Hebrews 11:29-12:2
“Saying ‘Yes’ to Life”
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN
An author writes, “When my oldest son, Nathan, was a teenager, he told me that he had decided to become a stockbroker, a millionaire by age 30, and retire to the Bahamas.”
The author notes, “I told him I would be deeply hurt to see him fail so badly.”
The Christian life turns everything on its ear.
St. Francis gave up everything to become an impoverished fool for Christ—embracing lepers and a life of poverty.
Corrie ten Boom, a young Dutch Christian risked her life again and again to rescue Jews from the Holocaust, and while in a concentration camp herself, praised God for the lice and bedbugs that kept the Nazi guards away.
Recently, I read about a man, who drives a shuttle bus for car renters at the St. Louis Airport and treats them like dear friends, because he sees his job as part of his Christian calling.
These people found the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field.
And that treasure is Jesus Christ, “who for the joy set before him endured the cross.”
In The Cost of Discipleship, Deitrich Bonhoeffer reminds us that when Christ calls us, He calls us to come and die.
But the greater truth is that in doing so, Christ calls us to come and live.
I think there are many folks, who, having thought they said ‘yes’ to life have actually done the opposite, and are thus merely existing.
We see it on the faces of people who have sought riches, but have found that they are fleeting and only dust in the wind.
Or those who have sought power only to find themselves alone and hated.
We see the sorrow in sexual affairs, alcohol and drug abusers and the expressionless faces that emerge from a pornographic movie.
Or what about the celebrities who make the headlines in the supermarket tabloids?
It’s the sorrow of living for the moment and finding that beyond that moment everything is lost.
There is no hope in it.
Saying ‘Yes’ to life basically boils down to asking, “What can I do with the life God has given me?”
And then, living into it!!!
The author of Hebrews is writing to a very weary church.
They were being persecuted for their faith.
All sorts of pressure was being put upon them to try and make them go back to where they’d been before, to abandon Christ.
This was nothing new.
What was new, it appears, was that this time, some were turning away or at least getting very close.
Earlier in Chapter 10, the author writes, “do not throw away your confidence…”
Our passage of Scripture for this morning is a call to persevere even in the face of great difficulty.
It is the call to say ‘Yes’ to Christ, and thus say ‘Yes’ to life no matter what the cost!
For certainly, if the people were to turn away, they would be ruined emotionally, spiritually and physically.
Life would completely lose its luster.
Everything would turn to dust.
When it comes down to it Christ is our anchor in this life.
And when the going gets rough, this Anchor is the only thing which keeps us from crashing into the rocks on the shore.
We all deal with great difficulties.
We all have some sort of monkey on our back.
But these things remind us just how much we need God!
And how much God desires to be in relationship with us.
And it is by grace through faith that we are saved.
And this not of ourselves—it is a gift of God to those who will accept it!!!
And as the author to the Hebrews writes at the beginning of Chapter 11, “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
And then he adds, “This is what the ancients were commended for.”
Then he goes on to list so many heroes of the faith who, though facing many difficulties, lived victorious lives through their faith in God!
These are our brothers and sisters, although we do not yet know them personally.
They lived by God’s gift of faith; looked at death and saw the promise of new life beyond!!!
And in doing so, they looked God in the face and, trusting Him, and lived life to the full!!!
“By faith the people walked through the Red Sea…”
“By faith the wall of Jericho fell…”
“By faith the prostitute Rahab” became a hero and a saint…
By faith “weakness was turned to strength…”
“others were tortured and refused...” to give up…
Some “were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword…”
They were “destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them.”
These persons and many more are the “great cloud of witnesses.”
“I believe in the communion of saints,” we confess in the Apostles’ Creed.
That is what we mean by the “great cloud of witnesses.”
When the going gets rough and life seems to be falling in, all of us can draw strength from the truth that we are not alone.
From our faithful ancestors to our Sunday school teachers, lay leaders, nursery workers, the persons sitting next to us in these pews, our sisters and brothers who care for us, the choir who leads us…everyone of you!!!
You are God’s witnesses!!!
You have said ‘Yes’ to life!!!
You are the Body of Christ!!!
You are the salt of the earth!!!
And we all need one another!
We all must come to worship.
We all must serve!
If anyone of us is missing; we all lose out!
The author of Hebrews calls us together…
As he writes and basically says in verse 40, “God” has “planned something better for us so that only together with us,” will all of us, “be made perfect.”
Therefore, “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
Last Thanksgiving, I ran in the annual Turkey Trot marathon in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Thousands of us entered this race early on that cold November morning…
…with the purpose for most of us not to win—but to get around in a reasonable time…or to just get around!!!
If I remember correctly, I came in at about 1,000 and something.
But the thing I remember most was the final stretch.
I had known there would be spectators, but I hadn’t prepared myself for the hundreds of people from the city who turned out to watch as we all came back, worn out, but mostly happy from our hour and a half of hard work.
They were cheering, waving flags, clapping and shouting encouragement and congratulations.
Where had they all come from?
And with such noise?
This passage from Hebrews gives us the image of the Christian life as a long-distance race with the “great cloud of witnesses” all around us.
These persons haven’t simply disappeared.
They are there at the finish line, cheering us on, surrounding us with encouragement and enthusiasm, willing us to do what they did—and finish the race!!!
The difference, of course, between the Christian journey and a marathon is that the runners aren’t competing against one another.
What matters most is that all of us make it safely home!
So what must we do, to make this life a success?
First, we get rid of any heavy weights that are slowing us down…
…anxieties, resentments at other people, secret greed, and the list could go on and on.
Sin, of any kind, can get in our way.
It’s like the danger an athlete might face if the track isn’t completely clear—if someone puts a hurdle in the way, or leaves a bench or something else across the path.
That’s what sin can be like when we tolerate it in our lives.
It can trip us up, and seriously damage us.
We also must keep in mind that this journey is a long haul.
We must, daily, re-center ourselves on Christ.
We must come to worship.
We must serve the church and the community.
We grow when we share our faith.
And that can take so many forms.
It can consume our entire lives and everything we do…let’s pray that it does!!!
And we must keep our eyes fixed on the finish line and on the One Who is at the center of the cloud of witnesses, waiting there to greet each one of us Himself!!!
Jesus ran this race before us.
He opened up the Way.
He won the victory!!!
Saying ‘Yes’ to life means following in Christ’s footsteps no matter what!
He has made it across the finish line, and the thought of His welcome and congratulations at the end…
…well, this is the central motivation for us to continue in hope, faith and patience!!!
We Christians are called to community, but not just any community…
…we are called to the community which has made the decision to say ‘Yes’ to God…
… ‘Yes’ to life…
… ‘Yes’ to working together to bring the message of God’s salvation to this community, to this lost and broken world!!!
A missionary in China once spoke to a group of people in a town.
He was the first one to tell them the story of Jesus, and when he talked for a while, someone said, “Oh, we knew him; he used to live here.”
The missionary was somewhat surprised, and said, “Oh, no, He lived centuries ago in another land.”
But the native still insisted that he had seen Jesus, saying: “Not so, he lived in the village, and we knew him.”
And then the crowd led the missionary to the village cemetery and showed him the grave of a medical missionary who had lived, served, healed, and died in that community.
Just one more member of the “great cloud of witnesses” of whom we are called to be a part!!!
What could be more exciting than this?
It has been said that we Christians are “twice converted.”
We are converted first from the world to Jesus Christ.
Then, we are converted again to the world, but not as before.
This time it is to love the world through the heart and mind of Christ!
Saying ‘Yes’ to life basically boils down to asking, “What can I do with the life God has given me?”
And then, living into it!!!
Praise God!
Amen.
