9th SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Listen to audio version
Readings: Hebrews 11: 29 – 12: 2 and Luke 12: 49-56
Who are your heroes? Maybe we don’t have heroes as adults; perhaps that was something for childhood. Now we might greatly admire some public figure or ‘national treasure’; or a giant of the past like Churchill or Nelson. As children we might have had sporting heroes; a teacher at school; an older friend or sibling; a character in a book or comic – or maybe a pet. We probably thought these heroes – the humans at least – achieved things we couldn’t achieve, and were in a different league of some sort.
Today we hear a continuation of the great description of faith in the Letter to the Hebrews, and a catalogue of the heroes of the Old Testament. Apart from being a magnificent piece of writing, it is both inspiring and challenging. There is a vivid account of the faith of our ancestors. It starts with stories of victories, and of some good things that happened to those who lived by faith. The Israelites were saved when they came through the Red Sea; Rahab the prostitute did not perish in the sack of Jericho because she had provided safe shelter for the Lord’s spies. Some of those heroes of faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises; won strength out of weakness, and showed other virtues. But as the passage proceeds, the outlook becomes bleaker for believers, and we see that there was often a cost to faith; suffering, mocking, flogging, chains, imprisonment, death. Some had to wander in the desert, living like animals and on the edge of madness – ‘of whom the world was not worthy.’
Now, the writer is anxious to show that those to whom he was writing, and those whose lives he described stood in a long line of faithful people, through whom God’s special purposes for the world were worked out. As we were saying last week, the story of our own faith journey is partly for other people, not just for ourselves. But those Old Testament figures did not receive what was promised; because that arrived in Jesus. It is always a bit sad when somebody works hard to make something happen, and then just misses seeing the fulfilment of it, perhaps by death, or by moving onto another job – or whatever it might be. On the other hand, it is encouraging when people understand that they are part of a process, and that the realisation of something good for which they’ve worked is not just all about them, but for the greater good and for lasting benefit. Sometimes when driving we come across a new roundabout that doesn’t seem to have any purpose, with no other road leading off from it. As time passes by we notice a new housing development growing there, for the access of which the roundabout was put in place beforehand. When we first saw the roundabout we weren’t aware of the forward planning, just as we don’t see God’s plan in some of the roundabouts or cross-roads of our lives, if I may use that rather inadequate analogy.
Hebrews talks about running the race that is set before us. The writer David Adam envisages the scene like this: ‘A sports arena, with all the runners preparing for the races, and a great crowd of onlookers. Sitting at one end of the track is the King. He also watches, for his kingdom is in some way dependant on these runners. If the runners do not give themselves and dedicate themselves to the race, then the kingdom could be lost to the earth.’ He continues: ‘Now look at the runners. You should recognise them for you are among them. It is we who are in the arena, fighting to win. It is a battle for our eternal soul, and more: it is the only way the kingdom can be established on earth. We are called to witness and to proclaim the gospel. Christ and the saints rely on you.’ “They would not, apart from us, be made perfect.”
Maybe it is significant that David Adam uses the analogy of an arena for his illustration, because we know what terrible things befell Christians in the arena in Roman times. The arrival of Jesus on earth brought the beginning of the fulfilment of God’s promises. We don’t yet see the perfection of all things, but are privileged to have been called to continue the battle for the kingdom, which will one day be realised in all its glory. If all this seems a bit abstract, then think about the small things you can do to hasten the kingdom. Praying that this person comes to know Christ; working for that good cause or charity which seeks to improve the lot of the poor and underprivileged – something very close to our Lord’s heart; adding your voice to protests against injustice and inequality.
Sometimes we tend to forget what a privilege being a Christian is, when we see the hardships and persecutions others come under. Attacks on church buildings are by no means uncommon in many parts of the world, and not just when they are empty, as has happened in both of the major conflicts of our time, in Ukraine and in Gaza. Jesus spelled out the consequences of discipleship in the gospel for today. ‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.’ He goes on to say that households may be divided on account of him. I do not think he meant that he had deliberately come to divide, but that conflict and division would be the result of the spiritual battle that his arrival would start, as evil raged against good and people try to thwart God’s good purposes because it might be costly, in some way, to them.
The list of heroes of the faith in the Hebrews passage, and in the world today, is a mixed bag. Some have succeeded outright, but others have failed – and conspicuously, too. Of course, our earthly heroes sometimes let us down, and it is not without good reasoning that they say that you should never meet your heroes, in case you come away disappointed. Yet God can do great things, even with failure, because what matters to God is not success or failure, but faithfulness. There is a world of difference between those who try and fail, and those who will never risk anything. Hebrews reminds us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses – yes, witnesses. Our words and actions do not pass unscrutinised, and we should live out our lives as if that cloud of witnesses is testifying to everything we do and are.
Going back to the analogy of the games in the arena, the race that God asks us to run is like no other – more of a marathon than a sprint, and points don’t mean prizes. Christians are called to follow a servant, not a winner. Jesus led not by dominating, but by serving; he led not by triumphing until he had offered his very life as a sacrifice. He died, then rose.
All discipleship requires us to give ourselves fully to God; to fall and die with Christ that we might be raised. Fruit will grow from the seeds that God may sow through us, even if we don’t live to see everything come to fruition. So may we indeed run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith..