Run, Rosa, run.
 
Rosa Gutierrez has been on the run for most of her life, running hard in competitive races such as the Stockton 10-miler, the Gasparilla 15k race, and the Rotary Mission Ten.  She runs between 80 and 90 miles a week, plus regular swimming and weight training, and she is able to cover long distances at the impressive pace of six minutes per mile.  All of this was in preparation for last week’s Olympic marathon, a race in which she hoped to be part of the American team.

Unfortunately, she finished number 70 in the Olympic Trials, so she didn’t get to run in Athens.  She had to settle for cheering for Deena Kastor as she won bronze for the United States.

But Rosa is still a champion, because she dreams of something besides Olympic medals and personal glory.  Her highest aspirations are spiritual growth, the good of others being drawn to the Lord, and the glorification of God in everything she does.  For Rosa, the race of faith is even more important than the Olympic marathon.  “Whatever the outcome, God will be in the midst of it all,” she predicted before the games. 

She’s got Olympic Faith.

Throughout her training, Rosa kept today’s passage from Hebrews in mind, one that I have recited myself as I have prepared for my own -- much slower -- marathon runs: “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us” (12:1).  In her racing, Rosa has remembered the men and women of faith who have gone before her, including her mother and her father.  They moved from Mexico to the United States with nothing in their pockets, but managed to raise 11 children and live good and faithful lives.  They are, for Rosa, witnesses of what it means to overcome life’s obstacles by faith and trust in God.  They have helped her to see that when the race is tough and everything seems to be falling apart, there is still something within her that is strengthening her, encouraging her, and calling her to persevere.

Rosa has faith, and that makes her a true champion.

What an Olympiad this has been, with the return of the Olympic Games to Greece, the land of their birth.  Throughout these games, the core values of the Olympics have been highlighted, values such as tolerance, solidarity, peace and friendship.  To this list, we might add “faith,” because faith is what allows each of us, in a well-conditioned Body of Christ, to run with perseverance the race that is set before us.

Hebrews tells us that faith is what enabled the people of God to pass through the Red Sea, take down the walls of Jericho, conquer kingdoms, administer justice, obtain promises, shut the mouths of lions, quench raging fire, escape the edge of the sword, and put foreign armies to flight (11:29-34).

Amazing events, don’t you think?  Ones you won’t see on NBC’s coverage of the Olympics.

In addition, faith was seen in the lives of people who were tortured, mocked, flogged, chained and imprisoned.  Faith was evident in folks who were stoned to death, sawn in two, and killed by the sword.  Faith sustained God’s people when they were destitute, persecuted, and tortured, and faith set the stage for God’s greatest work in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross (11:35-12:2).

I’m talking about Olympic Faith.  Faith that can help us to press on toward “the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).  Faith that can propel us upward when the agonies of life threaten to pull us down.

When we crash headfirst into hardship, it’s important to remember that we are not alone.  Just look at the field of athletes in Athens – there’s not an Olympian today who hasn’t overcome obstacles in order to make it into the Games.  They have faced injuries and personal failures, mental and physical challenges, financial and emotional stresses.  While they may never have been tortured, mocked or flogged, they have certainly put themselves through struggle, strain, challenge and competition, and now they are sitting at the top of their fields, along with the world’s finest athletes from 202 countries around the globe.

They are surrounded by “so great a cloud of witnesses” -- a field of fellow champions, past and present.  Today’s competitors are moved and motivated by the athletes all around them, as well as by the spirit of the Olympics, which has inspired people for thousands of years.

That spirit is especially strong this summer, as the Games go back to the country of their birth.  As you have probably heard, the original Games began in Greece 776 years before the birth of Christ, and they were held every four years -- one Olympiad -- until the year 393 AD.  The Games were suspended for about 1500 years, and then Athens hosted the first Olympic Games of the modern era in 1896.  Now, in 2004, the Games have returned to their roots.

That’s the challenge for us, as we focus on Olympic Faith: To return to our roots, to embrace the people of faith who have gone before us, and to carry forward the tradition of record-breaking reliance on God.  It is only when we look to others that we can rise to greatness as individuals.  It is only when we trust our heavenly Lord that we can do our earthly best. That’s kind of ironic, isn’t it?  In order to achieve our personal best, we have to reach beyond ourselves.

Olympic athletes are constantly looking beyond themselves to gain motivation, insight, and ideas from their colleagues and competitors.  In the same way, we Christians can be inspired by the faith of God’s people in every time and place, and we can learn from the ways in which our fellow believers have dealt with hardship and suffering.  Are your enemies pursuing you?  Learn from the Israelites at the Red Sea.  Have you run into a brick wall?  Look to the Israelites at Jericho.  Are you feeling mocked, abused, unfairly convicted and even crucified?  Reach for Jesus, “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).  He endured the cross with Olympic Faith, and then discovered that there was a whole new life to be found on the other side of death. 

Far too often, we allow ourselves to be frustrated by failure, and hamstrung by hardship.  We fail to grasp, as marathoner Rosa Gutierrez has done, that even when the race is tough, our bodies are aching, and everything seems to be falling apart, there is still something within us that is strengthening us, encouraging us, and calling us to persevere.

Call it the power of God -- a power that is available to each of us, a power that I rely on when my own strength and insight and enthusiasm has been exhausted.  Each of us can tap into this power by faith, by a willingness to rely on God through every failure, disappointment, personal hardship or disaster.  We can gain access to God’s strength, encouragement, and perseverance by looking beyond ourselves, by learning from the stories of faithful people, and by trusting God to help us to complete our race.

It’s funny, but it’s true -- to achieve our personal best, we have to look beyond ourselves.  To make it onto the medal platform, we have to be carried by our Lord and by the people around us.

In his hot-off-the-press book, The Millennium Matrix, which I read during my study leave last week, author Rex Miller focuses on one of the keys to the health of the church: community.  Looking at the culture around us, he notices that there is an intoxicating mix of fellowship and celebration in Harley Davidson gatherings, folk-arts festivals, Grateful Dead revival concerts, MAC World, Bill Gaither concerts, and even Mary Kay and Amway conventions.  He notices that each of these gatherings has consistently grown over the past 15 years, and they have been unusually effective because of the synergy of interaction and fellowship.

So why hasn’t FPC -- along with most other Presbyterian churches -- grown over this same period?  Perhaps because we haven’t taken community seriously enough.  We see community as the byproduct of our gatherings, not the reason for our gatherings.  But if we reclaim the image of the Church as the community of faith – the Body of Christ -- and come together in ways that help us to remain connected in our daily lives, then we may feel a surge of new vitality.  Rex Miller believes that in the future, many emerging congregations will begin to look like extended spiritual families, and church members will enjoy intimate and complex interaction around their common interests.

Extended family.  Complex interaction.  Common interests.  These are the qualities to be found in vital and vibrant communities, qualities that I am beginning to see in our church’s small groups, ranging from Companions in Christ to Midlife Men on a Mission, from youth groups to Seekers Groups, and from our traditional Women’s Circles to our brand new Young Adults Group.  These groups are essential to our health as a community, and they will make or break us as we seek to be the Body of Christ.

In everything we do, it is important to maintain a focus on Olympic Faith.  This faith propels us upward when the agonies of life threaten to pull us down.  This faith promotes our personal best by keeping our focus outside of ourselves.  This faith draws us closer to Christ and to our fellow believers, gathering us into a vital and vibrant community, and it gives us the strength we need to run the race that is set before us.

This is the faith of Rosa Gutierrez, as she attempts to glorify God with every step she takes.  And it can be our faith as well, regardless of our place in the race.  Amen.

Sources: 

Running with Vision Ministry Website, www.runningwithvision.com/index.shtml.  Retrieved February 9, 2004.
Rex Miller, The Millennium Matrix (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2004)
International Olympic Committee News, December 23, 2003, www.olympic.org/uk/news/olympic_news/full_story_uk.asp?id=294)
(both source internet sites seem to have been removed)

 

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