Nor Anything Else

Is there anything that can remove us from the love of God?

While this might seem to be a good thought exercise—or a thought-provoking question—the Apostle Paul offers a succinct answer: NO.

That firm no is followed by one of the most powerful passages of scripture.

* * *

I am reminded of a story I once heard about a father living in Chicago.

After his beloved oldest son graduated high school, he started to distance himself from his family and plunged headlong into the drug culture in Chicago.

They don't hear from him in over a year. Then one night at 2:00 am, they get a call from the police:"We have your son. He's had a DUI. You have to come pick him up."

The father gets out of bed, goes down to the precinct, and explains who he is and that he's here for his son.

They look at him perplexed. They have no idea what's he's talking about. OK, it's Chicago, there are a lot of precincts. So, he goes to the next precinct. Same thing. He goes to two more precincts. Same empty looks.

He decides to go the last place he remembers his son living, which was a crack house in a derelict part of town. He goes in, looks around, locates his son sleeping on a mattress in a back room.

At 5:00 a.m. in this hell hole his heart breaks standing over that mattress. He falls to his knees…and he kisses his son. Then he gets up and leaves. A month later the son shows up at home. Then he shows up again three weeks later. Then again…and soon, he is living back home.

His father finally asked him one day:  What happened? Why did you come home?

The son said, "Dad, don't you know? It was that night. You know the night you got the call. It was one of my friends playing a prank on you. We all laughed thinking about how you would have to spend your night in precincts, looking for me and facing blank stares. …But the one thing we never imagined is that you'd come to the place where I was living. Dad, we saw you coming down the street and we all dove for the beds. I wasn't asleep that night. When you walked into my room and found me, I knew you'd be so furious at me. I was ready for you to kick me as hard as you could.

 But you didn't kick me. You kissed me. You kissed me—and that changed everything.”[i]

* * *

Have you ever considered that nothing can separate you from the love of God?

I mean have you ever truly considered that you have been kissed and not kicked?

I’m so glad two people submitted Romans 8 for our summer sermon series. It is also one of my favorite passages of scripture.

Everything that leads up to this chapter in Romans describes the way Sin and Death have entered our world. Not only have they entered our world, but they distort our vision of God, our vision of ourselves, and our vision of all creation. And no matter what we try to do, their claim on the world seems ubiquitous.

We might try denying that Sin and Death have power; we might try to ignore their awful claim on our world. But I imagine that is how they thrive.

In the Letter to the Romans, the problem is not that humans do bad things. The problem is that “actual powers, prominent among them Sin and Death, hold humanity in their grasp.”[ii]

Only one thing that can break their power. It is not our good intentions or our good will. Rather, it is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Theologian Beverly Roberts Gaventa describes this idea throughout the Book of Romans: “By crucifying Jesus Christ, [Sin and Death] bring about their own defeat, since their destructive power is no match for God’s resurrecting power.”

So, in Christ, nothing can separate us from the love of God.

* * *

There are so many things that try to take grasp of us—so many destructive powers that try to separate us form God and one another.

Paul names them outright: “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 says, No.

We don’t know why Paul names these things in particular, but we all know they are symptoms of the grasp of Sin and Death over all creation.

* * *

I’ve frequently read this passage of scripture at memorial services. I’m always very glad to read it. As I read this passage over and over again, sometimes I like to switch it up a bit.

It was probably about the second funeral I ever led. It was for a woman named Mary Virginia. I never really got to know her so well, but, oh, she was so beloved. She was in her nineties and for as long as I’d been her pastor, she had dementia.

I read from Romans 8: “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….”

I added “…nor dementia…”

 “…nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I think of a service where someone had died of cancer, and I added the words, “nor cancer.”

And I think of times when people whose addictions negatively affected their quality of life; that’s a fair addition to Paul’s list “nor addiction.”

And I think of people whose lives seemed more defined by poverty than justice. “Nor poverty” is also a fine addition.

I think of all the people who have had to spend their last days in isolation in the past months. “Nor isolation” is a fine addition.

What would you add? What is trying to take a grasp of you?

Just take a moment to call it out into the comfort of your own home…

…and know that however destructive that power or principality may be, it is nothing—nothing—compared to the God’s resurrecting power.

Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ. Nothing.

* * *

Some years ago, there was a confirmation class at a church. This is the class than that students typically around the ages of 12 -14 spend time studying faith to prepare for a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

The class was assigned to memorize Romans 8. On Confirmation Sunday, the students lined up in the front of the sanctuary. The pastor went down the line asking each one, “What can separate you from the love of God?"

The first student gathered himself and said, “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.”

You could feel those words in the room as the were spoken over and again by the students. At the end of the line, was Rachel. Rachel lives with Down’s Syndrome. Most people in the sanctuary were aware that she would not be able to memorize Romans 8.  People were starting to shift back and forth in their pews worried that Rachel was going to be embarrassed.

When they got to Rachel, the pastor said, "What can separate you from the love of God?" 

She gave a smile of recognition and thought about the question.

She answered, "Nothing."[iii] 

* * *

Is there anything that can remove us from the love of God?

While this might seem to be a good thought exercise—or a thought-provoking question—the Apostle Paul offers a succinct answer: NOTHING. 

 [i] From Scott Jones Day1 sermon for September 29, 2019 is based on Luke 16:19-31 and entitled "Live and Let Die."

[ii]Beverly Roberts Gaventa, When in Romans.

[iii] This story is based on Tom Long’s sermon “Deeper” preached at Calvin Theological Seminary in June 1996.