“Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus”
Hebrews 12:1-3
When Bob Homer was a young boy he had a paper route.
And back in the days of paper routes, the paper boys or girls would have to collect money from each customer by ringing their doorbell once a week.
And so, you got to know the people you delivered the paper too pretty well.
In any event, one of Bob’s customers was the pastor of the local Methodist Church.
Bob was collecting money from him one day and the pastor asked Bob if he might be able to come to the church on Sunday morning because he didn’t have anyone to hand out bulletins, and he needed Bob’s help.
Bob told the pastor that he would first have to ask his parents.
Bob’s family didn’t attend a church, so Bob was pretty unfamiliar with the whole thing.
To Bob’s surprise, his parents allowed him to go.
And that one Sunday turned into every Sunday.
Bob came to love the people who were part of that little Methodist Church
It’s where he was introduced to Jesus through His saints.
Eventually, Bob felt a call to go into the ministry, and off he went to seminary.
Bob was one of the pastors of the church I went to as a kid.
When I was about 11 years old, Bob came up to me after a worship service and asked me if I had ever thought about going into the ministry.
The day before I left for college, the doorbell rang.
It was Bob Homer.
He had bought me a small leather-bond Bible.
That was the first Bible that I really, really read.
Bob passed away a number of years ago, but I feel that he is part of the “great cloud of witnesses” that the writer of Hebrews writes about.
Over the course of my life and career as a Christian and a pastor, the one thing I have been most blessed by are the people I have been privileged to know.
Hundreds upon hundreds of folks have given me a glimpse of Jesus through their words, actions, and loving presence.
And it continues to this day with you.
One day a man was walking through a beautiful church building with his 4-year-old son.
As they walked, the young boy looked around.
He stopped and was curious about the stained-glass windows that looked so beautiful with their bright colors.
As he looked at the windows, he asked: “Who are all the people in the windows, daddy?”
“They are saints,” said his father.
“What are saints daddy?” the kid asked.
The father was stuck.
How was he going to explain who saints are to a four-year-old boy?
As the boy was still looking up at the windows and his father was still wondering how he would explain who saints are, the young boy shouted: “I know who saints are, they are the people that the light shines through.”
Who are the people in your life through whom the light shines?
Who are the saints that have touched your life with the transforming love of Christ?
Maybe they are still alive.
Maybe they are members of this congregation.
Maybe they have passed on, and you lit a candle in memory of them this morning.
Most of us are given our first glimpse of Jesus through one of His saints.
(pause)
The writer of Hebrews makes it abundantly clear that we are not alone.
Not only are there a multitude of folks who have gone before us and passed the faith on to us, there are also a multitude of folks who are running the race with us right now.
They are saints.
Saints, are the believers.
Saints are the redeemed.
Saints make up the Church of Jesus Christ.
Have you ever thought about it this way?
I mean, right now, in this worship service you and I are surrounded by saints.
And, if we are believers, we too are numbered among them.
I know it’s hard to think of ourselves this way, because we know ourselves.
We know our sins and short-comings.
And these things can cause us to feel less than, not worthy, not good enough.
But we are all in the same boat, aren’t we?
We are all sinners.
But we are all sinners saved by grace through faith.
And grace is a free gift.
There is nothing we can do to earn it or deserve it.
It is given to us by the One Who loves us more than any of us could possibly imagine.
And it is given to us by the One Who has gone before us, “marked out the race for us,” the “pioneer and perfecter of [our] faith.”
Of course, the idea of a race as a way explain the Christian journey is a metaphor.
And I think we get it wrong if we interpret this metaphor to mean that we are running as fast as we can in order to get this life over with or win a prize.
The Christian life is not a sad or sadistic life.
It is life and life to the full.
While most runners are joyful only at the end of a race, we are to find joy in running the race itself…at the beginning, middle and end.
And that is because we already have the prize.
The prize has been won by the “author and perfecter of our faith,” once and for all!
He went to the Cross and died for our sins.
Behold, He is alive forevermore.
And because of this, we can boldly move forward in serving God and neighbor in love—passing on the faith that has been passed on to us.
In this race we are running there are no losers and there is no competition.
Instead, we are all running it together, as teammates.
Some run alongside us and some run in-front of us to help us along the way.
And up ahead is Jesus, in first place, giving us the will to run and showing us the way the race goes.
And we are to fix our eyes upon Him.
Remember when people came to Jesus asking Him how to enter the Kingdom of God, how to inherit eternal life?
What did Jesus say?
He said, “follow me.”
Throw away the junk that you are caught up in or that has you caught up and “Follow me.”
And this is what Christ says to us as well: “Follow me.”
And there are times when the journey becomes joyless.
And that occurs when we take our eyes off Jesus by giving in to opposition and temptation such as believing the world when it tries to sell us a bill of rotten goods.
That is when we grow weary and lose heart.
It isn’t when things aren’t going our way.
Or when we feel sick, or when we have a headache or whatever.
It is when we take our eyes off Jesus.
That is when we stop loving and serving and caring.
And loving, serving and caring is what it’s all about.
But as Proverbs 14:12 reminds us, “There is a way that seems right to a person, but in the end it is the way of death.”
Many of us are taught to view life as some kind of a pyramid with those on the bottom serving those above them.
We often envy the people at the top thinking joy and happiness is found in being served.
And thus, we passionately seek to be at the top of the world’s imaginary pyramid.
We reach desperately for the money, fame, or power that we think will put us higher in the eyes of the world.
We think this is what this life is all about.
But all this is a lie.
Life is actually more fulfilling down below.
Intentionally choosing to help others flips life upside-down.
In helping others, we find great freedom.
We are able to say “No” to our culture’s games of promotion and authority.
And thus, we live lives with less stress, less anxiety, and less frustration.
We begin to feel more fulfilled, more complete, more alive.
Living for God and others completely abolishes our need for a pecking order.
And a great weight is lifted off our shoulders when we no longer seek power and mastery over others.
Real joy is found not in being served, but in choosing to serve.
Time magazine published an article along these lines called “A Guide to Happiness.”
In it, it says that “Scientific research provides compelling data to support the anecdotal evidence that serving others is a powerful pathway to personal growth and lasting happiness.
Through MRI technology, we now know that giving activates the same parts of the brain that are stimulated by food and other necessary experiences of life.
Experiments show evidence that altruism is hardwired in the brain—and it's pleasurable.
Helping others may just be the secret to living a life that is not only happier but also healthier, more productive, and meaningful.”
This is what Jesus teaches us.
It’s how Jesus lived.
It’s how Jesus ran the race.
And it is how Jesus calls us run the race as well.
Sadly, so many miss this altogether.
And so, saints, we are together in this race.
We are “surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.”
Let’s “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.
And let’s run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Let us “consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that [we] will not grow weary and lose heart.”
In doing so, we will not only discover great joy in the race, we will be people that the light shines through.
May it be so.
Amen.
