"Surrounded By Encouragement . . ."
Isa. 5:1-7; Ps. 80:1-2, 8-19; Heb. 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56
Dr. George R. Sinclair, Jr.
Pastor
August 19, 2007
I don’t have to tell you, it’s been hot lately. Saturday a week ago I went on a bike ride and at 7 a.m. the heat index was already 91. Two hours later it was over 100.
Ordinarily when riding, I don’t fall behind but Saturday after the first leg, I was dead last. And to top things off, two girls came in ahead of me. My friends will tell you I don’t like coming in last—not that we race when we ride. Our rides are friendly—but Saturday, I not only came in last but I finished behind two girls. They weren’t actually “girls,” but thirty-year olds, which gave my 54 year old body some consolation. Actually, I took even more consolation when I learned that one of the two was preparing for an Ironman Competition.
You’ve heard of those. The competitors swim three miles, they bike ride a hundred miles, and then run a marathon all in the same day. I felt better when I heard that the girl who beat me was preparing for the Ironman; maybe not better, but my ego wasn’t quite so bruised. I learned of her intentions at our first rest stop.
We have a route that takes us over near the Stix River in Baldwin County. About half way through that 30-mile ride, we stop at a little convenience store. When I pulled up last week, everybody was already off their bikes. They had their helmets off. They were eating their snacks, cooling down—and I’m just arriving. I get off my bike, amble over to the pew and plop down. I mean, it’s a million degrees. I’m red faced, sweat is pouring off me; I’m wishing the ride is over and we still have another 15 miles.
Anyway, I’m sitting there and Ironman Girl is standing in front of me. She is be-bopping around like she’s all ready to get back on her bike and get going again. And I’m sitting there thinking I need a shady place to rest. That’s when Ironman Girl starts talking about her 3 mile swim, 100 mile bike ride, and a marathon all in the same day.
The most I’ve ever ridden my bike in one day is 60 miles and it about killed me. So, I’m wondering, “Why in the world would anyone want to swim 3 miles, then ride bicycle a hundred more and after that run a marathon?” So I asked Ironman Girl. And she, bouncing on her toes, grinned and said, “Oh, just to see if I can.” She laughed, “I don’t think I’ll finish anywhere near the top. There are a bunch of people who start and never finish. I just want to see if I can finish.”
“Finishing” is important, isn’t it? Do you remember that guy in the ’68 Olympics? I think he was a Tanzanian runner. He entered the Marathon and the race was long over. I mean the stadium lights were out and this guy crosses the finish needing medical attention. He’s trailed by a clutch of reporters who want to know why in the world he continued when he had absolutely no chance of winning. And he says, “My country didn’t send me here to start the race. They sent me here to finish.”
I was talking with a group of our Westminster Village members about “finishing,” and I guess their average age was about 85—they’d come to chapel on their walkers, some in wheel chairs—and one of them says, “Getting old is hard.” And another chimed in, “Yeah, have you seen that poster? —‘Old age is not for sissies.’”
Getting old is hard. Life is hard. It’s not for “sissies.” But we are not alone. We don’t go through life alone or we don’t have to, not if we open our eyes and look around—we are surrounded by encouragement. The book of Hebrews calls that circle encouragement “a great cloud of witnesses.” Life is hard, but not nearly so hard when we walk surrounded by encouragement. And we have encouragement because God gives it to us, God gives everyone one of us “a cloud of witnesses,” a circle of encouragement so that we don’t just “get by,” we flourish. We can live with joy.
Some months after Hurricane Katrina, I became involved in an effort to provide housing for people who lost their homes. We started a non-profit called DASH, which stands for Dependable, Affordable, Sustainable, Housing. In the next 12 months, we’ll do about $4 million dollars of work in Mobile and about that much in Pascagoula. If you had told me 18 months ago that we would be providing $8 million dollars worth of housing today, I would have told you that you were either crazy or dreaming and probably both. To get to where we are today hasn’t been easy.
I was talking with some our Westminster members about this and one of them asked why I got involved. And I rehearsed my story about having always been drawn to poverty issues and then it dawned on me that the main reason I got involved was because a friend asked me. And if it hadn’t been for that same friend I don’t know what I would have done to stay the course these past 18 months. But I did out of loyalty to him. God puts people in our lives to help us stay the course, people who are our encouragement.
I asked our Westminster group who had encouraged them. Nine out of ten said their parents and in some cases, grandparents. One dear saint said her second grade teacher. She told us all about her second grade teacher. She even remembered her name and that she drove a Model T. My gosh, that had to have been 80 years ago. “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses . . . let us run with perseverance the race set before us.”
All of us have encouragers—some of them living, some dead—but we all have people who by their example, by their friendship, by their faith, inspire us to faithfulness, to endurance, to perseverance. The Kisi people of Liberia in West Africa have a saying: “When a man steps into the center of the circle to dance and no one claps, he will soon tire and sit down; but if everyone claps, he will dance all night.” Encouragers help us dance. We all have encouragers who cheer us on.
The writer of Hebrews listed all kinds of folk—Abraham and Moses, Rahab, Samson, and David—saints who “conquered kingdoms, administered justice . . . escaped the edge of the sword.” Hebrews was trying to encourage first-century Christians who were being persecuted. These and “many others” the writer says, “suffered.” Endurance begets endurance. That is why Hebrews brings up all that stuff about the saints “wandering in deserts and mountains.” Some of them, he says, even lived in “caves and holes in the ground.”
Some of you are old enough to remember the Depression. Some of you in fact lived through the Depression. I grew up hearing about it. I heard about it so much that I should have been the inventor of those T-shirts—you know the ones they sell down at the beach—“I survived Ivan” or “I survived Katrina.” I should have thought of that for my parents and grandparents—“I survived the Depression.”
Surviving the Depression gave an entire generation their “stripes.” And those stripes formed powerful bonds. That’s what happens when people go through tough times together. “We remember when . . .” Shared experience becomes living testimony—the stories that shape our lives, collectively and individually—the things we endure together.
None of us will ever forget Katrina or Ivan. Many of you went through Fredrick together. People in Mobile still talk about Fredrick and to hear about it almost makes you wish you’d been here so you could be one of the gang.
My point is, as tough as life can be we’re not nearly as alone as we sometimes think. When you go through a rough patch it’s easy to feel that you are all alone. It’s easy to think you are the only one, but the truth is we’re not alone. When we face trouble or hardship or difficult tasks, we need to remember those witnesses, the living and the dead, who are our encouragers, the greatest of whom is Jesus himself—“the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” Hebrews said Jesus “endured the cross” for the “sake of the joy that was set before him.”
I want to brag a little bit about Presbyterians. If we got nothing else right we got it right about the “Chief end of humankind.” We got it right about the purpose and meaning of life. “Humankind’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy God forever.” The story of Jesus testifies to the harshness of life. Life’s not for sissies. Jesus “endured the cross.” But the story of Jesus also testifies to joy. And it was for “joy” that he endured.
For Christians, life is not just “one damn thing after another.” Life is good. And it is good not just when it’s easy or absent of hardship. It’s good because God intends it for joy. And whatever God intends God will achieve which is why Jesus sits at God’s right hand. The “enthronement” of Jesus testifies to the certainty of God’s victory—suffering and sorrow are not the last word. Life is not full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Life is God’s gift to us and while not without adversity, it ultimately brings joy. That’s what encouragers help us to see. They help us see God’s joy. And what’s more, you may not know it, but you are someone’s champion. You may not believe it, but you are someone’s encourager.
I can’t tell you who won the Major League Batting Championship last year much less ten years ago. I can’t name last year’s Oscar winners. I’ve got a pretty good idea that Tiger Woods is today’s number one golfer, but I can’t tell you who was number one 10 years ago. I can’t tell you who won last year’s Superbowl MVP or the Heisman Trophy but like the dear saint at Westminster I can name my first grade teacher—Mrs. Robinson. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever met.
I’ll never forget people like her or Bill Laws—the minister who tugged my hair when I was ordained 30 years ago and kept me walking the straight and narrow. I’ll never forget other encouragers like Bobbie and Betsy, Harold and Donald, Page and Pat, AJ and Ricky, my parents, my aunt and uncle, my wife, and a host of others too many to name. These are my champions. And there’s not a doubt in my mind that you are someone’s champion—your life, what they see in you is their example. Your friendship is their encouragement. And that’s what it takes to “run with perseverance,” it takes courage inspired by champions.
Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the presence of God made real by champions whose encouragement inspires us to finish, whose encouragement inspires us to endure the cross for the sake of joy and take our seat in the kingdom of God. Amen.