Convinced

Sermon from July 24, 2011
(Pentecost 6 – Year A)
Romans 8: 26-39
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Waco, Texas

During this summer, I have had to become convinced of some things.
Over Memorial Day weekend, we had an air conditioner malfunction at our house that cost us $600 to repair.
Just two weeks later, another air conditioner repair set us back by another $500.
Therefore, last month, a salesperson from an air conditioning company sat down in our living room.
The salesperson presented stacks of evidence to convince me that we needed to replace our entire air conditioning unit, to the tune of thousands of dollars.

In order to convince Susan and me to make such a major purchase, the salesman made his pitch, presenting evidence that was designed to convince us.
First of all, he pointed out that our old a/c unit was the original unit to the house, which was built in 1987.
Next, we were shown charts and graphs of how a new, energy-efficient a/c unit would reduce our electricity bill, eventually justifying the cost of a new unit.
As a final part of his sales pitch, he promised to deduct the cost of our last repair from the total bill – which was the last piece of evidence that we needed.
We decided to bite the bullet and purchase a whole new air conditioner last month – because we were convinced.

Our God is in the business of unrelenting conviction.
Our God is in the business of persuasion.
Our God is constantly laying out evidence, stacks of evidence to convince us that nothing can separate us from God’s love.

Almost two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul had come to the end of his life.
As an old man who had already seen many pieces of evidence, the Apostle Paul writes a beautiful letter to the community of Christians in the city of Rome.
In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul lays out the evidence, proclaiming:

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
No!
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.”

According to Paul, his own life is enough evidence to convince him that nothing, nothing can separate him from the love of God.
In his life, Paul had been shipwrecked in the Mediterranean Sea while spreading the Gospel.
Yet at the end of his life, Paul is convinced that nothing can separate him from love.
Paul had been put in prison for preaching Jesus Christ.
Yet Paul is still convinced that nothing can separate him from love.
Paul had endured hardships, riots, beatings, hunger and sleepless nights, yet Paul is all the more convinced.
For the God of persuasion stacks up the evidence for Paul:
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 this last week, I have seen stacks and stacks of evidence to convince me that nothing can separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Susan and I spent this last week at Camp Allen, serving as the session directors for a week of camp for 3rd and 4th graders.

I endured 7 sleepless nights in a bunk bed on a paper-thin mattress,
Yet I awoke each morning to the evidence of a line of campers who were using a marks-a-lot to write down their morning prayers on a piece of poster board.
I saw campers with sore throats and mosquito bites and twinges of homesickness,
Yet I celebrated Communion around the lake with over 350 young people at the all-camp Eucharist, youth who lifted their voices to Jesus in the sweetest music you have ever heard.
I dragged my sore feet each night into 7 different cabins for bedtime prayers,
Yet by the illumination of a single candle, each night I received the deepest of theological questions, from 61 children who are hungry and thirsty for the love of Jesus Christ.

From my week at camp,
I am more convinced than ever 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.

The God of persuasion, the God of conviction, will also stack up evidence for the 8 youth and 3 adults from St. Alban’s who depart today on their mission trip to Gulf Coast Mississippi.
The God of conviction will convince our missionaries from St. Alban’s that we can never be separated from the love of God.
The youth of St. Alban’s will endure a long car ride down Interstate 10.
They will get on each other’s nerves.
They will see first-hand the suffering and homelessness that the world has long ago forgotten in the wake of hurricanes.

And the God of persuasion will lay out the evidence.
The God of conviction will stack up the evidence for our youth and adults as they encounter poor people who still have hope,
As they see the face of Christ in the faces of the suffering,
As they become a body of Christ, a community who will proclaim to us:
I am convinced that nothing, nothing, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

However, there are other voices of persuasion and conviction in this world.
There are salespeople who persuade us that we are only loved if we have the latest iPhone or the newest shoes or the most powerful tools from Home Depot.
There are salespeople who persuade us that we are only loved by having a perfect body, a body that is only achieved by steroids and botox, by nip and tuck.
There are even very crafty salespeople who persuade us that the central message of Christianity is a life of happiness and prosperity,
When the real message of Christianity is a cross, a cross that is evidence that nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God.

For if you read the holy scriptures of God,
If you pray every day,
If you regularly eat of the bread of heaven,
If you hang out with God’s poor and suffering people,
Then the God of persuasion will lay out stacks and stacks of evidence in front of you.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will convince you that nothing, nothing can separate you from the love of God.

My friends, our God is an unrelenting and persuasive salesperson - who sits in your living room to convince you of the best news in the world.
God is a persuasive salesperson - who convinces me through the voices of 8-year old campers raised in songs of worship to the Lord Jesus.
God is a persuasive salesperson who stacks up evidence through toothless, homeless, penniless hurricane victims, people who display the glory of God, the glory of a human being fully alive.
God is a persuasive salesperson - whose most convincing evidence of love is an olive-skinned carpenter from Nazareth, nailed to a piece of wood.

For 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.

I am convinced.

AMEN.