Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Romans 8:31-39

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.

In Romans, Paul has been seeking to answer the question of whether God is faithful to his promises. Is God righteous? The answer has been, God is righteous, and the righteousness of God has been revealed in saving by his grace those who believe in Jesus Christ, both Jew and Gentile. And this is the definitive statement, the decisive moment within the letter expressing the absolute power of that promise. Not only did God promise to bring us into right relationship with himself when we believe, and not only is that gift offered to everyone, but it is a gift that comes with the uttermost power, one that cannot be taken from us. Paul needs to state this definitively here, because he just told us that as we follow Jesus we will suffer, and he wants to say that that suffering is first of all not from God even though we experience it by following him, and that furthermore that suffering will not, cannot separate us from God’s love.

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.

Paul began by saying, What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” He comes to a conclusion here, and right before stating that we cannot be separated from God’s love states the key thesis of Romans 8, and perhaps the whole letter: “No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us,” though I prefer the ESV and other translations which say we are more than conquerors. More than conquerors. Whatever obstacle is before the believer in Jesus, is already defeated. 

Neither death nor life. Death, the most poignant of separations, the one which when we experience it in this life is so tragic, shattering, crushing. I think of those I have lost, and my sorrow over it. We can think all the way back to the beginning, which is likely where Paul’s mind is, when death was introduced as our great enemy, our curse. Adam and Eve likely did not really understand what was meant at first. They saw animals die so they could have clothes, yes, but when it is a human death, it is different. When they mourned over the body of Abel, killed by his own brother, then they knew, filled with anguish and confusion. But death is defeated and can no longer separate us from God, and only from one another for a time.

Likewise, nothing in life can separate us. All the things that plague human life cannot separate us from the love of God. Lost jobs and financial insecurity cannot separate you from God’s love. Being one ethnicity or another cannot separate a person from the love of God. Sickness, whether temporary, chronic, or even life-threatening, cannot separate us from God’s love. Broken relationships with alienation, anger, and sorrow cannot separate us from the love of God. Mental illness cannot separate you from the love of God, who even for those who descend into dementia will continue to remember them, even if they can no longer remember Him. No weakness or failure of ours in life can separate us from the love of God.

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.

Spiritual entities of great power are not able to separate us from the love of God. Angels and demons, which we know little about and understand even less, which are alien and terrifying, cannot separate us from the love of God. Whether presented to us as a person, or possession, or being demonically active in the systems of oppression that exist in our world, in none of these cases can we be separated from the love of God by these powers.

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.

Things present or to come, the present and the future. That which discourages us now cannot do it. Our pain, struggle, and brokenness cannot do it. Whatever is a source of anxiety or worry for us in this moment cannot separate us from the love of God, whether kids, marriages, school, careers. And the same for that unknown, frightening place: the future, the great unknown. Nothing in that strange frontier can separate us, either. 

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.

No powers, which I can only imagine Paul is thinking of in much broader terms then we might initially think. For him it would include earthly powers like the emperor Nero in Rome, a spiteful, violent ruler. Our own politicians cannot separate us from God’s love, nor our corporate magnates who really rule our world today. Paul also might have been thinking of the shadowy, demonic princes who stand behind such earthly power, like in Daniel 10:13, where Gabriel the angel mentions being confronted by one “prince of Persia” for 21 days. That power which withstood an archangel cannot separate us from the love of God, and neither can the power of the prince of Amazon, or the prince of China, or even the prince of the United States. None can separate us from the love of God.

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.

Height and depth describes really everything else, and sums up all that is in this reality. This is the promise, and it is guaranteed, and it is to that that we must hold onto. That is what gives us life, that is what strengthens us to endure through the hardest of times, that is what anchors us, ships blown by many storms, and keeps us steady. For the Jews, largely suffering was a thing to endure, to simply get through. For the practitioners of Stoicism in Paul’s day, they “conquered” by training themselves to remain calm and controlled through all circumstances, the Spock’s of their days. Not us. We can go through anger and hurt, turmoil and calm, joy and sadness, not denying those experiences or emotions, but coming through them as conquerors because Christ first conquered them through his death, resurrection, and ascended life. In Christ we will one day see the fullness of that conquest, experience it fully, and rise up ourselves into the very life of God. This is the substance of our faith and of our hope. This is the righteousness of God, for Jews and Gentiles, blacks and whites, women and men, poor and rich, slave or free. Let us say it once more, in our own mouths, for ourselves:

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. Amen.