when we cry
May 27, 2018
Romans 8:12-17
I’ve done this once before and feel like today presents us another time when it feels appropriate. So, if you don’t mind I would like each of you to close your eyes for a minute.
Now, keeping your eyes closed, I want you to consider this question, “What is the first thing you see when you think of someone, anyone, crying?” Now you can open your eyes, but I have a few follow-up questions and if we were in a small group, study like environment, I could see us discussing theses questions, but for now I just want to throw them out there as food for thought. Who knows, maybe some of you will discuss them later. So here goes:
Did you actually see someone crying?
Did you see tears?
Did you see them immediately or did it take some time?
Was the person you saw, You or did you see someone else?
Did you know the person?
Were they happy or were they sad?
Were they by themselves or surrounded by others?
And trust me, I could go on and on, but I wouldn’t ever do that to you. As we move forward today my hope is that some of these questions I ask will become relevant to today’s scripture because there was one part of one sentence that caught my attention. It was that one part of one sentence that drove me to start our today in this way. It was that one part of one sentence that caused me to ask you these questions. And all of this began, for me, this past Friday morning as I sat at a local watering whole eating my breakfast and sitting with today’s scripture. Like so many times before, as I sat with the text, something within the text caught my eye. Actually, I would say it leapt off the page this time. “When we cry…” And almost as soon as that phrase jumped off the page I reached for a packet of jelly to put on my next piece of toast. Thinking I had grabbed my standard Smucker’s Concord Grape Jelly Packet, I’m sure you know the one I’m talking about. It’s always looked just like the picture you see on the screens now. Well I pulled back that little foil cover and began spreading it on the piece of toast. Then something caused me to look back at that now rolled up foil cover and that is when I noticed I was spreading Smucker’s Seedless Blackberry Jam (show next slide), not Concord Grape Jelly. And while this may not mean anything to you, I had an instant connection to that one part of that one sentence in today’s scripture – “When we cry…”
Now, I’m sure it comes as no shock to you that tears surfaced and welled up in my eyes. And yes, such a scene, me sitting in a local restaurant by myself, reading or typing, with tears welling up in my eyes is really not that rare. In fact, I fully and completely embrace this part of who I am and not because I’ve come to accept that there is nothing I can do about outwardly showing my emotions. Rather I fully and completely embrace it because each time I am touched in such a way I am reminded that I am alive. I am reminded that I feel. I am reminded that, unlike The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, I have a heart.
I can tell you this though, outwardly displaying your emotions has not always been easy and definitely has not always served me well. I recall when I first started practicing law and a fellow attorney said he worried about me because as he said, “from the first moment anyone sees you they know how you are feeling and that can sometimes make life hard.” He went on, “It can leave you exposed to attacks and vulnerable to others whose only goal is to manipulate any and every situation in their own selfish favor.” His words of concern have stayed with me, and as much as I’ve tried over the years to hide my feelings, or run away from them, I’ve never succeeded at either. So, at this point in my life I embrace these parts of who I am. In fact, I’ve even learn how to counsel those I love and care about on how critically important it is for them to fully and completely embrace each and every aspect of themselves, especially their emotions.
By now you may be wondering what it was about Smucker’s Seedless Blackberry Jam that instantly connected me to the phrase “When We Cry…” Well that all has to do with my Dad. You see, his favorite thing to spread on his morning toast, or those special occasions where instead of toast we might eat those little refrigerator biscuits in the can that explode out when you peel back the label, was Smucker’s Seedless Blackberry Jam. Funny thing is, I’ve known this about him my whole life and never really thought that much about it until last Friday morning. How in the world did I mistakenly pickup my Dad’s favorite Jam immediately after “When We Cry…” leapt of the page?
Most everyone here knows how emotional I can get about my Dad. Here’s the thing, though, that connection between “When We Cry…”, Smucker’s Blackberry Jam and my Dad was something altogether different than simply crying. Knowing who I am, crying or tearing up is a logical conclusion for these type of situations, but that’s me. That’s who I am and I could more easily understand if that one part of that one sentence read “When I Cry…”, but this one – “When We Cry…” isn’t just about just me, its more communal than that, and while I know there are others like me I also know many people avoid crying at all costs. Yet in this one part of one sentence, everyone is included in the act of crying as though crying is built into the human condition itself.
************************************
You see, when I read this part of Paul’s letter to the Romans it makes me think that Paul knew something about being fully human, and what it might take for all humanity to experience it. Something that some of us do our dead level best to ignore.
It makes me think Paul knew something about the Human Condition itself… Something that some of us have been taught to run away from instead of embrace.
It makes me think Paul knew that to be human is to experience and embrace moments of crying. And yes, while I recognize that in this particular part of this particular sentence Paul may not be writing about actual tears, my overall sense is that he is writing about what it means to be fully human and crying out for help… crying out for guidance… crying out for direction is central to that. It’s as though Paul couldn’t picture a community of people unable to cry… unable to cry out. And why would he because the one both Paul and his intended audience claimed to follow sure did it. The one who they were looking to as the model for their own life didn’t shy away from crying out “Abba, Father…”
This letter to the Romans, like the Apostle Paul’s other letters, is an instrument of moral instruction and exhortation. We know Paul’s intended audience was the community of believers in the city of Rome – believers, whom to that point Paul had never met. This particular letter is unique in that contains the longest and most complex sustained argument in any of Paul’s letters. This letter, a letter written to people he had never met, is actually written in a way, I believe, that makes you think he knows them. At least in this one part of this one sentence Paul and these people he had never met are connected. He doesn’t write “When I cry…” To write in that way would make Paul’s understanding of life and his emotions and responses to those emotions unique and different. Instead he writes, “When We Cry…” and for me that subtle choice lets me know I’m not alone. It lets me know I’m not different. It lets me know I’m OK. It lets me know I can and should embrace all of me. Maybe Paul’s use of the communal “WE” instead of the singular “I” helped his Roman audience know this too.
****************************
The beauty of all of this is that sometimes all it takes is one part of one sentence to open our eyes to a whole new way of seeing. A whole new way of understanding. Not just ourselves but others and when that whole new way of seeing and understanding lets you know how much more alike you are, then I believe you get a glimpse of God’s Kingdom.
The latest example of this in my own life happened this past Friday morning as I sat in a local watering whole spreading what I thought was Concord Grape Jelly, but turned out to be Seedless Blackberry Jam while reading “When We Cry…” It opened my eyes to a world that embraced the human condition of crying out… It opened my eyes to a world where crying out is what we do when we don’t know what else to do… It opened my eyes to a better and deeper understanding that to be human is to cry out and thanks be to God for those moments.
Amen!
Romans 8:12-17
I’ve done this once before and feel like today presents us another time when it feels appropriate. So, if you don’t mind I would like each of you to close your eyes for a minute.
Now, keeping your eyes closed, I want you to consider this question, “What is the first thing you see when you think of someone, anyone, crying?” Now you can open your eyes, but I have a few follow-up questions and if we were in a small group, study like environment, I could see us discussing theses questions, but for now I just want to throw them out there as food for thought. Who knows, maybe some of you will discuss them later. So here goes:
Did you actually see someone crying?
Did you see tears?
Did you see them immediately or did it take some time?
Was the person you saw, You or did you see someone else?
Did you know the person?
Were they happy or were they sad?
Were they by themselves or surrounded by others?
And trust me, I could go on and on, but I wouldn’t ever do that to you. As we move forward today my hope is that some of these questions I ask will become relevant to today’s scripture because there was one part of one sentence that caught my attention. It was that one part of one sentence that drove me to start our today in this way. It was that one part of one sentence that caused me to ask you these questions. And all of this began, for me, this past Friday morning as I sat at a local watering whole eating my breakfast and sitting with today’s scripture. Like so many times before, as I sat with the text, something within the text caught my eye. Actually, I would say it leapt off the page this time. “When we cry…” And almost as soon as that phrase jumped off the page I reached for a packet of jelly to put on my next piece of toast. Thinking I had grabbed my standard Smucker’s Concord Grape Jelly Packet, I’m sure you know the one I’m talking about. It’s always looked just like the picture you see on the screens now. Well I pulled back that little foil cover and began spreading it on the piece of toast. Then something caused me to look back at that now rolled up foil cover and that is when I noticed I was spreading Smucker’s Seedless Blackberry Jam (show next slide), not Concord Grape Jelly. And while this may not mean anything to you, I had an instant connection to that one part of that one sentence in today’s scripture – “When we cry…”
Now, I’m sure it comes as no shock to you that tears surfaced and welled up in my eyes. And yes, such a scene, me sitting in a local restaurant by myself, reading or typing, with tears welling up in my eyes is really not that rare. In fact, I fully and completely embrace this part of who I am and not because I’ve come to accept that there is nothing I can do about outwardly showing my emotions. Rather I fully and completely embrace it because each time I am touched in such a way I am reminded that I am alive. I am reminded that I feel. I am reminded that, unlike The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, I have a heart.
I can tell you this though, outwardly displaying your emotions has not always been easy and definitely has not always served me well. I recall when I first started practicing law and a fellow attorney said he worried about me because as he said, “from the first moment anyone sees you they know how you are feeling and that can sometimes make life hard.” He went on, “It can leave you exposed to attacks and vulnerable to others whose only goal is to manipulate any and every situation in their own selfish favor.” His words of concern have stayed with me, and as much as I’ve tried over the years to hide my feelings, or run away from them, I’ve never succeeded at either. So, at this point in my life I embrace these parts of who I am. In fact, I’ve even learn how to counsel those I love and care about on how critically important it is for them to fully and completely embrace each and every aspect of themselves, especially their emotions.
By now you may be wondering what it was about Smucker’s Seedless Blackberry Jam that instantly connected me to the phrase “When We Cry…” Well that all has to do with my Dad. You see, his favorite thing to spread on his morning toast, or those special occasions where instead of toast we might eat those little refrigerator biscuits in the can that explode out when you peel back the label, was Smucker’s Seedless Blackberry Jam. Funny thing is, I’ve known this about him my whole life and never really thought that much about it until last Friday morning. How in the world did I mistakenly pickup my Dad’s favorite Jam immediately after “When We Cry…” leapt of the page?
Most everyone here knows how emotional I can get about my Dad. Here’s the thing, though, that connection between “When We Cry…”, Smucker’s Blackberry Jam and my Dad was something altogether different than simply crying. Knowing who I am, crying or tearing up is a logical conclusion for these type of situations, but that’s me. That’s who I am and I could more easily understand if that one part of that one sentence read “When I Cry…”, but this one – “When We Cry…” isn’t just about just me, its more communal than that, and while I know there are others like me I also know many people avoid crying at all costs. Yet in this one part of one sentence, everyone is included in the act of crying as though crying is built into the human condition itself.
************************************
You see, when I read this part of Paul’s letter to the Romans it makes me think that Paul knew something about being fully human, and what it might take for all humanity to experience it. Something that some of us do our dead level best to ignore.
It makes me think Paul knew something about the Human Condition itself… Something that some of us have been taught to run away from instead of embrace.
It makes me think Paul knew that to be human is to experience and embrace moments of crying. And yes, while I recognize that in this particular part of this particular sentence Paul may not be writing about actual tears, my overall sense is that he is writing about what it means to be fully human and crying out for help… crying out for guidance… crying out for direction is central to that. It’s as though Paul couldn’t picture a community of people unable to cry… unable to cry out. And why would he because the one both Paul and his intended audience claimed to follow sure did it. The one who they were looking to as the model for their own life didn’t shy away from crying out “Abba, Father…”
This letter to the Romans, like the Apostle Paul’s other letters, is an instrument of moral instruction and exhortation. We know Paul’s intended audience was the community of believers in the city of Rome – believers, whom to that point Paul had never met. This particular letter is unique in that contains the longest and most complex sustained argument in any of Paul’s letters. This letter, a letter written to people he had never met, is actually written in a way, I believe, that makes you think he knows them. At least in this one part of this one sentence Paul and these people he had never met are connected. He doesn’t write “When I cry…” To write in that way would make Paul’s understanding of life and his emotions and responses to those emotions unique and different. Instead he writes, “When We Cry…” and for me that subtle choice lets me know I’m not alone. It lets me know I’m not different. It lets me know I’m OK. It lets me know I can and should embrace all of me. Maybe Paul’s use of the communal “WE” instead of the singular “I” helped his Roman audience know this too.
****************************
The beauty of all of this is that sometimes all it takes is one part of one sentence to open our eyes to a whole new way of seeing. A whole new way of understanding. Not just ourselves but others and when that whole new way of seeing and understanding lets you know how much more alike you are, then I believe you get a glimpse of God’s Kingdom.
The latest example of this in my own life happened this past Friday morning as I sat in a local watering whole spreading what I thought was Concord Grape Jelly, but turned out to be Seedless Blackberry Jam while reading “When We Cry…” It opened my eyes to a world that embraced the human condition of crying out… It opened my eyes to a world where crying out is what we do when we don’t know what else to do… It opened my eyes to a better and deeper understanding that to be human is to cry out and thanks be to God for those moments.
Amen!
