Last week I had trouble with the voice recorder (again), so there is no audio file for the sermon. The text was Romans 8:12-25 where Paul argues that if we “are led by the Spirit of God,” we “are children of God” (Romans 8:14 NRSV). We are also “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact we suffer with him so that we may be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17 NRSV). That’s pretty good news, but it doesn’t end there. Christians often make the mistake of stopping short of the full implication of Christ’s resurrection. Redemption, reconciliation, and renewal don’t just apply to people. God is restoring the whole creation through Christ. The whole universe “waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” (Romans 8:19 NRSV) because when we come into the fullness of our inheritance, “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:20 NRSV). Nothing is disposable. Resurrection is a cosmic level event.
Wrapping Up Romans 8 (a reflection on last week’s sermon and a link to this week’s)
We have already been set “free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2 NRSV), but we still “groan inwardly while we wait for…the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23 NRSV). Our call as Christians is to live in the liminal space between “Christ is risen” and “Christ will come again.” And the only way to inhabit that space is in hope. The Holy Spirit teaches us to “hope for what we do not see” and to “wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:25 NRSV).
As I preached about the hope that we learn from the Spirit last week, I remembered a poem by Emily Dickinson which begins: “Hope is the thing with feathers/ that perches in the soul….” Actually, before I remembered the poem, I remembered a really good song by Trailer Bride which sets the poem to music and captures the nature of the hope that Emily Dickinson and St. Paul write about.
The recording prominently features a musical saw which is among the most annoying instruments ever invented. It grates on the nerves like the harmonica or the saxophone in the wrong hands. It is horrible, but the band puts the saw to excellent use in this song.
The whine of that saw in Trailer Bride’s musical setting represents hope which “sings the tune without the words, /and never stops at all….” The hope that the Holy Spirit teaches us simply won’t leave us alone. It “never stops at all,” and that is why we are able to wait with patience until Christ’s work is completed within us and among us.
I did manage to get a recording of this morning’s sermon for Proper 12, Year A. The Epistle assigned for today was Romans 8:26-39 in which Paul elaborates on the reason for our hope in “Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us” (Romans 8:34 NRSV).
“Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” Paul asks (Romans 8:35 NRSV). The answer is nothing. No thing. Not death. Not life. Not angels. Not rulers. Not things present. Not things to come. Not powers. Not height. Not depth. Nothing “in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). Realizing the truth of those words turned my life around. The hope and the love that we find in Jesus can change everything if we let it.
The audio file for this morning’s sermon is here: Sermon Audio Proper 12.
In Christ’s Peace,
Jeff+
The Reverend Jeffrey K. Evans 
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