August 15, 2010
The Cloud of Baptism
- Luke 12:49-56
- Dr. Teri Thomas
Cloud of Witnesses
Last Monday I was driving south on Michigan Road and came to the light at 38th Street. I looked across the intersection and saw the big sign at the corner of Crown Hill Cemetery. They use the sign to advertize special tours or holiday events and this week the sign said- Look for us on Facebook.
I laughed the rest of the way downtown.
Who wants to "friend" a cemetery?
Do you post on a head stone instead of a wall?
What kind of updates do you get from the down under?
Does your status ever change after you're dead?
When I got back to the church
I was reading the scripture for this morning from Hebrews.
This passage is really a facebook for faith.
There are all these short posts about various people we know-
the Israelites crossed the Red Sea,
David managed to beat Goliath,
Rahab escaped death,
Daniel was not eaten by lions.
Where facebook has friends to comment on our lives and offer advice, Hebrews has witnesses- the cloud of witnesses-
the hundreds of thousands of friends who are there to encourage us, to support us, to cheer us on. Even though they are not here in the flesh and blood, they are here and they are here for us. Post a prayer and they hear it. Check your wall and they comment. Facebook connects us with people around the world. This cloud of witnesses connects us with people through all of time.
Wendell Berry has a poem about this in his book Leavings.
I tremble with gratitude
for my children and their children
who take pleasure in one another.
At our dinners together, the dead
enter and pass among us
in living love and in memory.
And so the young are taught.
That is the spiritual network we are part of.
It is in the midst of that spiritual network
It is in the middle of that cloud of witnesses
that we are called to run our race.
As we prepare to take our turn at running the race, we're told to "lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely."
What sort of things might represent burdensome "weights" that we need to put aside? Are we carrying guilt, illusions, addictions, selfishness and greed?
Are we carrying ambition and self-centeredness?
Are we carrying heartaches and grudges that we could put down, and in so doing, lighten our load?
The next thing the writer of Hebrews says
is that we must run with perseverance.
Perseverance—
it's what separates followers of Jesus from admirers of Jesus.
The fact of the matter is that in order to win a race you have to finish the race.
The Letter to the Hebrews holds up as examples and inspiration those ancestors in faith
who endured much and accomplished marvelous things,
all "through faith."
It was not through their own "super powers"
but through the power of God that they were able to do these amazing things,
from crossing the Red Sea on dry land
to shutting the mouths of lions
and quenching raging fires.
These faithful ones have run the race
and now are watching us as we run ours.
What makes these stories so powerful
is remembering that these folks were not super-human –
they were human beings,
flawed, weak, and sinful,
all those things that we are.
They were not perfect, they simply had faith.
Don Durrett told some of us a story the other night
from Northminster’s history.
The small chapel had been built
but there was no other building here for the church.
One morning some equipment arrived
and some men started digging a hole on the property.
Wilbur Closterhouse, the pastor,
came running over and asked the man in charge-
who happened to be a church member-
what he was doing.
“Digging a hole for a new church,” was his response.
But Wilbur begged him to stop,
“We don’t have any money for a church building,” he said.
The man kept digging and replied,
“We will fill this hole with faith.”
You can sit here in this sanctuary today because of their faith
Hebrews 12:1 says,
"Since we a surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses."
The image here is that of a big stadium
filled with saints cheering us on as we race.
Imagine being at the center of a huge stadium,
running feverishly around the track
and the whole crowd are saints—
thousands of them, and they are all screaming your name.
You get goose bumps hearing their cheers,
and you begin to kick it up a notch.
You see Paul holding up a banner with your name on it.
You see Abraham and Moses high fiving, chanting your name.
There is Jesus at the finish line
with a look of encouragement and intensity.
He is motioning you forward,
"Come on child, don't stop. You can do it!"
You finally stretch across the finish line
and you feel a sense of relief and release.
Jesus embraces you says in your ear,
"Child, well done, I am so proud of you!"
Is there anything else worth living for?
Amen.