Living on the Edge
July 16, 2006
II Corinthians 6:1-13
Some years ago, I remember presiding at the funeral of one of the older ladies of the church. I noticed that one of the grandsons was in the congregation dressed in his army dress uniform. At the cemetery following the committal service, I walked over to chat with him for a minute. When I got close, I noticed that he had his pants tucked into his boots. I said, “So you’re a paratrooper.” He told me that he had just completed training. I asked him why anyone would want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. He laughed at me and said parachuting was the greatest thrill he had ever had. I’m glad we have young men who are willing to do that in service to their country, but I will never understand them.
In recent years, skydiving has become more and more popular as an extreme sport. Some skydivers can never get enough. The 49th Annual Skydiving Championships will be held this year from October 21-28 in Eloy, Arizona. There is a relatively new event in the championships. It is called “swooping.” If you log on to the web, go to www. swoooping.net to find out all you want to know about this new sport. According to the website, even the most extreme sport becomes boring after awhile, so some daredevil invented this new form of skydiving.
To begin, you need a new, high performance parachute. This, along with all the other gear may cost you a number of thousands of dollars. Also, according to the website, you need hundreds of regular parachute jumps in order to be ready for this more demanding sport.
Swooping is done with a smaller parachute which provides the jumper with more speed. The parachute is opened almost at the last minute and then with some tight turns near the ground, the swooper drags his or her feet. Usually it is done over a body of water. Sometimes someone will drag their feet through a field of corn. Swooping distance is measured from the first touch of the foot to the water until landing. The latest world record that I could find was accomplished by a jumper named Shannon Pilcher, who swooped for 418 feet. Horizontal speeds sometimes can reach upwards of 90 miles per hour.
It is a dangerous sport. Doing all of those tight maneuvers close to the ground can result in serious injury or even death. But that is the thrill of it, I guess. There are only a couple of hundred swoopers in the world, but they are killed at the rate of three or four a year. Despite the danger – or perhaps because of the danger - a number of organizations now exist to promote this sport: The World Swooping Association, The Pro Swooping Tour, and the European Swooping Tour, plus others.
But you know, there are always people who are willing to go all the way to the edge, to risk injury and even death in order to be part of something bigger than themselves.
My daughter Dominique was a very fine high school athlete. Captain and MVP of her Cross Country team for three years; she was also All-Conference honorable mention during her freshman year and All-Conference first team for the next three years. Toward the end of her sophomore season, she began having pain in her left lower leg. We took her to a doctor and he discovered that she had a stress fracture below her knee. She had been running 35 to 40 miles a week for six months. Much of that running had been on pavement, and it finally caught up with her.
For the next several weeks, her coach worked with her to rehab that leg, but it still wasn’t completely healed by the time Sectionals came around. Dominique really wanted to run in the Sectionals, so we took her back to the doctor, who told us that it was up to her. We were afraid of long-term damage to that leg, but he said that running on it wouldn’t cause any further injury. He said that if she could run through the pain, it would be alright for her to do that. Her coach left it up to her – said he would understand if she chose not to run. We told her that since the doctor has given his OK, she could run if she wanted.
As a freshman, she had placed 7th in Sectionals and her team had advanced to Regionals. If you’re not familiar with Cross Country racing, the top five teams and top fifteen runners advance to the next round. I was talking to her before this race and she said, “Dad, wouldn’t it be awful to be number 16?”
The Girls Cross Country race is two and a half miles long. At a mile and a half, she was still in the top ten, but we could see that she was running in pain. She slowly began to lose ground. About forty meters from the finish line she was in fifteenth place. At thirty meters, the girl behind her put on a last burst of speed and went around her. Dominique finished sixteenth. That was the only year of her high school career when her team didn’t advance beyond the Sectional race.
Her mom and I were very proud of her. She didn’t have to compete. No one would have blamed her. But she was needed for the team. The team was bigger than she was, so she was willing to put it all on the line
I have known Ken Vance for a long time. We first met in the summer of 1972 when we attended License to Preach School down at DePauw University. Ken is a missionary pilot and has flown in Africa with “Wings of the Morning” flight ministry for a couple of decades now. When you talk to him, you immediately get a sense of the sincerity of his calling and his commitment to the mission field. He literally has narrowly escaped death on numerous occasions as he has ministered in the midst of civil war and violence. Orders have been issued for his death. His family has been threatened. In spite of that, he feels that he is in the place where God wills him to be. He risks it all in order to be part of the effort to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to those who have not heard.
Let me ask you a question. What is it that you would risk your life for? Is there something out there that brings out in you such a sense of desperation that you would do anything to address it?
Back in the Old Testament book of Joshua, you find the stories of how the Israelites crossed the Jordan River to take possession of the Promised Land. They had been through decades of hard times. Released from slavery in Egypt, they faced hunger and thirst in the desert. They faced the anger of God when they were disobedient. They failed to trust God and so were destined to wander for forty additional years in the wilderness. Moses, the leader who was with them through all of those years died and appointed Joshua to take his place.
Finally, when they did cross the Jordan River, they were faced with years of war. There were enemies all along their way that they needed to defeat in order to secure a homeland.
At one point, Joshua gathered all of his people together, looked out over the assembled crowd, and honestly explained his intention. “Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
He knew there was something bigger than himself. He knew there was something more important than his own comfort or safety.
The Greek city of Corinth was a cross-road of the ancient world. Trade and commerce had caused the city to swell in population. In the city could be found all sorts of competing religions and philosophies and ways of life. Immorality was rampant. Self-indulgence was the norm. Corinth was sort of the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire.
The church struggled there. Church members tried to adapt to Christianity but still have a foot in their old world. They tried to follow Christ while at the same time continue to live as they always did. In addition, there was a succession of false teachers and preachers who came through, confusing and contradicting the gospel which was being preached by the Apostle Paul. It was tempting to take the easy road, to search for easy answers and an easy discipleship.
Paul wrote to them to tell them that there are some things worth the struggle. There are some things that demand our highest allegiance and our greatest efforts. There are some things for which nothing but the best will do. The gospel is one of those things. The Christian life is one of those things. Commitment to Christ is one of those things.
The Corinthians had yet to be convinced of the urgency of the moment. On the other hand, Paul was out there on the front lines fighting the battles. Now is the time, he said. The moment can’t be put off. It can’t wait. Paul was willing to go all the way to the edge and to risk everything for something bigger than himself.
Then he went through a litany of the troubles he had been through: beaten up, jailed and mobbed, hunger, tough times, bad times. Elsewhere he would say that he had been afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down (II Cor. 4:8-9). On another occasion he reported that he had been whipped, stoned, shipwrecked, sleepless, hungry, thirsty, cold, and often in danger (II Cor. 11:24-27).
It reminds me of Jesus when he said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
I guess that the issue for us is this. What are we willing to go all out for? What is it that we are willing to go all the way to the edge for? What are we willing to take great risks for?
Let’s face it. We may never be called on, like Paul was called on, to risk our very lives for the gospel. We may never have to face death to witness for Christ. But let me ask you a couple of questions.
If there are those out there who are willing to risk death by swooping across the ground at ninety miles an hour in a parachute, perhaps we might be willing to take a little risk ourselves: like bringing a friend to church; or like volunteering to teach a children’s Sunday School; or like taking a small step toward tithing.
If Joshua was willing to take the long, hard road, perhaps we might be willing to spend some time to be an usher or a liturgist or a presenter of the children’s sermon.
If Paul was willing to risk life and limb to preach Christ, perhaps there are some small things we could do, like committing ourselves to attend Sunday School; like promising ourselves that we will attend worship at least forty times a year.
If Jesus was willing to die so that people could know first hand what the love of God means, perhaps we might be willing to do some small things like being an example of ethical behavior for our children or our co-workers.
Maybe you can think of some of your own ways to live close to the edge, to take some risks, and to put your life on the line for the sake of Jesus.
