Have you ever had this experience? You are caught up in a great debate, or maybe it's a discussion of some issue. You are quite sure you are right; you know, you just know, that what you think is the right way, and here you are, arguing your point. With power and passion you get right up to the climax, and suddenly, you're stuck for a word. The right word. It just will not come, no matter how hard you try, it will not come to you; and by the time you think of a synonym, the moment is gone and the argument is lost. Ever have that experience? You lawyer types, did you ever have that happen to you in the courtroom?
I remember my father getting to that point lots of times, usually when he was trying to tell me how I should be doing something or maybe how I'd already messed up. "Look, look, you've got to watch what you do with that, that, that thing, you know, that, whatchamacallit, that thingamabob … oh, you know." Of course, I did know, and I sort of hate to admit it now, but I never would tell him the word he was groping for. I'd just pretend that I didn't understand a thing, not a thing, and of course could not be expected to perform the task until he got the right word out!
Sometimes words fail us, don't they? As much as the preacher hates to admit it, words don't solve everything. Just being able to say something does not always get at the heart of what needs to happen, because so often we cannot come up with what we want to say.
Several years ago I was asked to meet a student who was arriving at our campus. Missionaries on Okinawa had contacted us and asked us to look after Minoru, who would be coming to our town on the Greyhound Bus just in time for the opening of the semester. So we went to the bus stop and waited; it was not hard to spot Minoru, because you don't see lots of Japanese folks in eastern Kentucky small towns. I went up to him as he left the bus, stuck out my hand, and said, "Hello, you must be Minoru, I'm Joe Smith and I was asked to meet you." I expected some sort of answer, just the usual pleasantries; but what I got was a blank stare, then he pulled a little book out of his coat pocket: flip, flip, flip through the pages. He stopped at one page, studied it a moment, looked up and grinned, and said, "Hello". I knew we were in trouble then! When you even have to look up in your Japanese-English dictionary the way to say hello you are in trouble, words fail. Words. Fail. By the way, this student did have to take a crash course in English, and it was tough, but he finished college, he went on to seminary, and is now a missionary. So even when words fail, we do sometimes overcome.
My point is very simple, though; there are times, many times, when we are not equipped to say what we want to say. There are many times when what we need and want to say to one another is just not something you can put into words. My wife is one of those intuitive creatures who can size up other people in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. But then she will say to me, "I can't explain it, all I know is there's something wrong with that guy.” If you get to know her, watch out, by the way! She will take your measurements!
But again, there are times when what we want to say and what we feel about one another cannot be put into words. Words fail. And at a deeper level, there are times when what we want to say, ought to say, to our God cannot be put into words either. There are times when we know we need to pray, we must pray, but the words do not come. There seems to be no way to express what is in our hearts.
You've been running along at top speed for months, you've worked hard, you've played hard, you've done everything with a frantic sort of' intensity. And you know you are tired. You know you need to unburden to the Father. But somehow you cannot concentrate your attention on prayer, somehow the mind keeps running off in a thousand different directions. You need to pray, you want to pray, but words fail. What then? What do you do then?
You've been trying to manage a relationship, and it isn't going particularly well. You've got a tiger by the tail, as the saying goes, and this other person is about to bite! If you could turn this relationship over to the Lord, if you could seek the guidance of the Lord, maybe it would be different, but every time you seek to pray about it you find that it's all confused. It's jumbled. It's not coherent. You try to talk to God but all you can do is to hear the strident voice of this broken relationship. And words fail. What do you do? If you cannot even pull yourself together enough to pray your way through the tangled web of human interaction, then what is left? What is left when words fail?
To this question the Scriptures have a remarkable answer. God Himself in the person of the Spirit prays for us, in us, with us. What happens when words fail? God prays to God! "The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."
I want you to see here something of the compassion of God. God so loves us that he helps us ask for what we need, he helps us express what we really want, even when we are not able to do it for ourselves. God loves us so much that he helps us deal with our deep needs even when we ourselves do not know what we need.
Every now and again I get involved in writing grant proposals of one kind or another. And when you write a proposal for a grant of money, you need to know, if you can, what the group giving out the money is willing to give for. You need to know what they can and will respond to. Well, when you are working in the dark, you may ask for something that is perfectly legitimate, but if it isn't said just the right way, if it doesn't have the right touch to it, it may fail. But what if somebody from the foundation you're applying to says, "Well, I think that what you have in mind is good, but now let me help you say it the right way. Let me tell you what you should put in your letter to me, and this will help your cause." When that happens, you feel as though you've really been helped; someone on the inside has understood you, has affirmed you, and wants to help you do what has to be done.
That's what I hear in this remarkable scripture. God cares about us so much, God cares about who we are and what we need so much, that he will enter into our minds and hearts and he will help us pray as we ought, even when we do not know what to say. When words fail, he steps in and virtually it is God praying to God, for us and through us. The Spirit who searches the hearts of men knows what is in our minds but knows also what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints. When words fail, depend on the Spirit of God to know who you are anyway. When words fail, depend on the Spirit of God to get at the very core of your being and to bring you through. When words fail, relax, let the Spirit Himself speak. When words fail, let go of your anxiety, let go of your fear that you are not heard, and simply trust the Spirit of the Living God to represent you Himself.
You see, there are times when words fail, and when words do not do the job anyway. There are times when what we feel, deep down inside, cannot be conveyed best by words anyway.
Find a person who is grieving over a great loss, and you will discover that words fail to give much comfort. But put your arms around those heaving shoulders, and you will communicate compassion. Words are not always the best way to communicate the deep things of the Spirit.
You have some young people in this church who can light up half the universe when they smile at you, and I tell you, that is all the greeting, all the welcome I need. I do not need a torrent of teenage talk to let me know I am welcome. Words are not half as good as the face that shares welcome and joy. Words are not always the best way to communicate, not when you are dealing with the deeper things of the spirit.
Come the 20th of May my wife and I will have been married for 25 years. We look forward to a day of celebration and of remembering. But, you know, we no longer have to say everything in words. A look across the room can sometimes get it done. A look that can say, I love you; a glance that can say, Are you sure you know what you're talking about? A look that communicates, because words are not always the best way to communicate when you are dealing with the deepest things of the human spirit.
And so to this Table we come, and here the words are few. Here the Spirit of the Lord asks us to taste and touch and see and smell, for here the Spirit is touching us in the deep places, and it may be that words fail. Here we are struggling in our own souls with how we can come before this one who has done it all for us; but in the end he asks us not so much for words, not for speeches, not for intellectual rigor. He asks us for an open heart. He asks us for a broken and a contrite heart, and for an open spirit, for here at this Table among these symbols of bread and wine he will intercede for us with sighs too deep for words. Here at this Table, ask not to understand with words and ideas how the body could be broken for you; just allow the spirit to bring home that truth for you. Here at this Table, ask not to know how the spilling of his blood so many years ago could suffice for your sins; simply know the compassion of God, the God who prays to God, and know that he who searches the hearts of men this morning, knows what its in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes.
Words may fail, yes. But at this Table, the Spirit will not fail.
