Groaning in Hurt; Groaning with Hope - Romans 8:18-26

“Groaning in Hurt and in Hope”

Romans 8:18-26

Dear friends in Christ Jesus our Lord:  Recall with me for a few moments the first seven days of recorded history in Genesis.  In the beginning there was only one thing – one being, really – God.  There was nothing else.  From nothing – ex nihilo – God created the heavens and the earth.  Over the course of six days, God created everything from the incredible vastness of the universe to the most microscopic organism; from water to land; from plants to animals; from fish swimming under the sea to birds flying through the air; with creation culminating with that which was made in His image: man.  Everything, God created from nothing (even Adam, strictly speaking, was formed from the dirt which God created) using His Word, “Let there be…”  And, as each piece of creation was created, God declared it to be good – holy, pure, godly, as He created it to be. 

Man was created in the image of God – that is to say that Adam and Eve knew God as He wishes to be known; they enjoyed a perfect, inter-personal relationship with Him, seeing and talking with Him face-to-face, and living a truly God-pleasing life without sin.  All of creation was in perfect harmony with God.  Everything was good.

Then came the single most devastating day the world has ever known.  Adam and Eve, in order to be more like God in wisdom and knowledge, ate from the forbidden tree.  We use the expression “the world seemed to collapse” to describe tragedy that is almost – well, indescribable. But on that day in the Garden of Eden, in a heartbeat, the goodness, the holiness, and the perfection of the whole world collapsed into the mouthfuls of fruit that Adam and Eve swallowed.  Where only a few heartbeats earlier was eternity and joy and man stood in perfect unity with God, there was only the rubble of hell, sorrow, and separation from God, man’s life a pit devoid of true joy and peace and happiness.  As St. Paul wrote in this morning’s Epistle lesson, “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it” (Rom. 8:20, NIV) and creation groans in pain of sin.

Now, today, instead of man living in harmony with God and the sounds of laughter and joy and peace, man is surrounded by the groans of creation.  But it is not just creation that groans.  Mankind groans as well, suffering with all of creation in this world of sin.  

Children, in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time and wearing the wrong colors, awaken in Chicago-area hospital bed to the groans of pain because rival gangs wanted to send a message to the community about who is really in charge.  Creation groans in sorrow.

An elderly widower cries himself to sleep every night because he is lonely, having buried his wife ten years earlier.  Creation groans in loneliness.

An older woman groans in agony as the effects of childhood polio grow stronger, and arms and legs that once moved freely and easily now do so only slowly, erratically, and with great pain.  Creation groans in agony.

California and Nevada forests, once full of vegetation and life, moan as the wind blows through the charred mountainside.  Creation groans in desolation.

In parts of New Orleans, people used boats to float across flooded streets, wondering how much worse it might get; and, when the rain stops, what it will take to rebuild.  Creation groans in misery.

A young woman goes out on a date with her boyfriend who wants to go further than she will allow. To get even, he begins spreading rumors about her.  Her reputation at school, in the neighborhood, and at church is tarnished forever and the Eighth Commandment is shattered.  Creation groans in sadness. 

Your yard – along with almost all of the state of Texas - is slowly becoming parched, the grass and plants you so painstakingly cared for crackles like paper in the hot wind, and trees droop under their own weight because of lack of water. Creation cries out to cloudless skies in hopeless desperation.

Creation and mankind groan at the result of sin.  Our lives are filled with pain, suffering, sorrow; sometimes, it seems as if it is hopeless. 

Yet, Holy Scripture tells us of another time when the groans of another Man filled the air.  One can only imagine the groans of agony which escaped Jesus’ lips on Calvary as He bore the burden of the creation’s guilt and pain and suffering on Himself.  The groans of creation are a reminder of the fallen nature of creation.  The groans of Christ were not because He was guilty of sin; He was perfect in every way and without sin.  The groans of Christ were really not His groans… they were our groans, transferred to Him.  He groaned for fallen creation and all of its misery and pain.  And, when at the end He bowed His head and the last groan passed through His sin-chapped lips, it was a groan which literally shook creation as if the world were about to collapse.  The ground trembled, tombs were ripped open, and even the Temple curtain was rent asunder. 

For three days, the haunting sound of that groan hung in the air until early Sunday morning when, instead of a groan, a weeping woman heard a still, gentle voice say, “Mary.”  That afternoon, two men living in Emmaus heard the voice clearly explain to them all that the Scriptures foretold about Christ, and heard those wonderful words, “Take and eat.  Take and drink.”  Later that night, ten terrified disciples heard the still, gentle voice declare, “Peace be with you,”  and a week later, another man was told to see…touch…stop being a doubter and be a believer. 

The One who had groaned His last is now breathing and alive!  No longer does He groan under the painful load of creation’s sin on the cross; now, He stands in victory at the right hand of the Father, waiting to come again to judge the living and the dead.  No longer does the weight and pain of sin and death and the devil threaten to crush; Christ, in His resurrection, has crushed satan and his power over sin and death.  In Christ’s victory, we have been given the gift of our adoption as sons and daughters of the Father. The adoption price has been paid in full by the blood of Christ, and the adoption has been sealed as we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus.  St. Paul writes, “We were… buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised form the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may have new life” (Rom 6:4, NIV).

I need to explain a word to you – that word is “hope.” Our culture has taken “hope” and bent what it means. We buy a lottery ticket and say “I hope I win.” We build a fantasy football team with the hope that our team wins the big game. But, in both of those instances, it’s a rather hollow hope – isn’t it? It’s a one-in-a-trillion hope, a “well, I don’t really thik it’ll happen, but maybe it will” kind of attitude. Ask me, there’s not much “hope” in that kind of hope. Contrast that with what the Bible describes as our hope in Christ. I want you to think of hope as certainty, confidence, and absolute trust in what isn’t seen. Hope’s power rests in the power of the One who makes the promise – God Himself. So, when we say we have Christian hope, I want you to hear that with the Amen and Amen of St. John’s Revelation: It is so!

Creation’s voice now has this sense of hope, a sense of joy in the future to come when there will no longer be groans, but shouts of joy.  Our lips will forever sing the glory of God, tongues proclaiming His mercy, mouths speaking the Holy Name of the Triune God.  As Martin Luther taught us in his Small Catechism, we can boldly declare, “This is most certainly true!”  This is God’s promise and it is for you, dear Christian!

While the promise is ours and the guarantee is certain, the adoption papers sealed in Christ Jesus, we are still waiting for our bodies to be delivered to the Father for eternity.  We continue to “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”  Yet, our groans as we wait in hope are different than those groans which are without hope.  Do we still suffer the horrific effects of sin – yes.  Does creation still groan?  Yes.  Yet, those groans have a purpose. As we groan looking forward, in hope, for what is to come.  St. Paul said, “For in this hope we are saved. Now hope that is seen is hot hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”   We hope for what is to come – the final resurrection when Christ comes again.  On that great day, our bodies and souls will be reunited in perfection as Adam and Eve were first created.  We will again know God perfectly and be in His image.  Tears, sorrow, sufferings, and anger will all disappear.  There will again be true peace and joy and love for eternity at the foot of God.

There is one other word of comfort for us in this morning’s text. For those days when creation’s fall weighs heavily on you and the world’s weight is squarely on your shoulders; when you read the paper or hear the news and you wonder “How much longer, O Lord?”; when you scan the sky praying for a drop of rain; when your heart beats faster because the doctor calls you personally…on those days when you can not even frame words into a prayer for God’s mercy, St. Paul says “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words.” Even when you don’t know what to pray for, or how to pray, or what words to say – or even if all you can do is groan literally and loudly – the Holy Spirit fleshes your prayers into perfect petitions for your Father in heaven to hear.

In the meantime, as we continue to wait and hope for Christ to come again, creation continues to groan.  But it is a different kind of groaning.  Do we still groan in sorrow?  Yes.  Do we still groan in pain.  You bet.  But our groans also have a sense of hope for that which is to come.  The hymn writer Martin Franzmann expresses the groans of hope well:

Give us lips to sing thy glory,
Tongues, thy mercy to proclaim,

Throats that shout the hope that fills us,
Mouths to speak thy Holy Name.

Alleluia, alleluia!
May the Light which thou dost send

Fill our songs with alleluias,
Alleluias without end!  Amen.

(Lutheran Service Book #578.5)

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. (Romans 15:13, NIV)