Sermon by Mrs. Jennie Chapman

CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (USA)

Sermon by: Mrs. Jennie Chapman

May 4, 2008

Hebrews 12:1-2

Please read the scripture listed above. (Note that our scripture this morning begins with the word “therefore” and you know the old saying, when you see the word, ‘therefore’ you need to ask what it is ‘there for’.)

Gracious God, we have just opened your Word. We pray that as we speak those words and ponder upon them as they are proclaimed through reading and songs and sermon and every other way in this service, we pray that you would make it a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Father, there are places in our lives that need a bright light switch thrown. We pray that you would do that this morning by the power of your Spirit. Father, whatever is not your Word for us this day, we ask that it would be forgotten and quickly come to ‘naught’. But whatever is your truth for us, we pray that you would make it a very part of our lives and our hearts, for it is in Christ’s name that we pray, Amen

Many of you may remember the famous chariot scene in the movie “Ben Hur”, a classic directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The story is told that, upon making the movie, Cecil Be DeMille approached Charlton Heston, who was playing Ben Hur, and asked Heston to actually learn how to ride a chariot for the movie. Can you imagine? Well, Heston agreed and so he took chariot lessons, (I don’t know where you do that) and eventually he reported back to Cecil B. DeMille and he told him that, ‘Yes’ he had learned to ride a chariot. He could actually handle one. Heston then said something to the effect of, ‘Mr. DeMille, I don’t know if I could win a race in the chariot but I can ride the chariot!” To which Cecil B. DeMille reportedly replied, “Heston, you stay in the race and I’ll make sure that you win!” (The power of film, right?) That could be a sub-title for the text from Hebrews 12 that we just heard this morning. We are called to this race of faith as individuals and as Christ’s church we are to stay in this race and to pay attention to the admonitions of ‘how to stay in the race’. And if we read between the lines and really all along the margins in scripture, we find assurance that God assures the ‘win’. Now let us be careful with the word ‘win’. If ‘win’ is defined as our culture defines ‘winning’, then we are out of luck, aren’t we? To win in the race of faith is probably not only counter-culture most of the time in our world, but it’s probably off the radar in terms of the way the world would define ‘winning’.

We need to bear that in mind as we think of running or winning a race in the journey of faith. To win for Christ is a win that the world doesn’t understand or even recognize most of the time. This text gives us a few clear signposts in our run. We are doused, if you will, with ice cold refreshing water along the way, kind of speeding us on in this race to which we have been called.

The first thing that we see in the text is some flat-out ‘comfort’ and ‘shoring up’ if you will. The text reminds us that we aren’t alone in this run nor are we the first to do it, much less the last. It says, “We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.” You see we have an on-going filled stadium of numbers too great to even count, cheering us on. People have gone before us, they have been in our shoes. They know the worth and they have experienced the cost of winning. But they aren’t just spectators. They are still witnessing to their faith. That is what is surrounding us as believers. If you read chapter 11, the chapter that I mentioned that goes right before the verses in chapter 11 that we read this morning, you will want to stand up and cheer by the time that you finish reading it. It is that famous roll call of faith and it is our legacy as Christian believers in the 21^st century. It is our children’s, children’s, children’s legacy of faith. You see others have gone before us and they have the worn-out tennis shoes to prove it and the witness of faith that still speaks beyond their graves. Theirs was not a perfect race by any measure. God used regular folks, sometimes greatly flawed, just like us. Nevertheless they have passed that baton into our hands. They have passed the baton and they continue to witness to God’s faithfulness and they cheer us on – GO! GO! GO!

The second thing is that this text calls us, as runners, to drop the backpack, if you will, or the excess clothing. It says, “let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely”. You know, many of us can’t walk, much less run, in this race of faith because we are so weighted down with ‘stuff’! Some of us have failures that we cannot let go of. We have made critical mistakes. Many of us have sin which clings way too close. Some of us can’t forgive ourselves or someone else because the weight or the sin clings so closely. And it’s hard to focus on that race when we are so weighted down.

I was right behind my eleven-year-old daughter, Harless, in that silent bike ride this past year. She was on her bike, I was on mine. I knew she was struggling. She was hot and tired and she had way too much pride just to stop. She reached for her water bottle that was tucked in its holder on her bike. Then I watched because she couldn’t get it back into the holder. I kept watching her closely as she struggled to hold on to that weight with one hand and to keep steady control of her bike. There were bikers all around us and we were having to be aware of the other bikers and the road and the speed. I watched her try to fix it back into the slot a couple of times almost causing her to tip over. Then I finally got in the position where she would let me take it and so I did. I took it from her and I watched as she was free to ride without a burden.

We are called to put all those things aside that need to be put aside. We are called to lay aside that sin which keeps hanging all too close. We cannot run this race, at least very well, with such burdens. If left alone, the burdens often become greater than the race, don’t they? We are called to give these things to God – ALL OF THEM! We are to place them there at the foot of the cross. You see, God wants us to run this race. He knows we need to be unburdened of these things. He died for those things! You haven’t done the one thing or the two things that became the exception at the Cross of Christ. All was forgiven! We are to be unburdened of those things.

The third thing is that we are to run with perseverance. I like to think of it as ‘the tenacity of a bulldog’ sticking with it. In the silent bike ride that I mentioned just a minute ago, in honor of the two bikers from Baldwin County who were killed this past year by a motorist. That was when I was watching my 11 year old struggling on her bike. Well I knew she was struggling because I was. We aren’t bikers. Not like all the others in their biking suits and expensive bikes. She finally decided to stop and get herself together. She was fuming mad, I think, at herself and the situation. Secretly I was so thankful that she wanted to stop because I was dying, out of breath, but I feigned interest in her plight. We watched dozens and dozens of bikers pass us by as we stopped and as we stood there and got ourselves together we found ourselves almost at the very tail end of these hundreds of bikers. We finally started back up and I watched her move ahead, past folks, inching around others. I think I asked her as some point if she wanted to stop again and the answer was “No”. John, my husband who had been way ahead of us, had worked his way back, caught up and wondered what had happened – where we had been. So I moved on ahead and let him stay with her. In a minute or two from well behind me in the silent bike ride, mind you, I heard her speak out an emphatic “NO-DAD! Her dad was trying to give her pastoral permission, if you will, to stop and rest again, but with the ‘tenacity of a bulldog’ or perhaps a ‘Chapman’, she refused to stop anymore! Red-faced and all, she refused! I remember having a little bit of ‘thanks’ in my heart that there was some character of ‘tenacity’ growing in the 11 year old. We are called to run with perseverance! We are to stick with it! At times it may feel like we are riding on a cloud (You know, everything is great, our lives of faith make sense) but other times, honestly, it may feel like we have been abandoned. And we drag ourselves through a kind of wilderness. Apparently the Greek word translated ‘race’ ‘is ‘agon’. Does this sound familiar? It’s the word from which we get our own word, ‘agony’! Yes, at times it will seem like an amazing stretch of a run with the wind in our face and at our back. But other times we may feel that it is all ‘up hill’. Agony! And that we are on an anvil and we wonder if we will ever be released from it. It is in those moments (and you may be in that right now) that we are called to ‘stick with it’, to push through the desire to quit and walk away from faithfulness.

Finally when we are running this race of faith, we have a place to focus, a place to look. Have you ever noticed the focus of sports – look away for a second in baseball and you will find the other team sliding into home base and you will have a concussion! Take your eye off the ball in golf for a split second and you will be tromping through the rough looking for your ball; and a runner who was running a race has one main focus, that is, to get to the finish line.

Our focus in faith is Jesus the Living Christ! We are to look to Him. He is the North Star of our lives. We are to pray to Him—to walk with Him—to gather with His people– to delve into his Word – to study—to listen to Him—watch for His working. We are to focus on this race. He designed the race – He finished it – and – He perfected it. FOCUS ON CHRIST. We have got to look toward the hope of Christ that is out in front of us – THE PRIZE. Because whatever is the ‘no’ in this world ‘GOD’S YES and GOD’S HOPE are greater still! Focus on the hope of Christ out in front of you.

Let me close with this. In 1988, Derrick Redmond, a runner from Great Britain, was forced to pull out of the Olympic 400 meter race just 2 minutes before the race started. By the time the 1992 Barcelona Olympics came along, Derrick had had 5 operations, including one on his Achilles tendon less than 4 months before the games. At the Barcelona games the crack of the gun went off for the semi-final race, Derrick Redmond looked awesome – a perfect specimen of a running machine, beautiful and swift. You can watch it on U2 or perhaps something else – I am sure on the Internet. But then all of a sudden as Derrick rounded a corner he heard a ‘pop’ in his leg. He stopped and just grabbed his leg – his right hamstring muscle had torn. He fell to the ground in horrible agony with runners just soaring past him. As the Medical Crew jumped up and came out with the stretcher, Redmond supposedly said, “No! There is no way I am getting on that stretcher. I’m going to finish my race”. He got up and Derrick Redmond continued the race hobbling. The crowd in the stands cheered him on, 65 thousand people. Then his dad, Jim Redmond, with no credentials whatsoever to be out on the Olympic field, ran out onto the track with officials trying to stop him. “That’s my son out there,” he yelled to Security, “and I am going to help him!” He went up to Derrick and put his arms around him and they began to finish the race together. That’s the picture I gave you; hopefully someone gave each of you one this morning. Still more officials tried to intervene and Jim Redmond kind of shushed them away like, “No, no, don’t touch me! That’s my son!” They made it to the finish line, Jim stepped back to let his son cross the finish line by himself. He watched every step of the way that his son made, and, do you know, there was a standing ovation of some 65 thousand people in those stands! I don’t know who won that semi final Olympic race but I know that Derrick Redmond finished it! A finisher! And his father came along side him, one who helps others to finish!

Be a finisher in this race! You, as an individual, and as Central Presbyterian Church, you have witnesses. There are so many cheering you on, those who have gone on before you. You can give to God the things that are weighing you down, or that sin which clings so closely. You can stick with this race even when it’s not easy. That’s called ‘faithfulness”! And you can keep your eyes on the Living Christ. He is upholding you. Be a finisher and be one who comes along side others to help them to finish this race!

RUN THIS RACE! GO! AMEN.