God of the Disinherited: A Sermon on Romans 8:31-39
Preached at Blue Ocean Faith Columbus on Sunday, September 28, 2025
Reminder: I never stick completely to my written sermon. This isn’t a transcript, but the written sermon I was using when I preached.
In his classic book, Jesus and the Disinherited, pastor, author, and theologian Howard Thurman asked, “Why is it that Christianity seems impotent to deal radically, and therefore effectively, with the issues of discrimination and injustice…?”[1] Christianity, particularly white mainstream Protestantism and Catholicism, has largely promoted a sanitized, peaceful, lily-white Jesus who is more akin to a stereotypical hippie than the Jesus who conquered death and beat back empire.
Last Sunday our country bore witness to one of the most public and well-choreographed demonstrations of white Christian nationalism and Christofascism. Featuring hours of contemporary Christian music from the likes of Brandon Lake, Chris Tomlin, Phil Wickam, Kari Jobe, and Cody Carnes, more than 110,000 people attended the funeral of slain conservative pundit Charlie Kirk. Speakers all but canonized Kirk as a martyr for the “Christian faith” and for “American values.” It was very clear that speakers and attendees positioned God on their side.
Today, Paul’s going to tell us about a God who doesn’t sit on the sidelines, who isn’t content to be neutral in a world full of injustice. We’re about to encounter the God who makes us uncomfortable. The God who takes sides. Listen for a word from God in Romans 8:31-39:
“What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or the sword? As it is written,
‘For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’
No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This is the word of God for the people of God.
I imagine that many of us were raised to view God as neutral. Sure, God was squarely on the side of Christians, perhaps just our group or tradition of Christianity, but where Christianity was involved, God was neutral. God didn’t take sides in politics, policy, who had the best casserole recipe at the church potluck, or even sports—except maybe Ohio State football. Many of us probably imagined God sitting in heaven either ignoring human (read: Christian) affairs or doing everything they could to stay out of human affairs. It was as if God shook their head and said, “Well, I love everybody equally, so I’m not taking sides in any of this messiness.”
That’s not the God we meet in Scripture. And that’s certainly not the God Paul is describing in Romans 8. Paul asks the crucial question: “If God is for us, who is against us?”
While Paul takes as settled fact that God is for us, there are many people and groups that claim God for themselves. The Christian nationalists speaking at Charlie Kirk’s funeral clearly and forcefully claimed that God was on the side of power and empire. That the eternal God of all creation chose the side of the powerful, the side of empire.
Many of us who identify as progressive Christians, while not asserting any exclusive claim to God, were horrified at this public display of Christofascism. When we say, “God is for us,” we have to ask: Who is “us?”
Repeat after me: “God takes sides!”
That’s right! God takes sides! Now, say “amen” if saying that makes you uncomfortable.
Say “amen” if you’d prefer to think that God loves everyone, infinitely and unconditionally.
Acknowledging that God takes sides doesn’t change the fact that God’s love is unconditional and infinite, but love, real love, is never neutral when it comes to justice.
Think about it this way: If you’re a parent and you see one of your children bullying another one of your children, do you stay neutral? Do you say, “Well, I love both of you equally, so I’m not getting involved?” Of course not! You step in. You protect the vulnerable one. You correct the harmful behavior. Love demands that you take sides.
Repeat after me: “Love demands that you take sides!”
Howard Thurman understood this. He wrote about a God who consistently, persistently, and relentlessly sides with those who have been pushed to the margins. He called these people the disinherited. BIPOC communities. LGBTQIA+ people. Immigrants. Women. The poor. The ones the world has written off.
When we look at Scripture; when we take the time to do our own survey of the text, we see this pattern everywhere:
· Genesis 16 – God hears the cry of Hagar, the spurned slave of Sarah who has fled her mistress’s rage
· Genesis 21 – God provides for Hagar and Ishmael in the wilderness after they have been cast out by Sarah and Abraham
· Exodus 3 – God delivers the Hebrews out of slavery
· Leviticus 19 – God commands the people to care for the poor and welcome the stranger
· 1 Samuel 2 – Hannah extolls God for exalting the poor and toppling the power structure
· 1 Kings 17 – God sustains the widow and child
· Psalm 146 – God brings justice to the oppressed
· Isaiah 58 – God declares that “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free…”
· Amos 5 – God demands righteousness and equity in the face of injustice
· Luke 1 – Echoing 1 Samuel 2, Mary declares the power and justice of God
· Luke 6 – Jesus preaches the Beatitudes
· Luke 10 – Jesus teaches the Parable of the Good Samaritan
· John 8 – Jesus refuses to condemn a woman caught in adultery and protects her from violence
· Acts 4 – The nascent community of believers share all that they have in common
· James 2 – James emphasizes God’s commitment to the marginalized
Repeat after me: “God takes sides!”
Liberation theology preaches about “God’s preferential option for the poor and marginalized.” We need to be careful to not think God plays favorites. God hasn’t arbitrarily selected some people to love more than others. Yet, God stands with those people who are crushed under the weight of greed and empire. In fact, God chose to reveal themselves as a marginalized person.
God consistently chose to stand with those being crushed by systems of oppression and exploitation. When the playing field isn’t level, love demands that you don’t stand in the middle; you go to the low side and start lifting.
Here’s an example of what this looks like in our world today. God takes sides when LGBTQIA+ young people are being kicked out of their homes, denied healthcare, or told they’re not worthy of love. God doesn’t say, “Well, I need to hear both sides of this debate about your humanity.” No! God stands with Queer people and says, “You are fearfully and wonderfully made, and nothing—NOTHING—will separate you from my love.”
Repeat after me: “God stands with the outcast!”
God takes sides when children are murdered in schools, when families are shattered by violence, when communities live in fear. God doesn’t sit on the fence saying, “Well, it’s complicated.” God weeps with the parents burying their children and demands: “Choose life! Choose policies that protect the vulnerable! Choose love over weapons!”
Repeat after me: “Choose love over weapons!”
God takes sides when people are denied the right to vote, when access to the ballot box is restricted based on zip code, access to IDs, and skin color. The God who liberated people from Egypt doesn’t shrug at voter suppression. God stands with every person waiting in line for hours to exercise their democratic rights.
Repeat after me: “God chooses justice!”
God takes sides with families are torn apart at borders and during raids, with children in cages, with immigrants demonized and dehumanized. The God who commanded us to “welcome the stranger” doesn’t suddenly develop amnesia about hospitality. God stands with every person seeking refuge, seeking safety, seeking a better life for their children.
Reflecting on Romans 8, we recognize that Paul doesn’t just tell us that God takes sides. He tells us what happens when God is on your side. “If God is for us, who is against us?” Paul isn’t being naïve here. He knows there are plenty of people against us. Plenty of systems against us. Plenty of powers and principalities that would love to crush the movement of God’s love in the world.
Paul essentially replies, “So what?” When God is on your side, the political calculus changes completely.
Listen to this again: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?” Paul’s not talking about minor inconveniences here. He’s talking about the worst things that can happen to human beings. And his answer is: “None of it. Not one bit of it can separate us from God’s love.”
Repeat after me: “Nothing can separate us from God!”
“Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature.” Paul’s covering all the bases here. He’s saying: I don’t care what comes at you from this world or the next, from heaven or hell, from the government or from mobs, from your past or your future. NOTHING has the power to cut you off from God’s love.
Friends, I want you to understand: This isn’t just a nice, comforting thought to make us feel better when life gets hard. This is a revolutionary declaration against every force that tries to convince people they are unloved, unworthy, or unwanted.
When a Queer person is told they’re an abomination, repeat after me: “Nothing can separate you from God’s love!”
When women and Trans people are denied legitimate medical care, repeat after me: “Nothing can separate you from God’s love!”
When people have to choose between paying rent or going to the doctor, repeat after me: “Nothing can separate you from God’s love!”
When an immigrant family fears deportation, repeat after me: “Nothing can separate you from God’s love!”
When a Black parent fears for their child’s safety, repeat after me: “Nothing can separate you from God’s love!”
When gun violence enters our schools and communities and when survivors of gun violence struggle with trauma, repeat after me: “Nothing can separate you from God’s love!”
Repeat after me again: “Nothing can separate you from God’s love!”
Now the New Revised Standard Version (Updated Edition) (NRSVUE) translation of the text we use here renders the 37th verse as: “No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.” You might be more familiar with this verse as it’s rendered in most other English translations: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (NIV). However we translate it, the important part is that we are “more:” more than victorious, more than conquerors.
A conqueror defeats their enemy and moves on. But someone who is MORE than a conqueror, who is more than victorious? They transform their enemy into a friend. They transform weapons into plowshares. They take the very forces that were meant to destroy them and use them to build something beautiful. Writing about love, Thurman says, “Every [person] is potentially every other [person’s] neighbor. Neighborliness is nonspatial; it is qualitative. A [person] must love [their] neighbor directly, clearly, permitting no barriers between.”[2]
That’s what happens when God takes your side. The systems meant to crush you become the platforms from which you proclaim freedom. The prisons meant to hold you silent become the places where you write your most powerful letters. The crosses meant to execute you become the symbols of resurrection.
But friends, I need you to understand something important: Just because God takes sides doesn’t mean the fight is easy. Just because God is for us doesn’t mean we won’t face hardship, distress, persecution, or violence. In fact, when you stand with God’s preferential option for the poor and marginalized, you should expect opposition. When you side with the disinherited, the privileged are going to push back. When you stand with the oppressed, the oppressors aren’t going to throw you a party.
Jesus never promised us a comfortable life. Jesus promised us an abundant life. “Jesus had to apply his love-ethic to the enemy—to the Roman, the ruler,” Thurman tells us. “This was the hardest task, because to tamper with the enemy was to court disaster. To hate him in any way that caused action was to invite the wrath of Rome. To love him was to be regarded as a traitor to Jesus’ own people, to Israel, and therefore to God.”[3] Sound familiar?
Jesus understood that sometimes abundance looks like having the courage to stand up when everyone else sits down. Sometimes abundance looks like speaking truth when everyone else stays silent. Sometimes abundance looks like loving people the world tells you to hate.
Repeat after me: “We choose the path of love!”
What does this mean for us, practically speaking, as we walk through the world today?
It means we stop pretending that neutrality is an option. When people’s lives are on the line, when people’s dignity is under attack, when people’s rights are being stripped away, neutrality is complicity.
Repeat after me: “Neutrality is complicity.”
It means we stop worrying about whether our faith is “too political” and start worrying about whether our politics are faithful enough.
It means we look at every policy, every law, every cultural norm through the lens of God’s preferential option: Does this lift up the disinherited, or does it keep them down? Does this protect the vulnerable, or does it give more power to those who already have too much?
It means we become the kind of church that LGBTQIA+ people run TO instead of FROM. The kind of church that undocumented families see as sanctuary, not threat. The kind of church that gun violence survivors know will fight for change, not offer empty thoughts and prayers.
Repeat after me: “We are God’s hands and feet!”
Are you tired? Does the work of justice seem like too much? Do you who wonder if our work matters, if any of this has an influence? Paul anticipated our weariness. That’s why he didn’t just tell us that God is on our side; he told us that nothing can separate us from that love. Not your failures. Not your doubts. Not your exhaustion. Not your fear.
Repeat after me: “Nothing can separate us from God’s love.”
The love of God in Christ Jesus is not contingent on your performance. It’s not dependent on your success. It’s not conditional on your ability to fix the world. God’s love for you and God’s commitment to justice, is even more permanent than the sunrise.
But there’s a flip side: Just because you can’t be separated from God’s love doesn’t mean you get to separate yourself from God’s mission. Just because your salvation is secure doesn’t mean you get to be comfortable while others suffer.
Friends, we serve a God who takes sides. We serve a God who has made a preferential option for the poor, the marginalized, and the disinherited. We serve a God whose love is so fierce, so unbreakable, so revolutionary that it can transform conquerors into healers and enemies into family.
And if that God is for us, if that God has chosen to stand with us and with all who are oppressed, then who can be against us? What force on earth or in hell has the power to stop the movement of God’s love in the world?
Nothing. No one. No system. No law. No government. No principality or power.
Repeat after me: “Nothing and no one!”
But here’s the catch: God’s preferential option isn’t just something we benefit from. It’s not a privilege on which we can rest content. No, God’s preferential option is something in which we participate. God doesn’t just take sides for us; God takes sides through us.
When we stand with the LGBTQIA+ community, we become the embodiment of God’s preferential option.
When we work for sensible gun reform, we become the hands and feet of God’s love.
When we fight for voting rights, we become the voice of God’s justice.
When we welcome the stranger, we become the arms of God’s embrace.
Repeat after me: “We are God’s preferential option in action!”
What would it look like if we truly believed that God is for us? What would it look like if we truly believed that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of God? What would it look like if we didn’t boast of having God on our side, but took that reality into the world for the benefit of all God’s people?
I think it would look like a church that’s dangerous to every system of oppression. A church that’s a threat to every structure of injustice. A church that makes powers and principalities nervous because we refuse to stay quiet when people are hurting.
I think it would look like people who are so secure in God’s love that they’re willing to risk everything for the sake of others. People who are so convinced of their belovedness that they can’t help but work to ensure everyone else knows they’re beloved too.
I think it would look like a community that embodies Thurman’s vision of the disinherited finding their voice, their power, their dignity in the God who sides with them against every force that would crush their spirits.
Church, we are living in times that demand this kind of fearless love. We are living in times when God’s preferential option for the poor and marginalized is under attack from every direction. We are living in times when the very people Jesus called blessed are being told they don’t matter.
Yet Paul’s words in Romans 8 cut through all of that like a sword: “If God is for us, who is against us?”
The God who created the universe, who spoke light into darkness, who raises the dead and calls into being the things that do not exist; that God is on the side of every person the world has written off.
That God is on the side of every child whose schools have become battlegrounds.
That God is on the side of every family torn apart by deportation.
That God is on the side of every person denied the right to vote.
That God is on the side of every Queer person told they’re not worthy of love or dignity.
That God is on the side of every woman denied bodily autonomy.
That God is on the side of “the masses of [people] with their backs constantly against the wall.”[4]
And if God is on their side, then we better be on their side too. Because that’s what it means to be the body of Christ. That’s what it means to be the church.
Repeat after me: “We stand where God stands!”
When you leave here today, carry with you the revolutionary truth of Romans 8. Carry with you the knowledge that the Creator of the universe has taken sides, and those sides are always with the vulnerable, the marginalized, the disinherited.
Let that truth make you bold. Let it make you brave. Let it make you dangerous to every system that profits from keeping people down.
But most importantly, let it make you loving. Because God’s preferential option for the poor isn’t about politics, it’s about love. God doesn’t side with the disinherited for power. God sides with the oppressed because God loves them.
And nothing can separate us from that love. Not hardship or distress. Not persecution or famine. Not humiliation or violence. Not death or life. Not angels or rulers. Not things present or things to come. Not powers or height or depth or any other creature. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Repeat after me: “Nothing can separate us from God’s love!”
Repeat after me: “And God’s love demands that we take sides!”
Church, go out into the world knowing that the God who created you, who redeemed you, who sustains you every moment of every day, who liberates you, has chosen to stand with you and with all who are oppressed.
Go out knowing that you are more than conquerors through the one who loves you.
Go out knowing that God takes sides and you get to be part of making sure God’s side wins.
In the name of the Creator who liberates, the Christ who transforms, and the Spirit who sustains, Amen.
[1] Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Boston: Beacon Press, 1976), p. xxvii.
[2] Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited, p. 79.
[3] Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited, p. 81.
[4] Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited, p. 3.