Know This Thing

There are a rather enormous number of things I don’t know. This is one of the gifts of being “not young” anymore. Not knowing things is something that has gone from being a source of insecurity in my youth to a great comfort in my not-young-ness. A lot of you still think you know all the things… Things about a guy named Trump whom you haven’t met. Things about a guy named Biden whom you’ve never met. Things about why that person says those things that way. You even know why I said Trump first and not Biden (totally because my computer is running that Dominion Software algorithm that everybody is talking about.) You are absolutely certain about the real dangers of the Corona Virus, so much so that you are willing to abandon many of the things God has given us, like worshipping with God’s people, warm hospitality and the nearness of friends. Or, you know its all a hoax - a very complex ruse and there’s no need to risk anything.

All this knowing about all these things runs up against Romans 8:26. Here Paul does something rather mean. He calls all of us “weak.” Its not a very sensitive calling out, but it gets a bit worse. You see, he then goes on to say that we don’t even know what we should pray for. His assertion is that you and I are weak and that this weakness is clearly seen, mind you, not in the fact that we must pray and ask for God’s help. No, our weakness is seen in that we don’t even know what we’re supposed to ask God for in the first place. In other words, we’re super weak. Normal weak is recognizing that you can’t do something and getting help from someone stronger. Super weak is not even knowing what you need help with. In other words, Paul says that we don’t know what we don’t know. 

I find this to be a marvelous antidote to all our human knowing here in this Information Age. We have access to more data, more opinions, more expert testimony than any other people in the history of mankind, and we don’t know what any of it actually means or what we’re supposed to do with it. And all the unknowing can create quite a bit of insecurity and devastating, society-wide anxiety. 

Paul then counters this with a declaration of something that the people of God do know. In the midst of this terrible unknowing, immersed in data, swimming in opinions, Paul points to a rock on which Christians (those he calls “God Lovers” and “Called” - what marvelous names!) are to stand. He says that even when we have no idea what to pray for, such that the Spirit of God just groans for us, we do know something. 

We know that God is at work in all things for our good. 

Let these words stick for you just a bit….

We know…

…all things…

…for our good.

And this isn’t meant to be some sort of sentimental truism pasted onto a coffee mug. He’s writing to a people that will be burning in Nero’s garden in a few years and watching their children ripped from their arms. In other words, it is meant to be a rock on which to build a life of unshakable trust in God and faithfulness to His words no matter the dangers or questions you face. Here is a truth that should lead us not merely into quiet, private pietism, but will lead these Christians in Rome into bold and courageous witness that will cost them their lives. Here is something to know when you don’t know anything else, and not knowing enough might cost you. Here is something to know when you are overwhelmed by your unknowing. God is at work for the good of the God-Lovers. God is moving everything (sometimes in very seemingly strange ways) for the Ones Whom He Has Called. 

Paul grounds our knowledge of this wonderful fact in 5 verbs - the stupidly controversial “chain of redemption.” God has Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, and Glorified us. God is the subject of these verbs in Romans 8. We are the objects of these verbs in Romans. 8. How do we know God is working in and through all these things happening around us for our good? Because God has done these things already. Here is not simply a rock on which to put our feet, but a place from which to discern and understand everything else that is happening around us and to us. Here is a description of what God has already done for us and to us so that we might worship Jesus and bear witness to Jesus and obey Jesus even in the face of a Nero and his soldiers.

May we all get really good at admitting what we don’t know. And may we cling to these things that we do know.

Oh… And go to church.