“Their Faces in the Clouds”

Hebrews 12:1-2

November 5, 2006 (All Saints)

Saint Paul United Methodist Church of Little Rock

Reverend John A. Fleming

It is funny the things you remember. I can remember powerful worship services and great sermons in my thirty-eight years. I can remember Easter sunrise services where the dawn of light gives in to the good news that Jesus is alive and well. I can remember other Easter worship services where a choir processed in to the sound of the song, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” and to the fragrance of Easter lilies. I can remember Christmas Eve candle light services, where the only light was the light of a single candle, the Christ candle, that then spread the light and the news that a baby had been born in a manger in Bethlehem. I remember the sermons that went along with those worship services. But the best sermon, the most effective sermon that I’ve ever heard was delivered by my mother one Sunday during my growing up years.

You may remember that last Sunday I told you that during my growing up years, I sat with my mother and my sister in the sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church in Jackson, Tennessee. By then my brother had graduated to sitting with the youth in our church’s balcony. I want you to know this, my mother came prepared for worship services. I hope she was spiritually prepared, but she was also prepared for her two youngest children, who were only thirteen months apart. In her purse, were things that were intended to keep me occupied when the twitching began. My mom’s first line of defense was to reach for the little pencil in the pew rack in front of us and the morning’s worship bulletin. On the front of the bulletin was an outlined sketch of our church. I would take the little pencil and shade the parts of the church that weren’t already shaded. When I was finished with that, I would draw all over the rest, of what I am sure was a well thought out order of worship.

In those days, I loved the little pencil. It was a third of the size of a normal pencil. It had no eraser. It also was hard to hold on to. I had a tendency to drop it. The sanctuary floor of my home church was slanted and if the pencil hit the hardwood floor just right, it would roll from our place in the pew, some three-fourths of the way back, all the way to the front. On its way, it made a lot of noise.

On the day of the most powerful sermon of my life, I dropped the pencil just right. My mother gave me the look that I have seen some mothers here give their children. We slipped out the back door, down the twenty or so front steps of the church, around the side of the church to the back parking lot. While we walked (well, actually Momma walked, I kind of flew behind her) no one said a word. Me? I prayed. I did not know a lot about prayer in those days. Still I prayed. I prayed for protection. I mumbled that if God would protect me now, it would be appreciated. My mother did not kill me that Sunday morning. Next to the parking lot of our church was a huge tree. Next to it was a Nursing home, whose front yard was filled with lush grass. This is where my mother’s sermon was preached. We sat under the tree. My mom looked up at me and asked me to look up in the clouds.

You have played that game before, haven’t you? The one where you look into the sky to see what you can see in the clouds, or maybe who you could see in the clouds. My mind is not good enough to remember what I saw that day or even who I saw that day, but I will remember it being one of the most deep and one of the most brilliant worship experiences.

Now we are not real sure who wrote the letter that we’ve come to call the letter to the Hebrews. Some will make the case that it was Paul, but I’m not so sure. What I do know is that the writer of the words knew that more persecution was coming for the Christians he wrote to. He’s also admitting to himself that the triumphant return of Christ in glory isn’t happening as quickly as he once thought. His real worry is that those who have come to the faith, because of the threat of persecution, might fall away from it.

I love these words. They are a favorite of many. They are among my favorite words in the Bible. The first two verses of this twelfth chapter are both so challenging and so inspiring and so eloquent, all at the same time. So the writer, whoever he was offers four big pieces of advice for the Christians of any age. His first piece of advice is to take a look up in the clouds. He writes, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses...” The witnesses are the un-named people from the eleventh chapter of this letter who have gathered in the stadium, up there in the bleachers, now watching us from a distance and cheering us on in the race, that, whether we like it or not, we are all running in. As the writer puts this, “And let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.”

Now imagine this. There you are entering the stadium, by yourself. As you walk in, you glance to your left and to your right and there sitting in the bleachers are people you know. At first it seems a little strange to you. Surrounding you are people like your grandparents, or maybe a sister, a best friend from high school, people like that. These are the people who still have a strong influence on you.

Just after my sister’s death last December, I started reading a book whose title is The Lovely Bones. It was my mother’s book and I will admit to you that it was a strange book to read, particularly after Emily’s death. It was a powerful book to me. It is the story of a girl who is killed by one of her neighbors. But it is really the story about members of the girl’s family. Some of her family members were able to move on. Others could not. All the while the girl, Susie Salmon, looks down from heaven and notices these things. She is with the ones she loves, at least in spirit.

Now this is a tough day for me in many ways. It is the first All Saint’s Day since my sister’s death. A couple of years ago, Emily was in our contemporary worship service on the Thursday before Sunday’s All Saint’s Day worship. We remembered together our favorite aunt, Julia Lee Moore. Our second daughter is named for Julia Lee. She is also named for her aunt, my sister, Emily Ann. It has almost been a year. That is hard to believe. Leighton Ford once said this, “Time is a great healer, but time can also set ambushes. When the anniversary of a death or divorce rolls around, the pain may stab like a knife out of the dark.”

Now Emily isn’t the only one in my cheering section of witnesses. There is our aunt, Julia Lee Moore. I remember countless weekends driving to her house in Conway to be with her. I recall waking up with her on Christmas mornings. There is Louis Henderson Moore, my mother’s father. There is Nora Roane, my dad’s mother. They are up there in the clouds, gathered together, cheering me on.

There are saints around here, too, of course. Those who have been among us and now help us along. People like Reverend Al Hawkins, who, on his first day fixed a broken toilet and after that tried to fix our broken-ness. There is Poodles Gannaway, who as she lay in her bed, very sick, whispered to me, “I appreciate what you are doing for our church.” Up there is Nonie Thompson and Pat Wesson, whose strong spirits permeates these walls. There is Sarah Blissit and Clare Bowie. Albert Speed is with us again this morning. Mattie Mae Hardaway and Al Woodard and John Slayden and Cooper Burley’s spirits are all with us this day. They are up there, all of them, cheering us on to be the people we will become.

First, says the writer, look to the clouds. Then he says, be sure and run light. These are his words, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” Look at that spiritually. The writer is asking us to cast aside the things that trip us up, those weights, those encumbrances that interfere with our running.

What is that for you? Perhaps it is your temper. Do you struggle with that? I heard of a professional hockey player whose temper often landed him in the penalty box. One day his eight year old asked him, “Daddy, how can you score a goal when you’re in the penalty box all the time?” It was an excellent question. He could not answer it. He decided to do something about his conduct. He controlled his temper and spent more time on the ice than he did in the penalty box. He scored more goals and his team, by the way, won more games.

You know, I guess one of the greatest questions we should ask ourselves is if something we are doing helps or hinders us in our ministry for Jesus Christ. So run light. That’s the second thing the author suggests.

Here is the third, run with perseverance. Life, you see, is not a fifty yard dash. Our lives are marathons. We win the race with character and perseverance. You will know this, quitting is always easier than enduring. Think about the child, just learning to play the piano. He’s not too interested. He’s more interested in playing outside, baseball, is his favorite sport, if I’m not mistaken. Now he wishes he had stayed with the scales. It is easier to come home after a long day and watch television instead of getting out and going to take a night class somewhere. It is easier to walk out of the room during the argument than to stay and work through the conflict. It is easier to read the paper and drink another cup of coffee than to make it to the church on time. It is easier to quit following Jesus than to go through the process of surrendering to his will every day. And everyday, with the help of God, we keep going. Our faith is not for the weak; we are to be committed to the very end. We take stands based on what we believe in our hearts, even when the world says something else. We keep on praying even when the answers don’t seem to come. We keep on telling others about our faith and inviting people to church even when we think no one is listening. We keep living lives of high standards even when our friends tell us

that we are old fashioned. We keep on returning good for evil and not evil for evil, even when it makes no sense at all. We keep on praying for our enemies even when they care less. You keep on keeping on, as the saying goes. We never give up and with the help of God, we endure.

Paul, you remember, writes to the Corinthians in what we have come to call a Love Chapter. He says that now we see in a mirror dimly. One day we will see more and understand more. I do not understand why a thirty-eight year old mother of four suddenly dies. I don’t understand now. Maybe one day I will. It is told that when one of Martin Luther’s sons died, his wife asked, “Where was the Lord when our son died?” Martin Luther answered, “The same place he was when his Son died. He was there watching and weeping.” What option to we really have but to keep on keeping on.

One day when we have passed through the last valley, drunk from the last cup of sorrow, we will see things from God’s perspective. And we will thank God even for the heartbreaks and the hindrances because in the end, they pushed us toward God. Listen again to the call to persevere, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great a cloud of witnesses. Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Looking to Jesus, 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.” Let us pray.