Christian Life

Because I prepare my themes six months in advance (but not the content!), when special events arise in the life of Wesley Mission, it becomes a challenge to see whether the chosen theme now fits the particular occasion in question.

This is a Sunday on which we thank God for the partnership of churches with Wesley Mission.  The kind of work we do and the enormous program in which we are engaged could not be delivered without strong support.  This comes from those in our Volunteer Program, stakeholders of all kinds, individual financial support and, significantly, churches in and around Sydney.

On Sunday evenings, we are looking at the theme of faith in the Book of Hebrews.  Hebrews 12 is a classic chapter, which explores the disciplined nature of our faith.

Hebrews could be considered one of the most exciting and radical books of the New Testament… it certainly throbs with God’s transforming power.  It is an urgent work of pastoral theology, which confronts us with God’s challenges.  This book is not produced out of an ivory tower, but from the experience and commitment of a community provoked by the pressure of crisis.

In Chapter 11 the writer has listed some of the great heroes of faith whose example, through suffering and commitment, has pointed the way for us.  Now in Chapter 12, it is as if the writer is saying, ‘They are the ones who have finished the race – now it’s your turn!’  We can be inspired by those who have gone before, but we need Jesus Christ himself to give us the strength and power to partake in and complete this race.

The Christian life and sharing in the mission of God’s work within the community can be compared to running a long-distance race like a marathon.  Only last week, a number from this congregation took part in the City2Surf race.  What is being suggested here is something far more demanding!

There are two aspects of this passage which immediately resonate with what we are celebrating this evening:

• We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses: those who have gone before – and those who support us now in the work to which God has called us.
  
• Real fortitude and purpose are required to complete the work and the witness.

The figures of speech we find in the early words of Hebrews 12 come from a sporting world which clearly lies behind much of the New Testament.  In the races of the first century world and also for our own long-distance challenges, we need good conditioning, proper strategy and great endurance.  All of these things are important and suggest that mental, physical and spiritual preparation is as significant as the race itself.

Text: Hebrews 12:1-2a -
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, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

We are engaged in a race which calls for huge engagement in terms of our own lives and also the witness we make in the world – and the writer to the Hebrews expands what the race means in terms of witness and service.

We are told that the race is ‘marked out for us’.  The word translated ‘marked out’ is Prokeimai which can also be translated ‘lie before, lie in view, be at hand’.  The picture I have in mind is that moment when all the runners are getting ready and loosening up, waiting for the starting pistol.

There are essentially three aspects which I want you to note.  One is the preparation, the second is the race from the outset, and the other is remaining committed to the end and ensuring that the race is completed.

Stripping for the race 

Being prepared for a project or a particular task will involve ensuring that we are ready in many different ways.  In a race, it involves stripping down for the athletic challenge that lies before the runner.

The use of athletic imagery is familiar (1 Corinthians 9:24-29, Galatians 2:2 and Philippians 2:16).  All the necessary elements of a race are found in this passage in Hebrews:  we have spectators, possible encumbrances, the particular challenges involved in running a long race, a leader and a finish line. 

Let us look together at what it will mean to be ready for the race:

Pulling off those things that hinder

This can appear to be a rather negative aspect of what is involved, but it can make all the difference in relation to our success or otherwise in the Christian life.

Following all the months of preparation, the warm-up suits are laid aside, as the race will soon commence.

The writer encourages the reader to throw off ‘everything that hinders’.  The word used for weight… onkos… can mean ‘mass, bulk, excess weight’.

In his novel The Mysterious Island, Jules Verne tells of five men who escape from a civil war prison camp by hijacking a hot air balloon.  As they rise into the air, they realise the wind is carrying them over the ocean.  They watch their homeland disappear over the horizon and wonder how much longer the balloon can stay aloft.

Hours pass and the surface of the ocean draws closer; the five have to decide what they must cast overboard, for they had no way to heat the air in the balloon.  Shoes, coats and weapons are reluctantly discarded and the uncomfortable aviators feel their balloon rise, but only temporarily!  Soon they find themselves dangerously close to the waves again, so they even dispense with their food.  They consider it better to be high above the water and hungry than drown on a full stomach of food.

Eventually they do touch land, but only after they have dispensed with all those things they considered essential for life.  It is a salutary reminder that we too often treat as essential those things which are not the core of what it means to live a full and productive life.

When under pressure, it is so important to distinguish between the things we can dispense with and the necessities of life.  In this context, the reference is to superfluous clothes and anything that hinders the race, but there are spiritual aspects too, as we read that we must also abandon the ‘sin that so easily entangles’.

Raymond Brown explains, ‘The sin which clings so closely all too easily entangles.  Before we know where we are, we have been tripped up and hurled to the ground in a race which had all the possibilities of triumphant victory.’

There is a challenge for the Christian church today, for we can be tempted to concentrate on those things that are of secondary importance rather than our God-given priorities:-

• too easily concerned with preserving the past.
  
• full of internal squabbles, hindering progress.
  
• focusing on survival rather than advance.
  
• embodying a one-sided aspect of religion/life.

Those things which weigh on us eventually wear us out and slow us down, no matter how important they might feel at the time.  We can also be weighed down by overconfidence and arrogance.  How many sporting teams have found themselves beaten by the underdog because they had been viewed as a pushover?

Putting on those things that help

This is the more positive aspect of the text.  If we are required to dispense with some hindrances, we must also be clear about what is essential if we are to succeed.

In our personal Christian living, we need to be equipped by prayer and a devotional life that makes meaningful sense.  In our life as a Christian community and a Christian mission agency, this means we must be alert to the need for endurance and persistence.  Leon Morris reminds us that he is talking about ‘the kind of sustained effort required of the long-distance runner who keeps on with great determination over the long course.’

In the previous chapter we discovered that this determination was what kept the heroes of faith alert to their mission – and it is to that same high calling that we must aspire.

One of the most moving experiences is to go to the rivers of the North of England or Scotland and watch the salmon and trout swimming upstream, against the tide.  Only dead fish swim with the tide!  We too are called to be a fresh and living community, swimming upstream.

Running free does not mean we should be released from all restraints.  But it does mean that we ask God to help us rid ourselves of unnecessary baggage – worries, anxieties, material obsession and the selfishness that is wrong.

How many of our secondary concerns have become priorities?  How often are we diverted from our main goal?  Imagine our athletics squad preparing for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi and our top 100 metre runner turning up for a heat wearing baggy pants, a heavy hat, a combat jacket and a back-pack!  So often we seek to maintain a vibrant mission in modern Australia with mixed and confusing priorities… and such priorities impede our mission.

Starting the race

Athletes have different ways of approaching their race.  In the long-distance race, there are those who frequently hang back so that they can make a move at the right time that will eventually lead to their success.  It is clear we must be sure in our own minds that the prize is not for good starters… but for good finishers!  This is what led Richard Taylor to comment: ‘An initial spurt of speed does not entitle the Christian to nap later.’

Having said this, we will never win the race if we don’t first start it.  What does that mean for an organisation like Wesley Mission?  What does it mean in relation to our partnerships engaged in service? 

For Wesley Mission – and for all Christian communities serious about commitment today – it has to involve being prepared to:-

• count the cost of commitment to people.
  
• put our head above the parapet.
  
• hold fast to the values that have helped to shape us.

The challenge here is to decide what our strategy is as we begin the race.  Life is not a hundred metres sprint, which is usually won by the most gifted athlete; the qualities of character and perseverance are what will make all the difference in the longer race.  We might also add that the Christian life involves discipline and inner-toughness.

The decisions we must make

So many of the challenges in local churches involve being willing to look beyond our own immediate concerns.  I recognise this is not easy to do.  The constant engagement with property issues and the many calls upon our time and hard-gained resources make it difficult to avoid being drawn into the insularity of local issues determining everything.

God never gives us responsibilities that are beyond our capabilities through his Spirit.  Dag Hammarskjold said, ‘Do what you can, and the task will rest lightly in your hands.  So lightly that you will be able to look forward to the more difficult tasks that may be awaiting you.’

The direction we must maintain

Remaining focused on Jesus Christ is clearly the message here.  In the course of every race and in the challenge of every mission, the athlete and the community must be looking clearly and continually on the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
 
The word used and translated ‘looking’ indicates one who is all too aware of the rival attractions, and is deliberately looking away from these distractions.  This is necessary not only at the beginning of the race, but continually as the race progresses.

Dale Carnegie said, ‘Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.’  We must maintain our direction if we are to complete the work God has called us to do.

Staying in the race

We are living through some very interesting times and many of the issues are reflected in the current Federal Election here in Australia.  We see all too clearly in all parties:-

• An increasingly secular agenda.
  
• A predominantly partisan agenda.
  
• An obvious absence of the needs of the poor.

It is not going to get easier and, across the whole world, we will find ourselves increasingly challenged by communities that don’t want to know.

In his autobiography, James Galway, the Irishman with the dancing eyes and the magic flute, described the attitudes that crystalised for him after a serious accident when he broke both his legs and sustained other injuries: 
‘I decided that henceforward I would play every concert, cut every record, give every television performance, as though it were my last.  I’ve come to understand that it is never possible to guess what might happen next; that the roof might fall in any time and that the important thing is to make sure that every time I play the flute my performance will be as near perfection and full of true music as God intended, and that I shall not be remembered for a shoddy performance.  My ambitions, therefore, are limited.  They are merely that I should leave good memories behind me; that people should feel when they recall my name, that in some odd, inexplicable way, they have at some time heard the voice of the infinite through me.’

There are those who give up

An anonymous ditty tells a story:
I wish I was a little rock … A sittin’ on the hill.
A doin’ nothin’ all day long… ‘Cept just a sittin’ still.
I wouldn’t eat, I wouldn’t sleep… I wouldn’t even wash.
I’d sit and sit a thousand years… And rest myself, by gosh!

I don’t want to strike a sad note or to make you feel depressed, but have you ever felt so tired you couldn’t put one foot in front of the other?  This sort of fatigue happens to communities also.

I don’t believe that across Australia there are thousands of dead churches, but I do believe:-

• Some churches have become overwhelmed by the ‘mega-church’ model.
  
• Some churches are exhausted, upholding out-dated models of mission.
  
• Many churches do underestimate their impact upon the local community.

Each local church is an agency for good and our partnership can help to add value to one another.  The Boston-based philosopher and Christian apologist, Peter Kreeft, described the dynamic nature of the church: ‘The church is: a conspiracy of love for a dying world, a spy mission into enemy occupied territory ruled by the powers of evil; a prophet from God with the greatest news the world has ever heard, the most life changing and most revolutionary institution that has existed on earth.’

There are those who go on

What is the difference between the winners and losers in the race of life?  Hundreds of books in the ‘self help’ section of our bookshops seek to answer that kind of question!

I am not interested in talking about success in a kind-of triumphalist way, but I do know there are those communities of faith that will succeed – and there are those whose presence will be short-term.

Michael Green is one writer and leader who has sought to see the New Testament story as one of mission.  We can learn a great deal from his thought: ‘Worship is half of the purpose of the church:  the other half is mission, in its broadest sense.’

In the race of life, the Christian community must not give up… but see that we can be a community which:-

• Gets beyond the social divisions which are tearing society apart.
  
• Rises to a larger agenda than mere personal religion.
  
• Discovers an evangelism which makes sense of life.

I have played enough sport to know that this picture of sport from Hebrews is helpful.  If I can build on another analogy … in the race of life, one of the most dangerous strategies is to hold onto a lead.  How many times have I seen my soccer team lose 2 – 1 because they tried to hold onto a one goal lead?  We thought we had the opponents beaten and so played with a maintenance mentality.

The needs of this country remain in:-

• families who feel damaged and are hurting.
  
• people whose lives have led them into isolation and homelessness.
  
• individuals and groups who feel their background or roots deny them opportunity.
  
• children who cry out for compassion, understanding and stability.

This challenge is too big for one local church, indeed one denomination.  It requires a new partnership of concern … and I am grateful for the commitment of so many churches that support us in the mission to which God has called us.

A missionary couple returned by ship to the USA after many years of faithful service in Africa.  It so happened that there was a very important diplomat also on the same ship who got special treatment and special attention.  When the ship arrived, the missionaries stood back, watching from the deck as the band played… and there was great cheering from the people who had gathered. 

As the diplomat walked down the gangplank and was whisked off in a limousine to the sound of music and applause, the man put his arm around his wife and walked off with her into the streets of New York.  ‘Honey,’ he said, ‘it just doesn’t seem right after all of these years that we would have this kind of treatment and this fellow gets that kind of treatment.’  And she put her arms around her husband and said to him, ‘But, honey, we’re not home yet!’

The great crowd are cheering us on… we may not hit the newspapers, we may not feature in the book of the greatest congregations in the world, but we will one day receive the accolade of God… and that’s all that’s necessary!

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