" ... with sighs too deep for words ... " (Romans 8:26b)

"Hiking Into The Mist Above Jewel Basin"
Photo by Cathy Christopherson (July 2020)

​​​​"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" (Romans 8:26).

​​​In the misty ambiguity and anxiety created by the pandemic that’s been "hanging in the air" for several months, these words of St. Paul speak to our hearts with a striking solidarity. For such is our time as well, a time marked with “sighs too deep for words…” A time when we fail to find words that can carry the heavy freight of various struggles. A time when we simply collapse, as we come to the end of ourselves. A time when something deep down in our soul beckons us to pray, but we don’t even know where to begin.   

And what a shock it is to hear that even the esteemed St. Paul himself confesses times when he does not know how to pray! For we think that ease and fluency at prayer comes with great spiritual achievement and intense faith. But here, one of Christendom’s greatest representatives says he finds it impossible to pray as he ought.

However, let us not presume that silence is bad or that it means nothing is happening. For in the very silence that surrounded his death, Jesus became the best possible companion for those whose prayers do not seem to be answered … just hanging there on the cross, in thin air. Paradoxically, silence is as much a sign of God’s presence as of God’s absence. Divine silence is not a vacuum to be filled but a mystery to be entered—unarmed with words and undistracted by noise.  It is then—oft’ in our silenced failures—with the interceding of the Holy Spirit—that we are in the best position … on our knees … for true worship!

And so, in the heavy mist of our times, clouded by “sighs to deep for words” … let me leave you with a profound insight by Max Picard … until we are joined together once more in worship, in the interceding Spirit of him who calms our fears: “Be still/silent and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

“Silence is the central place of faith where we give the Word back to God from whom we first received it.  Surrendering the Word, we surrender the medium of our creation. We ‘unsay’ ourselves, voluntarily returning to the source of our being, where we must trust God to say us once again.”  (Max Picard; The World of Silence, p.34)  

“Spirit of God, descend upon our hearts …”  (ELW #800)

Pastor John