Laying Aside the Extra Weight

“…let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely…” Hebrews 12:1

Hebrews 11:29-12:2                                         Rev. Todd B. Freeman

Bethany Presbyterian Church, Dallas                                          August 15, 2004

Just as today’s Epistle Lesson from the book of Hebrews is an extension of the passage we read last week, so this sermon is an extension of last’s Sunday’s sermon, which focused on the issue of faith. Last week we explored what Christian faith is, and is not. Faith is trust and confidence in God. It is not blind submission to church teachings and religious doctrines and practices.

Faith, for most of us, is on-again-off-again rather than once and for all. Faith is not always being sure where we’re going, but going anyway. It has therefore been compared to a life-long journey with God, without maps. And we must always remember that faith, like God, is a mystery. And by its very nature includes the element of doubt. For if we were always 100% certain, we wouldn’t need faith.

The author of the book of Hebrews defined faith in the context of a congregation that was exhausted, disillusioned, and perhaps ready to give up the struggle. “Faith,” he therefore wrote, “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen.” Hope is a vital element to faith. We can only be a faithful people when we are a hopeful people.

He then goes on in Chapter 11 to give examples from the  Old Testament family tree of faith, including: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Issac, Jacob, and Joseph. Today’s lesson picks up the author’s examples of faith as exemplified in the lives of Moses and Rahab, then states that he doesn’t have time to tell about the faithfulness of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, as well as women of faith.

It is with this background of biblical information that we come to another very familiar Scripture passage, one often read at funeral services. Hebrews 12:1 begins, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…”

These witnesses refer to those who have gone before, those whose lives have been marked by their faithfulness to God. And for those Christians who only define faith as acceptance of Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, notice that every example of faithfulness given by the author of Hebrews was Jewish!

Did all of them lead perfect, sinless lives? Not by a long shot. They were often just ordinary people who did extraordinary things. They also seemed to have another thing in common: their life of faithfulness to God was not without times of suffering and hardship, and it seems that it always involved a whole lot of waiting. We’re not very good at waiting.

As we briefly looked at the lives of Abraham and Sarah last Sunday, we saw how their faithfulness to God meant pulling up the tent stakes and leaving what was comfortable and familiar, and moving out with courage (and probably a good bit of apprehension) into the unknown. In their case, it was to a place whose destination was not revealed to them until they got there. Their faith led them to a life of confident wandering.

Their story also reveals that although they lost confidence from time to time, they persevered and carried on. This, it seems, is the message the author of Hebrews hoped to get across to the congregation he was addressing. This is the message for us as well. Faith, we learn then, is less an intellectual exercise involving our religious beliefs, and more the giving of our entire life and being to God, and to what God is calling us to be and do.

In the author of Hebrew’s words of encouragement to that ancient congregation he completes the sentence about our faithful ancestors and predecessors this way, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith…”

Not only, then, are we to learn from and be encouraged by the faithful that have gone before us, we are also to lay aside every weight (that doesn’t mean going on a diet) and the sin which we must recognize clings so closely.

The author compares the life of faith to a long-distance race. The Apostle Paul also used this common metaphor. It does not mean that we are in competition with others to cross the finish line first, like at the Olympics currently in progress this week. It simply means that the life of faith is a life-long journey and pursuit that requires our persistent attention.

The metaphor comparing the life of faith to running a race is helpful in that it brings attention to the fact that anything that weighs down or clings to a runner becomes a hindrance. The question the biblical author asks us to address, then, is simple – though not necessarily easy.

• In your journey of life and faith, what is weighing you down, holding you back, burdening your efforts to live the life you have been called to live and be the person you have been created to be?
  What is it that you could cast aside to lighten your load?
• What are you clinging onto that makes your life more cumbersome?
• What would it take for you to lay aside these things?

This, of course is the personal application of this passage. We must remember, however, that the author of Hebrews is addressing a congregation. Therefore we must ask ourselves as Bethany Presbyterian Church, what is weighing us down? What are we clinging onto that is holding us back? What is not only slowing us down, but also making us ponder giving up the race? Perhaps the biggest question, then, is: What would it take for us to lay aside these things? Not only that, how are we going to find the steadfast endurance to persevere?

The author of Hebrews provides an answer. And although I admit it seems too simplistic, and it has been misused theologically, he tells us to “look to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”

Over 50 years ago, New Testament commentator William Barclay wrote the following about this passage, “In the Christian life we have a presence, the presence of Jesus. He is at once the goal of our journey and the companion on our way; at once the One whom we go to meet and the One with whom we travel.”

While you or I may have to filter that language through a more theologically progressive lens and understanding, Jesus did indeed set an example of endurance and faithfulness in the midst of life’s trials, hardships, and uncertainties. Jesus trusted God’s presence, and we’re asked to trust God as well.

The life of faith is like a race that has been run by countless others before us. Knowing this is meant to give us encouragement, support, energy, and lift underneath our wings. I am particularly reminded of the great cloud of witnesses that have been a vital part of this congregation, in particular Jewel Thompson, Rodger Wilson, and Howard Jacob. And in case we need reminding, all of us will finish the race as winners.

We are being admonished that regardless of our circumstances to hang in until the end, especially when we get exhausted and discouraged.

If you happen to be on our organist Maurice Thompson’s email list, you may have occasionally received an email or two from him. (I got 4 just last Friday.) Many of them are real gems. From one such email Maurice sent me six years ago, I saved the following definition of faith. You may be familiar with it.

“When you come to the edge of all the light you know and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: there will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.” Perhaps we could add a third option: God may simply provide “more light.”

These are encouraging words to remember as we lay aside that which weighs us down, and as we proceed with perseverance in the journey of life and faith.

Amen.