Running God's Race

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

Our Epistle lesson for today starts out with the apostle Paul stating that the time has come for his departure. Evidently, Paul is getting to the place in his life where he can see that his life is about to be sacrificed for the gospel. And, indeed, most of us may remember that it was in Rome, as he was yet preaching the gospel from house arrest, that Paul was condemned to death and beheaded by the Roman authorities.

Nevertheless, Paul believed that he had done his best as a disciple of Christ. So, he proclaimed that he had fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith. It is interesting that Paul would have used such athletic imagery. One would suspect that perhaps Paul was an athlete in his earlier days. But, I wonder if he would have used such language, today. In medieval times, for instance, cities competed for the biggest cathedrals. Today, however, they compete for the biggest stadiums and best sports teams. Someone once observed that "America is the nation with soul of a church." Now, however, it may very well be that America is the nation with the soul of a football!

When you think about having run a good race, you shouldn't think that the race has been won. The story of the cross is not a story of success, in the eyes of the world, that is. By the world's standards, Jesus failed. And winning isn't everything. Paul says, in our Epistle lesson that he has "finished the race," not that he has won. Even Paul's other well-known athletic text in 1 Corinthians 9 urges the believer to "run to win," but it doesn't say that we will win. After all, it is most realistic to believe that very often we will, in fact, run and lose. So, not every good race is one that is won. A good race is one that is finished.

Several decades ago a famous boxer was favored by the odds makers to win a fight. Just before the opening round, his manager gave him these last-minute instructions: "Get to it; I want you to run across the ring and lay into him. Catch him before he can even get his dukes up." The bell rang, and the fighter jumped off his stool, took two running steps, tripped, crashed into the floor chin first, and knocked himself out cold. The referee counted to 10 and the fight was over. Certainly, it is one thing to want to win at life's challenges, but its another thing to simply finish.

Strictly speaking, life does not always have a happy ending. But we must still strive to finish. We can't set out to "run the great race of faith" with a mind to quit halfway.

But, what does it take to, as Paul says, "finish the race?" What does it mean for a Christian or a congregation to take this text seriously and train for a race where one runs for the duration? What does it take to complete the course? During broadcasts of various world series, super bowls and playoffs, four words, representing important sports concepts keep cropping up: Groove, Ambition, Momentum and Enthusiasm. These words are easy to remember because the first letters of each of these words form the acronym GAME.

Let's take a quick look at each of these important words, the first of them being "groove." After Super Bowl- 19 victorious quarterback Joe Montana said, exultantly, "We got in sort of a groove. Once you get going like that you gain confidence, and it carries over to the defense, and then back to the offense. It is a snowball kind of a thing."

Certainly, it is a healthy thing for us to find a groove or a niche in life. When we are in the groove there is a robust engagement with life. Life is lush with fulfillment and can be lived full-throttle. When we are out of the groove, however, that's when we really feel "out of it." It's then that we say that we're in a rut!

But, being in the groove is essentially the same thing as knowing who and what you are. The most haunting, daunting questions in the Bible are the three questions Jesus directed to his disciples: "But who do you say that I am?" and "What are you looking for?" and "What do you do more than others?" Knowing the answers to these questions helps us to be in our groove, spiritually. When we are in it, we feel strong, confident and can stretch for the finish line. When we try to fit into someone else's groove, when we adopt someone else's answers, the groove becomes a rut, even a grave. Our sprint slows down; our spirit stalls.

But, then, there is the second word of our acronym, GAME -- Ambition. In athletics, when someone has ambition they have desire, they have a hunger to win.. A struggling young surgeon, when asked how many operations he could perform in a single day, put it another way: "It depends on how hungry you are."

We "hunger" after many things -- money, prestige, power . We stuff our bellies with food from which we are not able to draw any spiritual nutrition. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." The issue is not whether Christians should have ambition or not. The issue is what we have ambition for -- after what foods do we hunger?

The difference between Christians and nonbelievers boils down to the difference between the thoughts they think, the hungers they crave, and the hopes they die for. The typical, grade-A contemporary Christian has hungers that are so cheap, thoughts so pint-sized, hopes so timid and tepid and thin that they could all be fulfilled at Mcdonald's. Contrast the answer clergy used to give to John Wesley's question: "What can we reasonably expect of Methodist preachers?" The answer was: "To reform this nation and church, and to spread scriptural holiness over the land."

Even when we do hunger after righteousness and God's kingdom, it's like we don't want to be noticed. Our "prophetic" acts are about as controversial as a parking ticket. We are proper to a fault. We prefer to speak softly. We would rather write in the lower case. What is missing are the exclamation marks! In a world where there are constant spiritual showdowns between hope and despair, love and hatred, faith and fear, we are modest about exclaiming what we believe: that our hope and strength come from the Lord!

One of the great moments in sporting history came on Sunday afternoon when the New Orleans Saints and the Detroit Lions were playing. The Lions were leading 17-16, with time running out. The Saints had the ball mid-field. They called time out with two seconds left on the clock. The coach then sent in Tom Dempsey, an uncertain place-kicker with a deformed right arm and hand and with half a right foot, to try a field goal.

It was a 63-yard attempt. The longest field goal ever kicked in the N.F.L. to date had been 57 yards. But the athlete with the deformed foot kicked the ball through the uprights and the Saints won.

When asked after the game how he did it, Dempsey attributed his success to high school and college coaches and the pros who "spent so much time encouraging me that they simply forgot to tell me what I couldn't do." The ambitions of a Christian are built on forgetting to tell others, and oneself, what one is incapable of doing. For in Christ, all things are possible.

But, then, there is the word "momentum." Once we've found the groove and fit in our niche, and once we feel the desire and ambition, we've got to keep the momentum going. Consider Nazi Germany. 90% of the German people opposed the "final solution" -- the extermination of the Jewish people. But because that 5% minority got up a head of steam, built momentum and steamrolled the German society, they won.

The writer of the book of Revelation warns the church of Ephasus that "I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first." Once we are well into the race, we begin to sweat, lose confidence and get cramps. But the writer of Hebrews encourages all runners to "Come, then, stiffen your drooping arms and shaking knees, and keep your steps from wavering." He also said, "Do not then throw away your confidence, for it carries a great reward."	You need endurance, if you are to do God's will and win what he has promised." Jitters of self-doubt must not cause us to stop or look back once we have begun to run. God blesses our best. No matter how weak of body and weary of mind, we must avoid being thrown offstride. We must strive to finish the race.

Finally, as we look at our acronym, GAME, there is the word, Enthusiasm. Nothing is accomplished in this world without it. Enthusiasm, if given an inch, will take a universe. Passion tempered with sensitivity is what has made the difference in the advance of humanity throughout history. People of God do not have a passionless piety, for only a people of passion can share fully in Christ's passion.

We are living in a society where for some there is more enthusiasm for death than there is enthusiasm for life. There is a cartoon that shows two young boys in a library. One of them comments excitedly on the great "how to" books he's finding. The second replies with snide cynicism -- "I'm looking for the 'why bother' books." "Why bother?" has become the great question for our day, and the church must take into account the shudderingly-large number of people who simply "don't care." It is time to become morally impatient with those who aren't bothered, with devil-may-care citizens, with those who can only grunt about life.

The church needs people with passion, with a triumphant spirit. It needs the excitement of enthusiasm. The body of Christ is a body of bounce. Its life has a lilt to it. There is no reason why Christians should not be the most enthusiastic people around. A people excited about their faith are exciting to be around.

Karl Wallenda, one of the greatest tight rope walkers in history, fell to his death in 1978 while performing before an audience of thousands in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

When those who were close to Wallenda tried to figure out what had contributed to Wallenda's tragic death, there were those who mentioned that they had noticed that in the past few months Wallenda had become overly preoccupied with concerns about safety. Instead of all his energies being channeled into performing his act, his purpose had become how to keep from falling.

Out of this terrible story has come a new label -- the "Wallenda factor." It cautions us to beware of being so afraid of failure that we dwell only on the negatives. Life is a risk we must take. While we should be careful in a prudent sort of way, we cannot allow ourselves to become paralyzed by the fear of failure. In Jesus Christ we can be positive and progress on to finish the race. Amen.