t see God’s overall design. Sometimes, we can’t even see the smallest carvings he does as he leads this world to that day of the new creation. But the Holy Spirit is our Comforter and Counselor. The Spirit knows the mind of God and the Spirit knows the suffering of God’s people. And, as Paul proclaims, the Spirit joins these two into prayer. Groans and glory are held together by the Spirit for us in prayer. When we experience suffering and find ourselves not sure how to put all of this into words, the Spirit himself speaks for us. He brings our prayers to the throne of the Father. Our suffering touches God’s glory in the words of the Spirit and we trust his work because of God’s love made certain for us in the death and resurrection of his Son.
14. I invite you one more time into the hallway of the Galleria dell’Accademia. Note that these sculptures are displayed in a hallway where people pass from one place to another and, at the end of the hallway stands a work of great beauty, Michelangelo’s David. No longer is this figure a slave encased in stone, but now he stands, in glorious freedom. How much greater is that glory of David’s son and David’s Lord. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Ruler of a new creation. In him, God the Father will bring all things to completion. Jesus is the one who stands there, ruling over all at the end of this world and the beginning of the new creation. Paul can barely see this, but he knows that it is there and so he offers us hope. Hope that lives and breathes through the prayers of the Holy Spirit. Although we suffer in this world, we are heirs of the next. The Spirit knows the mind of God and he hears our cries and prays for us according to God’s will. Christianity may be losing cultural power in America, but it isn’t losing spiritual force. God rules over all creation. He sees your life, he knows your suffering, and he has sent his Spirit to be here for you. He listens to your groans, he sees God’s greater plan, and he puts your life into prayer according to God’s will. So, wherever you go, you are never far from the Spirit. At home, at work, falling asleep or rising for work, the Spirit sees and prays for you according to the will of God. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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