Dear Caldwell,
A favorite quote of mine is from President Teddy Roosevelt. He was, to be clear, a flawed man. We must say that in the way we say it about so many figures of history that are, these days, being reexamined in their context from our current context and perspective. But “TR” also had great strengths as a leader. In a famous speech, he said:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
That quote comes to mind as I study this week’s preaching text from the lectionary, which is Hebrews 12:1-3. The author of Hebrews gives us that familiar image of Christians as those who “run the race set before them” – those in the arena – watched from the divine grandstands by all those “saints” who have run the race before them. As we all watch the olympics this week, that’s not a hard image to conjure.
It also reminds us that others are watching – past and present saints. We “bear witness” to our faith in all we do, right or wrong, flawed or not. How we run our particular “race” in life – individually and together – is noticed. What do we stand for? How do we conduct ourselves? What do our words – and our actions – say about us as followers of the Jesus Way? We will unpack that a bit on Sunday.
As we move from Sunday to Sunday this week, we recall the persevering faith we read about last Sunday, faith in things “unseen” but real and sustaining, nonetheless. That encouragement connects directly to the “cheer” from the stands we find this week to, as the reading says, “not grow weary and lose heart.”
One of our encouragements at Caldwell is the decision of new members to join their “running the race” of faith with ours. Last Sunday, the session received Destiny Kirkland and Trene’ Smith and Destiny’s son, Julian into membership. They are very excited to be a part of Caldwell. Please join them for the newcomers lunch after worship Sunday to get to know them better.
In Christ,
John