Running Amongst the Cloud Message given Nov. 4, 2007 evening
Hebrews 11:32-12:3 NLT 32 Well, how much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. 33 By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. 35 Women received their loved ones back again from death.But others trusted God and were tortured, preferring to die rather than turn from God and be free. They placed their hope in the resurrection to a better life. 36 Some were mocked, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in dungeons. 37 Some died by stoning, and some were sawed in half; others were killed with the sword. Some went about in skins of sheep and goats, hungry and oppressed and mistreated. 38 They were too good for this world. They wandered over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. 39 All of these people we have mentioned received God's approval because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. 40 For God had far better things in mind for us that would also benefit them, for they can't receive the prize at the end of the race until we finish the race. 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven. 3 Think about all he endured when sinful people did such terrible things to him, so that you don't become weary and give up. NLT
The Word of God, written for the people of God
Thanks be to God
Let us pray: Most Gracious, powerful and loving God, we thank you for this day and the opportunity to enjoy your creation for yet another day. This evening we will be remembering the great cloud of witnesses who have helped us in our faith. We thank you for those special people. I pray that each heart here be open to your word this morning and that my words become truly yours in spirit. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight oh Lord my rock and my redeemer. AMEN
What is our Scripture lesson saying to us today? The Scripture actually says more than we had time to read today. The listing of the “cloud of witnesses” began with Abel, who it said, ”brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. God accepted Abel's offering to show that he was a righteous man.…” The preceding verses went through a listing of all sorts of Old Testament figures concluding where we started in our Scripture lesson.
The book of Hebrews was written around 60-70 AD. For a long time, scholars believed Paul wrote this book. However, more recently that view has pretty much been set aside. The book is written in a style similar to Paul’s letters and was likely prepared to offer encouragement to Christians who had been under extreme persecution during the reign of the emperor Nero. One of the similarities with Paul’s style is the use of the metaphor of the race. Paul used it in his farewell to the Ephesians (Acts 20:24 NLT) “24 But my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus the work of telling others the Good News about God's wonderful kindness and love.” He also used it in his instructions to Timothy in his second letter to him (2 Tim. 4:7 {NLT}) “7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.” In that vein, the author of Hebrews is telling these early Christians and us to “let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” How do we run such a race?
Our Scripture lesson for today tells us that we must first “let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.” Have you ever noticed the dress of competitive runners? They hardly wear anything at all. That’s because they don’t want to be burdened with extra weight or constricting clothing. It’s a great analogy for our run of faith (We’re NOT walking today!) And it also a good analogy as we prepare to receive Holy Communion. We always confess our sin in order that Christ will cleanse us to allow us to enter into God’s presence. But back to the race idea, in order for us to “win” the race we have to get rid of our excess baggage. How many times do we Christians fail to run our race to our fullest potential because we refuse to let go of some of the heavy burdens that are weighing us down? Sometimes it’s difficult to turn over that special little sin of ours. It may be that we’ve thrown off the sin, but we are still carrying the guilt, like some red badge of courage. The guilt can be as burdensome as the sin itself. So how do we go about discarding these burdens and entanglements?
Our lesson tells us we should be “keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven. 3 Think about all he endured when sinful people did such terrible things to him, so that you don't become weary and give up.” If we indeed set our eyes upon Jesus, we will know that one, we need to repent and confess our sins. But we also need to be aware, no, we need to be absolutely SURE that he will really, truly, honest to Pete forgive us. Once we come to the assurance that there isn’t a sin of ours that is too big for Jesus to forgive, we can get upon the business of running this race of faith. Now, I could spend several Sundays talking about that forgiveness, but today, All-Saints Sunday, we need to consider something else.
That something else is the great cloud of witnesses that surround us. In essence, these are the saints that have gone before us in the faith. The Greek word used in the Scripture for witness is “martus”, which is the root word for martyr. In the early Christian church the words martyr and saint were pretty much interchangeable. Except for John, the disciple Jesus loved, almost all the saints had been martyrs. I like the word “witness”. It’s one of those rich words. Obviously, it could mean martyr. In modern usage we think of it as one who testifies to his or her faith. I like one of the other nuances too. In order to be a witness, one who tells, you have to be a spectator as well. You have to see something happen before you can tell others about it. So let’s tie our race and witness ideas together.
Think of when you we young & maybe running in some races. For some of us, that will be a long stretch of memory; for others maybe just a few weeks. My race as a youngster was music. When I entered high school, I was thirty pounds too light to be a 97-pound weakling; so I just about had to find some non-athletic competitive outlets. The band satisfied that. We would play at concerts & football halftime shows. However, most of my time was spent practicing by myself; getting ready. But once the day of the performance came, my parents would always be in the attendance, as spectators, witnessing the event. But they would do more than that. They would encourage me before the concert; they would applaud our playing with each number we did. After the performance they would come and tell everybody how great we did (sometimes they might have even stretched the truth a little-but that’s a subject for another sermon!). I always played better when the parents and friends were there watching. I always played better… HMMM…
So here the Hebrews writer is telling us that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses as we run our faith race. Who are these people? Well, they’re the saints. I can just see all these famous Biblical characters up in the stands as I conduct my race. Maybe the writer of Hebrews is up there hollering for me to do well. Hey, he and I are buds; I’m preaching his book aren’t I? Maybe Saint Athanasious who led the canonization of our present day books of the Bible and lent his name to my last surviving great uncle. Or maybe my own late Mom is up there; my grandparents and my second grade Sunday school teacher too. It gives me a feeling of comfort to think about it. You see, the great cloud of witnesses don’t have to be just the famous Biblical characters; they can also be those who have had a personal relationship with us an impacted our lives as Christians.
And so today we celebrate All Saints Sunday Since the 7th century Christians have been celebrating the Holy or hallowed saints who have gone on before us. That’s how the term Halloween got started. The night before All Saints Day is all hallow’s eve, Halloween. Although the pagan Celtic people began the tradition, the early Catholic Church modified the celebration into a very holy one, one that we celebrate to this day.
Who are your great cloud of witnesses? Who has made a difference in your life as a Christian? Who is cheering you on to finish the race with perseverance? We honor those people today as we share Holy Communion. In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, let us pray.
Almighty and gracious God, we thank you that you have sent us Jesus so we can actually be able to come into your presence. We ask that you forgive us our sins as we confess them and allow us to share this meal with you just have been done by the great cloud of witnesses who have come before us. In Jesus name AMEN.
The Word of God, written for the people of God
Thanks be to God
Let us pray: Most Gracious, powerful and loving God, we thank you for this day and the opportunity to enjoy your creation for yet another day. This evening we will be remembering the great cloud of witnesses who have helped us in our faith. We thank you for those special people. I pray that each heart here be open to your word this morning and that my words become truly yours in spirit. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight oh Lord my rock and my redeemer. AMEN
What is our Scripture lesson saying to us today? The Scripture actually says more than we had time to read today. The listing of the “cloud of witnesses” began with Abel, who it said, ”brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. God accepted Abel's offering to show that he was a righteous man.…” The preceding verses went through a listing of all sorts of Old Testament figures concluding where we started in our Scripture lesson.
The book of Hebrews was written around 60-70 AD. For a long time, scholars believed Paul wrote this book. However, more recently that view has pretty much been set aside. The book is written in a style similar to Paul’s letters and was likely prepared to offer encouragement to Christians who had been under extreme persecution during the reign of the emperor Nero. One of the similarities with Paul’s style is the use of the metaphor of the race. Paul used it in his farewell to the Ephesians (Acts 20:24 NLT) “24 But my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus the work of telling others the Good News about God's wonderful kindness and love.” He also used it in his instructions to Timothy in his second letter to him (2 Tim. 4:7 {NLT}) “7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.” In that vein, the author of Hebrews is telling these early Christians and us to “let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” How do we run such a race?
Our Scripture lesson for today tells us that we must first “let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.” Have you ever noticed the dress of competitive runners? They hardly wear anything at all. That’s because they don’t want to be burdened with extra weight or constricting clothing. It’s a great analogy for our run of faith (We’re NOT walking today!) And it also a good analogy as we prepare to receive Holy Communion. We always confess our sin in order that Christ will cleanse us to allow us to enter into God’s presence. But back to the race idea, in order for us to “win” the race we have to get rid of our excess baggage. How many times do we Christians fail to run our race to our fullest potential because we refuse to let go of some of the heavy burdens that are weighing us down? Sometimes it’s difficult to turn over that special little sin of ours. It may be that we’ve thrown off the sin, but we are still carrying the guilt, like some red badge of courage. The guilt can be as burdensome as the sin itself. So how do we go about discarding these burdens and entanglements?
Our lesson tells us we should be “keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven. 3 Think about all he endured when sinful people did such terrible things to him, so that you don't become weary and give up.” If we indeed set our eyes upon Jesus, we will know that one, we need to repent and confess our sins. But we also need to be aware, no, we need to be absolutely SURE that he will really, truly, honest to Pete forgive us. Once we come to the assurance that there isn’t a sin of ours that is too big for Jesus to forgive, we can get upon the business of running this race of faith. Now, I could spend several Sundays talking about that forgiveness, but today, All-Saints Sunday, we need to consider something else.
That something else is the great cloud of witnesses that surround us. In essence, these are the saints that have gone before us in the faith. The Greek word used in the Scripture for witness is “martus”, which is the root word for martyr. In the early Christian church the words martyr and saint were pretty much interchangeable. Except for John, the disciple Jesus loved, almost all the saints had been martyrs. I like the word “witness”. It’s one of those rich words. Obviously, it could mean martyr. In modern usage we think of it as one who testifies to his or her faith. I like one of the other nuances too. In order to be a witness, one who tells, you have to be a spectator as well. You have to see something happen before you can tell others about it. So let’s tie our race and witness ideas together.
Think of when you we young & maybe running in some races. For some of us, that will be a long stretch of memory; for others maybe just a few weeks. My race as a youngster was music. When I entered high school, I was thirty pounds too light to be a 97-pound weakling; so I just about had to find some non-athletic competitive outlets. The band satisfied that. We would play at concerts & football halftime shows. However, most of my time was spent practicing by myself; getting ready. But once the day of the performance came, my parents would always be in the attendance, as spectators, witnessing the event. But they would do more than that. They would encourage me before the concert; they would applaud our playing with each number we did. After the performance they would come and tell everybody how great we did (sometimes they might have even stretched the truth a little-but that’s a subject for another sermon!). I always played better when the parents and friends were there watching. I always played better… HMMM…
So here the Hebrews writer is telling us that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses as we run our faith race. Who are these people? Well, they’re the saints. I can just see all these famous Biblical characters up in the stands as I conduct my race. Maybe the writer of Hebrews is up there hollering for me to do well. Hey, he and I are buds; I’m preaching his book aren’t I? Maybe Saint Athanasious who led the canonization of our present day books of the Bible and lent his name to my last surviving great uncle. Or maybe my own late Mom is up there; my grandparents and my second grade Sunday school teacher too. It gives me a feeling of comfort to think about it. You see, the great cloud of witnesses don’t have to be just the famous Biblical characters; they can also be those who have had a personal relationship with us an impacted our lives as Christians.
And so today we celebrate All Saints Sunday Since the 7th century Christians have been celebrating the Holy or hallowed saints who have gone on before us. That’s how the term Halloween got started. The night before All Saints Day is all hallow’s eve, Halloween. Although the pagan Celtic people began the tradition, the early Catholic Church modified the celebration into a very holy one, one that we celebrate to this day.
Who are your great cloud of witnesses? Who has made a difference in your life as a Christian? Who is cheering you on to finish the race with perseverance? We honor those people today as we share Holy Communion. In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, let us pray.
Almighty and gracious God, we thank you that you have sent us Jesus so we can actually be able to come into your presence. We ask that you forgive us our sins as we confess them and allow us to share this meal with you just have been done by the great cloud of witnesses who have come before us. In Jesus name AMEN.