July 19, 2020 Text: Romans 8:18-27
Dear Friends in Christ,
Listen, do you hear it? Creation is groaning. Wednesday night between 6:30 – 7 p.m. in the Central Illinois burg of Argenta, creation came with a boom. Lightning struck somewhere near my dad’s house after we had finished dinner. It was loud and got us all out of our chairs. If not a lightning storm, then an earthquake or hurricane or drought or floods. Listen. Creation is groaning.
The groans of humanity continue on – differing thoughts and opinions on most everything. Add to it the taking over of cities and rioting and unemployment and despair and suicide rates jumping. The family structure continues to break apart. Listen. Humanity is groaning.
Creation and humanity are frustrated. They are waiting for their groans to be given meaning. Who will speak for us?
“CAN THE GROANING BE OVERCOME?”
God’s Word, like it always does, steps into our world today. The Spirit speaks words that help to overcome the groaning. Paul heard the same groans we hear. He makes an honest assessment of the health of the world and God’s people. He compares our suffering to the future He has waiting for us. The Lord determines that the future outweighs the groaning and the suffering. He even says that this groaning may have a purpose.
Paul begins the text with a promise of glory. He gives us a picture of the groaning surrounded by the promise of God’s future glory. Even when we don’t understand our groans, in them we discover the promise of God.
Creation has been decaying since a fruit party took an awful turn in a garden. Creation and man broke that day. They would be at odds with their Creator. The ground would be cursed. The groaning would be loud. But into the picture steps our Lord. His word through St. Paul uses the word “hope” six times in our text. God’s last word is not judgment but hope. We will have relief from our groaning. It can be overcome – hope is on the way.
Paul also makes us aware there is something wrong with humanity. The Holy Spirit lays the law on our hearts and we groan at the mess we can make of our lives. We groan when we say something inappropriate. We groan when we treat someone badly. We groan when we start to lose hope.
Where is a place you hear a lot of groaning? During natural childbirth. It made one father comment, “Put me under, and I’ll name the child after the anesthesiologist.” There is pain but also extreme joy when that child is born. There is the hope, in the child you caress in your arms.
Yesterday many of us endured some slight pain – a needle going into our arm – to provide hope for a cancer patient or accident victim or a mother hemorrhaging during childbirth. The suffering provided the hope.
Biosphere 2 was a scientific experiment to create a man-made environment on earth that might be re-created to sustain life on Mars. The scientists created a rain forest, as well as ocean, tropic, and desert environments. Eventually, they observed that the trees growing in the biosphere began to fall down. The problem? In this manufactured environment, there was no wind, and without the stress of wind, the trees did not grow strong roots.
Our suffering and groaning, the pain we go through, can strengthen our faith and draw us closer to God who we depend on in our weakness, as we wait for the future glory that He has promised us.
The suffering provided the hope. It came through on a hill, where a man was crucified between two thieves. He suffered pain and groaning. Even the creation suffered that day as darkness and an earthquake enveloped the world. A curtain was torn in two and people were frightened. Where was the hope? How could the groaning be overcome?
God would give man a two-day period to think this over. What had been done to Jesus? How they had treated Him. By Sunday morning hearts had to be aching, bodies had to be groaning. Then hope came out of a tomb. Hope appeared to other human beings. Hope walked along the road. Hope ate with the disciples. This hope, in the person of Jesus Christ, overcomes our groaning. This hope is stronger than our pain. This hope overcomes our bad behavior. This hope gives us a purpose and a future.
Why do I describe our present groaning as “a blip in our lives?” Am I just trying to be clever, imaginative? No. The truth is spoken. The Word of God is firm. Our future hope is a forever and ever experience in the land of the living. What we hear today are only temporary groans. We look forward to the song of the saints. The chorus we join around the Lamb of God. How about a smile? Our full adoption as sons and daughters of the King awaits. The groaning is overcome.
Amen.