I have often preached the last paragraphs of this text, usually as part of a funeral sermon. There is something extraordinarily moving about them, a welcome reminder that even death cannot keep us away from God’s love. We need to hear that, and we need to hear it often.
But today, I believe there is another word for us to hear in Paul’s writing. Specifically, I want to talk to you about religion and politics.
Now, before you get too concerned, be assured that I will not be taking any partisan stands this morning. Nor will I be mentioning any hot-button political issues. There’s a time for preaching, and a time for editorials, and it’s usually best to keep the two separate.
Besides, I am of the firm opinion that the last word on religion and politics needs to be religious, not political. Does that mean that I believe religion trumps politics in civic life?
No, it does not.
What it means is that we need to be reminded that neither “angels, nor rulers…nor powers, nor height nor depth…will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus”.
For there are people who will try to tell you otherwise. There are people who will hold up the Bible and look you in the eye and tell you that without a doubt, beyond any uncertainty, they absolutely, positively know who God loves and who God does not.
Ladies and gentlemen, these people are full of it. They are telling you a lie, and you should not believe them even for a minute.
Now, that’s strong language, but it needs to be. Because many of the people who do this know it to be untrue. They are intelligent people, in some cases highly educated, they have read their Bibles and read theology, and they know better. They know–as we discussed last week–that judgment is not our prerogative, and that is arrogant to the point of faithlessness to say otherwise. And still they do.
Why? Because they are in the business of selling certainty. They know that telling people that they know who’s in and who’s out of favor with God gives those people a sense of security. It helps them to build a mental framework within which they can function without any apparent anxiety, and they know that people will pay for this.
But this is a false certainty, it is a false security, and it is a false hope. As Paul reminds Christians in this passage, for us there is one source and one source only for hope, for safety, for sureness: God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Bible does not provide certainty. Moralists do not provide security, and even I, preaching before you today, do not give you hope. It is God’s work through these things that gives reassurance, even when worldly things fail.
The trick is, we can’t know it. Not because it is forbidden to us, but because it is too big, too deep, too vast, for us to take in. Paul tells us:
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Now, a better word for “predestined” here might be “planned”, because Paul is not suggesting that everything that happens in world was decided at the creation. Rather, he means that God has some sort of cosmic aim to do good by making us like Christ. And by “us”, I am speaking very broadly here: Christ is meant to be the “firstborn within a large family”, the eldest son that all the other kids look up to.
I am also told that the emphasis in the original Greek is on the “large”, to the point where we could translate it something like “huuuuge”! What Paul believes God is up to is a large-scale project, one that has the potential to involve not just a small, righteous band of believers, but all of humanity.
At the same time, as Jesus says, we are worth more than any sparrow that drops. But the point is that the enterprise is too large for us to see, and as Paul reminds us, the faith comes in trusting that that enterprise is one that works to our good:
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.
God shares in the pain, confusion, uncertainty and loss that marks human life through Christ’s pouring out on our behalf. Furthermore, God and Christ could stand as our prosecutors in a heavenly trial, but instead, they are our advocates.
Which means that anyone who would stand in judgment of us in their place is telling a lie. 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, and who is at the right hand of God, and who indeed intercedes for us.
Whoever would tell you otherwise is selling you a lie. And by “lie”, I don’t just mean a counter-factual statement. I mean a delusion, something that distorts the “relation of our soul to our being,” to quote the theologian Martin Buber. That is to say, we are made to be with God, and to draw others near to God and ourselves. Anything else, any other way of being, is a falsification of our nature.
But ladies and gentleman, that is what politics these days is all about. It is all about deciding who has access, and who does not, who is in favor, and who is not, who voted the right way, and who did not, who should be rewarded and who should be punished, and so on and on. It is a divisive business, in short, and there are those who are perfectly willing to pervert their religion to make political gains.
The thing is, it doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to be Republicans vs. Democrats. It doesn’t have to be rich vs. poor. It doesn’t have to be black vs. white, or Latino vs. white, or Asian vs. black, or proponents of peace vs. those who support our troops, or any number of divides that I can’t even mention for fear of offending someone this morning. This country is as polarized and as divided as it has been since the Viet Nam War, and it doesn’t have to be.
For the word of truth that religion can speak to the lie of contemporary politics is simply this: that we were made to be together. We were made to work together, to live together, and to strive together for the good of one another. For, as Paul asks,
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …
No, [he tells us] 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.
Ladies and gentleman, I submit to you that that is what we call a “better angel.” Let us go forth this morning living up to it. Amen.