People pray for all sorts of things and on all sorts of occasions. We pray
beside sickbeds and gravesides, we pray for those less fortunate and those
troubled in spirit, we pray for blessing and for God's will to be done. Sometimes
we pray out of anguish and longing for that which we can neither comprehend
nor articulate. What do these prayers sound like when they strike the divine
ear? According to Paul, they sound like "groans."
Romans 8 is the apostle Paul's description of life in the Spirit. This section
of chapter 8 appears to highlight the activity of three important subjects:
the creation (vv. 18-22); the believer (vv. 23-25); and the Spirit of God
(vv. 26-27). In comparing "present sufferings" (v. 18a) with future
"glory" (v. 18b), all three are involved in the same activity: groaning.
The creation groans (v. 22); the believer groans (v. 23); and the Spirit groans
(v. 26).
Paul tells us that the whole of creation "waits with eager longing"
for liberation (v. 19, NRSV). Since Adam's sin suffering and decay have been
woven into the fabric of creation, not only as consequence but also so that
the whole created order might strain forward in the darkness, searching for
a glimmer of hope. The very brokenness of creation is a prayer to God for
deliverance, and the sound of that prayer is "groaning" (v. 22).
Even Christians groan. When we look at the plight of the world with an honest
view, we can see the despair. We see homeless men, grieving widows, starving
children, despots in power, and "wheelchair ramps leading even into the
sanctuaries where God's victory is proclaimed. Such visions leave us only
two choices: resignation or hope."1 Were it not for what we have also
seen and experienced in Christ, our options would be reduced to one desperate
alternative. But because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
we hope, and "in this hope we were saved" (v. 24).
Even so, there are times that "we do not know what we ought to pray for"
(v. 26). It is unclear whether it is our ignorance of how to pray, that is,
how to put the words together; or ignorance of what we ought to pray for,
that is, the content of our prayer. But what is abundantly clear is that the
Spirit makes our groaning His own. He actually uses our groans as prayers.
In the moments of our deepest frustration in prayer, when we are frustrated
into incoherence and even silence, we are not alone. The Spirit is interceding
through our confusion and deepest heart cries.2 By the grace of God our groans
become prayer, our prayers align with the will of God (v. 27), and our hopes
for redemption are realized.
Despair is the need of this text. There is a subtle danger in Christianity
that in our talk of victorious living and the blessing of God that we forget
we live in a fallen world full of pain and suffering. One writer has said,
"Someone is always trying to take the cross out of the sanctuary and
put up a 'smiley face' in its place." Romans 8 implicitly asks the question:
What can the people of God hope and pray for in the midst of suffering?
(small sidehead): God's Answer
We live in the in-between time of God's redemptive history--the interim between
Christ's first and second coming. Which is to say that the first advent of
Christ's coming has not nullified the need for His second advent. The coming
of the Messiah has introduced a messianic age that lives in the theological
tension of "already and not yet." Christ's birth is the beginning
of a new future in the present that is not determined by and limited to development
of structures and forms of the past. Yet we also eagerly anticipate what is
yet to come in the redemption of all of creation.
In light of what God has done and is doing in Christ, we live in joyful hope.
In that hope we prayerfully yearn and faithfully live toward the age to come,
where God's full purposes shall be fulfilled both in our lives and for all
of creation. Maranatha is the prayer for those living in the meantime: "Even
so, come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20, KJV).
(For a complete manuscript of this sermon, go to www.preachersmagazine.org.)
Thematic preaching is different than topical preaching. Topical preaching
takes a contemporary subject of interest (e.g., marriage; family; money; etc.)
and then seeks to discover what the Bible has to say about that topic. Typically,
therefore, topical preaching is principle-centered, drawing from many different
contexts in Scripture. Thematic preaching takes a biblical theme (e.g., prophecy;
sacrifice; holiness; etc.) and traces it through Scripture from beginning
to end. It looks for the common thread that ties the theme to redemptive history
and ultimately fulfills its meaning.
I have chosen to trace the biblical theme of "groaning" for this
sermon. It is surprisingly common throughout Scripture with an obvious progression
in the way God responds to that groaning. The Old Testament tells us of a
God "above," a Father who, though transcendent, is not unfeeling
or distant, but who attends to our most basic human needs. The Gospels tell
of a further step, of God "with" us, who became one of us--God who
took on human ears and feelings. And the Epistles tell of the God "within"
us, an invisible Spirit who gives expression to our wordless pain and inarticulate
suffering. The same God manifesting himself in our history!
The sermon could explore the different dimensions of how God responds to our
suffering. The Great High Priest theme of Hebrews and the lament psalms offer
further guidance here. God's people need to know that God not only identifies
with their pain but also enters into that suffering with them. The sermon
should enable the text to do again in the hearts and minds of the contemporary
congregation what it intended to do for the first audience in Rome: inspire
trust in the present and hope in God's future.
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1. Thomas Long, Proclamation 4: Aids for Interpreting the Lessons of the Church
Year (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989), 61.
2. Alex Deasley, "The Ministry of the Spirit in the Life of Prayer,"
Preacher's Magazine 58, No. 2 (1982).
