Too Deep for Words
May 19, 2024 The Day of Pentecost
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Acts 2:1-21 Romans 8:22-27
“Too Deep for Words”
Douglas T. King
I end most of my days sitting in my study, researching and reading. My cat, Sassparilla the Singing Gorilla, but you can call her Sass, will sit in the adjoining room and wait for me, sometimes patiently, sometimes not. When I get up, she will follow me into the bedroom, jump up on the bed, wait for me to climb in, and come beside me. Then she falls against me with her back to my chest, lays her head down on my outstretched arm, and lets out a deep sigh. I am not sure if she is sighing out of satisfaction and contentment; sighing out relief that the waiting is over; or sighing out of frustration that it has taken me so long to go to bed. Knowing cats, it could be all three. The sigh is such an underrated exhalation. Regardless of what Dooley Wilson, as Sam, sang so wistfully in the movie, Casablanca, a sigh is not just a sigh.
The National Library of Medicine teaches us this about sighs, “Sighs have important ventilatory functions as they lead to a maximal expansion of the lungs, which prevents the progressive collapse of alveoli...Sighs also restore lung compliance…and maintain normal lung function…Genetically engineered mice that are unable to sigh eventually die of major lung problems suggesting that sighs are essential for survival.”
The author, Salman Rushdie, speaks to sighs as the artist that he is, “A sigh isn’t just a sigh. We inhale the world and breathe out meaning. While we can. While we can.”
On Pentecost we traditionally focus our attention on louder things, on the book of Acts and the glorious cacophony of the disciples. They are filled with the Holy Spirit, simultaneously proclaiming God’s deeds of power in every language imaginable. We experience the Holy Spirit as a Broadway Musical, brash and bold and larger than life.
But the Book of Romans brings us word of the Spirit at work as well, though in an entirely different manner. Rather than the major chords of all of those simultaneous proclamations we learn of the Spirit playing a tune consisting of minor chords, “…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…”
Our texts this morning, from Acts and Romans, bring us word about how God is at work in this provisional time after Jesus has been resurrected and returned to the Godhead and before we are all gathered before God in resurrection victory. The Book of Acts gives us bold proclamations, preaching, preaching preaching! Can we ever really get enough? Yes, I am being facetious.
We look at this story as the birth of the church in the world. But I would argue to better encompass our understanding of the birth of the church we need to pair that Acts text with this Romans text. This Romans text acknowledges the challenge of living in this in-between time when we have been told God’s victory over death is for us all but we still find ourselves living in a world of death and so many other mortal limitations. The victory is not always all that easy for us to see, which is why the entire world groans with growing pains.
This text from Romans brings us another facet of who the church is called to be. Not only do we seek to proclaim the gospel. We also seek to turn to God together in prayer. Now there are many kinds of prayer. There is the Lord’s prayer which we pray every Sunday. We know it by heart. For generations we have prayed it. There is the prayer of confession when we admit to God, ourselves, and each other that we have fallen short of whom we were created to be and ask for God to forgive and transform us. There are the prayers worship leaders offer, thoughtful prayers that have been composed to offer to God thanksgiving, intercession and petition. Each and every one of these prayers finds its foundational existence in hope. As the text says, “Who hopes for what is seen?” We pray to a God that goes unseen. We pray for outcomes that have yet to be seen. And we pray with fervor and focus.
But these well-honed words do not plumb all the depths of what we need to express to God. Within each of us there is much that is beyond our ability to express. Yearnings we cannot begin to label or name. Heartaches that cannot be quantified. Even joy and gratitude that is deeper than our language will allow.
Over the years I have spoken with people who have worried that they might not know the correct way to pray. I have spoken to others who have had the mistaken thought that somehow clergy are better at praying to God than they are. Still others are in search of some magical formula for prayer, some secret sauce that will allow God to hear one’s prayers more clearly.
This text from Romans lays all of those fears aside. The book of Acts tells us the story of the Holy Spirit as the great translator, allowing every person to hear in their own language of the mighty deeds of God. In Romans we see the Holy Spirit as the great translator who ensures that everything we could ever possibly want or need to express to our God is expressed. This includes what even we might not know we need to express.
Have no fear, God hears our prayers, every last one of them. Prayers that are spoken and those prayed in silence, are heard by our God. Prayers of thanksgiving and frustration, recognition and confusion, prayers for ourselves and for others, one and all are heard by our God. Prayers we do not know we are praying but are rumbling up from us in places too deep for us to comprehend are heard by our God.
When you let out a sigh at the end of the day and you are not sure if it is one of weariness, or satisfaction, discontent or accomplishment, frustration or gratitude, or perhaps some complicated cocktail of all of the above, perhaps you do not need to understand it. What you can do is trust that God has heard every last nuance of what you are feeling. The Holy Spirit understands you better than you understand yourself. The Holy Spirit sighs with us and for us.
We heard of the biological imperative for sighs. The ways in which they serve to expand our lungs allowing us to breathe deeply and receive the oxygen we need to sustain ourselves. So, the sighs we share with the Spirit ensure our sustaining relationship with our God and allow our spirits to expand. Even in our darkest days when God may feel unknown to us, when we do not quite recognize ourselves or what we truly need, we need not worry. We are fully known to God.
Now if I could just figure out what my cat is trying to tell me.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Acts 2:1-21 Romans 8:22-27
“Too Deep for Words”
Douglas T. King
I end most of my days sitting in my study, researching and reading. My cat, Sassparilla the Singing Gorilla, but you can call her Sass, will sit in the adjoining room and wait for me, sometimes patiently, sometimes not. When I get up, she will follow me into the bedroom, jump up on the bed, wait for me to climb in, and come beside me. Then she falls against me with her back to my chest, lays her head down on my outstretched arm, and lets out a deep sigh. I am not sure if she is sighing out of satisfaction and contentment; sighing out relief that the waiting is over; or sighing out of frustration that it has taken me so long to go to bed. Knowing cats, it could be all three. The sigh is such an underrated exhalation. Regardless of what Dooley Wilson, as Sam, sang so wistfully in the movie, Casablanca, a sigh is not just a sigh.
The National Library of Medicine teaches us this about sighs, “Sighs have important ventilatory functions as they lead to a maximal expansion of the lungs, which prevents the progressive collapse of alveoli...Sighs also restore lung compliance…and maintain normal lung function…Genetically engineered mice that are unable to sigh eventually die of major lung problems suggesting that sighs are essential for survival.”
The author, Salman Rushdie, speaks to sighs as the artist that he is, “A sigh isn’t just a sigh. We inhale the world and breathe out meaning. While we can. While we can.”
On Pentecost we traditionally focus our attention on louder things, on the book of Acts and the glorious cacophony of the disciples. They are filled with the Holy Spirit, simultaneously proclaiming God’s deeds of power in every language imaginable. We experience the Holy Spirit as a Broadway Musical, brash and bold and larger than life.
But the Book of Romans brings us word of the Spirit at work as well, though in an entirely different manner. Rather than the major chords of all of those simultaneous proclamations we learn of the Spirit playing a tune consisting of minor chords, “…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…”
Our texts this morning, from Acts and Romans, bring us word about how God is at work in this provisional time after Jesus has been resurrected and returned to the Godhead and before we are all gathered before God in resurrection victory. The Book of Acts gives us bold proclamations, preaching, preaching preaching! Can we ever really get enough? Yes, I am being facetious.
We look at this story as the birth of the church in the world. But I would argue to better encompass our understanding of the birth of the church we need to pair that Acts text with this Romans text. This Romans text acknowledges the challenge of living in this in-between time when we have been told God’s victory over death is for us all but we still find ourselves living in a world of death and so many other mortal limitations. The victory is not always all that easy for us to see, which is why the entire world groans with growing pains.
This text from Romans brings us another facet of who the church is called to be. Not only do we seek to proclaim the gospel. We also seek to turn to God together in prayer. Now there are many kinds of prayer. There is the Lord’s prayer which we pray every Sunday. We know it by heart. For generations we have prayed it. There is the prayer of confession when we admit to God, ourselves, and each other that we have fallen short of whom we were created to be and ask for God to forgive and transform us. There are the prayers worship leaders offer, thoughtful prayers that have been composed to offer to God thanksgiving, intercession and petition. Each and every one of these prayers finds its foundational existence in hope. As the text says, “Who hopes for what is seen?” We pray to a God that goes unseen. We pray for outcomes that have yet to be seen. And we pray with fervor and focus.
But these well-honed words do not plumb all the depths of what we need to express to God. Within each of us there is much that is beyond our ability to express. Yearnings we cannot begin to label or name. Heartaches that cannot be quantified. Even joy and gratitude that is deeper than our language will allow.
Over the years I have spoken with people who have worried that they might not know the correct way to pray. I have spoken to others who have had the mistaken thought that somehow clergy are better at praying to God than they are. Still others are in search of some magical formula for prayer, some secret sauce that will allow God to hear one’s prayers more clearly.
This text from Romans lays all of those fears aside. The book of Acts tells us the story of the Holy Spirit as the great translator, allowing every person to hear in their own language of the mighty deeds of God. In Romans we see the Holy Spirit as the great translator who ensures that everything we could ever possibly want or need to express to our God is expressed. This includes what even we might not know we need to express.
Have no fear, God hears our prayers, every last one of them. Prayers that are spoken and those prayed in silence, are heard by our God. Prayers of thanksgiving and frustration, recognition and confusion, prayers for ourselves and for others, one and all are heard by our God. Prayers we do not know we are praying but are rumbling up from us in places too deep for us to comprehend are heard by our God.
When you let out a sigh at the end of the day and you are not sure if it is one of weariness, or satisfaction, discontent or accomplishment, frustration or gratitude, or perhaps some complicated cocktail of all of the above, perhaps you do not need to understand it. What you can do is trust that God has heard every last nuance of what you are feeling. The Holy Spirit understands you better than you understand yourself. The Holy Spirit sighs with us and for us.
We heard of the biological imperative for sighs. The ways in which they serve to expand our lungs allowing us to breathe deeply and receive the oxygen we need to sustain ourselves. So, the sighs we share with the Spirit ensure our sustaining relationship with our God and allow our spirits to expand. Even in our darkest days when God may feel unknown to us, when we do not quite recognize ourselves or what we truly need, we need not worry. We are fully known to God.
Now if I could just figure out what my cat is trying to tell me.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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