Saturday, August 16, 2014

Keep Running

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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