New Life United Methodist Church, Grant, Alabama
Rev. Sherill Clontz, Pastor

Running the Race February 15, 2009 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 24 Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. 25 Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. 26 So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; 27 but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 As we reach the end of our series of reflections on God's call on our lives and our response to that call, we come to this captivating image from Paul: Run the race in such a way that you may win it! Prepare, run with purpose, push yourself beyond your normal limits and whatever you do, don't disqualify yourself! Great advice for an athlete or musician or scholar or just about anyone who wishes to be the best at what they are doing. But Paul is not giving generally inspirational advice to people, he is calling us to a specific task-a specific race, if you will. Actually it truly does help to know what race you are running! In 1994, Olympic runner, Suzy Hamilton, competed in an Invitational Track meet. She was well prepared for the race. She had the talent and she had the ability to win. So at the end of the seventh lap, she sprinted by her competition and proceeded to do a celebratory dance. She began to realize that something was wrong as all the other runners sped by her. Suzy had forgotten-this was an 8 lap race! How often does that happen to us in our spiritual lives? We have a tremendous experience of Christ. Our lives are touched and we are changed so we rush out to join in the race of discipleship full of vim and vigor. We are so excited at first that we rush past folks who have been traveling with Christ longer than us---and as we whoosh by we think "Wow, they must not be really committed to this race." Or we become so enamored of our performance that we think-like Suzy Hamilton-that we have won and so we stop far short of our finish line. We need to know what race we are running! Therefore, it is important to not take this instruction from Paul out of context. This image comes immediately following last week's scripture where Paul informed the Corinthians that he would become all things to all people in order that some might be saved. The race Paul is encouraging us to run is evangelism-leading others to Christ by our example-specifically by living our lives in a Christ-like fashion. He is calling us to press forward by giving up our rights to enter into the lives of others. And this is a race that never ends in this lifetime. At no point, can we stop and do a victory jig but we must continually run to win. We are participating in a race for the heart and soul of the world! God has not called us here simply for our own souls-as much as God does care for each and every soul here. God has called us here so that others might hear the gospel. And our job is to share that good news by the way we live our lives and the manner in which we interact with others. We are called together here to live a cross-shaped life-a life like Jesus' which requires us to enter into the lives of others, to suffer with and for them, and to give them a concrete experience of the love of God in Christ. But in order to do that, we have to run the race to win by exercising self-control and preparing ourselves for the race. If you've spent much time with someone preparing for a competition, you know what effort it requires. Athletes must not only intensely practice but they must prepare their bodies for the competition. They have to watch what they eat and drink. They have to make sure they have the proper amount of sleep. They study the skills and the moves they need to win. Each team member works to make sure he or she can best perform their particular role in order that the team can win. Now I've never been much of a sports person. I was always the last one picked for kickball because I'm really lousy at sports. But I was a band member and I've raised three band members. So I very well remember what it is like to prepare for a competition. At home I practiced my clarinet to make sure I knew my part. At school, we practiced during class and after school to make improve our performance together. The band director would usually start getting a little testy and demand more and more from us. Until finally the day came that we walked on the stage and played to win. The life of a Christian has a similar rhythm to it. We too are called to practice individually as well as a team and then to take the field together with every intention of playing to win. So what would that look like? The General Board of Discipleship has developed what they call a General Rule of Discipleship that I think defines our "race" well. It says simply that the general rule of discipleship is "to witness to Jesus Christ in the world, and to follow his teachings through acts of compassion, justice, worship and devotion under the guidance of the Holy Spirit." The General Rule is just a fleshing out of what it might mean to run the race to win by loving the Lord Our God with all our heart, our soul, our mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. And the symbol they use for the general rule is a cross. As I've said many times before, our lives should be cross-shaped and one of the ways we shape our lives in the form of the cross is the way in which we orient our lives. Our lives should have a vertical orientation. That is we should be engaging in activities that keep us here on earth connected to God in heaven. John Wesley called them works of piety and believed they were means of grace by which God worked in our lives to transform us into his likeness. Works of piety include things such as prayer, bible study, worship, and celebrating Holy Communion. But our lives must also have a horizontal dimension. We should also be connected with the world God so loves. We should be actively involved in the lives of others-both those within the church and those outside its walls. Wesley called those works of mercy and they include things such as feeding the hungry, welcoming strangers, and working for peace. Works of mercy keep us from falling in the trap of being so heavenly minded, we are no earthly good. Whereas works of piety keep us from being so earthly minded we are no heavenly good. And both are necessary if we are to run this race to win! One gives us the power and the other gives us the goal. There is also another significant aspect of these works. Both works of mercy and works of piety have a personal and a social aspect to them. In other words, some of these are things we do individually and others are things we do together. And just like a team or a band preparing for a competition, it takes both to compete in order to win. Actually, I can't emphasize this enough. If you are to grow to full maturity in your discipleship and if this congregation is to fulfill the vision God has for it, then we have to be at work to grow in our faith both individually and corporately! John Wesley once famously said that there is no personal holiness without social holiness. And what he was saying is quite simply, you can't be a Christian by yourself. Those who say they worship at home, that they study by watching TV or finding resources on the internet are missing half the point. Jesus never called a disciple and sent him off on his own. He called a group of disciples and we he sent them off to do work, he sent them in teams. We are created in the image of the God who has existed eternally in a community-one God, three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We were not created to go it alone! Unlike Paul's isthmian athletes this Christianity is not a solo sport. That is why Paul refers to the church as the Body of Christ consisting not of individual units but as unique, individual parts of a greater whole. Just imagine, if you can, what would happen when the race begins and an arm went in one direction, a leg in another, the head spun around . . . oops that sounds like me playing sports! Pretty amusing but not very effective. At this point, I am going to ask the ushers to pass out a sheet of paper to you. This is a copy of a page from my daily prayer and scripture journal. If you have a pencil or pen, I want to encourage you to take some notes as I explain this sheet to you. On it, you see a picture of the Jerusalem cross. This is the cross used to symbolize Acts 1:8 in which Jesus says: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." So you see the cross in the center that represents Christ and you see the crosses representing the gospels of Christ going out to the four corners of the world. First, note the vertical line, you might want to put arrows on it to illustrate the importance of the vertical orientation of our lives toward God and God's orientation toward us. And there is also a horizontal line dividing the page to remind us of the importance of a horizontal orientation of our lives toward others. Therefore, on the top and the bottom of the cross you read "Works of Mercy" and "Works of Piety." Now notice on the sides of the cross, you read "Private" and "Public" this is to recognize that we are called to both private and public acts of discipleship. For instance, Works of piety include things that we do individually-private prayer, morning devotions, fasting, meditation---as well as things we do together-worship, prayers of joy and concern, celebration of Holy Communion, Sunday School and group Bible study. So you see the words "Acts of Devotion" to refer to our individual spiritual disciplines and Acts of Worship to refer to those spiritual disciplines we do together. Similarly, works of mercy can also be both private and public. So you see the word "Acts of compassion" to refer to those things we do on our own for others, such as being kind to a neighbor, taking a meal to someone who is sick, giving clothes to a clothes closet, holding someone as they cry. But the flip side of this are those things we call "acts of Justice" and these belong to the public realm. It isn't enough that you feed the hungry if you don't ask the hard question of why they are hungry and what we can do to fix the problem. You know the old adage, "If you give a hungry man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for his whole life"? Giving him a fish is an act of compassion! Teaching him to fish is an act of justice! And both are important because a hungry man doesn't have the energy to fish! So basically what you have before you is the food pyramid of spiritual discipline. Most of us are generally better in some areas than others, but a well balanced Christian life emphasizes all four! Vertical and horizontal and private and public. And without that balance, you will be off kilter in your Christian life and you will be running aimlessly and boxing at air. And even if you finish the race, you run the risk of running it in such a manner that your witness is disqualified! One thing I know from band competitions is that playing to win means more than practice and hitting the notes right. When we went on stage to compete there was a point in which in order to play to win you had to forget all the technical details and simply immerse yourself in the music. For those of us called to play to win the Christian life, playing to win means more than going through the motions of works of mercy and works of piety. We have to immerse ourselves-lose ourselves-to the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit and then God can take our lives-which are shaped by conscious, deliberate acts of devotion, worship, compassion and justice-and reach the world with the message of Jesus Christ. This past week, Katie shared a video with me that illustrated Paul's instructions to us so well. The video was a news report about a young Autistic man by the name of Jason McElway. Jason was the basketball manager for the team and one day his coach told him to suit up and towards the end of the game, he sent Jason in to play. Needless to say the crowd was cheering for him. And Jason got lost in the beauty of playing. His first attempt at a basket failed. So did his second. But then-on the third attempt-Jason made a three pointer and the crowd and his team went wild! But that wasn't the end, in the final minutes of the game Jason caught fire and completed six 3-pointers in a row with the final one occurring as the horn blared calling the game to the end. And the arena erupted! Jason played to win-with all his heart, with all his mind, with all his soul, with all his strength! He put all he had into it and more. But he didn't do it alone. He had a coach who believed in him and was willing to give him a chance-even a chance to fail. He had fellow teammates playing with him, helping him to be the best he could be. Calling on him to draw from the resources he had. He had spent years learning his part. And for the most part, Jason was called to carry water, hand out towels, watch out for the other guys, while cheering them on (I suspect his spiritual gift is serving!) but he did what he was called to do both with the team and by himself. And let's not forget that great crowd of witnesses cheering him on. Jason played to win, but he didn't play alone. And neither do we! But let us run the race to win. Let us discipline our lives individually through prayer, regular devotional time, fasting, meditation as well as reaching out to those in pain around us. But let us also discipline ourselves to work together as we gather to worship together as we pray together, study together, and break bread together and as we work together in acts of justice to help bring God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Let's go and play-and let's play to win!