“More than conquerors”

October 26, 2008

Stan Smith

Text: Romans 8:31-39 (NRSV)

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He 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? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who 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. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 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.

I have had the privilege over the past few years of my ministry to be associated with several people who are recovering from addictions to alcohol or drugs. I know that many others find their addictions too daunting and suffer greatly as a result, but those who are truly in recovery, impress me with their courage and personal strength. One was a young man who had been injured in a construction accident and became addicted to pain killers and alcohol. He was one of the organizers of a local AA group and was telling me one day all about the history and philosophy of AA. One thing jumped out at me and has stuck with me for the intervening years. He said, “AA was created for men and women who think God has given up on them.” I have grown up in the church and it had never occurred to me that people might come to think that God would ever give up on them. I have thought a lot about his statement and I wonder how many people there are that come to such a desperate point in life that they think God would give up on them. It must be a desolate experience—a hole that seems too deep to climb out of.

I have also had occasion over the years to sit with people in desperate life circumstances who, for the moment at least, find it hard to feel the love and care of God. There have been automobile accidents, gun battles with police, unsuccessful surgeries, and failed marriages or jobs; each one challenging people’s faith to the very core. I am certain that you have your own story to tell—we all do. It is all too common for life to confront us with tragedies or losses or challenges that are so awful that we feel lost and alone. I often read today’s Scripture lesson at funerals for this very reason. I hope to remind people that God never leaves us alone—that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For the past few weeks I have been talking with you about some of the problems with faith that we have to wrestle with. Unanswered prayer was one and a biblical interpretation was another. Today I want us to think about what we are going to do when life gives us a black eye and we wonder how a loving God could allow such a thing to happen.

It was just a few days ago that I heard an accident victim on the local news talk about her “guardian angels” that had protected her and saved her life in the accident. I can understand how a survivor can feel such gratitude, but it is not always so easy. A young man in one of my previous congregations worked for a movie crew and was coming back into town from a remote location in the desert. It was a lonely dirt road and he was sure that even though his vision was obscured by dust coming from the truck in front of him, nobody could possibly be coming the other way. He pulled out to pass the truck and struck another vehicle head on at nearly sixty miles per hour. He was badly injured, but his friend in the car with him was killed. He saw no guardian angels. He felt no great relief that his life was spared. My point is that while it is easy to celebrate God’s love when we have made it through a bad time, it is quite another to feel God’s love and compassion when things have not gone as we would like. The challenge to faith comes when circumstances seem to have successfully separated us from God. Paul says that it will never be. We know it with our minds, but we also need to know it with our hearts. So the question for the day is this, “How do we convince our hearts that God’s love is never taken from us—even in the face of life’s greatest challenges?”

The first way to convince our hearts that God will never leave us is to develop a daily relationship with God. When we become that close, the intimacy builds trust and we find that God is always near—all the time. When we know that God is near all the time, then trust comes naturally. Why do you suppose it helps us to much to have family close during desperate times? We live with our families for years upon years in daily relationship. We learn that love overcomes a lot of challenges and that because of their repeated support, family members can be counted on in times of trouble. We know them and they know us in minute detail and this intimacy forms a powerful bond of love. Much the same thing can be said of our church family. Time and again I hear people say things like, “I don’t know what I would have done if it weren’t for my church.” As people of faith we walk a special journey together and we talk about some of life’s most personal issues. The relationships we develop in church can move deep into the core of who we are, and when they do we develop trust that carries us through bad times. You’ve heard me say it before, but it bears repeating: Spend time often in worship, prayer, devotional reading, or just meditating and listening for God’s voice. Since I’ve been living alone, I find myself talking to my TV set or my tropical fish. Trust me: talking to God is better!

Convincing our hearts that God will never leave us requires a daily relationship. It also requires us to know our story. Each of our lives is a story, full of humor and tragedy. When we choose to follow Christ, that story takes on new dimensions and adds new characters. It is important that we learn that story, making note of important times. There is one question that we need to constantly be asking as we go through life: “Where is God in all of this.” If we can see how God is involved in the progress of our lives we come to know that God is there in dull daily moments and in serious challenges. Over the years, I have come to believe that God does not cause events to happen in my life, but that God is always present in the events of my life, expecting me to react in particular ways and supporting me as I deal with my circumstances. Each of us should take time to review our lives—review and retell our story, all the while asking, “Where was God in all of that?” When we have the answers, we will see that God has always been with us. There was a training program for personal evangelism that I taught some years ago; it was called “Life Story Conversations.” The basic tenet of that program was that God is active in every person’s life. Some people know it and some people don’t. The task of the Christian is to be able to recount the ways God has been present in his or her life so that when talking to someone else experiencing some of the same life issues we can say, “This is how God helped me through what you are experiencing.” Make notes—write them down—about what has happened in your life story and describe how God was present for you at those times.

We convince our hearts that God’s love will never leave us when we develop a close personal relationship with God and when we know the story of how God has been active in our lives. We also come to trust God’s care when we act on Jesus’ behalf in caring for other people. The very best way I know of to see God’s love in action is to be the actor. As I look back over my years in ministry, I have come to realize that the people I still feel closest to are the people who allowed me to be present with them in their most trying moments. I’ve made a lot of friends, and I remember fondly the ones I joked with and fished with and studied with, but the most powerful relationships seem to have been the ones where I was able to simply stand beside someone while they struggled with life. I remember a night when a young mother rang my doorbell in the middle of the night. When a preacher’s phone or doorbell rings in the middle of the night, it is never a good thing. On this occasion the woman’s husband had been drinking heavily and now held their infant child in one arm and a revolver in the other hand. I really do not remember what I may have said that night—nothing earth-shattering, I’m sure, but as I sat with that young family the tension eased and finally the baby was handed over to its mother and the gun was put away safe. It remains one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do, but simply sitting with those friends in their living room in the middle of the night while they suffered helped me feel the presence of God and God’s healing love passing to them. I wasn’t there just as their Pastor. I was there representing Christ and even the dangers of that moment could not separate them from the love of God.

Paul wrote these reassuring words to the Christians in Rome who had suffered great persecution and would suffer more. He wrote to people who could easily have come to the conclusion that God had given up on them. Paul, who as a man named Saul, had himself persecuted the Christians, came to know for himself that no matter how wrong he had been or how bad things had been for him, God’s love was always there. I wish I could promise you a pain and trouble-free life. I wish I could say confidently that you will never be hurt or frightened or tempted. The fact of the matter is, however, that we will all find ourselves in such circumstances at one time or another. As I said earlier, I don’t believe that God causes these things to happen, but I do believe that God will be at our side when they do. For us to be able to see and feel God’s love in those times, we need to do three things now: develop a close personal relationship with God through prayer, meditation, Bible study, and worship. We need to learn our own story about how God has been present for us in good times and bad. Finally we need to become Christ’s representatives, letting God work through us to love others.