NBC July 2012 (London Olympic opening weekend)
In front of a great cloud of witnesses
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
Hebrews 12:1-3
12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 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, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. NIV
2 * VIDEO = 5 minutes
Message to 2012 Olympians `Dear Olympian 2012’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee9Uby1PGuQ
Followed immediately by: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/17779148
A career plagued by injuries, but in 1992 Derek Redmond arrived at Barcelona with an eye on the gold medal. It wasn’t to be. With 175 meters to go in his 400 meters semi-final he pulled his hamstring. The dream had ended it seemed. Not for Redmond though. The succeeding events are etched in the minds of millions. Crying, he stands up again, only to try to finish on one leg. His father watching from the sidelines joins him with words of comfort – “We’ll finish together”.’
Strength is measured in pounds. Speed is measured in seconds.
Courage? You can’t measure courage’, were the words used by the IOC president to promote the Olympic movement by the act of perseverance.
But for Derek Redmond, it was the only credible thing to do.
All these sports people who qualify for `The Games’ deserve our admiration: From aquatics to weightlifting and the 24 other Olympic sports genres in-between. All have had to train hard and sacrifice much to get to London 2012
Is it not inspiring to hear of people who won’t give up?
And it’s the same in our faith: Our heroes are the ones who won’t give up:
• The missionary in a far off land working to bring Christ’s love and compassion to the destitute and the lost
• Pastor Nhadarkhani imprisoned for his faith in Iran, and others who won’t renounce their faith, even under threat of death
• Great writers and preachers like John Stott, and Selwyn Hughes who worked long and prolifically during their lives
• Or maybe the quite unassuming Christian person, who regularly without fail checks on his or her elderly neighbour, or the one who daily works to build God’s kingdom by consistent benevolence to others in Christ’s name.
• Or maybe it’s just the Christian man or woman who sticks to their faith under some severe test or another.
All are Christian heroes. And all have something in common:
Dereck Redmond and his dad served as an illustration;
They know the Father’s love through the love and the actions of the son:
And
Their commitment is unwavering. And that is the first message from todays passage. To be a fulfilled Christian requires unwavering commitment, in faith and in Christian life.
This short Hebrew’s passage is an exciting piece of scripture:
Imagine, the Olympic flame has been lit. The games have begun. And you are in the Olympic Stadium.
The capacity crowd of 80,000 spectators have come to witness a race, but not just any race. This is a race of crucial importance. This race could be life changing for the winner
But you’re not in the crowd.
At the start line of that race are you and I.
Now I know this is a bit of a stretch of the imagination as some of us can’t run the length of ourselves. The TV to the remote that’s short distance. The TV to the kitchen that’s middle distance in our house. Run to the end of the street- forget it!
But you can do it. If you need to picture yourself at your fittest or as fit as you’ve ever dreamed of being.
You’re on that start line, All eyes are upon us as we begin crouching into a starting position. A hush descends over the 80,000 crowd ……..
Sense the excitement? Let it grip you……
That is the feeling you can get if you really let these words from Hebrew 12 wash over you;
12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 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, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (NIV)
You know it’s great to be in the crowd watching you can get caught up in emotion of it all. But if you are just a spectator …really you are merely watching someone else become the winner.
The Christian faith is no spectator sport. The call to follow Christ is a call to get out on the track. It is a call to leave our comfortable seats and to stretch those tired and aching muscles to take our place among the participants.
God, through the writer of Hebrews, summons each of us to the race of our lives.
The original text would have been written in ancient Greek. And the word for race is agon (ah-go- n) from which our word agony comes. Maybe the original scribe from 2,000 years ago had the same thought about putting on running shoes and setting of on a fast jog as many of us might. That would be agony- no thanks.
But the race referred to here is a metaphor,
symbolising a moral and ethical struggle, as if preparing for a something important, involving a need to personally rigorously train, but train mentally and spiritually more than physically,
to develop the self-discipline necessary to make difficult moral choices,
like for example staying pure before and outside marriage, or, being brave enough NOT just to go along with the crowd when they for example say: abortion is ok, or marriage is between something other than man and woman.
And it’s about developing the spiritual backbone to remain true to your faith when facing persecution or harassment because of faith, or some other serious challenge such poor health.
Like anything else really worth having, this requires intense effort, complete commitment, and the primary virtue here reflects that. This is about endurance.
`Run with perseverance the race marked out for us’ says the Hebrew’s text.
Perseverance a good translation………….. in the original Greek `Patience’.
So we are to be patient, and persevering, enduring and ethical in our lives of faith.
but we shouldn’t be doing that alone:
Chapter 12 starts with `therefore:’
Therefore ;- That connects it with the previous chapter. And in chapter 11 the writer gives a long list of faithful people:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
Our church at (Town) here might be less than a quarter of a century old but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We are part of an wonderful tradition reaching back for nearly 6,000 years. The story in Hebrews chapter 11 gives testimony to the faith of the likes of, Noah, Moses Abraham, Daniel, Samson, Samuel, and King David. All of whom showed faithful patient perseverance in the face of many spiritual challenges and ethical dilemmas:
And you can add several thousand more years to their stories.
We are a part of a great Sacred History-God working through men and women since the beginning of human existence to bring his Kingdom upon earth even as it is in heaven.
What a privilege it us be in this race and play out our lives under the gaze of such a company!
Napoleon Bonaparte made a saying famous when he was seeking to motivate his tired, dispirited troops in Egypt. They were fighting almost in the very shadows of the great pyramids,
He said to his men, "Remember, forty centuries are looking at you."
We could say a similar thing this morning, but we’d say, ` Remember -sixty centuries of believers are looking at us.
"Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses...."
And it’s not only witnesses from thousands of years ago. For those of you with grandparents and parents and other relatives and friends who had faith and who are now with God.
The memory of their Christian life, and teaching, and witness lives on.
There you are, in that Olympic stadium crouched ready to run the race of life. But you are not alone. These people here in this church who are here with you in the race.
And the crowd in the stands……full to capacity with those people of faith who went before us. And they are cheering you on. ` Keep going, stand firm in your faith, show your commitment to Jesus no matter what. We are your witnesses of the cloud!’
We need to be reminded from time to time that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
Let’s move on in this passage of Scripture:
`let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles’
I hope you understand what the writer of Hebrews is saying about sin.
He knew that in his time many people found it difficult to even enjoy themselves unless they are doing something that they think is sinful.
It’s the same today.
Some people can’t enjoy a conversation unless they swear in it……………. or profane the name of Jesus. If they go out of a night it hasn’t been a great success unless they get drunk or drugged, or they score, and I don’t mean at football.
And let’s not think such things don’t happen around here. The (local paper) carried two related reports last week. One was in the section reports from stories in the Telegraph 100, fifty,…………….. ten years ago.
Ten years ago the local police chief inspector was saying (town) has the worst and most persistent hard drug problem in the Highlands. The other report was more current, Nearly a quarter of a million pounds of cannabis seized at the house next to the Highland Food Stop just outside Nairn ……just last week.
They don’t make it without a market for it.
Drunkeness, drug abuse, habitual swearing and profanity, sexualised kids and immoral behaviour.
It’s all a form of rebellion.
It ‘s expressed in that common saying that "everything I enjoy is either immoral, illegal or fattening."
But, the writer of Hebrews says something specifically to US….we who read the bible words, we of the faith. `
He teaches us `sin is not simply that behaviour which many in society succumb too.’
For the believer, sin is ANYTHING which impedes us from becoming what God has created us to be.
A reporter once asked the great writer George Bernard Shaw, "If you could live your life over and be anybody you’ve known, or any person from history, who would you choose to be?" The very insightful Shaw replied, "I would choose to be the man George Bernard Shaw could have been and never was."
Shaw understood: He recognized that he could have been more,
accomplished more, enjoyed life more, except for some barrier.
Our text is saying that the greatest barrier in our lives is sin. The main barrier to completing the race is sin.
This is where the message gets personal:
Like it did for Dereck Redmond when his hamstring popped at the Barcelona Olympics 400m semi-final?
Is there some sin that’s hamstringing you, holding you back from being the kind of person God created you to be?
Pause
Do you remember the old master Yoda in Star Wars?
In the final film of the series 900-year-old Yoda lies down to die. As he is dying he continues to instruct young Luke Skywalker, who yearns to be a Jedi-a real fighter for the good side.
"Remember," says Yoda, "Jedi’s strength flows from the Force.
Beware of anger, fear...the dark side are they.
Once you start down the dark path forever will it dominate your destiny...Do not underestimate the power of the enemy."
That is the sort of message about sin that the writer of Hebrews is seeking to convey to us. Do not underestimate the power of the enemy!
`let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles’
" If we are going to be champions in the race of life, we want to get rid of all barriers.
The Apostle Paul also urges us to persist "... and let us run with perseverance," writes Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians
"the race that is set before us...." The key word in this phrase is "perseverance." There are some races that don’t last a mere mile or two, some are for a lifetime.
In our film clip we saw Dereck Redmond go the distance with his father’s help. Redmond said ` I want to prove I can finish’
Well "Going the distance" is a noble achievement.
Many begin races that they never finish. We see it in church life sometimes. And it can be disheartening to see people who we thought were on the track to finish the race, somehow, just stop. Stop coming to church, any church, stop studying and worshipping
But you know what ………………."Going the distance...." That is part of the reason we join together as a body in Christ. Sometimes the race gets hard. We need each other for encouragement and inspiration.
But there is one more thing to be said.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 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,
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith……..
you see - there is someone else who has run the race before us. He has pioneered the way. He is our example, our model, our inspiration. That One is Jesus.
When in 1954 Roger Bannister ran the first four-minute mile he accomplished something that many people said could not be done. But he
did it. Now many athletes have run the mile in less than four minutes.
Someone needed to show us that it could be done.
In the same way, the writer of Hebrews is saying to us that we are not walking an uncharted path. Someone has already walked this way before.
We know that we can be triumphant because he has been triumphant.
Our text says that Jesus is the pioneer and perfector of our faith. Keep your eyes upon Jesus.
NOW Put your running shoes back on we’re going back to the Olympic stadium: BUT WE ARE NOT IN THE 400M FINAL.
Life is a marathon ………………………. at the end it’s as though we are not crouched ready to leap from the start line. Now we are pushing ourselves hard to get to that finish line. We’ve run our marathon of life,
we might be jaded, having hit the famous wall, the test of endurance one hits in a marathon a number of times:
We near the stadium and we enter only 400 metres to go. One lap of the track. But we are done for, tired, our bodies exhausted our energy spent.
Will we make it to the finish line? Maybe we need the Father’s help! Jesus is the father’s help!
The great crowd of witnesses are all there. Not thousands now. Millions and millions. As we reach the final few metres we hear them. C’mon you can do it, well done you’re going to finish the race.
You turn the final bend, BUT someone’s put a hurdle there! It’s incredible, what’s that doing there? You’re gonna have to jump it if you want to finish.
Then you see it for what it is. The final hurdle, the sin that’s been holding you back. And so you dig in. The cloud of witnesses sing together, ` Fix your eyes on Jesus, the perfector of our faith,……… and you do. And you leap that final hurdle and over the finish line you go.
You hear a voice and its telling you a message:
And it’s this `The victory goes to those who are faithful to the finish.’
Folks in the race of life with all its ups and downs. All the calm and all the storms…………………… Our only hope is to look to Jesus who has run the race before us.
Following his example and with his help, we can win the crown of victory!
Amen
Thanks to Duncan King from whom I read some of the illustrations contained in this sermon
