Spiritual Olympics at Epiphany on
Acts
Great Finishes
In 1992, Dorando Pietri of
Of course, Pietri didn’t win a medal, but he did
finish the race, and that was all that mattered.
If you have ever been in Al’s Run and Walk for
Children’s Hospital in
Long distance runners talk about a point in the
race they call “hitting the wall.” “Hitting the wall” is like a crisis point in
the race, when the runner is feeling extremely tired and the urge to quit is
stronger than ever. When you hit the wall, your pace slows, sometimes
considerably. Some runners say that it feels as though their legs had been fed
with led quail shot, like the stomach of Mark Twain’s unfortunate jumping frog
of
When he spoke the words of our text, the apostle
Paul may have felt like he was “hitting the wall.” He had been arrested and put
on trial for preaching about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just before our
text, Paul said, “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to
Can you think of a time in your life when the
going got so rough and you became so tired, that you felt like you had “hit the
wall” and just wanted to quit? Maybe when you were learning to ride your bike.
After falling down and skinning another body part, you said, “I quit.” Maybe you
have to run sprints and hills for soccer or football practice. You’ve thrown up
for the third time that day. You’re ready to quit the team – on the first day of
practice.
You’ve had serious disagreements with other
church members. Self-doubt rises and you wonder if you should just stay home on
Sunday mornings. You feel a tension between your child and the teacher, so your
stomach feels all queasy. You would rather pull your child out of school rather
than discussing the problem with the teacher. You’ve finally had enough of the
long hours and little pay at work, so you give your two weeks notice. You feel
like you can’t handle the pressures of life so you quit on life and turn to
alcohol and drugs.
It is difficult to make things work. It is easy
to quit. We haven’t been able to get through a Sportscenter or an evening news
show without being overwhelmed with stories of an athletic icon and a football
team that quit on each other.
Marriage is fairly easy in the beginning as you
are both loving and affectionate toward each other. But later comes the stresses
from both spouses working, kids, lack of time spent together, and fleshly
temptations at work. The marriage becomes difficult to maintain, so the couple
decides to mutually throw in the towel. When you were in high school and
college, it may have been easy for you to stay physically fit. You had a high
metabolism and you could eat fried food, pizza, and drink soda and beer. Now it
is challenging to go on nightly walks, count calories, and drink mainly water.
It is much easier to just resign yourself to being lazy and overweight. With all
of the stresses of life with debt, unwanted pregnancies, addictions, and
multiple bad choices made, sadly even some Christians have felt like they have
hit the wall of life and cannot continue another moment in this world – and end
their life with suicide.
It is your sin that causes you to quit. Your
errors in judgment leave you confused and disoriented. Your lusts lead you down
false short cuts. Your wickedness leaves you running away from God and into the
devil’s waiting arms. Your guilt drives a wedge between you and your fellow
saints. Your depravity halts your spiritual growth and you are tossed around by
the wind and waves of the world’s temptations. Your constant straying away from
God’s law and love leaves you lost and destitute and ready to throw in the
towel.
Consider what happens when you quit. You may
lose your job, your family, your church and school family, your integrity, and
your self-respect. You may ultimately lose your Christian faith and your eternal
salvation.
Consider what would have happened if Paul would
have quit as an apostle. If he would have said, “It’s too much trouble to be a
missionary” the world would have been poorer, many would have been damned.
Though the troubles were real and great, Paul finished the race. In spite of the
pressure on him to deny his Lord, he kept the faith.
When the pressure is on, when the urge to give
in to worldly pleasures is strong, when temptations are everywhere, when you hit
the “wall” of your Christian faith, what will you do?
Think of Jesus’ words: “What will you give in
exchange for your soul?” Sometimes it is hard to be a Christian, to do what is
right, to finish the task and complete the race. But if we quit on Christianity,
if we turn our back to the Lord and give in to the temptation to indulge in
sinful pleasures, then we will lose the crown of life.
Think of the Samaritan woman in today’s Gospel
lesson. It would have been easy for her to give up and leave since it didn’t
seem like Jesus was the least bit interested in helping her. Yet she persisted.
She pleaded. She pursued. And Jesus praised her for her great faith. He blessed
her persistent pursuit by curing her demon-possessed daughter.
Consider Jesus. He had an arduous task – that of
taking away the sins of the world. We witness Jesus struggle as He prayed in
There are plenty of memorable Olympic moments,
but one stands out this morning. In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Derek Redmond
was running the preliminaries of the 400 meters when he felt a pop in his right
hamstring. He fell to the ground clutching his leg. He finally got up and began
limping toward the finish line. One painful step at a time, each one a little
slower and more painful than the one before, his face twisted with pain and
tears, Derek limped onward and the crowd, many in tears, cheered him on.
Derek and his dad, Jim, had always been very
close, like best friends. When Jim saw his son fall to the ground, he raced from
the top of the stands. Finally Jim reached the bottom of the stands, leapt over
the railing, avoided a security guard and ran out to his son, with two security
guards chasing after him. “That’s my son out there,” he yelled back to security,
“and I’m going to help him.”
65,000 people in the stands cheering, clapping,
crying. Finally with Derek refusing to surrender, Jim reached his son at the
final curve, about 120 meters from the finish, and wrapped his arm around his
waist. “I’m here, son,” Jim said softly, hugging his boy. “We’ll finish
together.”
You may daily feel the pressure to quit. You may
be exhausted from helping others or serving the Lord or sharing the faith. You
may feel like you have hit the wall and cannot continue another step. You may
want to throw in the towel on your marriage, your children, your parents, your
career, even your faith.
Someone is coming out of the stands of humanity
to help you. He doesn’t look like anything special. Hair a little long. Beard a
little unkempt. He’s wearing dusty sandals. He comes to you, places his arms
around you and picks you up. His arms are strong. They must be, from carrying a
wooden beam to the hill. His hands are calloused. He’s done a lot of creating
with those hands. Then you notice that his hands – and his feet – have holes in
them. You can see right through those holes.
Jesus places his arm around you and walks with
you to the finish line. When you trip, he reminds you, “Let me help you with
your heavy burdens.” When you are tired and out of strength, he says to you,
“Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings
like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
In order to keep your mind off the pain, Jesus
tells you story after story of the times he has rescued his people from the
brink of disaster and carried them on to the finish line. He tells stories about
a 100 year-old man and his 90-year old wife who had a miracle child born to them
in their old age. He tells about an 80 year-old man who led millions of people
out of slavery into a Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. He talks about
a teenage boy who killed a giant with a slingshot. He relates story after story
of people being taken to heaven in a whirlwind, rescued from the mouths of
lions, pulled from a furnace’s flames, walking on water, and walking out of
prisons.
The names of these people aren’t important. What
is important is that the same God was with them all. Just as your Lord God,
Jesus Christ, is with you every step of the way. He is leading, guiding,
consoling, comforting, carrying you to the finish line. He encourages you,
“Fight the good fight. Keep the faith. Finish the task.”
Earlier this week, out of the blue, my
five-year-old daughter,
Heaven is the great finish we all desire. During
the Olympic games, the end of the marathon is run inside the Olympic stadium.
The runners enter the stadium and run one lap around the track to the cheers of
the large crowd until they reach the finish line. The saints and angels are
cheering for our entrance into heaven. Jesus is walking with us and supporting
us. When we hit the wall of exhaustion he helps us continue. The moment we cross
the finish line and enter the glorious gates of heaven, we will receive the
crown of victory, the palm branch of triumph, and the white robe of
righteousness.
You don’t have to win the race. The race has already been won by Jesus Christ. All that is left for you is to finish the race. That’s all that matters. “I’m here,” Jesus says softly to us, hugging us. “We’ll finish together.” Amen.