"Look to Jesus"
- Rev. Bob Thomas
Senior Pastor
the Bible Lesson:
Hebrews 11:1-2, 7-8, 23, 29, 32-34; 12:1-2
Dr. Heather Murray Elkins is associate professor of worship and liturgical studies at The Theological School at Drew University. She began her teaching career as an instructor in the first bi-lingual independent school on the Navaho Reservation. During her pastoral career she served as a local church pastor, a truck stop chaplain, a university chaplain, and an academic dean. She has written and edited numerous books and articles. Early in her career, 30 years ago, while she was serving as an associate pastor in a large United Methodist Church in her native West Virginia she was faced with a group of older parishioners who found the idea of having a woman pastor in their local United Methodist Church challenging. This group of older folks found it particularly difficult to see her as a woman as their pastor, particularly serving the sacrament of Holy Communion. (Remember, this was nearly 30 years ago.) One of Heather’s jobs was to teach a morning Bible study class which many of the older women of the church attended. Heather has always been a gifted teacher and communicator and never one to back down from a challenge but always sensitive to the views and feelings of others. As she made her way through that first year as the associate pastor she discovered that several of the women in her Bible study group were widows and that many were struggling with issues of loss. Heather also discovered that many of the women were very talented sewers---fancy work, quilts, mending…Heather is extremely creative. For one class assignment, the widows were invited to bring in ties that their husbands had worn to church…And during the class session each woman talked about her husband and shared the ties with the group. Heather commented how beautiful the ties were and how meaningful each one was. She asked the women if they would be willing to sew the ties together into a chasuble for her to wear during worship. (A chasuble is large full stole.) The ladies were excited that their husband’s ties would be used in such a special way during worship…So they got back together and brought their sewing supplies and a sewing machine and together they created a beautiful liturgical vestment (1.a)that Rev. Elkins wore for the first time the next time she served the Sacrament of Holy Communion…And her new best friends and strongest supporters were so proud of their new pastor and were beside themselves with joy as they received the sacrament she had presided over. That day Heather’s church experienced first hand the truth of what the author of the book of Hebrews described as being “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” and learned something about being inclusive.
The author of Hebrews goes on to say “so let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” He then lists dozens of superheroes of the faith. Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Rahab, and Samuel to name just a few. These are the big guns of the faith. These are the ones who ran the race of faith and took home the gold. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that we would ever make that list. Few of us will ever be called by God to lead an entire nation out of the Egypts of the world, as Moses was called to do, or to part the waters of a sea, or build an ark, or slay a Philistine giant; or be the mother that enabled the original covenant to populate the earth; few will ever risk being stoned to death or sawed in two for the sake of the gospel. No, it would seem that we are not even in the race when we stack ourselves up against these giants of the faith.
But the writer of the book to the Hebrews thinks otherwise. This is what he says, “You are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. They have taken their turn around the track; they have carried the baton; they have endured the pain of the race—the burning legs, the breathlessness, the blisters in the feet, the pounding heart—and this is what they have done: They have passed the baton to you, and they’ve stepped off the track. They have taken a seat in the stadium to watch you run, to watch you take your laps on the track. They did not go to the locker room for a hot shower or to a place on the podium; they are here, all around us, and if you listen carefully you can hear them cheering you on, pulling for you, holding their breath when you stumble, willing you to get back up and stay in the race, Why? Because the race is not finished…until every last one of us crosses the finish line and the kingdom of God finally comes.
The author of Hebrews says that we are not running alone in this life. Maybe you wish you were. Maybe the thought of all the saints in heaven watching you, cheering for you, pulling for you—maybe that feels a bit intimidating to you. All I know is that we need them. We cannot run for very long without them, and Hebrews says they are here because they know what is on the other side of that finish line, and they want us to get across it.
“We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” Every obstacle in your life—get rid of it. Every hindrance, shed it; every ball and chain, cut it loose. You cannot run with that stuff. This is a race. Lighten the load.
But that’s easier said than done. Even the apostle Paul says, “I don’t understand my own actions sometimes. My intention is to serve God, to be faithful to God, but there’s something in my life that keeps me from serving God, keeps me messed up sometimes that I can’t do the very thing I know I need to do.”
Every sin, every hindrance, every weight that drags you down, lose it. But the flesh is weak, isn’t it? That is why he throws out that word—perseverance. I wish there were an easier, more painless word, than persistence. It sounds too much like work, like a lot of heard work that takes a long time. You might get through one week, but that is not perseverance. One lap around the track is not persevering. Not two laps, not four. This race is more like a marathon. That is what it is. And the author of Hebrews says you have to just stay in there, you have to stay in the game. And that is the radical word that separates weekend warriors from the genuine article when it comes to faith. Christians persevere. In a culture in which most choices are made on feelings, perseverance is a hard word. You can get around the track once or twice on feelings, but those feelings wear thin the longer you’re in the race.
A man says, “I don’t want to be married to you anymore. You don’t make me happy. I don’t feel like I did when we first got married.” I have done hundreds of weddings in my thirty plus years in the ministry and not a single couple ever vowed to stay together until the feeling goes away. That’s not part of the deal with marriage. That’s not what the liturgy says…even when couples write their own vows…
Perseverance is finding a way beyond your feelings in order to do what must be done. It is staying in the race even when it hurts, even when you do not have all the answers. And it is what distinguishes the genuine articles of this world from the weekend warriors.
In my first parish a controversial issue began to brew in the smallest of my three churches. It was in a small town and everyone literally knew everyone else. Most of them were related. There one couple who was adamantly opposed to the rest of the congregation about this issue…it was a property matter and everyone was passionate to say the least. We had to vote and make a decision at the charge conference. We all pretty much knew how the vote would turn out but I also knew that the discussion would be lively. The District Superintendent did a great job of giving everyone a chance to speak. Most of the speeches were on one side of the issue. Before we voted, the husband of the couple with the opposing view stood, politely but very forcefully stated his, the minority, opposing opinion. Every one was passionate and we all cared deeply about the church. When it came time to vote, the superintendent called for a show of hands. The only ones voting “No,” were the couple whom we all knew were opposed. As soon as the vote was taken, they quickly left the meeting. I called on them the next day and listened again to their concerns and their position. Before I left their home I told them that I hoped to see them in worship the next week. (It was a very small congregation and we couldn’t take loosing even two members.) “Oh, we’ll be there, Pastor,” they said. “That is our church. We think the board made the wrong decision but that is our church. We’ll be there and you won’t ever hear us say one more word about this again.” I was their pastor for two more years. And they never missed a Sunday and they never said anything about that vote again.
I don’t know if there is any other way to get around that track and persevere together, to endure the stuff that every one of us has to endure in our personal lives, in our relationships, in our communities and in church—the hardships, the disappointments, the sin that clings to us, the obstacles in our way, the misunderstandings and disagreements and imperfections—I do not know how to persevere in the face of all that without, as the text says, “looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”
“Looking to Jesus,” What does that mean? It means following the leader, the one who has already blazed the trail for us. It means doing what he did: the one who never stepped out of the race: the one who stayed in the game to the very end. Just watch him…follow him, and you will get around that track.
I want you to hear that. He doesn’t say, “Look to Moses, or Abraham, or Sarah, or Rahab, or Martin Luther King Jr., or Mother Teresa, or Bono. He says, “Look to Jesus. Do what he did, and you’ll get around that track.
Look to Jesus right there in the courtyard the last evening of his life, Peter said, “Jesus? No, I don’t know anyone named Jesus. Never heard of him.” Three times. “No, Jesus, who?” Three times. But look at Jesus, right there on the beach after the resurrection. “Peter, it’s me, Jesus. You do remember me, right? Do you love me?” Three times, “Do you love me? Then feed my sheep.” That is a love that perseveres. Jesus had it.
“Look to Jesus,” says the author of Hebrews. Look at him there in Pilate’s headquarters, down there in Jerusalem, standing before Pilate, dressed in rags and bound in shackles, his head hanging on his shoulders. Pilate says, “Who are you, Jesus? You want me to set you free? You want all of this to go away? You want to step out of the race? I can set you free if you want. You don’t have to do this.” But Jesus didn’t say a word. No way. He’s in the race for the long haul. “I’m already free,” he finally told Pilate. “Look to Jesus,” says the author of Hebrews, “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”
Look to Jesus, right there in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he’s praying on the last night of his life. The disciples are right there with him. “We’re with you Jesus, we’ll stick with you till the very end.” And minutes later they’re sleeping; his best friends are snoozing peacefully on the last night of his life, unable to carry his burden. It had to be heartbreaking for Jesus, but look at him. Before the sun would set the following day, there he is, hanging from a tree, whispering, “Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing.”
Look to Jesus, who never stepped out of the race; who persevered for our sake and for the sake of the kingdom of God. Jesus kept to the game plan. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Do what he did.
Those folks thirty years ago who had had such a tough time seeing a woman as their pastor finally, with the help of the cloud of witnesses who had gone before were able to look beyond their personal biases and see not just a pastor arrayed in familiar fabrics but to see Jesus…This is where it gets personal. As believers we look to Jesus for strength and direction in our lives. And the Lord is always there to help us and encourage us, and bless us…so we can persevere and be a blessing to the world so they can look to Jesus. Salvation is a gift. Sanctification is a rich blessing. Moving on to perfection is a description of an obedient lifestyle…but our purpose is to become and to be the embodied Christ in the world. And out there we don’t get to wear colorful garments that identify us as religious. Frankly these religious coverings are just that…to cover me up so you don’t get distracted by what I’m wearing so you can “see” what I’m doing and hear what I’m trying to say. In the world we’re all on equal footing. And they’re watching…not to see if we’ll trip and fall but to get a glimpse of the master whose love and power becomes visible in our individual and common life…so the world can look to Jesus through you.
Therefore “Let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”
Amen.
