Focus: Those who went before us are not lost to us but have blazed a trail for us with purpose, community, redemptive suffering.

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1 Chris Bowman Manassas Church of the Brethren; Nokesville Road; Manassas VA Remembering: Purpose, Love, and Redemptive Suffering Hebrews 12:1-11 Focus: Those who went before us are not lost to us but have blazed a trail for us with purpose, community, redemptive suffering. Function: Recognize the cloud of witnesses who have died in the service of the Kingdom of Heaven and surround us, even now, with purpose, community, redemptive suffering. After an entire chapter of examples of those who have gone before us in faith, from the creation story to the flood, from Abraham and Sarah to Jacob and Esau and Moses --- to the women who had sons raised from the dead by the prophets to OTHERS who suffered terrible things and yet were commended for their faith... Hebrews turns those memories into encouragement: Hebrews 12:1-11The Message (MSG) Discipline in a Long-Distance Race Do you see what this means all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we d better get on with it. Strip down, start running and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed that exhilarating finish in and with God he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! 4-11 In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through all that bloodshed! So don t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don t shrug off God s discipline, but don t be crushed by it either. It s the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that s why you must never drop out. He s treating you as dear children. This trouble you re in isn t punishment; it s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God s holy best. At the time, discipline isn t much fun. It always feels like it s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. The Message (MSG) Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

2 Page 2 of 8 In my daily life, perhaps yours too, I can see that we are running a race that takes perseverance. It s more difficult to see sometimes (1) what are we running toward; (2) who we are running with; and what encourages us forward, you know, (3) especially when we stumble? We call the book of Hebrews a letter but it s really more of a sermon. It was written to Christians who were suffering, probably in Rome. And because of their suffering these first century Christians were thinking about leaving the faith. Who could blame them? The hope they once held in the message of Jesus, was a generation removed from the event of Jesus. And when people get divorced from life s passion they often are tempted to switch lives. But it wasn t just that. Being Christian was dangerous. In their day, in Rome especially, Christians were being persecuted for their faith even to the point of death. And when things start going wrong, or getting difficult, or when, as happened for these secondgeneration Christians, when their faith --- the very thing that was supposed to make life better --- was making life more difficult, or even deadly, well they began to wonder if it wasn t time to just switch saviors. And the writer of Hebrews was trying to encourage them to run with perseverance the race that was set before them. We today are in a different situation... the exact opposite situation. It s not that we are in danger of losing our lives for our faith; we are in danger of losing our faith because we have it so good. Depression, hopelessness, lack of focus or purpose, isolation and loneliness, these are more prevalent now than ever. With our wealth as a people we have also increased our spiritual poverty. And when the spiritual fire goes out in the furnace of faith, folks start looking around for something else to light their fire. {This is where I was going to tell you about the time Sherry and I relit the gas hot water heater... holding the gas valve open while pressing that sparker: The

3 Page 3 of 8 longer it went the more uncomfortable we felt. pssss tk, tk, tk. You ve got to do something when the fire goes out. But the story was too long... so you ll just have to use your own.} Hebrews, you see, is rekindling the fire and it does this by reminding folks that we are not running this race alone. We are part of a great cloud of witnesses, pressing on through all kinds of hardship, toward a common goal and purpose. Even when we suffer, Hebrews points this out, even when we struggle and suffer, it is not because God has abandoned us; it s just the opposite: God is redeeming us. This process of remembering --- of pointing with love to the saints who have gone before us --- this remembrance of not just the official Catholic saints but of all believers who had died. The tradition in the Western Church is call All Saints Day and for the first 800 years of the church it was celebrated on May 13. Remembering the saints encourages us to remember that we are not alone. Rather, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1), cheered on to run with endurance the race that is set before us. Dan Clendenin writes about this on his Blog: Journey with Jesus, saying Wherever I find myself on the Christian pilgrimage, in joy or despair, faith or doubt, sin or grace, many believers have gone before me. Some have failed miserably, others have triumphed gloriously. But at the end of the race, whether they ran well or poorly, they finally found ultimate rest in God's grace... As we remember this journey... this marathon... this race, I find these words of encouragement from Hebrews as important for us today as they were 2000 years ago in Rome. For them it was a message to save faith in the face of death; for us, for many of us, it is a message that can save us from the meaninglessness In this cloud of witnesses we remember people of faith who brought the three critical things that are needed in every life to have

4 Page 4 of 8 meaning. And in remembering these three things we also notice that we are being encouraged on in our own journey of faith. Viktor Frankl, in his book entitled: Man s Search for Meaning names these three things as Purpose, love, and redemptive suffering. These same three things are in this passage of Hebrews. Look: First, is purpose. Frankl writes about what happens to us deep down inside when we stop asking what life can give us and start asking for what we should give our lives. [quote] What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. 12 Therefore, since 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, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Everyone, says Viktor Frankl, needs a sense of purpose in their lives. We are not just cogs in a wheel; not just workers in the factory; not just what we do or where we live... we are uniquely formed and called by our creator. How does the Psalm say it: For you created my inmost being, O God. You knit me together in my mother s womb. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Or the call of Jeremiah: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Or 1 Corinthians 8:3 Whoever loves God is known by God.

5 Page 5 of 8 Or Paul writes to the Galatians about his own calling: When God, who had set me apart...even from my mother s womb and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach of him... Or how in Acts the Lord said to Ananias, Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people... How about you? For what has God created, accomplished, and called in you? As Hebrews says, Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. Human beings need a reason to get out of bed. They need to know the world expects something from them. They need to know they have a purpose for living. Hebrews reminds us that you have a calling. You matter to God. And along with this sense of purpose, each person needs love. We need to be loved, yes. But we also need to be able to show love. This is the second part of having a life of meaning. This image we see in Hebrews... of those who have gone before us now cheering us on from the sidelines. Grandparents. Friends. Those for whom relationships don t end just because of time. Viktor Frankl recognized this idea when he, as a Jew in Austria during World War Two, was sent to the concentration camps. As he and his fellow prisoners were working in the harsh conditions one of them said, If our wives could see us now. And this turned Frankl s mind to his love of his wife. He later wrote: A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth that love is the ultimate and

6 Page 6 of 8 the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way an honorable way in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory..." (Wikipedia quoting Man's Search for Meaning, Part One, "Experiences in a Concentration Camp", Viktor Frankl, Pocket Books, pp ) Being loved and contemplating one s beloved, these are the essential elements of Christian faith, are they not? Over and over again these are the essential commands of Christ: By this, Jesus says, they will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another. Love one another, he says. Just as I have loved you. (John 15:12) In fact Jesus calls this his command. (John 15:17, 12 Paul writes in Galatians For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." This is the second essential element of a meaningful life and the primary element of a Christian life. Neither of these will surprise us. Having a purpose and a community of relationships. Frankl s third meaning-making element is more difficult to understand: redemptive suffering. Life-coach Donald Miller summarized this point as A Redemptive Perspective Toward Suffering and Challenges: Every human being experiences suffering and challenges. Our attitude toward suffering,

7 Page 7 of 8 though, can redeem it and perhaps even allow us to see it as something beneficial. The temptation to play the victim is intense, but Frankl believed stopping to make a list of the many ways a hardship also serves as a blessing takes some of the sting out of our suffering. Suffering and challenges often require grieving, but we can also celebrate our uniquely human capacity to rise above those painful experiences, redeem them, and turn them into something beautiful. Are you playing the victim? Or do you have a healthy relationship toward suffering and challenges? Are you able to see ways in which God is redeeming our negative turns? In Hebrews this is the biggest part of remembering the great cloud of witnesses. Are you suffering? Hebrews asks. Do you feel God has abandoned you? No. God is educating you; that s why you must never drop out. He s treating you as dear children. This trouble you re in isn t punishment; it s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God s training so we can truly live? Here is a whole new way of looking at suffering. Another way of thinking about this is that it gives our individual suffering a relationtional perspective. It s not something to quickly or easily escape. It is something to learn from. It is a moment of significant spiritual attachment to the one who suffered death for us on the cross. It is a moment to remember those who suffered and died for their faith. So that perhaps, just perhaps, we might choose to start living for ours. It is not that we look forward to suffering... or that we believe that God instills suffering in order to punish us; but rather that the

8 Page 8 of 8 suffering we encounter in life... and there is always some... can and will be redeemed for God wherever we ll let it, And part of having a life of meaning and purpose and love is to learn to reframe our suffering into redemptive purpose. Today especially as we remember those who have gone before us, we are encouraged to find meaning and purpose in a story, a journey and a destination that is greater than we ourlseves. When looking at the great cloud of witnesses that surround us in this race, we can t help be reminded that we have choices in our own lives and that, in the end, those choices have consequences for our spiritual welfare and not just our physical lives. These choices and these consequences are not ours alone but also part of a larger story. And those who have gone before us, those saints and sinners both, those who were brave or fearful, faithful or less so, each witness who ran the race, stumbled and got back up to try again this full and honest story of God s faithful and necessary investment these urge us onward with purpose, love, and redemptive suffering. Amen.