"Questions" - Romans 8; Matthew 13
A Sermon by Alex W. Evans, Pastor
Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA
Romans 8; Matthew 13
“Questions” – July 26, 2020
So many questions keep percolating around us.
First, there are so many questions about the pandemic. There are questions about the virus itself – how it spreads, its varying effects on people, how it can be managed and mitigated. Our nation is not doing too well with. And the questions multiply. When will we ever get beyond this virus? How and when will we ever get back to church and what will that be like? Will schools and colleges ever adjust? What will be the lasting effects on the economy, on our way of life? And those are just a few of the endless questions.
So many questions linger about our society in these days. We continue with widespread uprisings and demonstrations across the nation that provide a clarion call to change our culture. Can we finally, truly dismantle racism in this land? Can we find new ways to function that move us away from segregation, injustice, brutality, socio-economic-racial disparities? Can we finally navigate our way to the beloved community where we are judged by “the content of our character?” Can we become “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all?”
There are more questions on our hearts too. Can our democracy survive all that is happening? Can we have a fair election? Can we abide by the election results? Can we navigate beyond the polarizing politics that plague us?
And undoubtedly, there are other questions that haunt us – about our personal lives – perhaps about a loved one. How will this latest turmoil – maybe medical, maybe marriage, maybe about a child, a relationship - actually play out? Where does the light emerge in the darkness? When do the tears stop? How does the joy come?
Questions are important. Questions can often focus us for action too.
Our first Scripture passage today is full of questions. See if you can count them. Listen to Romans 8:
31What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He 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? 33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who 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. 35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor 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.
“What are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” Those are crucial questions for us . . . especially with a pandemic, . . . a national reckoning on racism, . . . a democracy in peril, . . . personal issues.
Can these things separate us from the love of God? That is the question.
Paul, the apostle, gives the answer – “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors. . . . Nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus.”
But we are still separated because of the pandemic. And even though we hear the words and affirm our faith – “nothing can separate us” – we feel the pains and frustrations of separation. We also feel the heavy burden of our centuries-long racism challenging us, perplexing us in these days. We feel the weight of a democracy in crisis, and so many election questions, and storm-troopers fighting protesters, and a struggling economy.
Separation, devastation, alienation, frustration.
Just before that string of questions at the end of Romans 8, there is a great promise that deserves some attention today, in verse 28: it says, 28We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. That verse actually sets the context for all the questions.
Every good Bible has a footnote by this verse 28 because there remains great debate about what the verse intends to say. Some early manuscripts actually say: “GOD makes all things work together for good.”
So, there is a question about the subject of this verse; is the subject God – who makes all things work for good? Or is the subject “all things,” which somehow work for good? That is a big question.
And there is also a question about the verb – does God “work” for good, or make things good? Or is God simply present, and “things” somehow become for good for those who love God?
These are really important questions. What is true? What should we believe?
I think there is really no debate about this verse. The whole Bible is a story of God working for good. Despite the ups and downs of life, despite the losses and setbacks, God is ALWAYS WORKING FOR GOOD. It is NOT that “things work for good for those who love God.” Indeed, lots of things do NOT work for good. The critical and miserable things that happen to each of us do NOT, by themselves, become good. A pandemic, a horrible diagnosis, a devastating heartache do NOT work for good. All things – by themselves – are NOT working for good.
But when God is the subject, whenever God is involved, (and God is always present and involved!), God works for good.
Can you hear that today? Say it: “God works for good.” Say it at night when you are tossing. Say it when you are waiting for the doctor to come into the room. Say it when you are fretting about some crisis, some concern, some heartache. “God works for good, always.”
This truth is what we certainly hope for in these complicated times. God is working for good. Nothing can separate us from God – even if we are separated. We are more than conquerors – even if we have a long road of reckoning from systemic racism. God brings redemption and hope. This is what the Bible is about – through misery and trauma, failure and the biggest mistakes, even total hopelessness. God’s abiding care and presence bring life out of death, healing out of deepest hurt, light out of darkness, joy out of tears, dancing out of mourning.
When we are in the midst of struggle, we cannot easily see, or even imagine, how God might be at work. But this is the promise of God. This is what wants to shape us. God is at work – redeeming, bringing life, never leaving us. Nothing separates us from God.
We have a second passage today – from Matthew’s gospel. Matthew 13:
He (Jesus) put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’ He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’ ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’
Just when we might feel totally burdened and beaten down with the challenges of life – isolation and frustration and fears from a pandemic, and national unrest about systemic racism, and concern about a way forward in our democracy – we get these little, hopeful stories about the Kingdom of heaven.
Commentator Dale Bruner calls this section of parables in Matthew the “Little-Power Parables.” The main point of these parables is the contrast between the littleness of the means and the largeness of the end. The little seed leads to a big mustard plant. The little teeny leaven leads to the fullness of bread. The little lost treasure leads to the greatest joy. The little net catches the biggest fish of all kinds. When we really know about the kingdom of heaven and how it comes about – from the smallest means, from the simplest acts, from the most unexpected places, from the miniscule to the majestic – we will never be discouraged or dismayed but rather be inspired, empowered, encouraged, strengthened to love and serve the Kingdom of heaven.
Remember, mustard seeds get planted and tended. Yeast gets added to other ingredients; there is kneading and also waiting. Treasure must get dug up, unearthed and recognized as something of worth. Nets must be cast, repeatedly, hauled up over and over again, their contents made ready for consumption. The good, life-giving end does not come without energy, patience, and continued effort on our part. (See J. Duffield, Pres. Outlook, July 21, 2020) God is working through all things, and God asks for our energy and devotion in working too, and we find our way to the kingdom. We, as God’s people, are gifted with the responsibility to participate in that good and godly emergence of the kingdom.
This week, our hearts have been focused on the life of Civil Rights icon and GA Congressman John Lewis, who died. He was a little seed preaching to his chickens outside of Troy, AL. He was a passionate young person learning from, walking with, getting beaten and arrested with Martin Luther King. He kept offering his life - yeast in a big movement for voting rights, for justice. He kept looking for treasure - a better nation and a more wholesome world. He kept casting his net in non-violent ways; he kept working with fortitude for change. He kept saying, "Speak up. Speak out and get in the way. . . ." And he said young people “have an obligation, a mission, and a mandate to push and pull and not be satisfied.” But he urged all people not to “tear down,” but to “build.” Lewis also said this: “May we hold only love, only peace in our hearts, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won.” (Minnesota Public Radio, July 21, 2020)
Friends, we have to be shaped by the firm reality that nothing separates us from the love of God. Great is God’s faithfulness. God will not let us go – not even in a pandemic, or cultural, or personal crisis. Can you hear that?
And then so shaped, so confident of God’s abiding love, we tend to the tasks of life: we plant seeds of peace and hope that blossom into new trees of possibility; we keep seeking to be leaven in the bread, yeast that brings life and possibility, to all the moments and interactions of our lives. We spread kindness, practice forgiveness, build bridges, work for justice, knowing, like John Lewis, that our labor is not ever in vain. This is what we do! We keep searching for treasures, and refusing to give up on joy. “You cannot give up, cannot despair,” Lewis always said, “no matter how bad it gets.”
God is always present and always at work. We keep casting our nets for a better world. We keep seeking to discern how to be the church in these ever-changing times. We, as God’s people, are gifted with the responsibility to participate in that good and godly emergence of the kingdom.
Here is something else John Lewis said: “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
God is working through all things. Nothing separates us from God’s love – ever. And we keep sowing seeds, seeking to be leaven, finding the treasure of joy in the field, working for the Kingdom of heaven. May it be so. Alleluia. Amen.
Prayer of Commitment: Holy God, to turn from you is to fall; to turn to you is to rise; to open our hearts, to affirm your presence and care, to live in your promises, to serve you with our lives – that is to abide forever. We seek that way following Jesus. Amen
Alex W. Evans, Pastor, Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA preached this sermon during Sunday morning worship – video – on Sunday, July 26, 2020. This is a rough manuscript.