Abby and Jens- this was a sermon my brother in law (Dan Cravy)
preached last Sunday at First Presbyterial Missoula.
I wanted to share it with you today in hopes that it will encourage you all to keep running today....
(and it's just two days until your three month mark on the 18th so I thought it would be good timing to cheer you on for your 3 miler coming up!!)
Keep
Running
-[1]Some
of you will remember a scene from the movie Chariots
of Fire featuring a historic footrace in Scotland. It was one of the final
races of the competition: the 440 yards (which is the precursor to the 400
meters, one length around the inside of the track). As the athletes come around
the first bend, Eric Liddell gets pushed off the track and takes a fall. He has
to make a split-second decision. One of those instants best portrayed by slow motion.
Then like lightening Liddel’s up on his feet again, tearing after the pack.
Unbelievably, he catches the lead runners just a few paces from the finish. And
in this Herculean effort of focused athletic exertion, he throws his chest
across the line to win the race.
What would you have
done when you got knocked down? Many would have assumed that the race was lost.
Many would have assumed they were out of the running. Many would have allowed
the grave disappointment to overwhelm them. Many would have let the
discouraging prospects for success overcome their hope.
But Eric Liddell might
as well have been living into the passage we’re reading today. In fact, he was.
Forget what lies behind. Strain forward toward what lies ahead. Press on toward
the finish line. This is God’s encouragement to all of us today.
-[Read Philippians
3.10-11 intro; then 3.12-14]
-As I’ve suggested,
Paul’s imagery here is athletic. He’s running the race of faithfulness. Straining
forward. Pressing on toward the prize. Looking toward the finish. But what’s he
running toward? What’s the goal? Verse 14. The heavenly call of God in Christ
Jesus. Which is not just heaven. But the day when Christ returns and his
kingdom finally comes. The day when the world is remade. The day when heaven
and earth become one. The day of resurrection. When we live with Christ face to
face. When the darkness is banished, when the true King is all in all, when God
wipes away the tears from our face. That’s what Paul’s running toward.
There is a passage
right at the end of Tolkien’s Lord of the
Rings. The ring of power has been destroyed. The Dark Lord Sauren has been
vanquished. Despair has been overturned. And the small hobbits who have never
looked equal to the task given them, who have been charged with facing grave
danger and violent enemies on the perilous way to Mount Doom, Sam and Frodo
wake from their exhaustion and injury to discover laughter and health and
wholeness in Rivendell. In this place of restoration and music and renewal. Frodo
wipes his eyes, looks to Sam in marvelous wonder, and asks: Sam, will everything sad come untrue?
Paul presses on. He pursues
the return of the King. He races toward the day when everything sad will come
untrue.
-‘Not that I have already
attained this,’ he says. ‘Not that I have arrived.’ No. But in light of who the
King is, in light of his truth and compassion, in light of his goodness, I let
go of every worldly symbol of status and worth. Moreover I forget what failure
and heartache lies behind. And I strain forward to what lies ahead.’ This is
what maturity looks like. No despair over what could have been. No complacency
with what is. No. The past is past. The future is assured. And Christian
maturity keeps striving to grow in faith, hope and love. Christian maturity
keeps striving to become more like Jesus. Christian maturity keeps resting in
God’s grace and running toward the return of the King.
Here it is in sum:
Followers of Christ expect a day when the truth and grace of Jesus flood the
earth. And so we are free to live all of our days in light of that happy future.
Brothers and sisters, the past is past. The future is assured. So keep running.
Now there are so many
disappointments and devastations that could cause us to lose our footing.
Some of you are struggling, crushed by loss. How
can we imagine moving forward without the one we can’t bear to be without? Keep
running to Jesus.
Some of us you are struggling, filled with wary
fears. The world is changing fast. The news is full of intractable conflict,
disease and violence. Decision-making is gridlocked. Keep running to Jesus.
Some of you are struggling, hitting challenge
after challenge – frightening illness, divorce, family in dire need of care. Keep
running to Jesus.
Some of you are struggling, trying to live as
persons of faith in a world whose values are so different than the values of
Christ. You are misunderstood. You are attacked. Keep running to Jesus.
Jesus said this: ‘In
your life you will face many trials, but take heart. I have overcome the
world.’
-In 1923 Eric Liddell won the 100 yard dash in
London that would propel him to the Olympic Games in Paris. But he was
profoundly disappointed to discover that the qualifying heats were scheduled
for a Sunday. Eric decided that his faith in Jesus Christ meant he could not
run on a Sunday. So he announced his withdrawal and turned his attention to
train for the 400 meter dash. Even the Prince of Whales could not convince Eric
to enter his best event. So on the Sunday morning of the 100 meter dash, Eric
Liddell was preaching in a Paris church even as the gun went off. The movie
Chariots of Fire has it that his chosen text was from Isaiah: Those who wait on
the Lord will renew their strength. Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will run and not
grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. Eric quietly made his way through
the heats of the 400 meters. He was not expected to win. But on the day of the
race, after going to each of his competitors to shake his hand, Eric not only
won the gold medal, but broke the world record, at 47.6 seconds.
-How do we keep going? How do we keep running
this race of faith? Paul says: ‘I press on to make [the kingdom] my own because
Christ Jesus has made me his own.’
‘I’m hurrying on, eager to lay hold of heaven on earth because King Jesus has laid hold of me’ (Wright). Here’s the key to Paul’s
endurance. Here’s the key to Liddell’s courageous faith. Christ is not only the
one who compels us to run. Christ is not only the one who cheers us on from the
stands. Christ is not only the one who beckons us on to the tape. No. Jesus Christ has entered the race. The King
runs alongside us. It is Jesus who holds us up by his Spirit and helps us keep
running to the finish. It is our Lord - with Easter hope, with resurrection
power, with great love - who gives us the joy to keep running even when we
would never make it on our own.
-In 1987 at age 19 Derek Redmond shattered the
British record for the 400 meter dash (the same race his countryman had won in
the 1924 Olympics). But Derek was forced to withdraw just minutes before his
own 1988 Olympic race in Seoul because of injury. So when the ’92 Games in
Barcelona arrived, it was finally Derek’s moment to medal. Derek’s father, Jim,
accompanied him to Barcelona. The two were close friends. When Derek ran, it
was as if his father were running right next to him.
The day of the semi-final race arrives. Father
and son talk about Derek’s journey to get this far—his past heartbreaks and
failures that have worked together to bring him finally to Barcelona. They
agree that, no matter what may happen, Derek has to finish the race. The
stadium is packed with 65,000 excited fans. The race begins and Derek seizes
the lead. Coming down the backstretch, he is only 175 meters away from
finishing, a shoo-in to make the finals. When he hears and feels the pop in his
right hamstring. Derek falls to the track like he’s been shot. Tears stream down
his face. His dream of an Olympic medal is destroyed.
But then, Derek lifts himself off the ground and
starts hobbling painfully down the track toward the finish on one leg. When the
crowd realizes what’s happening, they rise to their feet and begin to cheer.
Then Derek’s father, who has rushed from the very top of the stadium jumps the
fence and comes running across the field to Derek’s side. The father wraps his
arm around his son’s waist. Derek sobs on his shoulders. And then arm and arm,
as the crowd claps and cries and roars with cheers, the two finish the race.
Derek’s father later says, “I’m the proudest father alive. I’m prouder of him
than I would have been if he had won the gold medal.”
-Brothers and sisters, Christ is not only proud of
our medal. He’s proud of our running. He’s proud of our hoping. He’s proud of
our faithful living. He’s proud of our forgetting what lies behind and
straining forward to what lies ahead. He’s proud of our running even as he
carries us through our tears to the end.
So don’t be afraid. Don’t despair. Don’t give
up. Keep running to Jesus. Keep running with
Jesus - to the end.
[1]
N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The
Prison Letters, 121-2. First two paragraphs open as in Wright’s commentary.
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