Never Alone

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace. 

And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, without us, be made perfect. 
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, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. (NRSV)

We know precious little about the book of Hebrews.  We have no idea who the author was; we don’t know who the intended audience was; and we’re not exactly sure when it was written.  But on some of these points we can make guesses or good estimates based on the information within the book itself.

As Dan Clendenin, the author of a weekly website I often turn to in my sermon preparation called “Journey with Jesus,” put it,  “The recipients of the letter are second-generation believers who heard the gospel from first-generation Christians (2:3). The text's elegant Greek, its quotations from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament (LXX), and its distinctly Jewish themes all suggest that the readers were a community of Hellenistic Jewish believers.”

So that tells us something.  Clendenin goes on to explain that since the book doesn’t mention the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70, it was probably written sometime before then. 

But it’s clear that the original recipients were under some sort of persecution.  Given that they were second-generation hearers of the gospel, that put it later in the century, rather than nearer to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus in the thirties. 

Of course, we all know the famous story about Nero fiddling while Rome burned.  Whether that’s true or not, whether Nero actually played some musical instrument during the conflagration that devoured parts of Rome in the year 64, we do know that he sought to blame the fire on the Christians of the time.  Nero was not, we might say today, the most stable of rulers.  Mental stability doesn’t seem to go hand in hand with being a ruler, as we know from some of the rulers who held sway during the last century, such as Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Hussein. 

Nero, though, in his attempts to pin the fire on the Christians of the time, went to great lengths to persecute them, making a sport of the manner he would kill them.  He would dress them up in animal skins to be mauled to death by dogs before cheering crowds.  They were crucified and set on fire to light the night.  To put it mildly, it wasn’t always easy being a Christian during this era.

And so the author of Hebrews needs to encourage his little flock of believers through the persecutions that they may be facing.  With the oppression of mighty Rome on one side and a distrustful Jewish leadership on the other, they indeed needed all the encouragement they could get.

So when encouragement is needed, where does one turn?  To the great cloud of witnesses that surround us.  I can’t help but wonder whether Oscar Hammerstein had this passage in mind when he wrote a particularly stirring bit of lyrics from the musical “Carousel” with his collaborator Richard Rodgers.

When you walk through a storm
keep your chin up high
and don’t be afraid of the dark.
At the end of the storm
is a golden sky
and the sweet, silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind,
walk on through the rain,
though your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone,
you’ll never walk alone.

Indeed, we find we are not alone when the storms buffet us and toss us about like a dried leaf.  Because the author of Hebrews, along with the more recent prophetic words of Oscar Hammerstein, reminds us that all around us are those who have been through trials and tribulations and are here for the specific purpose of cheering us on.

In “The Message” bible, Eugene Peterson translates one of our verses from Hebrews this morning in this way:  “God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.”  I like that image; that without the faith of those who have gone before, those who have struggled before, those who have persevered before, my faith is incomplete.  And likewise, without my faith, theirs does not attain fulfillment.  Both parts of the puzzle are necessary to complete the picture.

We don’t face the same turmoils that Christians of the first century faced, without a doubt and we thank God for that.  But the struggles of those early Christians live on in and through us.  Because of their struggles and persecutions, through their faith, we are able to be the worshipping community that we are today. 

The author of Hebrews knew his congregation and in his writing, he picked out some of the superheroes of the faith:  starting with Abraham and Moses, just prior to today’s reading and including Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel.  These were names that the original recipients would have known quite a bit about.  And doubtless a list like that generated another list in the hearers’ minds.  Much as it does today.

We can remember Martin Luther King, Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Oscar Romero, who would have turned 93 on this very day had he not been assassinated 30 years ago.  King, Bonhoeffer, and Romero knew the cost of faith even in the 20th century.  All three paid with their lives for their faith and are martyrs of our time.  And each of them is in the cloud of witnesses that surrounds us now, urging us forward, telling us to hold on and hold tightly to what is dear.

We do not walk alone.  We are indeed surrounded by witness after witness after witness  who urge us to run the race before us with perseverance.