Sermon for the 10th Sunday after Trinity

Sunday 15th August 2004

Preached by Rev Brian Parker

Run the race

The 28^th Modern Olympic Games got off to a great start this weekend. They first began in 1896.

But of course the root of this athletic tradition goes much deeper. The ancient Olympic Games took place at Olympia in Greece from at least as early as 776 BC and lasted until AD 393.

And the Olympic spirit has long been enshrined in the idea that the important thing is not to win but to take part. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

That shining ideal may have dimmed in the 21^st century.

These days money incentives blur the lines of sportsmanship.

These days the shadow of drug-taking to enhance performance takes the shine of glory.

The cheats, with the clever chemistry, may win.

That’s depressing – but the Olympic spirit still has life. Let’s hope all is fair in competition and may the best man or woman win.

It seems the Bible writers were big on track events. The life of faith is often illustrated in terms of a race.

The Psalmist ‘rejoices as a strong man to run a race’.

The ancient sage in Proverbs is confident: ‘when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble’.

And the teacher writes in the book of Ecclesiastes: ‘the race is not to the swift.’

Isaiah is sure that ‘they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall run and not be weary.’

And St Paul tells the Corinthians: ‘I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.’

He is running with singleness of purpose; living in hope and faith. Doing what needs to be done.

And the writer to the Hebrews comes across like an athletics coach.

He urges us to ‘lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.’

Run with perseverance.

Certainly to work out our Christian faith in the modern world we need to persevere.

Consider for example the way in which compassion, one of the great Christian characteristics, is abused in Africa.

The non-delivery of humanitarian aid is a disgrace. Some reports say it’s a ‘circus’ with corrupt officials and terrorists carving up tons of aid for their own personal profit.

This is aid given by people who show great compassion and concern for the needs of millions who are starving. But their giving is abused far too often.

It will take a great deal of perseverance to put that right.

Meanwhile in Sudan it’s estimated 1000 people die each day for lack of food and water.

How Isaiah’s vision of human failure rings true as he looks for ‘righteousness, but hears only cries of distress’.

People in positions of responsibility, in positions where they could help but don’t, who are beset with sin and corruption and greed, fail humanity, fail God.

The rights of the poor and oppressed are as nothing to them.

So running with perseverance in this context is about getting it right. We need to persevere in our support for those who are getting through and delivering aid with integrity – notably I think Christian Aid.

Again as we think of the running metaphor it tells us we need to be active in our Christian lifestyle.

Christians are not spectators. Christians are not about standing around at the edge of the action. We are called to run the race.

The implication is that we face opposition.

A community worker in West Belfast told me recently that, as he put it, ‘waves of corruption’ are seeping into the lives of young people in the area.

He painted an ugly picture of gangs and drugs. And as the churches and others moved to counter this menace they were being constantly frustrated and opposed by those out to profit from crime.

The profit margins are such that these criminals will not give way easily.

But perseverance and not a little courage sustains those who work so hard to win this particular race.

They run hard. They don’t side step the reality of evil.

Their running, their practical support and service, confronts the drug barons, the paramilitaries, the racist thugs. They are not spectators.

Also as Christians, like the athlete, we need to look where we are going. We need to shake ourselves out of a ‘comfortable conscience’. We need to get our priorities right.

There was a report the other day about how commercialised sport is the new secular religion. Religious worship and family values are under threat from TV addiction.

The mass addiction to round the clock media sports coverage is undermining family based community cultures. Families don’t spend real leisure time together.

A sociologist has warned that ‘ communities are dominated by mindless watching of sport on TV. Civilisation has become seduced, drugged by passive non-participation in community and family life.’

So the message is – face these threats to family life that come with mindless TV watching. Get out and run a race with the kids – go for a walk, get involved in the church, in the community, in working for Christian Aid.

The important thing is to take part – be active in the family, in the community.

For by the grace of God we may individually and collectively help maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

We may make progress in delivering the vulnerable from the hands of the wicked.

We may look for justice and help to make peace.

We may hear the cries of the distressed and do something practical to help.

We may indeed run with perseverance.

For they who ‘wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall run, and not be weary’.