A Sermon on Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Preached August 19, 2001

First Chrsitian Church, Corpus Christi, Texas

By Donald M. Tuttle

"We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses."

What a wonderful phrase that is.

It is one that is so appropriate here in this passage of Hebrews. As you may recall, the author of Hebrews has been recounting the heroes of the faith. Last week he spoke of

Abel, Enoch, and Noah,

Abraham and Sarah,

Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.

Today he recalls

Moses and the people who crossed the Red Sea,

Rahab the prostitute,

Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,

King David, Samuel and the prophets.

And he recounts their great deeds. They

conquered kingdoms,

administered justice,

shut the mouths of lions,

and quenched raging fires.

They escaped the edge of the sword and put nations to flight;

They gave the dead back to widows and suffered for faithfulness to God.

And now, he says, these heroes surround them. The image is from the sports arena—the saints of the past are gathered in the stands, watching those to whom the author writes. The Christians to whom he writes are to see them and draw inspiration from them.

We understand, don’t we? We too are surrounded. Oh, our saints may not have conquered kingdoms, shut the mouths of lions or even suffered greatly for their faith, but they are saints nonetheless—examples of faithfulness to God. And although they are gone from us, they surround us nonetheless.

Take Nat Buck. Where else in this sanctuary would we put a picture of Nat except in this corner over here? For years, Sunday after Sunday, Nat would come down the outside aisle as the invitation hymn was sung. On the clipboard he carried there were cards for those who came confessing or reaffirming their faith to complete. When they arrived, he would slip into the pew beside them, gather all the pertinent information, and give it to the preacher.

Nat is no longer here, but his memory surrounds us. His testimony remains. When many of us struggle just to get here every other week or even every third Sunday, Nat reminds us that worship is weekly and best done expecting people’s lives to be changed.

But Nat is not alone in the cloud of witnesses today. Dr. Oliver Harrison is there. If Yankee Stadium was the house that Babe Ruth built, then First Christian Church might be the congregation Oliver built. Oh, it was around long before him and there were many great pastors before him--W.O. Dallas and Ernest Motley, for example. But there are many here who can still see Oliver in the pulpit and hear his voice in the sanctuary. Even after a quarter century, his imprint remains on worship, the building, even our self-understanding. The standards he set remain high ones, ones by which we often judge the ministry today.

Here, of course, is one of our more recently departed saints—Charlotte Watson. A few years ago, there was a series of books published on what were called "Salty Saints." These were men and women who didn’t necessarily fit the meek and mild stereotype of the saintly but were saints nonetheless. Charlotte was such a saint. Direct, determined, independent—she was all of these, but she also loved her Lord and her church family. When the Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival was proposed, she was an integral part of its success—using her God-given artistic talents to create sets and costumes that still shine today. And when Charlotte died, she wanted to make sure the work of this church continued and so she gave us—to date--$50,000 to create The Charlotte Draper Watson Memorial Fund.

What a witness she makes to us today. She reminds us that our gifts are gifts from God and meant to be used for God’s sake. She reminds us that what we possess is not our own, but it belongs to God and is meant to be used for God’s work.

Over here is Marshal Pearce. Marshal died only a couple of days after I arrived here. I regret not getting to know him as many of you did. You can recall him as a domino-addicted friend. You can remember him as the one who nurtured your Sunday School class and picked up the tab for the whole group at Old Mexico. You can remember his long but courageous battle with disease.

Marshal taught us important lessons on faith amid the hard times. He gave us an example to follow when the sky darkens and the road ahead becomes uncertain. And knowing he is among the cloud helps.

Then there’s Lucille. The words "Lucille Mackie" are nearly synonymous with "saint" in our congregation. And rightly so. For years Lucille was the embodiment of care for others. Each morning she would call the hospitals and see who was ill so that the staff would know. Sometimes even before we could get there, Lucille had been there, a card or bouquet of flowers in hand.

To imagine her among the cloud of witnesses certainly reminds us of the love and compassion that we are to have toward one another.

Of course, I could go on. After all these are only five of the saints. There are many, many others of which I could speak, men and women who have died and joined the cloud of witnesses of which the author of Hebrews spoke. Certainly we could look to them for inspiration, for examples of faithfulness to follow. And we should.

But as important as that may be, the author of Hebrews reminds us that our faith is not in those saints. As important as it is to learn from the past, to respect the past, to honor the past, the Christian does not run the race looking over his shoulder or scanning the crowd for nods of approval. The eyes of the faithful are fixed on the future, on the goal, on the finish line, on the one who bids them come. The eyes of the faithful are fixed on Jesus. He is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

When all is said and done, our lives will not be measured by how faithful we were to Nat or Oliver, Charlotte or Marshall, Lucille or anyone else. Our lives will be measured by how much we trusted Jesus Christ as we ran the race of faith. He is the one who endured the cross, who died for our sins, who reigns with God and the Holy Spirit. He is the one who stands on the other side of the finish line waiting for each of us to cross in faith.

The Apostle Paul understood this. Although he could quote the history of Israel and the Laws of Moses, although he could argue philosophy with the best minds of his day, Paul preached nothing but Christ and him crucified. No matter where he went he turned people’s eyes toward Jesus.

Clarion Olsen understood that too. Clarion was a United Church of Christ pastor. He worshipped in our church in Florida. Before his retirement he had served a lot of churches, including a number in Minnesota and one in Hawaii, all very successfully. When asked the key to his ministry, his answer was direct. "I preach the simple Gospel to produce a simple faith in Christ."

In 40 years of ministry he kept bringing people back to Jesus, back to the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. He kept their eyes off the past, off the crowd and on their Lord.

Or consider a colleague with which I spoke just this week. He serves a church in Indiana with a long history of social involvement. Some of its members were active in the Civil Rights Movement. Many others have been leaders in our denomination’s efforts to be a multicultural church. Yet despite that storied past, the congregation was virtually all anglo.

In the years since this colleague’s arrival, virtually all of those leaders have left, while at the same time the congregation has become more and more diverse. Today in the pews there are African-Americans, Philippinos, and Koreans side by side with Anglos.

What happened? The preacher’s answer is simple. They began to focus on Jesus. "Everybody needs Jesus," he said.

Next week, when you come to church, you will still be surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. But like every week and every week to follow, the pictures of these saints will be back in the Hallway or back in the Conference Room. They will not be in the sanctuary. In here, we will have what we have always had, the symbols that have been most important--the Cross, the Table, the Baptistry, the Bible. We will have here the symbols that point us to Jesus, the symbols that call us forward, the symbols that remind us that he is with us as we run the race of faith. Here we will have the symbols reminding us that it is Jesus toward whom we strive, Jesus to which we will be faithful.