Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56
When it comes to most kinds of sports, a good crowd is one that gets really involved. Whether it is cycling or football or cricket or major league croquet, players speak about the difference that a crowd makes. A crowd that cheers players on, willing them to do their best. Yes, there is a time for people to engage in a more dispassionate analysis, but that time is not when the match is going on. A good crowd rises to the moment.
I want us to think today about two very different crowds depicted in the scripture readings we have just heard.
The first crowd is the one addressed by Jesus in our gospel reading from Luke. Now to understand Jesus’ words properly we need to be clear what point in the story we have reached. This is not Jesus talking to the crowds on the shores of Sea of Galilee, during the years he had ministering in that region. Those days are gone. Luke has already narrated, back in chapter 9, that ‘when the days drew near for [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.’ So, this is Jesus talking to crowds on what will be his last journey to Jerusalem, a journey which he knows will result in his own death, a baptism which only he can undergo for the sake of others.
But the crowd have apparently not noticed what has changed. They appear still to be in interested observer mode, listening to what is being said but not marking what is really going on. Hence, Jesus’s words that they read the sky but they can’t read the room. They can predict the weather, but they can’t tell the time.
For the time is one for decision. As Jerusalem approaches, Jesus tells his disciples that now is the time to be really clear where their allegiance lies. The division of which Jesus speaks – here within families – is not something he desires; rather it is the inevitable outworking of people choosing Jesus as the one to whom to give ultimate loyalty. When it comes to sticking with Jesus or siding with those with religious or political power, Jesus knows that people from within the same family will make different choices. Some will put him first; others will not.
The response Jesus is seeking is not the one of the first crowd, good-time spectators who are seeking novelty and a splash of genius, and then looking to go home. Jesus is seeking whole-life response from people who have decided to walk the way of the cross with him.
Which is where the second crowd comes in, as depicted in our reading from the letter to the Hebrews, ch 12. Here the scene has shifted, and the picture is of a crowd watching a race, perhaps a marathon where the final lap is in the stadium and the tired runners are being cheered as they make their way to the finishing line.
We know who is in this crowd. It is all the people who have lived and died by faith, their stories told in ch11, the final section of which we heard. Gideon, Barak, Samson, women unnamed but of deep faith. A knowledgeable crowd, with hard-won experience that the life of faith involves taking God at his word, however tough it gets. A crowd that is not shamed by suffering. Before this crowd the crucified Jesus is man of honour, not a source of shame.
And this crowd is cheering on those who are running around the stadium track. Those who in the present time are running the race set by Jesus, a race which requires good decision-making, perseverance and above all a focus on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. These runners, be the recipients of the letter almost 2000 years ago, or those who have run the race in generations since, are invited to remember that the life of faith is not an individual activity done behind closed doors. It is a corporate life, lived not only with those who run the race today but also in the presence of the clouds of witnesses who have gone before.
I was reflecting this week, after nearly two years serving as Dean here, that one the greatest blessings for me leading the life and mission of this Cathedral, is the encouragement that comes from being surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses. The communion of saints has layers of meaning of course, but one of the things it means to me is that we can be encouraged in our race today by those who have gone before. Dear Cuthbert and Bede, of course, but also Margaret and Hild and those whom we remember in this place. And not only them but all those who have soaked these stones with their prayers for over 900 years, and those who still do.
Tomorrow there will be a special Evensong in thanksgiving for the life of Ruth Wiltsher, a worshipper with us for many years and now part of the cloud of witnesses.
And so I want to offer us today that picture of the cloud of witnesses, the crowd that cheers us on, that encourages us in our running the race set before us.
How does this crowd encourage us? Three brief thoughts if may.
First, the cloud of witnesses encourages us to know that we are part of something bigger. In a world which is posing sharp questions of identity and meaning, here is a community that it is good to be part of. People who share a common loyalty to Jesus which transcends so much which divides.
Writing in The Times yesterday, columnist James Marriott wrote of what is attracting some younger people to explore faith for themselves, and wrote of ‘a sense of disaffection and even contempt for the triviality and banality of secular society.’ One new believer spoke of a yearning for ‘something huge and beautiful and awe-inspiring…for something bigger.’
The cloud of witnesses remind encourage us that we are part of something bigger.
Second, the cloud of witnesses encourages us to run both seriously and hopefully. Their example reminds us that Christian life is not a fun run and we must take stock of that which is hindering our progress. But as we look up to the crowds, we can see that each of them is wearing a crown of glory. Not just the person who came first but every single one. Such a crown awaits all who complete the life of faith trusting in Jesus Christ. Cuthbert and Hild, Bede and, yes, Ruth.
Third, the cloud of witnesses encourage us to keep looking to Jesus Christ. Our allegiance to him takes priority over that to family, to sports team, to political party. And our race only makes sense when it is his steps in which we are following. That is why the gift of Holy Communion is such a blessing. As we gather around the Lord’s table, looking forward to a heavenly banquet, we are invited afresh to look to Jesus, who endured a body broken and blood shed, out of love for you and for me and the whole world. That is the motivation we need to keep running, because we can see how he has gone before.
There is a good crowd out there. Not a crowd of spectators who don’t really know what is going on, but a good crowd, a cloud of witnesses no less, who have run the race themselves and are cheering on those who run today. The communion of saints, known and unknown, encouraging us to look to Jesus, now and every day in the race that is before us. Amen.