a little more intentionally, and systematically. We'll be making use of the framework
within Brian McClaren's 'We make the road by walking' - which we'll begin next week.
We'll be walking in faith with God, and the generations of those who have
walked before us in faith...
In our 'thinking about' space this morning, we talked about old family photographs -
The roll-call of people in Hebrews is a little like providing spiritual snapshots,
pointing us to earlier generations in our spiritual family tree... *based on an idea by John Stevens
1st READING: Ps 40 2nd READING: Hebrews 11:1-2, 29-40; 12:1-2
SERMON With the eyes of the world watching,
with cheers from the great cloud of witnesses in the stadium,
the first ever Olympic Games held in South America, were opened.
Their preparation and training done, the athletes had gathered.
The torch was lit.
And, in a salsa-exuberant flash of colour, the games commenced:
an action-packed celebration of the Olympic motto:
‘faster, higher, stronger’.
With the eyes of the world watching,
and with cheers from the great crowd of witnesses from the arena,
we saw a 29 year old man from Jamaica –
an old man, in his particular sport of running –
race down the track to gold
and then win another
and then another.
Triple gold...
but not just the prize of triple gold at this particular Olympics –
Usain Bolt made history in his sport for achieving a triple triple:
three different Olympic Games –
Beijing, London, Rio...
three sets of gold medals.
An amazing feat –
of running the race set before him, and of doing it so incredibly well.
Then, there was our own Andy Murray –
the first male tennis player to defend a singles Olympic title – winning back to back golds.
And my, what a heart-stopping match, and what about that crowd?
The Argentinians were going absolutely wild for their man – Del Potro,
who was clearly physically spent...
and yet, who was also lifted to sheer brilliance at times, inspired by their cheering.
He almost got there... almost.
The eyes of the world and the cheers from the crowds
have also fallen upon other athletes –
each with their own particular skill,
each with their own particular story...
all witnessing to sheer hard work,
discipline, and the determination
to maximise their talent,
to do their best,
to be the fastest, highest, or strongest.
The two weeks’ celebration of all things sport draws to an end this evening,
and with the close of the Games, normal service – normal life –
will once again resume.
And some of us will be glad,
and some a little sad,
and some of us, well frankly,
some of us will still be puzzling over the scoring etiquette of synchronised swimming!
But one thing that was fascinating to watch was the power of those who watched:
the crowds of witnesses seated in the stands,
willing their particular champions to victory –
or at least, to finish the race set before them.
Those who have been on the receiving end of such support
speak of the importance of that support;
of the crowd cheering them on, encouraging them, willing those –
whose muscles, whose bones, are aching from utter tiredness –
to keep going.
This is as true in the spiritual realm as it is in the world of sport,
as our passage from the letter to the Hebrews is at pains to show us.
The Sunday before our Songs of Praise service,
we heard the first part of our text from Hebrews, chapter 11.
In it, we began with that great verse:
‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’
And then the writer – who some assume to be the apostle Paul,
while other scholars aren’t as sure -
...and then the writer of the letter moves on to provide examples
of people of faith, down through the ages:
a litany of those who form a great cloud -
a great crowd -
of witnesses to God’s faithfulness
and their own willingness to step out in faith and trust God:
Abel,
Enoch,
Noah,
Abraham – and the heirs to the promise God gave to Abraham:
Isaac and Jacob, and a little later, Joseph.
The chapter moves on, and centuries have gone by in the great roll-call of faith,
and we meet up with Moses.
Moses, who, to escape the sentence of death pronounced by Pharaoh
upon all Hebrew boys, was put in a reed basket by his mother and sister –
an act of faith which was repaid when Pharaoh’s daughter found him
and brought him up as a prince of Egypt.
And yet, for all the luxury and privilege that Moses grew up with,
something niggled away – faith worked in him in such a way
that, in the end, he went back to his own people,
and became the one to lead them out of Egypt and into freedom.
Our letter writer isn’t done, however, with the roll-call of folk
who make up the crowd of witnesses.
After Moses,
there’s Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson,
Jepthah, David, Samuel
and the prophets...
and many others, unnamed, who, in faith,
experienced both great and horrendous things.
And there’s something very interesting about these people of faith
who obeyed God and who, in doing so,
became a great crowd of witnesses:
...they weren’t perfect.
In fact, quite a few of these heroes of the faith were far from it.
Jacob was a bit of a wide-boy:
a conman... a trickster.
He’d tricked his brother into giving him his birth right all for a bowl of lentils.
Joseph – well, the reason he ended up in Egypt
was that his brothers had finally had enough of his revelling in being his father’s favourite.
Bragging’s never a good look,
even with a fancy many-coloured coat.
Moses, when called by God, kept finding excuse after excuse not to obey...
it took a wee while for him to finally, very reluctantly, say ‘okay, if I must.’
Rahab in Jericho was a woman on the margins of society.
A prostitute.
And yet, here she is, included in this great crowd of the faithful.
When God called Gideon, he too, was rather reluctant to obey the call,
and tested God several times, just to make sure.
Barak was a great general, and yet, he was completely overshadowed by
the judge and prophet, Deborah, and by the very brave Jael.
Samson – well, all I have to say here is
‘my, my, my, Delilah’...
Jephthah did obey God’s call, but he also made a rather foolish vow,
which ended up costing the life of his daughter...
King David, while beloved of God, was not shown in his best light
when he decided to use his power to take Bathsheba from
her marriage bed with Uriah.
It’s a strange list of flawed, imperfect, human beings,
this ‘great’ crowd of witnesses.
Why does the writer choose them?
Why are they here and not other, better examples of faithful followers –
of spiritual Olympic gold medallists, if you like?
I suspect that this particular crowd of witnesses –
these snapshots of those who walked with God in faith –
remind us,
encourage us,
that God doesn’t need perfect people:
God is quite happy to walk alongside,
and to call pretty imperfect people...
even people like us.
These snapshots of those who walked with God down through the ages,
are dotted about our own spiritual interior landscape:
hanging on the walls,
or mantelpieces,
of our hearts, our souls, our minds...
hanging there to cheer us on.
You can almost hear them calling:
‘if God is willing to walk alongside us,
if God can use us...
then God can call you, and walk with you too.
Go on, go on, you can do it!’
...Reminding us that we don’t run the race of faith on our own:
we have this great crowd of witnesses cheering us on,
for ours is a faith lived in community:
the community that is the church both visible and now invisible –
those who have gone before us in faith.
Over this next year, we’ll be walking in faith with some of the
folk mentioned in our passage from Hebrews, as well as others not mentioned here.
We’ll be doing this to remind us where human beings fit in relation to God,
and where we fit in relation to one another,
and where we fit within the overall story of God’s people;
a people who God has invited to walk with him,
to be his crowd of witnesses in the world, giving praise and glory to him.
And, as we walk together with God, in community,
I’m praying that together we learn afresh what it is to be fully alive in God,
and to share that life, that joy,
with one another,
and with others –
in our words and in our deeds. .
So:
let us walk in God’s way –
let us walk the way of love,
and in doing so,
with God,
and with that great crowd of witnesses who’ve gone before us;
and, with each other...
let us continue to make the road of faith by walking together. ...
Let’s pray:
Lord, you are with us,
guiding us, calling us.
We are pilgrims, Lord,
searching,
travelling,
seeking
your kingdom on earth
as it is in Heaven.
Lord, you are with us,
guiding us, calling us.
As we walk with you
may our restless hearts
find their rest in you. Amen.
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