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A Look Back – The Race Run So Far
October 13, 2024

A Look Back – The Race Run So Far

Preacher:
Passage: Hebrews 12:1-21, Corinthians 9:24-25

A Look Back – the Race Run So Far

Hebrews 12:1-2

12  So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, 2 and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne.

1 Corinthians 9:24-25

  1. 24 Don’t you know that all the runners in the stadium run, but only one gets the prize? So run to win. 25 Everyone who competes practices self-discipline in everything. The runners do this to get a crown of leaves that shrivel up and die, but we do it to receive a crown that never dies.

 

Paul was a sports fan

Some of you all are sports fans. You can tell Fall is fully here by the sport people are talking about. Someone in a Grizzlies vest. Cost of season tickets. Someone else in an Oregon State shirt.

Paul was apparently a sports fan, too. Based on his letters, he was a fan of Olympic running. While Paul went to Corinth because Jesus sent him to reach out to the non-Jewish world, it probably didn’t help that the biggest Olympic games, other than the Athenian ones, were held in the area.

I imagine Paul meeting future members of the Corinth community at those games? When they read this letter were they reminded of a particular race that they had seen with him… one the person they were cheering for came sooo close… but someone they didn’t expect surprised everyone?

In a sense, today is like Paul and the people at Corinth sharing those memories. We’ve running a race together as a church. Today, as I talk about these two passages, I want you to not just listen but think back over your time with this church. What times in the life of this church illustrate, hold up, are examples of what Paul is speaking about. When they come up, hold on to them, if you’re a note taker, scribble it somewhere.

Heroes & Role Models

Ted Lasso is one of favorite television shows. One of the on-going conflicts is between Jamie Tartt, the young super star athlete, and [gruff] Roy Kent, a player who’s a generation older. This takes a new twist several seasons in. Roy finds out that Jamie had posters of his soccer heroes on the wall of his room but the only that didn’t change… was a poster of [gruff] Roy Kent. Many great athletes are not just born with potential but were inspired by someone else, often someone who seems like the ultimate example of what is possible.

Paul, when he speaks of Jesus, is holding him up the same way. Fix your eyes on Jesus… not Christ or Lord or Messiah or Son of the Divine but just Jesus…. someone human like us, someone who’s run the race… the ultimate  example of what is possible. Is there someone in the life of this church who has inspired you?

Sometimes it is hard

Buried in that inspiration is the hard work. One of the word’s Paul uses is agon (from which we get such words as “agonize”). He wasn’t the first or the last to use it as a metaphor for moral and ethical struggle. Following in the footsteps of heroes is hard work. Choosing to view life through a lense of faith, is a hard sell. There may be a crowd that’s going to cheer at the finish line but, sometimes, doing the right thing is a struggle. Does this remind you of a specific moment in this community?

What’s slowing us down

Here, doing the right thing seems to be a lot about “extra baggage… the sin that trips us up.” In English it’s sounds like he’s explaining what he means by extra baggage when the translation adds “sin that trips us up.” The catch is that Paul actually doesn’t say sin, he uses this word for stuff that surrounds us, attacks us, distracts us, weighs on.  Those who were sports fans, especially those who had competed, would have realized this included body fat and clothing, things that attack, things that cause us to be unfocused. Emulating someone, aspiring for the prize, means making choices.

Perserverance and Endurance

Paul is holding up Jesus as a model for how you run the race but the metaphor is driven far less by what we give up than what we strive for, what we dream of, what we can achieve together, and what we are becoming. He’s holding up Jesus as a model for how you run the race. He points our eyes to the prize and then he holds up one virtue. Look to what we’re running towards and remember this one simple trick.

The third shortest NBA basketball player ever was 5’ 6.” 5’ 6” but Spud Webb put the ball through the hoop 8,072 times. That’s ten swooshes a game. Spud Webb probably saw bugs bunny growing up. I suspect he saw the one that retells the fable of the tortoise and the hare. Bugs bunny decides to take a nap part way through but the tortoise just keeps going. He may be slow but he’s focused on what’s important and sets other things aside. I wonder if Spud Webb thought of that cartoon when other people said he was too short. Paul doesn’t hold up the tallest, the fastest, the most talented, or the most blessed. Instead he lifts up endurance, perserverance. What both Spud Webb and that tortoise did is kept going. There were probably times that someone picked up that turtle and put her some place she didn’t expect. No matter what other people said, no matter what happened to them, no matter what their limitations, no matter how many times they fell down, they kept going. Who are our Spudd Webbs and Tortoises?

The cloud (cheering us on)

The final part of this metaphor I want to point out is the great cloud of witnesses. A cloud was as a metaphor for a crowd of people. He’s just been talking about some really famous people of faith… people you could read about in other parts of the bible. Someone at one of the lifestyle Christian stores probably had athlete-style posters of these guys. Except they’d add in big fake muscles and stuff.

Those arn’t the only heroes that Paul is holding up. If Jesus is the model here, the implication is that it’s not just the famous from another age that have run the race well. But, by the time he wrote one of these letters, his audience may have been thinking about people who had come before them in the race. When we speak of the universal body of Christ, we’re not just talking about those around us but those who have come before us. There’s this huge crowd filling the stands. If we could rip the roof off today, Paul would point out into those stands, overflowing with all those people cheering us on.

Who has cheered us on?

Joy along the Way

Jesus ran the race for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him. I used to run in distance races. One actually finished in a stadium. The cheering was loud enough to echo back and forth. All of a sudden I was pushing myself to run a little faster. It was amazing to make the final push and know the crowd was cheering us… including me… to the finish line. It’s an amazing moment of Joy and celebration to make a goal, especially a big one. Launching SELC and seeing SELC get to the point that it is paying it’s mortgage payment every month are major finish lines. What is an amazing thing we have done together?

And… the race isn’t just that last push. In many of the races I ran, there were people along the course cheering us on. In Jesus’ own life, there are moments of joy and moments of hymor that happen again and again. The same thing with us. Joy and celebration is not just something that happens at the end of the race but all along the way. It comes from celebrating how far we had come, from realizing that we have continued on even as others said we were too short, too slow, too small. Joy is not just about the end of the race. Especially with the help of others, we can find joy and celebrate along the way.

We’d like to repaint the church. We don’t know where we’re going to get the money yet. But, some of you got together for a few hours to repair damage and replace broken boards. Thank you to everyone who helped. That’s something to celebrate. And, it’s a time for Joy. One of the guys had never been in a lift before. I hear he was white-knuckling the safety rail as he went up the first time. Not the easiest choice to do something where your body is saying no. But by the end, he was happily reaching all over the place. Even when things encumber us, push back on us, deter us, distract us, all those things that paul is trying to capture with one word, we can find joy. In fact, sometimes joy happens because we have kept going when we didin’t think we could. That is something to celebrate. When has joy broken out in spite of everything that’s been holding us back.

Conclusion

Since Paul does not have the microphone this morning, I’m safe in accusing Paul of being a sports fan, or assuming that he was in the stands during the second largest olympic games of the time. And he brings all of that to his metaphor. Whether it’s a star athelete or Jesus, we hold people up not because we can not do what they do but because they are still human and have done what they have done. No matter how short Spudd Webb was, no matter how slow the tortiose, they showed us what is truly possible. For paul, choices are important. Notice where there are things that slow you down, distract you, get in the way. But the most important choice is to be like that tortiose: even when you think other people are more gifted, more blessed to endure, to perservere, to keep going.

Is there someone in the life of this church who has inspired you?

Who has cheered you on?

Who are our Spudd Webbs and Tortoises?

What are some amazing thing we have done together?

When has joy broken out in spite of everything that’s been holding us back.

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