This morning we are going to focus on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and as we will see, the ‘forerunner’, the One who has gone before us introducing us to the very presence of God, where we are surrounded by that great cloud of witnesses, as we are also joined with all God’s people past and present in the ‘communion of the saints’.
Let us pray
Father God, you are our foundation and our future. Help us to live faithfully and prayerfully each day, true to those who have gone before us, as a witness to the world today and to generations to come, should Jesus tarry. We thank you that you have knit together all your chosen people today and in ages past into one communion and fellowship in the body of your son Jesus Christ our Lord. Give us the grace to follow in the footsteps of all who have gone before us and above all of Jesus, our forerunner, who has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers, in whose glorious name we pray, AMEN.
In this passage from Hebrews (11:32-12:2) we have an almost perfect summary of the Christian life. But that life is lived out surrounded not just by an audience of One, the One to whom we shall give an account of our lives one day, but also before a great company of unseen witnesses. We are surrounded, the writer to the Hebrews tells us, by a great cloud of witnesses. Week by week in many of our churches we often confess in the words of the Apostle’s Creed “I believe in the communion of saints”.
In all predominantly Roman Catholic countries, the first of November, All Saints, and All Souls, usually the day after, is a hugely important Christian Feast Day. It is an Autumn public holiday in Southern European nations – a great time to go picking mushrooms and gather sweet chestnuts! But is also a time when people remember all those who have gone before us; people go and tend places of burial. This feast can be controversial and difficult for some Christians because it raises the question of whether we pray to or through the mediation of a departed holy person. In the past I have avoided a polarizing argument over this issue by affirming that I believed not in the intercession but in the communion of saints, that I was joined irrevocably to all those who share the same faith and that because I am a child of God, I have already stepped into eternity and I am united in a common bond of love and fellowship with all who love the Lord past and present. In that sense I join with them in prayer before the throne of God.
But let us focus now on what the writer to the Hebrews says about you and I as children of God.
(I am grateful to William Barclay, the late professor of New Testament at Glasgow University, for some of the ideas I am developing here)
(i) Well firstly, The Christian is someone who has a strong sense of working toward a goal. In Philippians 3:14 Paul affirmed that he was “pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called him heavenward in Christ Jesus”. The Christian is not an unconcerned straggler along the road of life; we are on the high road, the upward path to glory, not a tourist, who returns each night to the place from which they start; but rather a pilgrim who is for ever on the way. The goal in this journey is nothing less than the likeness of Christ. The Christian life is going somewhere, and we should be constantly asking ourselves: “Am I any farther on?” “What progress have I made today?” How tragic that some people seem to be just marking time!
(ii) Secondly, Christians have a strong sense of an inspiration motivating and driving them. We have this wonderful thought of the unseen cloud of witnesses: and they are witnesses in a double sense, for they have witnessed their confession to Christ, and they are now witnesses of ours. The Christian is like a runner in some crowded stadium. This is the picture that Paul paints for us in Ephesians 3:10 & 11 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. As we press on, the crowd looks down; and the crowd looking down are those who have already won the crown. William Barclay said that “Actors act with double intensity when they know that some famous dramatic master is sitting in the stalls watching. An athlete strives with double effort when they know that some famous Olympic athletes are watching”. It is the very essence of the Christian life that it is lived in the gaze of the heroes of the faith who lived, suffered and died in their day and generation. We look over their shoulders; we piggy-back on their triumphs; we are shaped by their great exploits. Just as some would claim that our national identity has been shaped by the Anzac legend so we too can be shaped by the great heroes of the Christian faith. So how can we avoid the struggle for greatness with an audience like that looking down?
(iii) But thirdly, and this is a big BUT, in the Christian life we have a handicap. If we are encircled by the greatness of the past, we are also encircled by the handicap of our own sin. “Laying aside the sin that so easily besets us”. No one would seek to climb a great peak with unnecessary baggage weighing them down. If we would travel far, we must travel light. There is in life an essential need to discard some things. There may be habits, pleasures, self-indulgences, associations which hold us back. We must shed them as the athlete sheds his or her track suit when they go to the starting mark.
(iv) But fourthly, in the Christian life we have the means to overcome. That means is steadfast endurance. Let us run with patience or perseverance the race set before us. That word does not mean the patience which sits down and accepts things but the patience which masters them. It is not some romantic thing which lends us wings to fly over the difficulties and the hard places. It is a determination, unhurrying and yet undelaying, which goes steadily on and refuses to be deflected. Our psalmist (84: 5-7) declared “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the valley of Baca (weeping), they make it a place of springs, the autumn rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength….” This is a picture of someone who is determined to persevere through difficult times not waiting or even expecting God to come and deliver but transforming that hard road into a pathway of blessedness – “… they make it a place of springs…” Obstacles do not daunt the perseverance that is mentioned here and discouragements do not take its hope away. It is the steadfast endurance which carries on until in the end it gets there. Jesus said in Matthew 24:13 that “the one who endures to the end will be saved”. Patience is one aspect of the ninefold fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5: 22). So, it is not just a question of gritting our teeth and ‘hanging in there’ but rather allowing God by His Spirit to build into our lives that quality of ‘stickability’ that makes the sometimes hard journey a blessing ‘in the Lord’.
(v) Fifthly, in the Christian life we have a great example. That example is Jesus himself. For the goal that was set before him, he endured all things; to achieve that goal meant the way of the Cross despising the shame. Jesus as our High Priest is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Thank God that we have a sympathetic High Priest who went through all the things that we go through and right now is praying for us. Blessed be his name!
(vi) But sixthly, in the Christian life we have the presence of Jesus. He is at once the goal of our journey and the companion on our way; (the author and finisher of our faith) JB Philips, the late Anglican priest who translated the New Testament into every-day English rendered that verse this way – “the source and goal of our faith: the one whom we go to meet and the one with whom we travel”. So, the wonder of the Christian life is that we press on surrounded by the saints, oblivious to everything but the glory of the goal and forever in the company of Him who has already made the journey and reached the goal, and who waits to welcome us when we reach the end.
So, as Christian people let us remember today that we have this strong sense of working toward a goal, our place with Christ at the right hand of God, which as we will see next week is where we truly find ourselves in the present and this inspires, motivates, and drives us despite the handicap of our ‘besetting sins’ which so easily cling to us. But as Christian people we have the means to overcome; we have the example and the very presence of Jesus.
Loving Father, in every age you have raised up holy men and women to reflect the light of Christ and to teach us the way of holiness – we thank you for all who have inspired us and walked with us in the communion of the saints pointing us to Jesus, our companion on the way and the One we go to meet, the author and the perfector of our faith. May we always keep our eyes firmly focused on Him. In His name we pray AMEN.