Peace Worship Blog
Blogging Toward Sunday, June 26th, 2016
The Amazing Faith Race: Striving for Our Personal Best
 
Diligent runners strive for a "personal best," a "personal record," a perfect run. They study not only the basics of the sport, but also the practice and form of accomplished athletes, and visualize the finish line, hopefully, in preparation for running every race as if it were the race of their lives. We have confidence to run the faith race as we follow the example of perfect faith: Jesus.
 
Hebrews 6:1-12 NRSV
Therefore let us go on towards perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith towards God, instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And we will do this, if God permits. For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt. Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over.

Even though we speak in this way, beloved, we are confident of better things in your case, things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we want each one of you to show the same diligence, so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
 
There's some tough love going on in this passage. The writer, who obviously cares deeply about loving obedience to God and about the particular group of Christians who are reading and hearing the sermon, knows his audience well enough to "speak the truth in love" to them. The bad news is embedded in good news, just as sin is embedded in our lives.
 
We need to be reminded that the original letter/sermon called Hebrews came without chapter and verse numbers, so it helps to look at the context of our passage. The "therefore" in the first verse obviously refers to what precedes it at the end of chapter 5:

"About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil" (Hebrews 5:11-14).

So, this group of Jewish Christians, when left to their own devices in the midst of challenges to their faith, is failing to thrive. They remain spiritual infants when they should be ready to lead. The writer acknowledges that they still need instruction on the basics of faith: repentance, faith, baptism, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, resurrection and judgment.
 
When I'm honest with myself, I know that there are ways and times in which I prefer to be babied in my own faith journey. That's when it's good to have friends who know me well enough to "speak the truth in love," those hard words that are ultimately good news, if I'm willing to listen.
 
Mature faith requires "pressing on to maturity" or "going on to perfection," mastering not only the basics of Christianity, but applying them in our lives as members of a community.  When we fail to keep moving forward in faith, we grow "sluggish" in faith practices (serving, study of scripture, worship, sacraments, prayer, giving). We fail to thrive both as individuals and as the church.
 
This spiritual growth is holistic, involving the whole of our lives: body, mind and spirit, as does the development of devoted athletes. Our "personal best" is not about competition, but grace. God gives each of us a unique variety of spiritual gifts, all to be used for the common good. As we serve together as maturing, growing Christ-followers, we also grow in our confidence in the promises of God who gives us the grand prize of inheriting the promises of grace in Jesus Christ.
 
See you in church...and spread the news that the Big Red Bus will be on campus from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. for blood donations at a time when those donations make a world of difference.
 
Peace,
LeeAnn