Sharing the Spirit’s Groanings
- davidwperk
- Jul 8, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 8, 2024
Devotional Reflection, Monday, July 8, 2024
Proper 9, the week of the seventh Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
You will find the full text of today’s epistle reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 975)
AM Psalm 1, 2, 3; PM Psalm 4, 7 Num. 32:1-6,16-27; Rom. 8:26-30; Matt. 23:1-12
Today we celebrate the Feast of Priscilla and Aquila. (See below.)
David’s Reflections
The verses prior to today’s reading paint vivid images of the creation groaning together and suffering together like a woman in labor. Paul interprets suffering, death, and decay as divine labor pains before the birth of new creation, a creative reframing of suffering. The key phrase occurs in verse 22, “the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now.”
I find this a powerful and poignant feminine image of God sharing in the suffering of creation as a woman groaning in labor for new creation to be born. (You can see the interconnectedness of the groanings if you read Rom.8:22-26. In verse 26, the Spirit groans.) And we ourselves, as God’s children, share in that groaning and suffering, awaiting the resurrection and that rebirth of creation. In verse 26, Paul says that the sufferings are so intense and the struggle so profound that we cannot verbalize in prayer the painful existence in which we share.
The Holy Spirit, who lives within us, expresses those unutterable groanings in prayers that go beyond words. The NRSV translates “sighs” in this verse, the noun form of a verb that the translators have consistently rendered as “groan” in previous verses. However the newly published revision of the new Revised Standard Version returns to the better translation of the word stenagmoi as “groans” rather than “sighs, in synch with the King James, The New American Standard, the Good News Bible, and the New International Version.
The Spirit shares in our groaning? Perhaps the Spirit also sparks our groaning by groaning within us. Could it be that God’s own suffering, God’s agony over a creation gone awry, sparks our agony? Could it be that the Spirit invites us into the experience of sharing in at least a bit of God’s suffering? Could it be that the distress we feel over the plight of people and of the creation has its beginnings in God?
Some find a reference to ecstatic speech here, the experience that some have of prayers offered in a language they do not understand. Paul does discuss prayers in unknown languages, or speaking in tongues, in 1 Corinthians 12-14 and 2 Corinthians 5. It may well be that one of the ways the Spirit’s unutterable words find expression is in ecstatic prayer. We also could understand the Spirit’s presence and activity underlying the deep groanings that arise within us over illness, natural disaster, innocent suffering, or any dark expression of human evil and violence. The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted such responses in us. Dare we understand our agony over this as a small share in God’s suffering?
Episcopal theologian and priest Sarah Coakley has a unique view of these verses. The Holy Spirit here, according to Coakley, incorporates us into the Trinitarian life of God in our experience of the Holy Spirit in prayer. It is our sharing in that Trinitarian life of God that brings us into the direct experience of God’s groaning over creation.+
What an image this section of Romans presents—a creation in the grip of the labor pains of suffering and death and God sharing in those pains with us. Ultimately, God will give birth, out of the chaos, to a new creation, free of pain, suffering, and death. Into that hope we continue to live and to that hope we continue to cling.
As Theodore Roethke put it in the last three lines of his poem “The Pure Fury”:
I live near the abyss. I hope to stay
Until my eyes look at a brighter sun
As the thick shade of the long night comes on.*
+Sarah Coakley, “The Trinity and Gender Reconsidered.” p. 139-140 , in God’s Life in Trinity. (Fortress, 2006).
*The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966), p. 134.
Collect of the Day, Proper 9, the week of the seventh Sunday after Pentecost O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to your with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 230-31)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Priscilla and Aqula, coworkers with the Apostle Paul.
Collect of the Feast of Piscilla and Aquila
God of grace and might, who gave to your servants Aquila and Priscilla gifts of zeal and eloquence to make known the truth of the Gospel: Raise up, we pray, in every country, heralds and evangelists of your kingdom, so that the world may know the immeasurable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A Collect for the Renewal of Life
O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)
A Prayer for Seeing Others as Community
Gracious God, thank you for the diversity of human beings that surround me on every side. In the ideas, in the hopes, in the dreams, and in the struggles of those who share this earthly life, let me find that through a community of human beings I am made fuller and more alive. Let the fullness given by community give me the courage to offer my own unique self with humility to the lives of others. As we all share in the life that you have so graciously given us, may we be the lights of your love to one another. Amen. Copyright ©1999-2007 explorefaith.org
In the Evening
O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen. (BCP, 833)
A Collect for Mission
O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100, 257)
Daily Office Epistle, Romans 8:26-30
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 30And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Daily Offices in the Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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