“Finding Our Breath” Romans 8: 26-30; 38-39

This is going to be an interactive sermon right from the beginning. I want you to take a deep breathe in and then let it out. Go ahead. 

We go through our entire days breathing - yet we rarely think about it. Unless we are struggling to catch our breath, struggling to breathe. Then we think about it all the time. Around this time last year I came down with the respiratory version of the flu for the first time I’ve ever remembered. It was hard to breathe. A labor. And I thought about it all the time - how to make myself breathe. How to get air into my lungs. 

While many of us wake up every day and don’t think about breathing, for the early church it was vital to who they were. In Hebrew the word for Spirit and breath are one in the same, Ruach. In Greek, it’s the same way - wind, Spirit, and breath all are one word, pneuma. Back to the very beginning of our faith and the Bible, we proclaim that God breathed life into us. In fact, when we celebrate communion, one of the things that we often say is:  “From the dust of the earth you formed us in your image, and breathed into us the very breath of life.”

But for those early Christians it was more than just a saying - it was what they counted on. That the breath of God was what created them and that it was the breath of God that sustained them, in good times and in bad times. But how often do we pause to truly think that it is the breath of God that is within us today? How often do we proclaim that it is the Spirit of God that sustains us?

Romans is a dense and beautiful scripture. Paul is writing to the church in Rome to try to explain to them something that is central to our faith - salvation. Specifically the salvation that is offered through Jesus Christ alone. By the time we get to the eighth chapter, Paul is preaching about the assurance of salvation. Specifically the hope that only comes through salvation. 

And yet, I am a firm believer that Paul was not one to waste words, and he was probably writing this section of the letter because he heard that folks in the church in Rome were having questions. Questions about salvation. Questions about what could separate them from God. 

Why may there be questions? Because while we proclaim to have certainty in hope as a people of faith, sometimes it can seem hidden. Sometimes, especially when we are going through a time of deep suffering or sorrow, hope can seem hidden. So what then?

When I was in college, I went through a time when I found it hard to pray. I wanted desperately to pray, to put words to what I was feeling and experiencing, yet, I just couldn’t. I distinctly remember asking one of my friends if there was something wrong with me, some reason that I could not pray - and that person brought up this scripture in Romans - the Spirit helps us in our weakness. And the Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. 

Have you ever been there, friends? Have you ever been in that place where you want to pray, but you just can’t. Or can’t put words to what you are going through? Paul tells us even then that the Spirit is listening to us and is interceding on our behalf. 

Suffering is something that is hard for us to wrap our minds around. And to be honest with you, I have heard a lot of poor theology around suffering over the years. But here’s what I know about suffering - we do not suffer alone. And God is not absent even when we go through the darkest night. While it may seem like everything gets stripped away from us in seasons of suffering and sorrow - our hope is this - Christ remains. Even if everything else seems like it is changing Christ remains. 

If we are really honest with ourselves, life can be hard. Sometimes every day can seem like a struggle. But Paul is proclaiming that even when we feel like that the Spirit is interceding and nothing can undo the love that God has for us. Nothing. In fact, we know that the love of God is present and real because God didn’t even withhold his own son from suffering, all for our sake. 

Whenever we feel like God is absent, all we need to do is breath and know that the breath of God is within us. Let’s take another breath together and be reminded of the Spirit of God in this place. 

In fact, for ancient Israel, the very name of God reminded them of breath. The name of God was so sacred to them that they didn’t say it out loud. Yahweh. Yod. Heh. Vav. Heh. The sound of breathing. 

But the question for me is are we sharing that breath with the world? Are we sharing the word of God? Are we sharing the proclamation that its not about what you say when you pray, its about where your heart is at? Have we been telling people about the love of God?

A few years ago there was a popular Christian video series named Nooma in which Pastor Rob Bell would unpack big topics in ways that people could understand. One of the videos he made was called “Breathe” and in it he said this “When you let God in, when you breathe, what happens is that you become aware of all the things you need to leave behind, everything you need to let go of.”

Sounds a lot like Lent does it not? During this season we pick up spiritual practices and set aside things that block us from God. Its the season where we ask God to search our hearts. But we need to make space to do that. We need to make space to breathe. 

In the spirit of picking up spiritual practices during Lent, I want to take a moment to talk about the ways we pray this evening. There are lots of ways to pray, though we often gravitate towards the way that we were taught. So I want to shake things up this evening. Maybe this is something you already do or maybe this is completely new to you - but one way to pray is called a “breath prayer”. A breath prayer is one that you say as you inhale and exhale. 

Lets get ourselves ready - Breathe in. Breathe out. Let the breath move through you. Sometimes people use specific words when they do breath prayers. Other times as they focus on their breath, they let the Spirit intercede for them. For me one of the breath prayers I have been doing is “deep and wide.” The image that I have been given for this year is to go deep with the Spirit and wide in reaching out to others. Deep and wide. What is the word or phrase you can pray as you focus on your breath? What are the sighs of the Spirit for in your life?

Here’s the thing - we need breath.Without it we perish. But we also need the Spirit. Because without it we spiritually die. When we cut ourselves off from the Spirit by failing to breath, failing to listen - we won’t be in a place where we are spiritually nourished and strengthened to walk beside others, remind them that God is not absent, but as present as our next breath. 

Let me conclude with part of the benediction from the Nooma video “Breathe” - “As you slow down, may you become aware that it is in ‘Yod,’ ‘Heh,’ “Vav,’ ‘Heh’ that we live and we move and we breathe.” Amen.