Romans 8:26-39
Proper 12 (17) - Year A
From Eugene Peterson's translation The Message we hear:
"Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one."None of this fazes us because Jesus love us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing--nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable--absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us."
So much here. I would point to one little spot - the versification. Why was verse 39 begun in the middle of a list? My vision is that those little numbers 3&9 (trinity and trinity squared) open a place for us and for others. Here we are welcome to add our particular problem of life and love. Not even our problem will separate us from G*D.
Try reading it again (NRSV) -- "(38) For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, (39) [nor my particular problem of life and love, _____], nor 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."
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/july2002.html
To bridge into this section remember verse 25, "But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." It may be that hope and patience are what might be behind verse 26, "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought...."
Those of us who live in hope and are patient in suffering the distance between our present and our desired future have been easily labeled as weak. A part of our waiting is praying tentatively. The life of having a prayer that is in accord with our present realities is still off in the distance somewhere. Where two or three accord in prayer is like unto having ourselves and our reality accord in prayer. Creation around us is an ignored prayer partner.
Our weakness in hope, patience, and prayer are all too known to ourselves, and yet we encourage one another in these qualities. Still, that which we do have is sufficient to cause others enough anxiety that they must label us as weak in the ways of the world. Pray that weakness cease to be a reason for discounting one another. Hope that those now seen as weak will be seen as bearing a resilient strength valuable to all. Be patient, for the world does bend toward justice for all.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/july2005.html
Verse 28, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love G*D, who are called according to G*D's purpose." It has been all too easy to move this into a prosperity theology. The way you know you G*D is on your side, that you are within G*D's purpose, is that good things come your way.
This really is not about a wonderful resolution to any and all circumstances, proving our worth. It is about steadfast love, a presence of G*D tending things toward good. It is a vision, in the midst of whatever circumstance of weakness - there is movement toward wholeness.
And would someone tell me, or hang me a little higher than the sky, who is not called?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/july2005.html
With what intentionality does G*D create or foreknow? One camp says absolute intentionality - there is plan, purpose, malice aforethought with every thought/action of G*D. Another camp says no intentionality, only potential.
Of the two, we side with the potential that accords with spending time following the twists and turns of love and understanding. Mindful of a covenant of mutuality that thinks and acts for the sake of others/creation, we experience a love and understanding that continually pulls us toward one another.
There are many ways to express this unity of mutuality. Mustard seeds, yeast, treasure, pearls, and fish but scrape the surface of the presence of G*D.
- - -
before prayer
a sigh
before knowing
a call
before covenant
a thanks
before serving
a love
before presence
parable
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html
G*D's Presence unifies us in the presence of any number of fears.
It is so easy to get caught in the fatalism of predestination, rather than its challenge to live as though one were. It is so easy to get caught in hesitating to live because some power greater than ourselves will knock us down, big time. It is so easy to get caught tip-toeing through life lest this charge or that be brought against us.
Each of these separate us from G*D, self, neighbor, and one another. They over-emphasize an enemy that we cannot love and who cannot love us.
A parabolic approach to life is going to begin the other way around. Once there was a person who was afraid of an enemy. They were so afraid that they began to see an enemy in every reflective surface. Finally, they realized that for every weed seed their enemy tossed into their field of dreams, the only way for them to deal with the harvest was to invite their very own enemy to a weed party at the end of the growing season. There the weed seed and the wheat seed were separated. The weed seeds were burned and the wheat seeds were shared.
From this party both began to see a larger picture -- there was nothing, not even twice as many weed seeds the next growing season (the next new heaven and earth), that would keep us from continuing to share the blessings we have received. Together we planted twice the wheat and found a two-hundred times yield.
We are destined to bless our enemies, so we might as well be about it this season.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html
Let's see - we "pray", not knowing what we are doing, and so some "Spirit" senses what we don't know and groans. However this Spirit also isn't up to "praying". Result, some G*D we may have intended to be praying too, reads the mind/spirit/heart of a Spirit to find out what we had intended to pray for without knowing it the half of it.
This seems like a full-employment process that needs everyone to not do what they might so a hands-on G*D can continue to be needed. It helps, of course, that this G*D can also be efficient in only paying attention to those attempting prayer who had been preselected - talk about your non-double-blind study!
So what are we to say about these things. Hooray for us, if G*D is for us. Boo to us, if G*D is against us. Are you among the elected, chosen, elite who are going to get everything because you are the teacher's pet? Are you going to be fired from your job as creature?
I very much appreciate the assurance that is available with this passage. In the same way, I appreciate the assurance behind Revelations - hang in there when things are tough.
I very much don't appreciate the partiality and limitation of said assurance.
Historically, this is one of my favorite passages. I've needed its assurance that even my difficulty won't keep G*D from loving me - of course I've needed to overlook the possibility that I am not of the elect and am therefore out luck and any assurance I thought I had was for naught.
These favorites need more looking at than not. A gift of assurance is probably not one that can be taken back and can trump any attempt at dismissal through control or confusion even by G*D (though G*D's "representatives" in this world often give it a good try).
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/07/romans-826-39.html
We plant weeds in our own prayer and life. No wonder we don’t know how to pray. We get all mixed up about what it means to work toward a larger common good.
Take a look at today. If today is what was predestined from a hundred years or generations ago, surely something has gone awry. It suggests that even a sighing Spirit has a spotty prayer record.
So what can be said about the parables of life? Not much. Discernment about which one to use when is still an important task. Nonetheless, we do put down markers that reflect what it is we trust or are convinced about. In our better times, we live up to the hope they imply.
What are you convinced about? Your value? Your part in larger pictures? Just showing up is nine-tenths of the job? You are not as lonely as our tendency to separate would lead us to believe? Love wins in the end, even if you die rejecting that premise? Mustard happens?