September 14, 2025 First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA
Romans 8:28-39: 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.
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, how 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 who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than victorious 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.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Pain is a present part of our lives these days. Maybe it’s the pain of a broken leg, or some other physical ill. Maybe it’s the pain of a broken heart, or a broken dream. One of the things that makes pain hard to bear is how, so often, there’s some sense of betrayal there. We didn’t expect to be sick, we didn’t expect a marriage to break up, we didn’t expect this or that piece of destruction. Betrayal is right at the core of pain, and this has been a week of betrayals.
It was the 24th anniversary of 9-11 this past week. I doubt there’s anyone here who couldn’t tell you where they were when they heard about those horrific attacks. I was living in Grand Rapids MI, where I’d just permanently closed the church I’d been serving, when I got an email from a friend in Australia who told me to turn on my tv…. It was a day of horror.
For many of us, 9-11 always brings back our memories of other shootings, especially Sandy Hook and the death of children. There’s been a lot of that lately… and then on the eleventh, along with the recollections of 9=11, there were two more betrayals – a shooting at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado – and the murder of Charlie Kirk, live on tv.
That’s a lot of pain. That’s a lot of betrayal.
Add that pain to our usual lives – frustrations, illnesses, angers… struggles to stay even…
It’s been a hard week for many of us.
When it all gets too hard, we come here. When it all gets too bad, we come to God.
Together we comfort one another, name this space as one clear open to God. Together we rage at the injustices of the world, share our grief, our anger, our pain with God. Together we live out our faith that life has meaning and purpose, that God intends love to triumph over evil, that as the hymn says, “though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”
Why, though, do we hold on to that hope? If God has any power, why can’t we make the shootings stop? If God is in charge, why are people so mean to each other these days? We hold onto our hope that God is in charge, that pain is not pointless, that evil will not triumph because, in the first place, God promises that it is true, and in the second place, we see signs that good does make change happen.
God promises that good will triumph. In the letter to the Romans, Paul wrote:
28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 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.,* 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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. [1]
And if that’s not enough, there’s more. Paul lists a whole set of bad things – and then says that not one of those has enough power to totally destroy us. Nothing has the power to break our connection with Christ, the power of Love made a living human being. Nothing – not sickness. Nothing – not distress. Nothing – not false accusations, not poverty, not danger, not the evil aggressions of enemies. Nothing.
As Paul says: I am convinced that neither death, lor life, no angels, nor rulers, no 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.
My morning reading these days has been Rick Atkinson’s excellent new history of the American Revolution. The fighting was hard, we lost battle after battle, especially in the early years. More than once our Founding leaders thought the jig was up and that they would all, at best, end their lives on Tower Hill in London, executed for treason.
But looking back on the entirely of the struggle, it was almost certain from the very beginning, even before maybe the first person died, that it was just about impossible for England to keep us as colonies if we persisted in the fight. Even the English leaders who thought the war unwinnable didn’t really believe they were right enough to speak out, even when it was clear that the war was destroying the English economy.
As hard as that was for them, it’s even harder to hold onto faith that even when you’re on your fourth trip to the emergency room in the last 2 months, when you know that each trip brings you a little closer to that final trip when your heart stops. It’s hard to hold onto faith when you realize that one of your 3rd grade students is almost certainly being abused and you know it’s not going to be easy to do something. It’s hard to hold onto faith when it feels like the world is falling apart, when one more public shooting happens – at a speech, at a school… wherever.
And yet, we endure. God promises that love will win. So prepare to share in that heavenly meal we will soon celebrate, knowing that it is a tangible expression of God’s love, food and drink to nourish body and soul. And know when you leave here, you will be sustained by God’s love.
Amen.
[1] New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition (Friendship Press, 2021), Ro 8:28–39.
To Believe is to Care. . . To Care is to Do 