Date: July 30, 2023 

Scripture: Romans 8:26-39

Sermon Title: “Nothing” (Preached at West Chelmsford UMC)

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Bob Jon

You can also listen on Podcast from iTunes and Spotify. Search for “Podcasting from Rev. Bob Jon.”

Thank you for welcoming me here. I bring a warm greeting and love from Aldersgate UMC, your sister church. Again, my name is Bob Jon. I am originally from South Korea. I was born to a Methodist pastor’s family. Ever since I was a baby, I have always been a Methodist growing up in a church. Literally, some of our parsonages were inside the church building. Since I was a kid, I always listened to and sang hymns, many of which were passed from the American missionaries. One of my favorite hymns was “Jesus Loves Me. This I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me, for the Bible tells me so.” 

How many of you also love the song? Maybe you like the melody. Some of you have the memory of your mothers or grandmothers singing the song to you. It is a hymn written by Anna Warner in the 19^th century. The lyric appeared in an 1860 novel Say and Seal written by her sister Susan Warner. In the novel, Faith Derrick and John Linden tend to a little boy named Johnny. The doctor comes and tells the adults that there is no hope for this dying boy. As John walks slowly back and forth across the room, holding little Johnny in his arms and comforting him, Johnny asks him to sing. So, John starts to sing, “Jesus loves me; this I know for the Bible tells me so…”

Jesus loves me. It is one of the most fundamental beliefs we learned when we were children. But over the years, how many of you felt like you could not feel it to be true? You could not believe that God loves you. There are times when our faith is tested or even shaken up, especially when we go through trials and tribulations. When we are ill, lose our jobs, struggle in our relationship with our family members, grieve the untimely death of our family or friend, or witness evil or disasters in our world, we wonder if God really loves us or cares for us. If God really does, how could something like this happen to us or the world that God created and called good? 

In Romans 8, Paul says, “Who will separate us from the love of God? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?” Can any of these separate us from the love of God? We do not know in what context Paul is addressing these negative experiences. In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul describes his personal experience of what he endured. “Five times, I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once, I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked and was adrift at sea for a night and day. I met danger from my own people and strangers in the city, wilderness, and sea. I was hungry, thirsty, cold, and naked.” 

When I was in my sophomore year at college, my mother was diagnosed with early-stage of cancer. She was expecting surgery at the university hospital. The night before her surgery, I went to her room to stay with her overnight. She held my hands and said, “Son, I wish to live long enough to see you grow and make your family. If I don’t, please forgive me. I am so sorry.” I went to the small chapel and wept. I looked up at the cross on the altar and prayed, “God, my mother spent her whole life serving you and your church. And this is what she gets?” I was only 19 years old and was not ready to lose my mother. The only prayer that came out of my mouth was deep sighs with tears. 

How about you? Was there a time in your life when you could not even describe your situation with any words but only sigh deeply with tears? Where did you find the strength to persevere? Here is what Paul says. The Holy Spirit is our advocate who intercedes for us even when we cannot pray. Paul writes, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but that very Spirit intercedes with groaning too deep for words. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Even when we do not know the words to pray, the Spirit reveals what is in our minds to God. 

My son Joshua is 5 years old. When it comes to food, he is such a picky eater. So, I tried to change his habit one day by telling him, “Joshua, if you don’t want to eat the dinner your mommy is giving you, there is no dinner tonight. You can just go to bed hungry.” And he protested for three or four hours, not eating anything. So, finally I gave in and told him, “Ok. I will give you a pass this time. You can eat what you want to eat.” I guess I was spoiling him. Anyway, he sat at the table and prayed loud so that I could hear him. “Dear God, my daddy told my mommy not to give me dinner tonight. He is a bad man.” I was laughing and thought that this little boy thought that he could take his trouble to God in prayers. 

And the Spirit of God never leaves us alone, whether we are awake or not, healthy or ill. The Psalmist praises the Holy Spirit who presence always surrounds us in this way. “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I take the wings of the morning, and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.” I know that some Christians are concerned that their children do not go to church. Sometimes, they are worried that their children take a break from their faith in God. Even so, God does not take a break from us. And Paul says that there is nothing to separate us from the love of God. 

It has already been over three years since the pandemic started. How many of us could accept the changed reality in the beginning? The school was closed. Many people did not go to work but work home remotely. Since no one was driving, the gas price fell below 1 dollar. People canceled their travels and flights. The gym closed. The restaurant closed. Church also had to cancel the in-person worship, offering online-only worship service. Is this also what happened at West Chelmsford? It was devastating, especially for patients to be stuck in the hospital or facility without any visitation from their families. People traveled to the nursing home just to say hi to their parents outside through the window. 

There was a woman named Pat, 93, in my former church who broke her ankle. Thankfully she did not need surgery but was sent to rehab for a few weeks. Her daughter, Faith, felt devastated not seeing her mother. Then, she found out that the rehab was recruiting some people to come and sew the facial masks. So, she volunteered to sew the masks five days a week. She would go say hi to her mother in the morning and have dinner with her after her volunteering work. When she told me the story, I thought about the love of God as Paul says. Even when the world collapses, God does not stop loving us because we are God’s children. 

“Who can separate us from the love of God?” Paul answers to his rhetorical question, “No, 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 ruler, 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.” The powers and principalities of our world force people to conform to their way, often threatening with punishment or death. When Dr. King was leading the bus boycott, he received a midnight telephone call threatening him to blow up his house. As he felt full of fear in his heart, he prayed to God loudly and God assured him that there is nothing to fear because God would with him. 

Paul says that even death cannot separate us from the love of God. It means that there is nothing in this world that we are fearful because God is with us and God is for us. When the Methodist movement was growing rapidly throughout Europe and America, some people asked John Wesley what the secret was. And he said, “We Methodists know how to die well.” 

When I contemplate on Wesley’s answer, I think about Joanne, a beloved member of Aldersgate who passed away last January. She was the daughter of a  Methodist pastor and worked as a Benefits Administrator for a hospital in Melrose. She was full of love, leading the prayer shawl ministry and prayer partner ministry. The day before she passed away, I went to see her at the hospital in Manchester, NH. When I got there, she was doing some MRI tests. Her daughter told me that the doctor thought that Joanne had liver cancer. When Joanne finally came to her room, she was in so much pain. But when she saw me, she was full of joy and smiles. I laid my hands on her forehead and prayed for her. After I finished my prayer, she held my hand and started praying for me. I had never experienced something like that. 

During the funeral service, her daughter shared with the people that the night before she passed, Joanne did Facetime with the staff members at her nursing home. She thanked them for all their love and care. Although death was approaching her fast, she still remembered her Maker who created her in His image with so much love. And she was sharing the abundant love of God with all those around her, thanking God for them, praying for them, and telling them she loved them. And a week after the funeral service, our church received a letter from Joanne, her last words of love and encouragement. It was like she sent a letter to us from heaven. And let me read it for you.

“Thank you, my treasured Aldersgate family for all the prayers and cards of encouragement in this latest period in my faith journey. You are such a blessing to me and I treasure your presence in my life. Sometimes we don’t know where our faith journey will take us but we know and trust the One who leads us. God is so good! He has blessed my life with my Aldersgate church family! My prayer is we can be together soon and my prayer for all of us is that our waiting for the Prince of Peace is filled with prayer, hope, and peace and love for all.” 

Joanne Snook

Dearly beloved of West Chelmsford UMC, what troubles do you have in your heart today? What challenges are you facing? Take them to the Lord in your prayers and know that God already knows what you are going through as the Holy Spirit intercedes for us even when we do not know how to pray. Regardless of where you come from, I pray that you experience the grace of God who assures us that there is nothing to separate us from the love of God. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “The grace of God is sufficient for me.” And I pray that God continues to bless West Chelmsford with such grace of God that your love for God continues to grow, and you rejoice in each other as bound by the love of God for you.

Amen.