SUNDAY SERMON
Proper 15, Year C
August 15, 2004
The
Rev. Dr. Jerry Harber
Epistle: Hebrews
12. 1--14
Paul uses a sports metaphor in the lesson from Hebrews that seems especially timely since the Olympics are upon us again. It's about running the race of faith. There is a story in the Olympic tradition that we need to hear.
[It seems] "during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City a few thousand spectators remained in the Olympic Stadium waiting for the last of the men to finish the 28 mile marathon run. An hour earlier Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia had crossed the finish line looking as fresh as when he started out. Since then the runners had come in, each looking worse than the previous one, to be carted off to the first aid station. As the fans were get ready to leave they heard from the marathon gates the sound of sirens and police whistles. A lone runner, John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania was the last man to finish the race. His leg bloodied and bandaged he winced visibly at every step as he hobbled the 400 meter circuit around the track. The spectators rose and applauded him as if he were the winner. Crossing the finish line he walked slowly off the field without even acknowledging the cheering crowd.
In view of his injury and having no chance to win a medal someone asked him why he bothered to finish the race. Why didn't he just quit? He replied: "My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it." Akhwari knew for whom he was running. He knew that it was important for all those people who were counting on him that he finish well. He didn't have to win; he didn't even have to place. But he knew for whom he was running and that kept him going when every logic of the world said quit."
The race in which we are to persevere, this race of faith, is about our personal endurance and growth, but it is also about a word we don't hear much in The Episcopal Church our witness-our faith expressed to others. Without the story of Akhwari to tell, Paul is writing to new Christians who are having a tough time of doing that. They are being persecuted, not so much by the state, as by their fellow townspeople. We know from historical accounts that some are openly beaten by roaming crowds just for being Christians. Pagans cut off their friendships with believers. They refuse to shop in Christian shops or use Christian workmen or artisans, creating major economic hardship for the faithful. And when entire families are not followers, there is often bitterness and turmoil within the family-pitting relative against relative. Some children report their parents to the authorities or to the rabble, and some non-believing parents report their children, in both cases, almost assuring pain and suffering for them.
Jesus predicted this would happen. When he speaks of coming not to bring peace but a sword, what he's saying is that if we are faithful to God's claim on us, we may have to endure serious problems in the family. He meant, of course, the literal families to which we belong, but metaphorically, he also meant the larger families to which we belong, such as, our community and perhaps, especially, our church family. But more than that, he is saying that, as important as family is, faithfulness to God is more important. Like Akhwari, if we start the race, that is, if we truly accept the grace of God and develop a personal relationship with Christ as our Lord, then we must complete the race we're given to run no matter what the cost-friends, economic wellbeing, even losing our various families and their support.
I'm sure you know as well as I do from experience that keeping the faith is hard to do. It's especially hard to do when doing so means we'll be out of step with those in power or positions of influence or those we care about and love. Difficult, but often crucial for our souls. Paul describes this difficulty as a discipline we should embrace. Discipline shouldn't be thought of as punishment. When we teach our kids the discipline of eating well, we're not punishing them. We're, in fact, loving them. When we incorporate the discipline of a set time for homework, as much as they may hate doing the home work and be angry at us for insisting, we're not punishing them. We are teaching them an approach to life and work that will be good for them for a life time. When we ground them for making bad grades, that's when we are punishing them. And by the way, that is not going to assure they will make better grades like the discipline of a study time will. I imagine I just lost the support of the younger members in the congregation!
So what is the discipline that will strengthen us? When Paul uses the phrase "looking to Jesus" during the race, he doesn't just mean to glance at something. There are any number of Greek words that could be used here. But this specific word means that, although you're aware of other distractions, you choose to look directly, to look intently at something in particular. The writer of Hebrews is telling us that something must be Jesus. We intently focus on Jesus as a discipline. We pray as a discipline. We worship as a discipline. We take his sacrament as a discipline. Not because we always want to, but because we always need to. These disciplines will help assure we remember whose we are and how we are to live up to carrying his name. As my father said to me more than once, "Remember you're a Harber," as if that said everything I needed to know about how to act. Paul might say, "Remember you're a Christian" meaning exactly the same thing.
We remember this and act on it for our own welfare, but there is much more to it than that. Let me illustrate it with this story. There was once a king who decided to hold a great race. And all the young men of the kingdom entered. The course began and ended in the king's courtyard and the prize was a bag of gold. As they ran the race the runners were surprised to find a great pile of stones blocking their way, but they managed to climb over or around it. Finally all the runners but one had crossed the finish line but still the king did not end the race. Finally a lone runner stumbled through the gate. "I'm sorry I'm late, O king, but you see I discovered this pile of rocks in the road" and here he held up a bleeding hand, "and I injured myself removing them. But O king", and here he held up the other hand, "underneath I found this bag of gold." And the king said, "You have won the race", "for that one runs best who makes the way safe for others."
Akhwari kept at the race, not for his glory or honor, but for all those who looked to him. Paul, at the end of his life could say, "I have run the race; I have stayed the course; I have kept the faith." We too must persevere in our faith not only for ourselves, but so that those who look to us will not be disappointed or confused and finally fall away. It is a heavy burden, but much lighter than the burden of our sin that our Lord carries for us.