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 trips us up. And let us run with
endurance the race God has set before us.
Hebrews 12:1(NLT)
By the end of this month not only will the time have changed, and
the nights and days be shorter and colder, our songs will change; we will begin
singing songs like “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”.
It will be Advent, the signal that the old cycle has expired and the new
is on the horizon.
It’s fitting that All Saints Sunday closes out our view of time
and makes way for Christ the King Sunday on the last Lord’s Day of the year. Today we remember those of our loved ones that
death has ushered into the presence of Christ, and we crown Him Lord of All to
close out the year.
Then comes Advent – a new cycle of remembrance of God’s grace and
glory, and His gift of God putting on human skin to bring us the ultimate
treasure of eternal forgiveness and life.
These cycles of life we call the Christian year are gentle,
constant reminders of our story of creation, fall, forgiveness and the grace of
our Redeemer. The Psalmist spoke of the
wonders of the seasons and God’s created order telling us the old, old story:
Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make
him known. Psalm 19:2(NLT)
Whenever I think of the great cloud (or crowd) of witnesses, those
saints who have been transported to the presence of our Lord, and what Paul
could possibly have meant by them surrounding us, I imagine the
ministry of presence.
There’s a difference in a person’s step when you know you’ve got people
in your life that have your back!
It’s more than just a crowd cheering; somehow you know there’s a chief
cheerleader who’s looking out for you.
I had a football coach who was like that. Marv Weitz put us through the wringer when it
came to pre-season conditioning.
Sit-ups, wind sprints and tackling drills put me in the best condition
of my 16 years. Then I made a wrong move
on the field and got clobbered – ruptured spleen, emergency operation – all the
edgy, horrible stuff a parent worries will happen to their kid. I was out for the season.
But, the next fall, I hadn’t learned a thing – showed up for the
first summer day of practice. That was
the year I graduated. On the last day of
school I hunted up Coach Weitz and asked him to sign my yearbook. He wrote:
You taught me a lot about courage.
Thanks!
When I read that I thought, courage?
Me? Really? I honestly
just liked football, but my coach thought I had courage? Wow!
He was the toughest man I ever knew; he could chew nails and spit out
skyscrapers.
Coach Weitz passed several years ago. I hadn’t seen or talked with him in many
years, but we had a chance to talk by phone just months before he died. One of the last things he said to me
was: I still think about the way you
wouldn’t give up. Truth be told,
I never thought I was anything, but that encouraging man made me believe I just
might be ok.
And this is what the presence of Moses, Abraham, David, Peter,
James, John and Paul is all about; they
are witnesses of the life of faith in my life and yours.
These are members of that great cloud of witnesses, people like
Jerry Hutchinson, a landscape contractor who helped me see Christ in the
ordinary details of everyday life.
And people like L.B. Thomason who gave me the opportunity to
preach to his church of 500 people before I could even spell sermon.
And people like the Caudle family in my first appointment as a
Methodist. I showed up and a month or so
later Glynn Caudle died. I told the
family it would certainly be understandable if they wanted a minister they’d
known; I hardly knew their dad. They
said…nope…you’re
our pastor now and you’ll see Daddy off.
This is how the great cloud of witnesses surrounds us and
encourages us to use what God has given, and step out in faith for what He
hasn’t yet given, but is waiting to bless us with!
And that’s the issue of running with endurance in
this race. Paul said, strip off all
those besetting sins – the weights that will keep you from running your best
race for the Master.
YOU must do that; nobody
else will. God will help, but you are
the one to make the decision to be part of the greater crowd than just popular
opinion here on planet earth. The direction
you swim, upstream or with the tide of going along is yours to choose!
Thin places
The space between us and this great cloud of witnesses who
encourage and make our endurance possible has been described as thin,
a mere wisp of breath between heaven and earth.
It is like the distance between dusk and dark, or the moment of birth or
the transition of death; thin places.
In 1988, a few years after Elizabeth’s mother passed, our 17
year-old daughter Jennifer was hospitalized for an illness that baffled the
doctors. She had a fever and pain, but they
had no real clue as to what was wrong, and our child was getting weaker every
day. We had prayed constantly for our daughter,
but the situation was causing serious concern.
It was a scary time. Our daughter
calls it a miserable three weeks!
On day 21 of the hospital watch – in the middle of the night – my
bride had a dream or vision that her Mom, Sofie, who had died three years
prior, came into our room, sat on the bed and said, Elizabeth, stop worrying about
Jennifer, she will be alright.
She then just left. In the next
instant we were awakened by the telephone.
A hospital staff person had called to tell us that Jennifer’s fever had
broken and she would be discharged as soon as the paperwork was processed.
To this day the doctors can only offer guesses as to the cause of Jennifer’s
illness, but the thin place between a midnight vision and the healing hand of
God has me convinced that this great cloud of witnesses is
more than a religious theory or a mystery; what they really are is God’s
great army of encouragement to the saints here on earth to run the race with
the endurance of warriors!
And I say warriors because Sofie, who
had been a nervously edgy, worried, and rather negative-focused person on this
side of the Jordan, appeared strong, confident and encouraging. She had been transformed, changed in the
twinkling of an eye; she was more than Mom – she was God’s strong hand holding
us tightly through one of life’s dicey moments.
The question is…do you want to join with Sofie and the many others
you’ve known who make a positive, encouraging difference now and for
eternity?
Do you want to be part of that great cloud of witnesses
encouraging the saints with presence and power to run with endurance?
You can be; you really can!
The line is a very thin one!
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. Amen
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