A Sigh of Relief¹

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 30And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Buried in the middle of today’s reading from Romans is a quotation from Psalm 44:22 “Because of you we are being killed all day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Whether or not the Roman audience was aware of this reference, Paul, who was a member of the people of Israel, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, and a Pharisee, was “certainly familiar with the rest of the Psalm.”ⁱ Verse 23 continues: 23 Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off for ever! 24 Why do you hide your face?   Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? 25 For we sink down to the dust;    our bodies cling to the ground. 26 Rise up, come to our help.   Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.

This Psalm is a plea to God to intervene; it is a “lament of protest”ⁱⁱ against God’s seeming inaction. It can even be argued that the Psalmist is bringing charges against God. What are these charges? That God is asleep, that God is forgetful, and that God is inactive and that because of God’s failings his faithful suffer affliction, oppression, and are caste down to the ground. This is not the language we as Christians are used to using in addressing God, but it was the language of ancient Israelites in their covenantal relationship with God. These laments of protest are found throughout the Old Testament. We have for example the prophet Habakkuk, whose prophesies are told in the book of the same name. He engages in a series of protests against God’s seeming inaction. Habakkuk’s first lament of protest begins: O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen? Or cry out to you “violence” and you will not save?

Paul is writing this letter to the Jewish Christians, in answer to the laments of protest that soon would be coming from them. Newly returned from exile and banishment, these Jewish Christians would soon be subjected to further persecution under Nero.ⁱⁱⁱ

It was in May of 1996 that Dan and Linda Jarvis, were finally, after years of planning, able to take their dream vacation -- a Caribbean cruise. Dan was a church organist and Linda dental hygienist. They were high school sweethearts who, after separate failed marriages, found each other and married in 1993. Dan's sister said, "I wouldn't know how to describe it, but they were clearly meant to be together."

Carlos Gonzalez came to the United States from Venezuela to get training so that he could return to his Venezuela and do mission work. He went to Venezuela to explore future missionary opportunities. His friend Lee said, “He was following what God was calling him to do."

Traveling with Carlos was Ray Lathem, the son of a pastor, who was also considering a career in the ministry. ^iv

It was May 11^th, 1996 and I was down in Miami. I had gone down to visit my friends. I was 4 years out of college and working for my family in Atlanta. I wasn’t attending church very regularly if at all. The whole week had been spent going to clubs on Miami Beach, betting on dogs and jai-alai. The night of the 10^th carried over into the 11^th and I was in need of some serious rest. Too much of everything, too much eating, too much drinking, too many cigars and not enough sleep. At 6am I woke up with the overwhelming sense that I needed to get away from it all. I had already made plans to leave, the ticket was purchased, I had planned on grabbing breakfast with a friend and then I was going to be off to the airport to catch my flight. I could have even gotten a few more hours of sleep. But there was a pervasive angst that had settled in my soul. My friend called and offered to grab some breakfast and then drive me to the airport with plenty of time to catch my flight. But there was this sense, which I cannot put words to adequately describe even today, that I had to get out of Miami. I packed my bags, went to the airport, paid extra to get my ticket changed to an earlier flight back to Atlanta. By the time I got home, Valuejet Flight 592, the flight on which I was originally booked with Carlos, Dan, Ray, Linda, and 106 others, had crashed into the Florida Everglades. Dan would never again play the organ in church, Carlos would never achieve his missionary goals in Venezuela, and Ray’s future as a minister, all came to a sudden end. Why? Why them and not me? Why me and not them? There were a million whys asked that day, and a million laments of protest against God. Why did you not save Carlos God, he was going to be a missionary. Why did you let Ray get on that plane, why didn’t you delay him from arriving at the airport?

Why? It is a question I get more and more these days from my friends. Why does God allow evil to exist? Why did God allow the tragedy of 9/11? Why doesn’t God show his face? I guess they think that because I am going to seminary, working in a church, reading and studying what the Bible has to say about God’s interaction with humanity that I somehow have insights into the way things work. If I respond, carrying whatever authority they ascribe to me as a Christian, seminarian and intern, that it is all in God’s plan, they would accept that as an answer. But it wouldn’t be an answer to their question and it wouldn’t be the truth. It would reveal itself when held up to scrutiny as flimsy and unsubstantial. Paul gives us the answer to these laments of protest against God in Romans 8:28.

There is a manuscript that varies slightly from this passage as it is translated in the Revised Standard Edition of the Bible. This manuscript is known as papyrus 46, I chose its translation in part because it makes clearer the meaning of Romans 8:28 and partly because it is the oldest manuscript of Romans 8:28 known to exist. Papyrus 46 reads: “We know that in everything God is always for the good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” Columbia Theological Seminary’s David Bartlett writes in his book on Romans that:

“this reading reminds us that Paul is not saying that for Christians everything is always for the best. He is saying that in everything God works towards the best in partnership with those who love God.”^v

What we can claim as Christians, is that in:

“every tragedy or loss, God is still God and still moves our lives and all of history toward what is good. Even when contemplating the enormous tragedies of human history, natural disaster, or human viciousness, faith reminds us that God is still at work in the midst of evil, working toward the good.” ^vi

While we may never have an adequate answer to the why of the human tragedies Paul lists, those of hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword, we can begin to ask new questions which are answerable by our faith in Christ. Because it is through God’s unlimited Grace bestowed upon us through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ, that God’s desire to work His purpose through us is made possible. Romans 8:28 says: We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 30And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

To put it in simpler terms, God wants to work in partnership with all of those who love Him towards good. Only God knows what how that will look, but it is not according to our purposes or our vision of how it should be, but God’s. But before we can join in God’s work we must first be raised from our human weakness, prepared for the work at hand. This preparation includes being called by God, justified and glorified; and it is the grace of God, in the life and sacrifice of His only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ that accomplishes all three. Only after these things have taken place can we join God in working towards good. We must be conformed to the image of His Son, according to Paul, before we can begin this work.

God doesn’t promise the good life, there are no guarantees that for us things will all turn out good in the end. We are called in the Gospel of Luke to deny ourselves and “take up the cross daily.”^vii That is to say, when we serve Christ, our lives no longer have meaning outside of the relationship with God. And that we must remember, on a daily basis, that it is God who will occupy the center and focus of our lives. God promise is that God is with us working towards good, working through us if we are open to His guiding Spirit. Even in our weakness, at times when we are at a loss for words, doubting whether God even listens, much less cares about our sufferings, it is then that God sends His Spirit to help us. His very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.