Sermon for Nov. 2, 2008: “A Cloud of Witnesses”
Scripture Lessons: Hebrews 12:1-2; Psalm 42:4-5
The Christian life is not mainly about getting individuals from earth to heaven, but about getting heaven to earth for all people. We are trying to live our lives together with greater peace, deeper joy, more authentic love and higher meaning. We want to live life “on earth as it is in heaven.” This is how Jesus taught us to pray and why Jesus is always saying that he came from heaven to earth. John 6:38 I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
As Christians, we look to Jesus as best model for how to live in a way that brings heaven to earth. As the author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote, we look to Jesus as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. As we know a pioneer is a trailblazer, the one who goes before the rest and opens a new way forward. This is what Jesus did.
Jesus is also the perfecter of our faith. This means he is the one who went along this way first, but overcame the obstacles that met him along the way. He met head-on the challenges to the peace, to the joy, and above all to the purpose of his love, and he triumphed in all those challenges. His life is a model for us of how to rise above our adversity and keep true to God’s purpose for our lives. The life of Jesus points us in the right direction and shows us the way to live from heaven downward.
Although Jesus is our ultimate example of a life of faith, hope and love, sometimes we can use a little “less ultimate” example. We can use an example that we see as a little more like us. Thankfully, that is exactly what we have. The way that has been pioneered and perfected by Jesus has been followed by many who have come after him, but before us. It our great blessing to have, what we might call, mediating examples of faith… those who show us with their lives, what it is like for ordinary, everyday people to follow in the way of Christ. These are the great cloud of witnesses that surround us on every hand.
Looking around us in the church we see a variety of memorials to those who have gone before and left their mark. Many others have left their marks in our lives. As we remember and give thanks for these, let us rededicate ourselves to leaving our own marks of beauty and grace in our world. Let run with perseverance the race that is set before us.
