BY FAITH
Hebrews 11:29-12:2

SCOUT SUNDAY
The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
 

This community is richly blessed∑ Each Sunday our children call us to worship.  Last Sunday, Youth Sunday, we were called to do justice and charity, and to know the difference between the two.  

Today, on Scout Sunday, ... I want to talk with you about being called... about vocation.   JUST FOR TODAY, I don't want to know.... What you have done... What you are going to do ... (today, tomorrow, next year, after graduation, when you grow up...no matter how old you are!)
Just for today, what I do want to know is who you are and who you are becoming.

VOCATION is from the Latin root, vocare, to call.  The purpose, meaning, work of our lives is a call from God... to be.
Vocation begins with IDENTITY.  With who you are.

Whatever work you do, or may do, or might have done,  your vocation as a child of God is to be the best possible you for the sake of the world that God so loves.

WHO AND WHOSE you are does not come from what school you go to, who your parents are, what organizations you join, what you own or wear, your friends, your job.  Who and whose we are has to do with what we place at the center.

I heard Peggy Ann Way say these words a long time ago, and you will hear them again:  "The greatest power we have is the power to choose to whom and to what we give the power to define who we are."

To live by faith means to give that power to God, and to God alone. Vocation means choosing who and what will have access to the altar at the center of our souls.  Choosing which call we will heed amidst all the noise, headphones and cell phone ringstyles. It means being attentive in each moment to whom we give the power to define who we are.

Ron Hoff was my nephew. Ron wrote poetry and played music, but in his heart and soul he was a runner.  He was just weeks away from his graduation from San Francisco State when he was killed in a car accident near campus.
Ron's favorite movie was Chariots of Fire, the story of Olympic Runner Eric Liddell.  At Ron's Memorial Service words from Liddell's autobiography were read when he said, "I know God made me for a purpose.  He also made me fast. I can feel God's pleasure when I run."

Ron knew who he was.  He did not live a long life, but he lived and loved his life and he delighted in God's pleasure when he ran.

This morning's scripture reading from the Letter to the Hebrews is about "running the race" that is set before us.  

What is remarkable to me, and what contrasts this race from the race to buy pray for "success" books, is the context of those words.  (*p. 226 in your pew Bible)  The whole 11TH chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews is a listing of people who lived  BY FAITH ** by faith Abraham offered, by faith Moses was hidden, by faith the people crossed the Red Sea, individuals and communities lived by faith...they conquered kingdoms, shut the mouths of lions, they wandered, they were tortured, imprisoned.  They were not always "successful."  They did not always survive.  These witnesses inspire and challenge and accompany us.

Then, in Chapter 11, verse 39, the letter takes a dramatic turn. After this amazing listing of those who lived by faith, we read: Yet all these, thought they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that apart from us they would not be made whole. We need their lives and witness, and they need ours.

The Scripture goes on,  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and encumbrance, the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,...."

Linnea Nasman is a student at UC Davis and a member of Epworth.  She will leave next week for international study in Sweden.  Linnea has been a member of he UC Davis Cycling team. When I asked her about racing, she described how different races make different demands.  Some require pure speed, others depend on endurance.  Some depend on the interaction and pull of other riders.  Racing requires physical preparation ... discipline, planning, practice. It also requires mental discipline ... not to psyche yourself out with fear, and to let go of assumptions about the course until you actually see it. Racing also requires focus on the goal and setting smaller goals to reach that goal.

"Let us run with perseverance the race set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith."

Not only Christians look to Jesus.  Spiritual leaders from all the great spiritual traditions have looked to Jesus.  Ironically, many progressive Christians leave study and meditation on Jesus to more conservative Christian brothers and sisters. Some Muslims, Jews and Buddhists learn more about Jesus than many Christians.

"Jesus occupies in my heart," said Gandhi, "the place of one of the greatest teachers who have had a considerable influence on my life. I shall say to the Hindus that your life will be incomplete unless you reverentially study the teachings of Jesus..."

If faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen, if Jesus is God's Word made flesh, the invisible God made visible, then when we face hardships or temptations or challenges or powers and principalities that confuse us about who we are and where we are going ... we can live BY FAITH.

We trust God's justice even when we do not see justice.  We trust the ways of peace even in the midst of war.  We practice hospitality even when met with hostility.  We trust that we are God's beloved even when we do not love, or when we are not loved by others.

Frederick Buechner wrote, "Your vocation is the place where your  hearts deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

We are called to discover our heart's deep gladness ... to learn to discern the difference between voices and demands that drown it out, and those that help us to see and feel it more clearly.  We are called to pay attention to the world's deep hunger ... and to go to the places where deep calls to deep.

The "cloud of witnesses" who have gone before us are with us now.  What we do becomes a part of that cloud of witnesses that will sustain and surround others.

Whatever vocation is at the heart of your true self ... be attentive to what will make that self thrive.   Set aside the weights and burdens that keep you from your course and run the race ... that is set before you.