TREADING WHERE THE SAINTS HAVE TROD

"Yet all of 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. Hebrews 11: 39-40

            Sooner or later, in one way or another, each of us must come to terms with our own passingness. Our assumptions of permanence cannot withstand the daily assault of the obituary page, the death of friends and loved ones, the anxiety that envelopes us when we contemplate time's one-way flow, the dreams we know we just won't get around to, and the work we want to accomplish but will never complete. I've got three books in draft form at my home office, which may or may not ever see the light of day!

            A.E. Houseman in "A Shropshire Lad" has captured the angst we feel as we sense how replaceable we are:

Is my team plowing, that I used to drive

And hear the harness jingle when I was man alive.

Ay, the horses trample, the harness jingles now;

No change though you lie under the land you used to plow.

Is football playing along the river shore,

 with lads to chase the leather, now I stand up no more?

Ay, the ball is flying, the lads play heart and soul;

The goal stands up, the keeper stands up to keep the goal.

Is my girl happy, that I thought hard to leave,

And has she tired of weeping, as she lies down at eve?        

Ay, she lies down lightly, she lies not down to weep:

Your girl is well contented. Be still my lad, and sleep.

Is my friend hearty, now I am thin and pine,

And has he found to sleep in a better bed than mine?

Yes, lad, I lie easy, I lie as lads would choose;

I cheer a dead man's sweetheart, never ask me whose.

                        No passage in the Bible speaks with greater force to our passingness than Hebrews 11. Christians of that time, very much like us, were haunted by a sense of personal and vocational futility. They had worked hard in the service of God, yet Rome was still Rome and Christ had not returned. Paul, or whoever wrote this letter, did two things to encourage the hearts of his fellow believers.

            FIRST, HE LOCATED THEM IN THE GRAND SUCCESSION OF THE SAINTS. He gave them ancestors they did not know they had! He made them part of a story that was larger than self, larger than family, larger than nation. He did this not with academic propositions, but by calling off some illustrious predecessors. What a name dropper he was: Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Sampson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets!

            What a master of language he was! Listen to the verbs: They CONQUERED kingdoms, ENFORCED justice, RECEIVED promises, STOPPED the mouths of lions, QUENCHED raging fire, ESCAPED the edge of the sword, PUT foreign armies to flight. They were STONED, they were SAWN in two, they were KILLED with the sword.

            What a psychologist he was! Notice how he builds to a brief, blunt but compelling climax: "of whom the world was not worthy."

            The church lives by recitation and invitation. The story is continually told and each generation is invited to join it. The unbroken ranks of the faithful are not to be admired from a distance, they are to be continued in us. Here is where our passingness is overcome. We are invited to join the story. By an act of faith, choose a new set of ancestors. The ground beneath your feet will be hallowed as you come to sense that you are treading where the saints have trod.

            THE SECOND THING OUR WRITER DID WAS TO POINT OUT TO THOSE STRUGGLING CHRISTIANS THAT THEIR LABORS WERE NECESSARY TO THE PERFECTION OF THOSE WHO HAD PRRECEEDED THEM. Notice the words with which the 11th chapter crests: "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 sense of this verse is imaginatively captured in a sermon title from another day, offered by an obscure United States Army Chaplain at the turn of the century. H. Clay Trumbull called his message on this text: "The Duty of Making the Past a Success."

            Illustrious as those stalwarts were whose names and exploits are recounted for us in Hebrews 11, they all died with their work unfinished. As the writer puts it, "they did not receive what was promised." They never in their life time knew how the story came out. They passed on before the vision that controlled their life was realized. Their final grade, if you will, was an Incomplete. Not because God failed to keep his word, but because God willed that believers of all times should share in the joy and triumph of the new age inaugurated by the coming of Christ. If faith could win such victories under conditions so difficult and unpromising in the old covenant, how much more will faith accomplish in the new age, lived in the sure knowledge of God's favor in Jesus Christ.

            And so it goes with faith. Each generation has the duty of making the past a success. Solomon furthers David's dream. Timothy extends Paul's ministry. Wesley's vision is shaped and widened by D.T. Niles. Rauschenbusch's hopes are carried forward by a Martin Luther King.

            They duty of making the past a success. Folks, this is where we come in. The idea is, if they did so much with so little, what will be expected of us who live in the day of Christ's fulfillment. The faithful of other generations do not reach their destiny alone; it is in fellowship with contemporary believers that they are made perfect.

            We here at Westminster do this in a hundred different ways. In our mission, in our education, in our worship, in our small groups, in giving food and shelter to the less fortunate.  Folks, this just happens to be about the end of the stewardship season, with our theme, Faith Moving Forward. Next Sunday we will bring our pledge cards with us and turn them in. There are countless reasons to make out that pledge card generously, but I feel strongly one reason is the saints of the past are cheering us on. All those who gave of themselves so generously are calling to us from greater realms than we can even imagine, to also not hold back.

            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.  Talk about FAITH MOVING FORWARD, there you have it!

            My oldest brother, a dedicated layperson in the church if there ever was one,  died a little over a year ago. I still cannot believe he is not there in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his wife Elaine, his four daughters and tons of grandchildren and great grandchildren. But every time I begin to feel sorry for myself, I am well comforted that I know where he is. We believe in the communion of the Saints. The church above and the church on earth are one. We share a common history, a common work, a common faith, a common love. Those who have gone before us, and slipped from sight have a stake in what we do. They form the great cloud of witnesses with which we are so reassuringly surrounded. At all times, but especially in this stewardship season, they cheer us on.

I sing a song of the saints of God, patient and brave and true,

Who toiled and fought and lived and died for the Lord they loved and knew.

And one was doctor and one was queen, and one was shepherdess on the green,

They were all of them saints of God and I mean, God help me to be one too.

                                                                                                                                                                      Hymn 364