Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : May 1, 2005

Theme: Walking Together

Church year occasion: Easter 6

The writer to the Hebrews is talking about running a race, like a marathon. In order to be a world-class marathoner, you basically need three things. Can you think of them?

Natural ability -- How many of you knew that if you just worked hard enough and trained hard enough, you could go to the Olympics and win? Not many of us. Why? Because heart won't do it alone -- you have to be good enough naturally to compete at that level.

Training -- If you get winded walking up the stairs at your house, you won't be winning any marathons any time soon. You need to train. A classmate of mine was a natural runner, but he seldom came to practice, and I found out later that he also smoked during the season. As a result, he finished a little ahead of the rest of us, when he could have won the race probably every time if he only trained harder and worked at it.

Luck -- Even if you have natural ability and have an amazing training ethic, you could still run into bad luck, like spraining an ankle that keeps you out of the race completely. So you need all three.

The writer to the Hebrews writes about running a spiritual race while we're on this earth, with heaven as the prize at the finish line. How's our natural ability to get there? Nothing. We are born and even conceived in sin; we can't get to heaven just by who we are. As the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath, Paul says. How about our training? It doesn't matter how hard we try, we can't earn heaven, by what we do. Paul says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." What about luck? Luck has nothing to do with it. Getting to heaven isn't like winning the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. It's all about justice -- God hates sin and must punish sin with eternal death. Because we're sinful and we sin all the time, we have, of our own fault, lost heaven.

But now think about who ran the race for us -- Jesus. Talk about natural ability! Jesus was born without sin. Spiritually speaking, he was the greatest marathoner this world has ever seen. Training? Jesus worked harder than anyone ever could to earn God's favor, and he succeeded! He remained perfect his whole life. What about luck? This is where an incredible thing happens. Even though Jesus is the best ever in the world and worked the hardest at heaven so that he maintained his perfection, so that he finished first, yet he didn't take the prize. Instead, he looked at every sinner who couldn't even get close to the finish line, and he took their place. He took everyone in this world and put them on the winners stand, so they got the credit for a perfect race and first place. Instead of blind luck taking away Jesus' prize of finishing first, he disqualified himself because he gave his trophy to every sinner. He did it by paying for every failure that we have -- our natural hostility to God and his will as well as all our acts of rebellion while we live our lives. Jesus took them all away when he died for them all on the cross.

So who won the race for us? Jesus. And who gives us the prize that Jesus earned with his life? God the Father. And who gives us the faith that we need to receive that gift? The Holy Spirit credits Jesus victory to our account through faith.

But in a sense, even though we have already won the race, we are still running our earthly race. Listen to how the Bible talks about it: "Run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Knowing what our God has done for us, we simply continue to run. We persevere, through days of sunshine and days of rain, through pain and hardship, over hills and even mountains. When we have the power of the Lord Jesus in us through faith, nothing can stop us. It's just a matter of time before we reach the finish line.

But we don't run alone. We have fellow believers running with us. I heard a story about the marines the other day. One marine described how difficult their training was. They would have to run three miles, rain or shine, at all hours of the day or night, while carrying 60-70 pounds of equipment! That's amazing in and of itself. But here's where it gets even better. This marine said that if one of them isn't feeling well or for some reason just can't do it, his fellow marines will take his equipment off him as they go and pass it around so each marine is taking an extra amount on themselves. Then two others put the man's arms over their shoulders and help him along. Finally, as a group, as they near the finish line, they put the equipment back on the man and they finish together.

What a great way to describe our Christian life! God has given us fellow Christians who are walking together, or running together, with us in this life. That's how Living Word was able to become a congregation in the first place. A group of fellow believers decided to help us out with their resources and prayers so we could reach out to others in this area with the message of Jesus. And look at how God has blessed us. Less than two years after we started worshiping together, we have mission status as a congregation, and are basically self-supporting. For those of you who aren't used to being in a mission congregation, that's an amazing thing! Usually it takes 3-5 years to become a mission and another 5-10 to become self-supporting. And for some congregations, it never happens.

Jesus already won the race for us. Heaven stands open to us through faith alone in Jesus. Today is Walking Together Sunday. We could just as easily call it Running Together Sunday. Today especially we remember our blessings, both physical and spiritual, that God has showered on us through his body of believers and also through the human organization called the Wisconsin Synod. Today we also thank God for all those blessings by sharing those blessings with our fellow believers God has given us as we walk and run together toward our heavenly goal. Amen.