Sermon: Joining the Cloud - Running the Race

Hebrews 11:39-12:2
Joining the Cloud – Running the Race
James Sledge                                                                            November 13, 2022

Cloud of Witnesses
Mike Moyers

In July of 2017, at Panama City Beach in Florida, two children got caught in a rip tide and could not make their way back to shore. Their mother went out to help, and she too was caught in the tide. Several more people attempted to help, only to find themselves trapped.

There were no lifeguards at this beach, and a large crowd gathered at the water’s edge, horrified but not knowing what to do. Someone wondered if they might be able to throw a rope out to them and pull them in, but who brings a rope with them to the beach? Besides, they were so far out.

Then someone got the idea to create their own line to those caught in the rip tide. They could form a human chain to pull the people back in. The crowd on the beach, most of them strangers to one another, began to link arms and move out toward the trapped people who were about a hundred yards from the shore. Eighty people joined together, stretching out to those children and would be rescuers who had been caught in the tide. And one by one they pulled every one of them to safety.

I think something similar is going on in the sermon that is the book of Hebrews. It speaks of a great cloud of witnesses that went before us, and over the recent weeks, you been hearing from church members about their witnesses, the ones who mentored them or guided them in some way in their faith journey. It strikes me that the witnesses who went before us, who founded this church, who introduced us to the faith, who taught us important faith lessons, form a kind of human chain that helps pull us forward on our walks of faith.

Today, on the day we make our financial commitments to God and this congregation, some of the members of the Generosity Team, who suggested this year’s theme of “Joining the Cloud of Witnesses,” want to share their stories of witnesses who pull them forward.

 

(Stories from Myra Bridgforth, Kathy Chavez, and Jenny Lansbury. These stories can be heard on the sermon video.)

 

I suspect that nearly all of us have witness stories we could tell, people who went before us and had a profound impact on our faith, people who pull us forward on our faith journey. We are part of a congregation built by those who went before us. But if the writer of our scripture this morning is to be believed, we are not simply pulled forward on our journey by our great cloud of witnesses. We pull them forward as well.

When the preacher of Hebrews recounts all the great heroes of the faith from the past and all their remarkable deeds, he adds, Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. The word translated perfect has the sense of being made complete. Their faith is not finished without the works of faith of those who follow them.

The preacher seems to envision a great human chain that stretches back through history and pulls those great witnesses forward with us. And then the preacher brings out a new metaphor, that of a footrace. Great witnesses have gone before us, but now the baton has been passed, and the race cannot be finished without us doing our part, without us following the trail blazed by Jesus while the great cloud of witnesses cheers us on from the sidelines.

Has it ever occurred to you that you are a key player in the grand sweep of salvation history? Our faith, our efforts, our ministry are not just about us. They are a part of something much larger. And so when we make our giving commitments today, we take our place among the saints, among the great cloud of witnesses who went before us. The baton has been passed to us, and so let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. Jesus has shown us the way, and the Spirit strengthens us and gives us the endurance we need. The great cloud of witnesses is cheering us on, and they are counting on us. Let us take up the baton. Let us do the saints who went before us proud.