Sermon for the Tenth Sunday After Pentecost
The Spirit Intercedes for the Saints
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ! Amen. Today's sermon is based upon the Epistle of the Day,
from Romans chapter 8. In this Epistle, St. Paul says to you, "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 groanings too deep for words.
And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the
Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."
Dear Christian friends:
On August 31, 1422, King Henry V of England died. Henry V's one
and only son-Henry VI-was then named king. However, there was a small
problem with Henry VI: this new king was only eight months old! Because of
little Henry's tender age (and relative inexperience), Parliament appointed
Humphrey, the Duke of Gloucester, to be the king's regent. Humphrey was sent
to serve as Protector and Defender of the Realm until young King Henry VI
came of age and could handle business on his own.
When you were baptized into Christ, God adopted you to be His own
dear child and heir. St. Paul said in last week's Epistle, "You received the
Spirit of adoption as sons" (Romans 8:15). Then the apostle went on to say
that, because you were adopted, you "are children of God, and if children,
then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:16b-17). The
scriptures also describe you in regal and kingly terms, declaring that "All
things are yours" (1 Corinthians 3:21), and again, that "God raised [you] up
with Christ and seated [you] with Him in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians
2:6, NIV).
Here is the problem: even though we are now legitimately and
legally the children of God, both you and I are still way too young to
handle our divinely given position and place. Neither you nor I have
anywhere near the ability required of us to fulfill and carry out the divine
stature we were given when God adopted us in Baptism. Just as the
eight-month-old Henry had very little ability to serve faithfully as the
King of England, so you and I also have very little ability to think, to
speak, and to act faithfully as the children of God. Just as Henry's place
in life was limited by the weakness and immaturity of his own flesh, you and
I likewise perpetually suffer the same sort of limitation, weakness, and
immaturity, even as the children of God.
Today's Epistle gives us an example of our perpetual weakness and
immaturity: "For we do not know what to pray for as we ought." Similar
eight-month-old babies prematurely set on kingly thrones, we do not fully
realize-indeed, we cannot fully realize-our need to pray! If we truly could
perceive this need, we would undoubtedly pray without ceasing (1
Thessalonians 5:17). Like the prophetess Anna in Luke chapter two, we would
"not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and
day" (Luke 2:37). If we could comprehend the depth of our need to pray, we
would want to do nothing other than pray for God's continual mercy and
protection. But how could the infant King Henry possibly have known the
troubles his kingdom may have faced, either by outside invaders or by inward
discontents? How could he have made any plans to defend against his enemies?
At eight months old, the King of England was only concerned with that which
was right in front of him, and this amounted to little more than suckling
his fist.
Today's Epistle says pretty much the same thing about you and me,
"For we do not know what to pray for as we ought." It is not that we
Christians do not wish to call upon God in every trouble (Psalm 50:15, Psalm
86:7); it is that we so very little realize and comprehend the trouble and
danger that would otherwise cause us to pray. We barely can handle what is
right in front of us, hardly remembering to pray for such things food and
drink, much less those things that go beyond our understanding.
Yet there is a big world out there of which we are totally
unaware. We live in a world of violence, destruction, and death that goes
far beyond what we can see or perceive. Thus it is written:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places
(Ephesians 6:12).
Knowing this about us-that "we do not know what to pray for as we
ought"-God our heavenly Father gave us a great and wonderful gift on the day
He adopted us to be His children in Baptism. Not only did God the Father
make you His beloved child and heir when He baptized you, but He also gave
you His indwelling Holy Spirit, who entered into you the very moment that
you were baptized. As St. Paul explains in Galatians chapter 4: "Because you
are [adopted] sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts,
crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (Galatians 4:6, see also v. 5).
So here we are: "We do not know what to pray for as we ought." We
are too young and immature to handle this high and divine calling of prayer
on our own. God the Father knows that about us. In order to compensate for
this inborn weakness and immaturity on our part, God gave us His Holy Spirit
when we were baptized. "The Spirit," says today's Epistle, "helps us in our
weakness." The infant King Henry VI was given Humphrey of Gloucester to do
the things that Henry could not do for himself. In the same way, we have
been given God's Holy Spirit, "the Spirit of adoption" (Romans 8:15), "the
Spirit of His Son" (Galatians 4:6). Humphrey of Gloucester was named
Protector and Defender of the Realm. You might also say that the Holy Spirit
is your regent, the faithful Protector and Defender of the divine Kingdom
into which you have been adopted as sons of the King, "heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17).
This is good news for us, because now we shall not be caught
unawares. We shall not be blindsided and none of our enemies-neither flesh,
nor world nor devil himself-can take advantage of our weakness and our
youthful foolishness. "The Spirit helps us in our weakness," says this
Epistle. "The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for
words. the Spirit intercedes for [all] the saints according to the will of
God." As Humphrey of Gloucester stood in for King Henry VI, speaking on
Henry's infantile behalf, so the Spirit of God's Son stands likewise for us,
speaking prayers for us that our human mouths cannot form and our untrained
tongues cannot express.
In order to understand how important this is for you, think about
the example of our first parents, Adam and Eve. When they ate from the tree
of knowledge of good and evil, they must have felt pretty bad about their
sin because they saw that they were naked (Genesis 3:7) and were afraid (v.
10). However, Adam and Eve could not fully comprehend full scope of the
damage they had done. If they could have understood the gravity of their
actions, Adam and Eve would likely have been crushed by despair right there
where they stood! Their one act of eating the forbidden fruit did more than
disappoint God. Their one act shattered God's perfect creation. As you heard
in the first part of today's Epistle, "The creation was subjected to
futility. [and] bondage to decay." All Adam and Eve could see was that they
had broken a commandment and now needed clothes. Yet beyond their
comprehension, the whole creation was falling apart because of their sin.
So it is also with you and with me. The stakes for our eternal
salvation are simply way too high for us fully to comprehend. The debt of
sin we have incurred for ourselves by our own actions-in addition to the
guilt we have received from our parents-is simply more than we can fathom.
Were we to catch more than a glimpse of sin's enormity and seriousness
before God, we would immediately be reduced to dust. So God graciously
protects us from the full knowledge of ourselves. To be sure, He shows us
enough of our sin to cause us to fear and to cry out to Him for mercy, which
He abundantly gives to us in Christ Jesus. But the full knowledge of your
sin would be too much for you, as would the full knowledge of my sin be too
much for me. In His great love for us, God has seen fit, not to overwhelm us
and destroy us with every detail of our sins, but rather to dump it all on
Jesus. Our heavenly Father prefers to withhold the full knowledge of our sin
and detriment from us, choosing instead to give us His Holy Spirit, who
"helps us in our weakness." This is why we plead guilty of all sins in the
Lord's Prayer, even those we are not aware of: "Forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us." This is also why "The Spirit
Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."
As a result of this great forbearance and mercy on the part of our
God, you and I get to go through each day our lives blissfully ignorant of
our danger, just like the eight-month-old King Henry VI of England. The Holy
Spirit does not remove from us the commandment to pray, and we are certainly
required by God's Law to pray much and as often as we are able. To be sure,
our prayers cannot help but become deeper and more powerful over time, just
as young Henry grew into his ability to rule England as king.
Eventually the day came when Humphrey of Gloucester no longer needed to
assist the king in his duties. Henry grew up. That same day likewise shall
come for you, when you no longer require the Spirit's assistance to pray.
That day will not take place so long as you remain in this life, but it
nevertheless shall take place for you, just as certainly as God's Son shall
return for you on the Last Day and you enter His glory.
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