"fixing Our Eyes On Jesus"

“Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus”

Hebrews 12:1-3

When Bob Homer was a young boy he had a paper route.

And back in the days of paper routes, the paper boys or girls would have to collect money from each customer by ringing their doorbell once a week.

And so, you got to know the people you delivered the paper too pretty well.

In any event, one of Bob’s customers was the pastor of the local Methodist Church.

Bob was collecting money from him one day and the pastor asked Bob if he might be able to come to the church on Sunday morning because he didn’t have anyone to hand out bulletins, and he needed Bob’s help.

Bob told the pastor that he would first have to ask his parents.

Bob’s family didn’t attend a church, so Bob was pretty unfamiliar with the whole thing.

To Bob’s surprise, his parents allowed him to go.

And that one Sunday turned into every Sunday.

Bob came to love the people who were part of that little Methodist Church

It’s where he was introduced to Jesus through His saints.

Eventually, Bob felt a call to go into the ministry, and off he went to seminary.

Bob was one of the pastors of the church I went to as a kid.

When I was about 11 years old, Bob came up to me after a worship service and asked me if I had ever thought about going into the ministry.

The day before I left for college, the doorbell rang.

It was Bob Homer.

He had bought me a small leather-bond Bible.

That was the first Bible that I really, really read.

Bob passed away a number of years ago, but I feel that he is part of the “great cloud of witnesses” that the writer of Hebrews writes about.

Over the course of my life and career as a Christian and a pastor, the one thing I have been most blessed by are the people I have been privileged to know.

Hundreds upon hundreds of folks have given me a glimpse of Jesus through their words, actions, and loving presence.

And it continues to this day with you.

One day a man was walking through a beautiful church building with his 4-year-old son.

As they walked, the young boy looked around.

He stopped and was curious about the stained-glass windows that looked so beautiful with their bright colors.

As he looked at the windows, he asked: “Who are all the people in the windows, daddy?”

“They are saints,” said his father.

“What are saints daddy?” the kid asked.

The father was stuck.

How was he going to explain who saints are to a four-year-old boy?

As the boy was still looking up at the windows and his father was still wondering how he would explain who saints are, the young boy shouted: “I know who saints are, they are the people that the light shines through.”

Who are the people in your life through whom the light shines?

Who are the saints that have touched your life with the transforming love of Christ?

Maybe they are still alive.

Maybe they are members of this congregation.

Maybe they have passed on, and you lit a candle in memory of them this morning.

Most of us are given our first glimpse of Jesus through one of His saints.

(pause)

The writer of Hebrews makes it abundantly clear that we are not alone.

Not only are there a multitude of folks who have gone before us and passed the faith on to us, there are also a multitude of folks who are running the race with us right now.

They are saints.

Saints, are the believers.

Saints are the redeemed.

Saints make up the Church of Jesus Christ.

Have you ever thought about it this way?

I mean, right now, in this worship service you and I are surrounded by saints.

And, if we are believers, we too are numbered among them.

I know it’s hard to think of ourselves this way, because we know ourselves.

We know our sins and short-comings.

And these things can cause us to feel less than, not worthy, not good enough.

But we are all in the same boat, aren’t we?

We are all sinners.

But we are all sinners saved by grace through faith.

And grace is a free gift.

There is nothing we can do to earn it or deserve it.

It is given to us by the One Who loves us more than any of us could possibly imagine.

And it is given to us by the One Who has gone before us, “marked out the race for us,” the “pioneer and perfecter of [our] faith.”

Of course, the idea of a race as a way explain the Christian journey is a metaphor.