Running Towards Joy

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

My brothers convinced, or encouraged, or tricked me into signing up for a triathlon. Session, remind me to bring that up in our meeting this afternoon...I need to ask off for Sunday, September 8th. I’ve been avoiding thinking about it...and training for it. One morning, this past week, I had a fairly potent panic attack, induced in part by not feeling prepared at all to participate in a triathlon, which is roughly 20 miles of swimming, biking, and running, altogether. I let my siblings know as much and they responded with gentleness and encouragement. They did not criticize me for not doing enough, or for feeling overwhelmed by the task. My youngest brother actually came over that same afternoon...not to train for the triathlon (which he is also running), but just to hang out, share a drink, and watch some disc golf videos on YouTube. That night, unable to sleep, I convinced myself to go for a run at 2:30am, which, apart from the running, was quite nice.

It’s incredible what strength is found when one is surrounded by the gentleness and encouragement of those who are running the same race as we are. And that is the image that the author of Hebrews uses to wrap up a lengthy recap of the heroes of faith found in the Hebrew Scriptures. “So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race laid out in front of us, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us.” I mentioned feeling unprepared for the triathlon being only a part of my panic attack. There is much more to the “race” than simply a literal race. There’s also a job at which I daily face potential physical aggressions from upset students and a job which occasionally tasks me with preaching at memorial services for saints I never knew. It’d be dishonest for me to say that this combined physical, emotional, and spiritual burden doesn’t sometimes overwhelm me. But, just as venting to my siblings led to being surrounded with their love and encouragement, an honest confession in prayer also surrounds me with a great a cloud of witnesses who have wrestled with their faith.

Hebrews 11 lifts up a long list of characters whose lives, in some way, exemplify responding to God in faith. Tom Long clusters these names into four groups: those who are praised for their righteousness; those who have journeyed obediently in faith; those who were tested by suffering; and those whose lives reflect a bit of all three qualifications (Long, 115). It can be overwhelming to look at this list of “heroes” and try to measure up. Who am I compared to Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Joshua, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, and Samson, David and Samuel, and all the prophets? Hebrews lifts up these characters for moments in which they chose to respond to God in faith. Moments. Just because we call Scriptures the inerrant word of God, does not mean that its characters are flawless. I can think of many moments in the lives of each of these aforementioned characters in which their faith was also found to falter, moments in which their morality was muddled, moments in which their selfishness shone through. What is inerrant in scripture is God’s grace, the faithfulness God shows to people who, time and again, don’t seem to deserve it...we’ll get back to this in a moment. As my dad put it, “I think the scriptures to a pretty good job of presenting us with imperfect people.” When we think about the great cloud of witnesses, let us not set them above us, but beside us. More like a great “fog” of witnesses, a cloud on our level, surrounding us: imperfect, selfish, violent, lustful, sinful people.

So, back to grace. This is the point behind the preacher sharing all of these names. He praises them for those moments in which they were faithful, but then concludes by saying: “All these people didn’t receive what was promised, though they were given approval for their faith. God provided something better for us so they wouldn’t be made perfect without us.” In other words, the preacher is saying what my dad said: to be sure, each of these characters had their moments of faith, but they are still far from perfect. If you’re looking for perfect…

It is here that the preacher introduces the metaphor of the endurance race...just as a race requires more than one step, a life of faith is more than one moment. Our great cloud of witnesses reveals the capability of imperfect people to exemplify faith in the midst of struggle, suffering, journeying. But the pioneer and perfecter of our faith is the one who strung together a life of such moments, as Philippians 2 explains: though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not exploit this, but became like us...like us that is, except for his perfect obedience to God. Jesus’ life was not a moment of faith, but a full marathon. Because of how he ran the race, we who are able to manage a moment of faith are made perfect...so long as we place that faith in him.

Back to my feeling overwhelmed...I really laid it all out there for my siblings. I let them know what I was feeling. Out of that vulnerability and honesty came an outpouring of love. So it is for us who are overwhelmed by the metaphorical race laid before us: the life of faith to which God calls each of us. There is no shame in confessing that we feel overwhelmed. Confession, at its finest, is a moment of faith by which we open ourselves to an outpouring of love. It is through confession that we make ourselves vulnerable and open our hearts to receive the love of Jesus, who does not exploit us in our weakness, but takes on the burden of our sin and shame so that we might be “given approval for our faith” and see the joy God has laid out in front of us.

“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, 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.”

Pray for me, and know that I will continue to pray for you, as together we run towards joy! Amen.