Looking Back

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

When I was in college, we had a huge gym for basketball and other indoor sports with permanent rows of seats on each side of the court. For a small Division III college, Memorial Hall could easily seat 4000 people. Each side had three sets of stairs that ran from the floor to the very top row. Just for fun, we would run up and down these sets of stairs. A full set consisted of running up and down all six staircases. It was a great workout!

I hadn’t really thought about this in a long time, until I came across a certain web site dedicated to the sport of (wait for it) professional stair climbing! Holy Cow! Professional stair climbing: are you kidding me? Most of us can surmise what this sport is all about just by the name itself. Unbeknownst to me, there are stair climbing races held throughout the world in some of the tallest buildings in the world. It is described as one of the most grueling sports out there. According to the web site, “stair climbing burns about twice as many calories than any other sport or activity. Because it is a grueling sport, stair climbing requires less time to do the same intensity of a workout. For example, if you run 30 minutes per day, the same workout intensity could be achieved with 15 minutes of stair climbing.” There was a race recently in Jacksonville, Florida where runners participated in a groundbreaking 24-hour endurance event where the climbers repeatedly scrambled up the Bank of America Tower's 42 floors. By the time they were finished, they had logged 123,480 steps and 5,880 floors -- the equivalent of scaling Mount Everest two and a half times. And you thought walking up a few flights of stairs on occasion was tough!

Point is, running vertical can be tough, but it's also a great way for all of us to achieve good health, a sense of satisfaction and a stronger desire to keep moving. It can help us keep going in the race of life.

You get the sense from reading Paul's letter to Timothy that he's climbed too many steps to count as he traveled all over the Roman world preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul had certainly had his own share of injuries from a myriad of beatings and imprisonments. But now, as he stands at the pinnacle of his life as an apostle, Paul looks back and realizes that the race was all worth it.

"I have fought the good fight,” Paul writes. “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

One way to take stock of our lives is to look back to our past; to the path that led us to where we are today. We can see where we’ve failed and where we’ve succeeded. We can see the joyful times and the sad times. We can see where, when and how God has been involved in our lives. This act of reflection enables us to measure what kind of stewards we are with God’s blessings.

For Paul, the race was always about focusing on Christ. In Philippians 3:14 he puts it like this: "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call in Jesus Christ." To the Colossian Christians he writes, "So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1, emphasis added). Paul spent most of his life traveling long distances, but he was always looking toward a higher calling and a prize worth racing toward step by step. Looking back, he has a clear view of every step he and God have traveled together. Indeed, it was the focus on the prize awaiting him at the top of those steps that kept him going, along with the constant steps of the Lord beside him, giving him "strength," rescuing him from "the lion's mouth," and saving him for "[God's] heavenly kingdom" (vv. 17-18).

As Paul looks back, he offers encouragement to the one who must look ahead: his young protégé Timothy. The text implies that Timothy will be the one to pick up the baton Paul is passing to him and continue the long journey of following Christ. He encourages Timothy to "continue in what you have learned and firmly believed" (3:14). There will be opposition from those who want to take the shortcut or the easy way (4:1-4) but, Paul says, "As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully" (4:5).

In other words, he commands Timothy and each of us today to practice what we preach as we move forward in our journey with Christ. We must demonstrate through our actions to all whom we encounter what we confess with our lips. In order for each of us to have any kind of credibility as a Christian, we must make certain our own house is in order. Do we say one thing and do another? Do we promise the sun, moon and the stars but it always falls through? Do we praise and worship God in Christ on Sundays but forget about him the rest of the week? Do we commit our finances to God and don’t follow through? The most influential stewardship witness we can make is to be good stewards ourselves. Paul is encouraging Timothy to be a good steward of his leadership role; to use it wisely, to be a positive example of what it means to be a steward of God in Christ. We must say what we mean and mean what we say. We must live our faith every day of the week, not just on Sundays. We must meet our financial commitments to our church so trust can be forged and confidence can be shaped in our relationship with God and one another.

In other words, it’s all about finishing well. The point of every race is to finish. Some will finish faster and stronger than others, but everyone who undertakes a race does so to do their best. We know that stair climbing is becoming more popular because it's something anyone can do. In fact, tower running is never about racing directly against your opponent. All tower runners compete against themselves and the clock, doing their best to finish the race in their own best time. Following Jesus is about doing the best we can, too. It's not about comparing ourselves to others, but encouraging each other to follow the road that has been laid out before us; to do the best we can in running the race to achieve the prize -- the eternal calling of God in Christ.

This is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Believe it and live it. Amen.

Outplay, Outlast, Outdo

Luke 18:1-8

Persistence pays off.  If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.  Hall of Fame hockey player Wayne Gretzky, the all-time leading scorer in NHL history, shared the comment of an early coach who was frustrated with Wayne’s lack of scoring.  The coach told him, “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you never take.”  Former Prime Minister of Great Britain Margaret Thatcher is quoted saying, “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”  That’s persistence.

I read an interview with a venture capitalist who said that he rarely sees a poorly presented business plan, less than five percent of the proposals his firm reviews ever receive investment capital.  Of those five percent, less than one in ten meet their projections.  This can be discouraging because it requires hard work, extra hours, research, follow-up – and still only one venture out of two hundred ever pays off.  But, he says, when the one deal pays off, the rewards are enough to make all of the effort worth it.  Persistence truly does literally pay off.

Jesus’ discussion of the end times and coming judgment in our scripture today naturally raises the issue of trials and perseverance.  He tells a parable about a widow who through perseverance receives justice from and uncaring, unjust judge. 

We must keep in mind that in Jesus’ day, in first century Palestine, widows were the most vulnerable and helpless members of society.  They could not inherit their husband’s property.  There was no Social Security or Medicare, Medicaid or food stamps. They were left to fend for themselves whatever money, food and shelter they could find.   She had no clout in the community.  She didn’t know the mayor of the city or any of the county commissioners who might pull strings for her to get her case on the docket with the judge.  All she could do was to go back time and time again and hound the judge.  She showed up regularly at the gates of the city where the judge held court, and pursued him on the streets and in the shops.  She would not let him rest until he granted her justice.  At first, the judge is indifferent to the widow’s request, but then he is compelled to reconsider because she refuses to take “no” for an answer. He finally relents, saying to himself, “Though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.”  Her persistence pays off.

But persistence, especially when it comes to prayer, is not easy.  When Jesus tells his disciples the parable about a widow’s persistence, he notes that the story is “about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”  The widow serves as a reminder in tough time and moments of despair to keep on praying.  Prayer is not a last resort when all else fails, when all the best laid plans and programs and power plays have failed; prayer is the first and primary task of Christians.  The widow’s prayerful pursuit of justice became an expression of deep faith, the kind that Jesus seeks. 

So what about the ruthless judge?

One of the primary tasks of a judge in Jesus’ day was to see that the vulnerable people in society were protected, especially the widow, the orphan and the alien.  They administered justice to those who need it most, to those in the community who were completely dependent on him.  Although this judge knows his role as God’s representative, he has a well-deserved and perhaps a well-earned reputation of being corrupt.  He had no conscience and was impervious to shame.  The only way he could be reached was by the peskiness of the widow, who refused to give him a moment’s peace until he granted her justice.

When you stop and think for a moment, if this woman’s persistence resulted in justice granted from an evil judge, how much more will our persistent prayers be answered by our loving, heavenly Father.  Even the ruthless judge does the unexpected thing in response to a powerless widow and grants justice.  God can be counted on to defend and uphold the oppressed.  God will not turn a deaf ear to our prayers.

Sometimes it is not as easy as it looks.  In her book The Writing Life, Annie Dilliard tells of a skywriter named Rahm.  She watched from the ground as he made soaring loops and barrel rolls and filled the sky with word-shaped clouds; he seemed the most carefree person in the world from her perspective.  But when she later rode with him, she saw that in the air Rahm was not carefree at all, he was all business.  He was totally focused as he concentrated intently on clicking switches and wrestling with the joy stick as thrilled the crowds below.  Persistence in prayer is more difficult than it looks and Jesus knows how challenging it can be.

Remember what he prayed for in the Garden of Gethsemane?  “In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.” (Luke 22:44)  As stewards of God’s blessings, it is important to recognize that Jesus’ intent in this parable about the persistent widow was all about diligence.  Diligence or persistence is a requisite faith trait for each of God’s stewards.  It is easy to give emotionally, even impulsively, to causes that tug at our heartstrings.  But like prayer, sustained, consistent systematic giving is a difficult path to follow and stick with, but one that we are all called to travel.

Prayer is hard work, although many people see prayer as a quick fix to solve our daily problems.  How many of us have prayed at one time in our lives, “O Lord, let me find a parking space near the door of my office building.”  or “O God, protect my investment portfolio from the instability of the stock market.”  Or we may even try to bargin with God and pray, “O God, if you help me just this one time to get home safely, I promise I will go to church every Sunday for the rest of my life.”  What Jesus is offering us through this parable about prayer is that prayer is a way of life.  It’s not a one-time, shot in the dark for a good laugh kind of experience.  Prayer is a way of life and so is faithful stewardship.

Jesus also knows how tempting it is to quit and give up, whether it’s managing our God-given resources or our prayer life.  Back to Jesus in Gethsemane, we hear Jesus’s temptation revealed, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matt. 26:39).  When life gets tough and difficult, we are prone to succumb to the evil forces all around us, whether it’s about praying or giving.  When we are ready give in and quit, offering heartfelt prayers to God takes the focus off of ourselves and our circumstances and shifts to squarely on God where it belongs.  For in the real world we recognize that persistence is the key to an effective life. 

Whether we are learning to play the piano or entering school as an adult, persistence is the key.  Whether we are overcoming an addiction or digging out of financial debt, persistence is the key.  When I think about what persistence can do, I think about people like Thomas Edison.  Did you know that Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything." He was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive." As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied, I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”  Persistence is the key.

When I think about what persistence can do, I think about the life of Abraham Lincoln.  Here’s a guy who was born into poverty and faced defeat throughout his life. He lost eight elections, twice failed in business, suffered a nervous breakdown and was bedridden for six months. He could have quit many times, but he didn’t quit and became one of the greatest presidents our nation has ever known.  Persistence is the key.

When I think about what persistence can do, I think about Walt Disney, who was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." He even went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland.  Persistence is the key.

When I consider what persistence can do, the name of the Scottish Presbyterian Reformer John Knox comes to mind.  John Knox constantly carried the burden for his native land on his heart.  Night after night he prayed on the wooden floor of his hideout refuge from Queen Mary.  When his wife pleaded with him to get some sleep, he answered, “How can I sleep when my land is not saved?”  Payne reports that often Knox would pray all night in agonizing tones, “Lord, give me Scotland or I die!” God shook Scotland; God gave him Scotland.  Persistence is the key.

For Jesus the point of this parable is not that persistent prayer promises any of us what we desire.  Rather, it teaches us that prayer offsets cowardly resignation.  Prayer is a continual and persistent hurling of petitions against long periods of silence.  The life of prayer is asking, seeking, knocking and waiting, with trust sometimes fainting and sometimes growing angry.  I’ve heard it said that until you have stood for years knocking at a locked door, with your knuckles bleeding, you do not really know what prayer is.

Jesus commands us to pray always and not to lose heart.  Believe, trust and have confidence that our God hears our prayers and determines what the answer will be.  Persistent prayer pays off.  What more could we want?

Bloom Where You Are Planted

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

If I had been one of the exiles torn from my beloved Jerusalem and forced to live in Babylon, I am not sure I would have neither welcomed nor appreciated Jeremiah’s letter. I probably would have still been waking up at night with nightmares fed by memories of the Babylonian invasion and the long forced march to a strange and foreign land. Those unforgettable images would haunt me night and day: the city’s walls under siege, the screams of neighbors as soldiers killed them, my eyes filling with tears as I and others were marched out of our devastated, fallen city, with a heavy emptiness expanding in my heart as I hiked on mile after mile toward a place I detested with all my being.

These exiles are no doubt despondent about losing everything they held dear: their temple, their homes, their way of life. They are now aliens in a strange land, with strange customs, laws and traditions. Their hope is gone. They have lost faith. They want to go back to the way things were, the way things used to be. This is the audience Jeremiah is addressing in our text this morning. And what is Jeremiah’s message? The past is past. You are to live in the here and now. You are called to be faithful where God plants you.

Today’s lesson consists of a portion of the first of two letters sent by the prophet Jeremiah from Jerusalem to the Israelite exiles in Babylon in about the year 594 B.C. Jeremiah’s letter is addressed to “the remaining elders ... the priests, the prophets, and all the people” in exile in Babylon (v. 1). Jeremiah’s letter is intended to counter the unrealistic and potentially harmful counsel of the false prophets, and in order to have any kind of impact on the people, Jeremiah will need to influence the people’s recognized leaders. Jeremiah’s advice to the exiles is for them to undertake all those mundane projects and activities — building houses, planting gardens, arranging marriages (among themselves, not with their captors, v. 6) — that constitute a settled existence.

In other words, God tells the Israelites to stay put and get comfy. Do not resist the captivity you find yourself in for it will not end soon. Don’t be afraid to make a new home in a strange, new land.

Jeremiah’s offer is intended to be encouragement for a people who have lost everything they knew; to not just survive where they are but to go and thrive right where they are.

But we all know people who are never quite satisfied with their situation in life. At presbytery meetings I can hear laypeople say that if they just had a different pastor, their church would thrive. It is ironic that in pastor’s groups some pastors imply that if they only had a better church, then their gifts and graces would shine. In both cases overactive imaginations avoid a truthful assessment of reality. All of us play the “if only” game: “If only I had gone to a different school…”, “If only I made more money…”, “If only I had chosen a different career path…” This game allows us to avoid dealing directly with our reality.

What should be our attitude toward our present circumstances? In the 1995 film Mr. Holland’s Opus, Glenn Holland, a musician and composer, takes a teaching job to pay the rent while, in his 'spare time', he can strive to achieve his true goal - composing one memorable piece of music to leave his mark on the world. Teaching was to be a side bar in his life with his primary focus on writing his symphony. He approaches his teaching job as temporary; as a way to make ends meet and support his family while pursuing his true interest. As Mr. Holland discovers 'Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans' and the joy of sharing his contagious passion for music with his students becomes his new definition of success through his 30 year teaching career. His students are his symphony; his mark on the world. Mr. Holland learns to live in the here and now and bloom where he was planted. In the same way, God calls us as stewards and as his disciples to bloom where we are planted.

I remember when I first arrived here in Kilgore I was having lunch with Ronnie Spradlin when I noticed a bracelet on his wrist. On the bracelet were the letters K.I.I.K. I asked him what the letters represented. The letters stand for Keep it in Kilgore. Ronnie explained that it is a push to encourage the citizens of Kilgore to shop locally and do business with local businesses and stores. By doing so, we are investing in our local community and its economy. It builds up our tax base, draws in industry, helps create better schools and a stronger community. In a day and age of fast food chains, corporate franchises and big box stores, such a message as this is radical and ground-breaking. When we K.I.I.K. it, we show our desire as a community to bloom where we are planted.

Jeremiah’s message was a radically practical and innovative. He told the Jews that rather than resisting, resenting or rejecting their circumstances. They are to embrace it. There is a great story I heard told once about two farmers who badly needed rain, but only one of them prepared his fields to receive it. The other did nothing but wallow in self-pity and complain about the lack of rain. Which one of these farmers strived to bloom where he was planted? God says through Jeremiah that we are where we are supposed to be for a reason that’s part of a larger, divine plan, so we need to put the past behind us, trust in the living God, put down roots, become productive and be good stewards of the gifts and resources we have been blessed with.

We will miss much of the past, but whining and pining about it will not make it reappear. Instead, Jeremiah challenges the Jews in captivity, and us, to embrace the place where God has us and find ways to be faithful in our living, so that others might ask about our inspiration, our resolve and our trust, and thereby be drawn into a relationship with God.