“What Is the Church? PERSEVERANCE”
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
September 9, 2007

THERE AIN’T NO QUIT ... THERE AIN’T NO WAY
YOU DON’T BACK-DOWN … YOU MEAN WHAT YOU SAY
TWO HUNDRED YEARS ... AND IT’S TRUE TODAY
THERE AIN’T NO QUIT ... IT’S THE COWBOY WAY

If you attended the Western Days Festival recently, you may have heard Bill Barwick’s “There Ain’t No Quit,” which he dedicated to Frank Wolking of the Sons and Brothers. As many of you know, Frank has struggled with serious cancer in the brain, but has never missed a gig with his boys.

 THERE AIN’T NO QUIT ... IT’S THE 

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews probably wasn’t a cowboy, but this author had the same message for that early group of Jewish Christians—from Eugene Peterson’s The Message”:

¹Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. ²Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

THERE AIN’T NO QUIT ... THERE AIN’T NO WAY
YOU DON’T BACK-DOWN … YOU MEAN WHAT YOU SAY
TWO THOUSAND YEARS ... AND IT’S TRUE TODAY
THERE AIN’T NO QUIT ... IT’S THE CHRISTIAN WAY

Hebrews tells us that faith is what enabled the people of God to pass through the Red Sea, take down the walls of Jericho, conquer kingdoms, administer justice, obtain promises, shut the mouths of lions, quench raging fire, escape the edge of the sword, and put foreign armies to flight (11:29-34).

In addition, faithful perseverance was seen in the lives of people who were tortured, mocked, flogged, chained and imprisoned. Faith was evident in folks who were stoned to death, sawn in two, and killed by the sword. Faith sustained God’s people when they were destitute, persecuted, and tortured, and it set the stage for God’s greatest work in the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb (11:35-12:2).

This is the story of the early church—clinging desperately to faith in spite of horrible persecution.

So what is the Church? A group of people willing to go where God sends us, even if we don’t know where we’ll end up; a community of believers and seekers committed to mutual love; a congregation of persons who face the future with hope because we know who holds tomorrow; and finally, a community of folks, surrounded by a crowd of witnesses, who team together to run the race to the end, keeping our eyes on Jesus. No quit.

A shining example of this kind of fortitude was revealed at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. A Tanzanian marathon runner named Akhwari was the last man to finish the marathon race. He arrived in the stadium staggering and limping and finished his race long after the winner did. This prompted after-race questions as to why he continued when he had no chance of winning. He simply replied, “My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish the race.”  (-Joseph Wirtz, “He has sent us to finish the race,” worthynews.com.)

Almost 20,000 runners competed in the 1986 New York Marathon. I don’t know who won, but I do know who finished last. His name is Bob Wieland. While the winner completed the race in just over 2 hours, Bob Wieland finished in four days, two hours, forty-eight minutes, and seventeen seconds. Why is that remarkable? Because Bob ran with his arms. Seventeen years earlier while serving in Vietnam, Bob’s legs were blown off in battle. So, when Bob competes, he sits on a 15 pound saddle, covers his fists with pads, and runs with his arms. But he does not quit.

In years past, Lissa and I rode our bicycles in two Ride the Rockies events. As I huffed and puffed to catch up to my wife, I was absolutely amazed to see several cyclists riding low to the ground, pedaling with their arms! Paralyzed from the waist down, they had developed the shoulders of Atlas and finished every climb!

Such perseverance!

In the mid-1930s, a German pastor was abducted from his church, handcuffed, taken to prison and immediately put into a five-foot cell. Suspected of aiding Jews, there was no hearing, no trial — not even time to let his family know what had happened to him.

For weeks, this gentle pastor asked the prison guard outside his cell door if he could use the phone at the end of the hall to call his wife and family and, at least, let them know he was alive. The guard, however, was a contemptible man who hated anyone who had to do with Jewry. He not only wouldn’t let the pastor use the phone, he also determined in his heart to make the pastor’s life as miserable as possible.

The sadistic guard purposefully skipped the pastor’s cell when meals were handed out; he made the pastor go weeks without a shower; he kept lights burning in his room so he couldn’t sleep; he blasted his short-wave radio, hoping the constant noise would break the pastor’s spirit; he used filthy language; he pushed him; he shoved him; and, when he could, he arranged for the pastor to have the most difficult job in the labor force.

The pastor, on the other hand, prayed over and over again not to let his natural hate for this guard consume him. He “chose” instead to forgive him and to show him God’s unconditional love. As the months went by, whenever he could, the pastor smiled at the guard; he thanked him when his meals did come; when the guard was near his cell, the pastor told him about his own wife and his children; he even questioned the guard about his own family and about his goals, ideas and visions; and, one time, for a quick moment, he had a chance to tell the guard about Christ and his love. The guard never answered a word, but, obviously, heard it all.

After months of choosing to unconditionally love this terrible guard, God’s love finally broke through. One night, as the pastor was again quietly talking to him, the guard cracked a smile. The next day, instead of his cell being skipped for lunch, the pastor got two. The following evening, he was allowed not only to go to the showers, but also to stay as long as he wanted. The lights began going off at night in his cell and the radio noise ceased. Finally, one afternoon, the guard came into the pastor’s cell, asked him for his home phone number, and he, personally, made the long-awaited call to the pastor’s family. A few months later the pastor was mysteriously released, with no questions asked. (Nancy Missler, “Against the tide: Faith choices,” Koinonia House Online, khouse.org. Retrieved February 19, 2004.)

From the diary of John Wesley. . .

Sunday, A.M., May 5    Preached in St. Anne’s. Was asked not to come back anymore.
Sunday, P.M., May 5     Preached in St. John’s. Deacons said “Get out and stay out.”
Sunday, A.M., May 12    Preached in St. Jude’s. Can’t go back there, either.
Sunday, A.M., May 19    Preached in St. Somebody Else’s. Deacons called special meeting and said I couldn’t return.
Sunday, P.M., May 19    Preached on street. Kicked off street.
Sunday, A.M., May 26    Preached in meadow. Chased out of meadow as bull was turned loose during service.
Sunday, A.M., June 2    Preached out at the edge of town. Kicked off the highway.
Sunday, P.M., June 2    Afternoon, preached in a pasture. Ten thousand people came out to hear me.

Young William Wilberforce was discouraged one night in the early 1790s after another defeat in his 10 year battle against the slave trade in England. Tired and frustrated, he opened his Bible and began to leaf through it. A small piece of paper fell out and fluttered to the floor. It was a letter written by John Wesley shortly before his death. Wilberforce read it again: “Unless the divine power has raised you up... I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that (abominable practice of slavery), which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh, be not weary of well-doing. Go on in the name of God, and in the power of God’s might.” (Daily Bread, June 16, 1989.)

Mother Teresa

Community United Methodist Church of Westcliffe, let us Strip down, start running—and never quit! Keep our eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God…. Let usbe not weary of well-doing, but go on in the name of God, and in the power of God’s might. Amen.