Run In Such A Way

A Sermon offered for the 6th Sunday after the Epiphany 2009 (RCL - B) at Trinity Episcopal Church in Vincentown, NJ

In 1931, John McGee entered into a church for only the second time in his life. He was 17 years old then and he had never read the Bible. He knew next-to-nothing about God, and he had dropped out of school after 4th grade so that he could hunt rabbits and work on the farm with his father. John’s family were share-croppers in North Carolina and the Great Depression was in full effect. At the small, country Baptist church, the pastor preached on the need for each person to open his or her heart to Jesus and to be part of the great missionary work of the church. John’s heart was touched; he opened his heart to our loving Lord and he prayed, “Father, You know me. You know I’m not educated, but here’s my life. If You can make anything out of it, it’s Yours.”

At the age of 18, John went back to school at the small 2-room schoolhouse with the young children. He was determined to get the training he needed to serve God. He borrowed school books and walked to school every day. After a few years, he was able to borrow $25 and to travel across the state to Mars Hill Junior College. From there, John traveled to Baylor University down in Texas where he studied tropical agriculture. The path from there led to seminary and pastoral training. All throughout college and seminary, John worked a job and also preached every Sunday at local churches. It wasn’t easy, but he was able to scrape together enough to finish his schooling without any debt.

By God’s grace and by the diligence of his determined efforts, John served as a pioneering missionary in Nigeria for 35 years, where he baptized over 7000 people and oversaw the construction of hundreds of churches, schools, and hospitals. He is the only Caucasian to be named as honorary chief and king of 2 different towns in Nigeria. And John McGee happens to be my wife’s grandfather.

The apostle Paul directs us to “Run in such a way that you may win the prize.”
John McGee ran the gospel race with diligence and focus, and I know with confidence that he won a great prize in the kingdom of the heavens.

The question for us this morning, my brothers and sisters, is this: how are we running the gospel race? How are we doing in our training for work in the kingdom of God?

Yesterday, of course, was the Feast of St. Valentine, also known as Valentine’s Day. There has been a lot of talk about love, and if you listen to what many people say about love, you can get quite confused by all of the differing advice.

Jesus taught us to “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and many today will say with certainty that you cannot love others until you first learn to love yourself. But what does it mean to love yourself?

The apostle Paul, here in his first letter to the Corinthians explains the way that he treats himself: “I punish my body and enslave it.” Ouch! Sounds pretty harsh to our enlightened, modern ears. But, remember, just a few chapters further along, Paul gives us the famous “Love” Chapter that is read at basically every church wedding in the world! “Love is patient, love is kind…”

Without question, this man understands what love is! And yet, his own example shows us that love of ourselves in practical terms means the practice of self-discipline.

He is certainly not alone in that regard. Our Gospel reading gives us a picture of our Lord as moved with love and true compassion. To touch a leper! To touch this man and to heal him! It’s amazing! It breaks all social and religious rules. But love moves him. This is the same love that moves him to offer himself on the cross on your behalf!

This is our template, our model, our example. True, agape love moves us to self-sacrifice on behalf of others.

Let’s go back to the metaphor of the athlete in training. Paul wrote that “Athletes exercise self-control in all things.” Or as another translation says it, “Every athlete concentrates completely on training.” Do they love themselves? Yes, they love themselves enough to push their bodies to the limits of physical ability, to achieve something greater than mediocrity. It is a calling, but a short-lived one.

My sisters and brothers, we have a much greater calling than this, and one that requires much more demanding effort from us, but also one which offers astronomically greater reward than an athlete’s medal or trophy! As a baptized member of Christ, your life here on this earth is a continual training exercise. Like the athlete, we are constantly at work training our body, our mind, our heart and our soul to be like our Lord, to share in the divine nature.

This is what it means to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Not that we seek to gain God’s favor. We already have that! That’s a given! Our Lord assures us of that love and favor every time we taste his body and blood at this holy table.
No, it’s not that we are trying to earn anything from God. Rather, we seek to live a life in constant communion with God, in constant love toward our neighbors and our enemies, with eternal perspective on all that happens to us.

And why is this? Why put out the demanding effort required to live this way, rather than settling for what is considered ‘normal’ life, settling for mediocrity?

You can if you want to. For me, I know that God has given me one chance to experience this human life in its fullest, to live an abundant life in the path of Christ.

One more word of exhortation from St. Paul, this time coming from his letter to the Romans: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Romans 13:15).

My dear friends, let us all put on the Lord and draw near to him. Let us join together in training ourselves in godliness, becoming new people by the grace of Holy Spirit.

For there is a race to be run. It’s boring to stand on the side and watch! As the body of Christ together - Let’s walk with our Lord Jesus Christ every day, and let’s run this race to win! Amen.