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Perseverance Sermon by Cynthia A. Jarvis October 26, 2008, Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill Deuteronomy 10:12-22 Hebrews 11:32-12:3
Before us again this morning is a sermon that is known in Scripture as the Letter to the Hebrews. It is a sermon for a congregation living in a society that has worn believers out and worn them down so that they can no longer discern their true situation. It is a sermon proclaimed to a church set in a culture that crucifies the faithful and co-opts the casual believer. It is a sermon whose admonitions call to mind the counsel and cadences of Martin Luther: “Let goods and kindred go; this mortal life also; the body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still.” It is a sermon that caused John Calvin to lament that “…it is shameful, having begun well, to faint in the midst of the course.” The Letter to the Hebrews is a sermon for such a time and such a congregation as this. The first congregation to listen for God’s word in these words was a congregation that had grown weary of the effort. They were exhausted, observed Thomas Long in his commentary: “…tired of serving the world, tired of worship, tired of Christian education, tired of being peculiar and whispered about in society, tired of spiritual struggle, tired of trying to keep their prayer life going, tired even of Jesus. Their hands droop and their knees are weak, attendance is down at church, and they are losing confidence.” Perhaps, as Long implies, they simply were tired of dealing with the details of community life. Though I think their weariness was more insidious than that. I think they had grown tired of the hard work involved in thinking critically about the faith and grown weary of the demands as well as the risk of discipleship. So from the beginning the preacher scolds them for unbelief and turning from the living God…for ignorance and waywardness…for becoming dull in understanding and falling away from the faith. He then goes on to goad them with their spiritual sloth until they demand substance! Again notes Long, he “does not appeal to improved group dynamics, conflict management techniques, reorganization of the mission structures, or snappy worship services. Rather, he preaches to the congregation in complex theological terms about the nature and meaning of Jesus Christ.” To wit, he does business as we did business last Sunday with suffering: with the choice of God to suffer for us in Jesus Christ in order that our suffering might be redeemed, given meaning and endurance. He thinks out loud about the radical change in the relationship between God and God’s people effected by Christ’s death on the cross, how in assuming our mortality completely God in Christ quit the distance between Creator and creature, defeating death once for all. Then he reminds his flock of the time when they first believed, enduring abuse and persecution at the hands of the world for the sake of the gospel; and he implores them, in their weariness and indifference, not to abandon the faith: faith, he says in sum, that is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” But the congregation had become so enmeshed in the culture that they had forgotten what the life of faith looked like. Consider Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, the preacher roars, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness….Others were tortured… suffered mocking and flogging, were stoned to death, sawn in two, killed by the sword, were destitute, persecuted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. And now tell me again, says the preacher in so many words, you are tired of what? I may be projecting my own weariness in well-doing on all of you, but I would say that the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill appears to have a lot in common with the congregation addressed by an anonymous preacher near the end of the first century. Whether we are tired of doing those things that being the church requires of us—not just tired of cranking out an institution but tired of doing business with the complexity of the Christian confession and the difficulties of discipleship; or whether the world with its politics, its financial instability, its divisions and its death has worn us out, I do not know. I only know that attendance is off, pledges have not been paid, programs are running on empty, spirits seem to be sagging. Something this fall has caused us to turn from the living God, become dull in understanding, quit the effort, get by on excuses. Scolding is, of course, an option, though I am more inclined to scold myself. Yet how in a world spinning out of control can we neglect to give account for the hope that is in us? How can we fall back in our generosity or renege on our commitment to mission? How can we justify our weak knees when the weakest in our society—their numbers growing--await evidence of God’s presence and tangible promises? And how can we ever remember who in the world we are, for Christ’s sake, if we regularly miss “the opportunity to meditate, express adoration, contrition, thanks and supplication in loving and dignified communion with others.” Scolding is an option, and yet I wonder what real effect scolding had upon the faith of that first congregation or upon any who have grown weary in well-doing? Rather I am taken this morning with a counterintuitive word lurking in our text on this Reformation Sunday, on this Sunday before the Sunday before the election, on this Sunday running up to Pledge Commitment Sunday, on this Sunday after another worrisome week on Wall Street. The word is perseverance! No rest, I am sorry to say, for the weary! Run with perseverance the race set before you. Webster’s New World first defines perseverance as “steady and continued action or belief, usually over a long period and especially despite difficulties or setbacks.” Think the election; think the economy; think discipleship; think stewardship. Perseverance is that determination to keep on keeping on despite difficulties or setbacks. Our text employs it in the context of an athletic contest: we are to run the race with perseverance…like the Phillies! According to New Testament scholar David DeSilva, “In both the race [as well as] membership in an essentially voluntary group, a person willingly [chooses] to endure physical discomfort, to submit to the reproaches of a trainer, to curb luxury, and to turn aside from many delights enjoyed by the nonathlete or the fully participating member of the dominant culture” or by the mercurial member of a religious organization. That is to say, when we confessed our faith in Jesus Christ we signed on to a life of discipline: the discipline of worship, of service, of tithing, of witness in the world that finds us not only feeding the hunger, clothing the naked, tenting the homeless, visiting the prison but reordering our common life so that all of God’s children may run the race set before them by God. I think Dietrich Bonhoeffer meant something similar when he counseled seminarians in the Confessing Church at Finkenwalde, men who would lead God’s people to live counter to the culture: “If we are to [have faith]” he lectured “we must obey a concrete command [Run with perseverance the race set before you]. Without this preliminary step of obedience, our faith will only be pious humbug….Everything depends on the first step. It has a unique quality of its own. The first step of obedience makes Peter leave his nets, and later get out of the ship; it calls upon the young man to leave his riches. Only this new existence, created through obedience, can make faith possible….” A life of faith is an existence marked by perseverance: steady and continuous action over a long period and despite difficulties. But more, for running the race set before us by God necessitates laying aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely. “Running a race effectively,” writes DeSilva, “requires running unencumbered.” Let good and kindred go! Perhaps this is why Jesus said it was so hard for a community like this to set out on a pilgrimage toward the home we are promised. On one hand, we do not want to leave our hard-earned stuff behind; on the other hand, if we pack it up to take it with us, we not only will be weighed down but left in the dust by those who travel light. Though more than our stuff, the preacher of Hebrews also has in mind our reputation in society that keeps us from doing something brave, our physical security that keeps us from taking risks, our sin [our desire to go our own way] that keeps us from the God who has promised to accompany us every step of the way. Perseverance: steady action over a long period of time in spite of opposition! But here is the rub. For though we may have unencumbered ourselves along the way willingly or unwittingly, though we may have taken the first step, though we once signed on for the discipline necessary to run well, “…as time goes on” says DeSilva, we become encumbered again, we waver, we turn back. We have “to keep laying aside everything that threatens forward progress in the race.” Again said Calvin, “it is shameful having begun well, to faint in the midst of the course.” But the perseverance in question, you see, is ours. Who can stand? Therefore there is, says Webster, a second definition of perseverance--the definition given by the Roman Church. It holds that God’s grace lasts to the end of our life if we have maintained our good works and faith.” But given that we do not maintain our good works and faith (Forgive me Father, for I have sinner), the church acts as the broker of God’s grace, dispensing perseverance…for a price! You will get over the finish line, says the church, if you do what we say. Though again, perseverance at the end of the day is ours to muster. John Calvin begged to differ and is credited by Webster with the third definition of perseverance: the belief that God’s grace brings the elect to salvation. The perseverance in question, writes Calvin, in life and in death, is God’s. That is to say, the God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion and over the finish line! I know this is an anxious time for many of you, an exhilarating time for some, an exhausting time for most. But surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, may we run the race set before us looking to him who endured hostility so that you and I might not grow weary or lose heart. For the God who has persevered in the saints that have gone before us will persevere in you and me and in this congregation, scolding us perhaps, goading us now and again, but finally carrying us, in all our weariness, to the home for which we have been destined in love. Thanks be to God. |