June 10, 2018 National Presbyterian Church Running the Race Acts 20:16-17, 28, 32-38; 2 Timothy 4:7; Hebrews 12:1, 2; Philippians 3:13-14 David A. Renwick Last fall in our sermons, we explored the idea, from a Christian perspective, that life is like a journey. There are plenty of images of life as a journey in secular literature From Homer s Odyssey to Canterbury Tales From Gulliver s Travels, to Huck Finn s journey down the Mississippi From Lord of the Rings to the Wizard of Oz And in the Scripture, this is perhaps the most dominant description, both literal and metaphorical, of the spiritual life, the life of faith. So you have, for example, Abraham s Journey to Promised Land and Moses leading the people of Israel on a 40 year journey back to the Promised Land after 400 years of slavery and then there s Jesus Promise to be our Good Shepherd: in other words, we re like sheep on a journey to find the kind of food and water that satisfies and quenches our thirst. Always on the move, following our shepherd, Jesus. And then when we get to the story of the Early Church, in the Acts of the Apostles (the story we ve been looking at on Sundays since January), and we find that it s replete with journeys: especially those of Paul, the great missionary of the faith, the great proclaimer of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the King (Jesus, the Messiah) to anyone anywhere who would hear him. In Acts we see Paul taking at least four journeys across the ancient Mediterranean world from Jerusalem to Turkey and Greece and back again and then to Rome. When we meet him in our passage, he s finishing what we call his third Journey. He s established churches all over the place: in the central part of Turkey; and on its western coast; and then in Europe in Macedonia and northern Greece, and all the way south to the Greek city of Corinth. And now he s on his way, journeying to Jerusalem, with a collection of money to support the mother church. His boat is docked at a port in Turkey, Miletus, in the middle of the journey, and he s saying farewell to this part of the world, and to this stage of his life, and to people he has led to Christ there, whom he ll probably never see again. Let me read from Acts 20 again 16 Paul was in Greece, and was eager to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. 17 At the port of Miletus, in Asia Minor, Paul sent a message to Ephesus, asking the elders of the church to meet him. 18 When they came to him, he said to them:... 28 Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. 1
... 32 And now I commend you to God and to the message of his grace. 36 When he had finished speaking, he knelt down with them all and prayed. 37 There was much weeping among them all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 grieving especially because of what he had said, that they would not see him again. Then they brought him to the ship. It s a poignant scene. Paul has had enormous success, and he s faced huge and repeated obstacles on behalf of all these people. And the temptation would be to say Enough s Enough! The journey s over. It s been quite a trip! Let s just go home and rest! [You know the feeling been away a while. It s just time to get on the plane and go home.] But that s not what happens. In the next decade after this journey is over Paul will spend much of his time under house arrest and in prison for sharing a message that creates both friends and enemies. But he doesn t quit or lose heart! In fact, he continues to share the message of Jesus with average people as well as with the political leaders and royalty of Judea and even when he s shipped off to Rome as a prisoner, he continues to write to churches and individuals, giving them wisdom and advice and encouragement to keep faithful to Christ In fact, half his 13 letters in the NT will be written after this seemingly final trip is over. And all this begs the question as to where he gets his energy, and how he keeps it up for the long haul. Which brings us back to the way Paul thinks about life the Christian life and the metaphors he uses, and to a couple in particular: You see, to Paul, life in general and the Christian Life in particular, is not just a journey but a BATTLE and a RACE. These are images he uses in the three wonderful verses of Scripture: 1. At the end of his life, he writes to his protégé, Timothy: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Tim. 4:7-8) 2. And in the middle of life, he writes to his friends in the Greek city of Philippi, This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward [literally, I am in hot pursuit of, I m in a race for ] the goal for the prize, of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil.3:14) 3. And while we re not sure who exactly wrote Hebrews (I think it was Paul or a close friend, echoing Paul), Hebrews 12 certainly reflects this same point of view: Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith... (Heb. 12:1-2) So, in these verses there are these two images (metaphors) for the Christian life: the RACE and the BATTLE. *************** The image of life as a BATTLE, of course, drives home the seriousness and importance of any issue at hand. A battle is something in which lives are risked, and in which something enormous should be at stake. 2
In other words, Paul doesn t see his life as just a stroll through a meadow, or a cruise down a river. Nor does he see his life as if he s a fan watching a sport from the outside, or as if he s a scholar in an ivory tower, with plenty time to sit around and think. Instead he lives his life as if the stakes are high! There s a war going on! A cosmic struggle between Good and Evil, between God and the Devil. And he s in the middle of it: he s on the battlefield; he s like a soldier of Christ on active duty! And there s no doubt that this view of life gives him an energy to keep-on-going without dropping his guard for a moment. Many of you may have read C.S. Lewis s Screwtape Letters: fictional letters from a senior devil to a novice, Wormwood, who has been assigned a person a patient to tempt and test, and to throw off God s course, if at all possible! The seventh letter begins like this: MY DEAR WORMWOOD, I m amazed that you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves. In other words, one of the best strategies of the devil (in fact, of any terrorist operation) is to make us think that there is no battle or enemy at all, that evil is a figment of our imagination. So we drop our guard; we lose all sense of urgency; and take it easy. And Paul could have done that but he didn t, because he believed profoundly that evil was real and the battle was real, and that God had signed him up to be a foot-soldier in God s army. Do you believe this? How you see things? Do you believe that God had signed all of us up to be foot-soldiers in God s army? And so this image of the battle energized him (as it did in WWI for Winston Churchill). And Paul was energized, too, by the second image in the verses: his view of life as a RACE! Not just as a stroll through a meadow, but a battle; and Not just a journey, but A RACE in which he was supposed to not just walk, but RUN: So, in Hebrews we read: Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:1, 2) And then in Philippians This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I am in hot pursuit of the goal of the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:14). and then in Timothy at the end of his life I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Tim 4:7-8) So Paul cannot slow down too much, because he sees himself as in a race that lasts all the way through life and that he needs to finish and finish well. And he s going to do that. He s going to stay the course, and stay energized, by keeping focused on the right things, both behind him and ahead. 3
In fact, for Paul the race was all rather like the Washington Capitals, and their pursuit of the Stanley Cup over the years. What lay behind the Caps could easily have bogged them down: 40 years of disappointment and defeat; 40 years of negative thoughts to get out of your mind, and which needed to be replaced and was by something else that lay behind them: all the support and hope and energy that flowed from all the fans who forgave them for all their sins, and whose only concern was the present, and their belief that this was their time to do it! So if you look back or behind in the right way, there s energy there. And the same is true if you look forward there s energy there too, if you re hungry for the prize, for the Cup, which, if you win it, will have your name engraved on it forever! And for Paul, the energy that supported him in the Christian race wasn t too different from this: both in looking backwards and forwards. Looking backwards, Paul was able to keep up the pace of the race because he refused to focus on his awful past; on his failures (too numerous to mention!) that could have dragged him down in a heartbeat. But instead he looked back to his biggest fan: Jesus himself, who had given him his life, and given him a new life, in which he didn t condemn him but forgave him. This Jesus himself had been tempted to quit the race, but didn t: instead he ran to the bitter end, crying out It is finished! for you and me, as he hung on a cross and died for our sins. So Paul kept up the pace of his race because of what Jesus had done in the past. But not only that, he found energy as well by looking ahead, to what he believed Jesus would do in the future: Fully alive after his resurrection, Jesus would greet him at the finish line as a winner: calling him by name, and receiving him into his presence. Remember his powerful words? This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I am in hot pursuit of the goal of the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:14) SO Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking not to every weight and sin that clings so closely but to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:1,2) and then in his closing years to Timothy, he writes: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, from now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness that the Lord will give to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Tim 4:7-8) ************* Life s a Battle Let s not kid ourselves, or be surprised when the going gets tough. And let s find our energy in enlisting as a member of Jesus brigade. Serving the right general, who will ensure we are on the winning side! 4
and Life s a Race Don t grow weary, or soft pedal, but keep up the pace to the finish line. Look back but not to your sins and weaknesses, but only to your biggest fan: Jesus Christ who gave his life for you. And look forward to the upward call of God in Christ Jesus David A. Renwick Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved. To listen on line go to: http://nationalpres.org/sermons To watch full services go to: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nationalpres THE NATIONAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 4101 Nebraska Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20016 www.nationalpres.org 202.537.0800 5