Sermon Text: Romans 8:18-25
Date: September 3, 2023
Event: Proper 17, Year A (The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost)
Romans 8:18-25 (EHV)
For I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 19In fact, creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope 21that even creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption, in order to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22For we know that all of creation is groaning with birth pains right up to the present time. 23And not only creation, but also we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we eagerly await our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24Indeed, it was for this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he already sees? 25But if we hope for something we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patient endurance.
We Hope for Future Joy
Think back to something you were really anticipating. A birthday or Christmas because you were hoping for a specific present? Maybe it was a wedding, anniversary, birth of a child or grandchild, a vacation, or anything else that you were really looking forward to. What were your hopes and dreams about that event? Were they met or exceeded? Were you left disappointed?
No matter how you felt about what you were anticipating, one thing was for sure—when the event was over and done, you weren’t anticipating it anymore. Good or bad, fulfilling or disappointing, meaningful or forgettable, you were not looking ahead to it anymore because it had already passed.
Now, that may seem painfully obvious, but it actually does factor into our faith life. Because faith, trust, is a lot of anticipating, it’s a lot of looking forward to what is to come, to what God has promised. That faith is challenged because the things around us don’t often seem to support what God said is coming. Our reason and emotions can fight against us as we struggle to go through this life but also look ahead to what is to come. So, let’s take a honest appraisal of the here and now and what God says will come after this life, and let us hope for the future joy he has promised.
While we will focus on our Second Reading for this morning’s sermon, Jesus’ words in the Gospel set the tone for us, and his words be a bit disheartening. We might want to think that, because we are Christians, things in this life should be simple and straight forward. Whole branches of supposedly Christian churches base their whole theology on the idea that if you really love God, then you will be happy and healthy and wealthy, because that’s what God wants for you and so that’s what he’s going to do. How does that so-called “prosperity gospel” sync up with Jesus’ words? “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. In fact whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. After all, what will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what can a person give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26).
“Cross bearing,” suffering, and even losing one’s life is probably not what we might naturally think should happen for people clinging to God’s promises. Yet, that’s what Jesus says is coming in this life. No promise of wealth or health or anything like that. Just “deny [your]self, take up [your] cross, and follow me.”
Humanly speaking, that doesn’t bode well for the future. If I look ahead to later today, later this week, the coming years should God grant them, I want those to be filled with joy. I want to know that I’m looking ahead to something good. But, that’s not necessarily what is going to happen.
On the one hand, that’s deflating. But on the other hand, maybe that’s comforting. Because if God had promised joy and peace and wealth and health and I was sad and uneasy and poor and sick, I would have good reason to wonder if God was telling me the truth. But, if I see hardship and misery in my life, the fact that God says this life will be filled with cross-bearing, well, at least he’s being honest with me, even if this is not at all what I would choose for myself.
But that takes us to Paul’s words in our Second Reading for this morning. Paul presupposes the idea of cross bearing and trouble and hardship and misery in this world of sin. The Christians living in Rome, to whom Paul wrote, certainly experienced their own shares of hardships either for being Christians or just because they lived in a sin-corrupted world. But Paul doesn’t make up promises of blessings that God never promised like so many prosperity gospel preachers do in our day—he points the Roman Christians and us as well ahead to what God has actually promised, to the real joy that is coming, not now but in eternity.
Paul begins, “I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” What does that mean? Well, when you have the good that is coming you won’t even think about the bad that came before. Let’s put it in earthly terms. Let’s say you fell and bruised your arm and scraped up your knee; not horrible but not pleasant. But what if, while you were on the ground, you looked and you found that treasured heirloom that had been missing for a long time right in front of you? What if you discovered some money long-since forgotten about just lying there? What if your pet’s favorite toy that had been MIA for months was hiding just in sight and reach of where you fell? Your joy in finding that lost or forgotten item probably makes the scrape and bruise kind if disappear into the ether. Yeah, it happened, yeah it wasn’t great, but what ended up happening was so much better, it wasn’t even worth thinking about.
So, too, Paul says that for as miserable as life here can be and will be, what is coming is so much greater that the suffering becomes an afterthought, a footnote. Not unimportant, not silly, not laughable in the moment. They are real, difficult sufferings. But compared to what is coming? Don’t even bother comparing them because they are on such different plains.
Paul points out that sin has a negative effect not just on us, but on the whole of creation: Creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed. For creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope that even creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption, in order to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We can see this corruption of nature in fires, droughts, famines, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, floods. Natural disasters stand as a stark reminder that this world we live in is not the world as God originally designed it; the world around us is suffering under the load of sin that we have brought to it.
But even creation itself is looking forward to future joy. That will come when the sons of God [are] revealed. In this context, sons are the inheritors, as they were most commonly in Paul’s day. So, the revelation of the sons of God has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with blessing. Creation waits for the God’s heirs to be revealed.
And what does that mean? That’s the future joy we hope for. While we’re bearing crosses in this life, there’s not much that would show us to be the heirs of God, his children. But creation is waiting for the day when that will be made public that it too might share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. Because the last day of this world will be the last day of present-time sufferings, cross-bearing, and suffering for the sake of Jesus. When Jesus returns, everything will be different to a degree that we can’t even really comprehend.
Paul puts the focus back on us: And not only creation, but also we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we eagerly await our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. Indeed, it was for this hope we were saved. If creation is waiting for that revelation with eager longing, what about us? Does that term Paul uses, “groan inwardly,” resonate for you? It’s a wildly fitting description of so much of this life. So much pull and press us: suffering at the hands of others, guilt over our failures and sins, missed opportunities and unfulfilled dreams and desires. All of that, and so much more, cause us to groan inwardly, to have these existential crises, and have us pleading to God for help, for relief, for something better…
I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. My brothers and sisters, what is coming? What are we waiting for? What is the future joy that we hope for? We look to our Savior, the one who not just bore crosses in his life, but bore the cross, suffered hell in our place, and forgave our sin. That sin is the root cause of every problem and heartache that we have in this life. One way or another, everything that causes us to groan inwardly is traced back to sin.
But how can we know this hope is reliable? How can we know that we’re not clinging to fantasies and delusions created by our own grief-stricken minds? Paul says that we have the firstfruits of the Spirit. That firstfruits of the Spirit is the faith that clings to God’s promises as certain and trustworthy. Writing to Pastor Timothy in his last letter, Paul phrases it this way: “Through the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you” (2 Timothy 1:14). The Holy Spirit’s indwelling and the faith he gives and strengthens is the deposit, the seed, the preview of what is to come.
So, we have a glimpse, a glimmer, of what lies ahead. This life may be full of sorrow and suffering, but what joy does it bring to your heart to know that your God loves you, that he’s forgiven your sins and rescued you from eternal death? Even if we had nothing beyond that as positive in our lives, it would point to the future joy that is coming, the future joy that God has promised, the future joy that we hope for as a certainty because God has said it is certain. Indeed, it was for this hope we were saved. (Note the past tense here—saved. This is not something that is yet to happen, but something that God has already accomplished for us.) But hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for something we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patient endurance.
We already said that you don’t anticipate something that has already happened. Maybe you look back on it, think about it, and relive it, but you don’t anticipate it, you don’t hope for it. Paul is making a very similar point that he made when he wrote to the Corinthians: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Faith, hope, and love are all amazing blessings from God. But why does love stand above them all? Because it is the one that lasts forever.
As Pastor Natsis in Livermore and I were studying this text this past Monday, he made an observation that I felt was really beautiful and profound. He said, “Hope has a glorious expiration date.” There will come a time where we will not have to hope for future joy because we will already have it. There will come a day when we will not need faith to trust what God has promised because we will be living that as reality. But in that day, in those glorious courts of heaven, when we have the full inheritance promised by our God for the sake of Jesus, love will remain. God’s love for us will reign over us without end forever. We will be perfect and living with him because Jesus took away our sins.
That is the future joy we hope for. In this life of suffering and pain, there will be times when the hope is difficult to hold on to. But we pray for God’s blessings to have that patient endurance as we go through this life, as we look forward to the perfect life to come.
Lord, keep our faith and hope in you strong as we navigate this difficult life until you bring us home to be with you forever in heaven. Amen.
