5/28/50

Scripture: Hebrews 11: 32 - 12: 2

Text: Hebrews 11: 40; “God had something better in store for us; he would not have them perfected apart from us.” (Moffatt)

[The part below in brackets was added to this sermon in the second telling, on May 28, 1961 (Baccalaureate, Arthur Kingdon)]

[Some of us have enjoyed reading about Wilma Rudolph, “The girl who wouldn’t give up.” Sickly and crippled from earliest childhood, this 17th child of a determined Negro family became an Olympic sensation last August, a triple gold medalist! Her athletic prowess topped even that of the phenomenal Babe Didrikson of 28 years ago. In her final race of the Olympic series, the 400-meter relay, her team mates were doing splendidly. She was already in motion as the last runner, when the baton was bobbled and she had to stop to grasp it. Her German counterpart was already 2 strides ahead when she began burning up the last 100 meters of that track. Yet she pulled ahead and broke the tape first for her team! Ten years earlier, in 1950 ---]

A dramatic incident occurred at the Olympic Games held in London. The men’s relay -- the French team had started well. But as the baton was passed to the 3rd runner, he dropped it. That accident put the French team out of the running. The runner dropped to the ground, flung his hands to his head in a gesture of despair, and wept openly. He was still weeping as he was led from the arena.

To take defeat so tearfully may appear a bit --unsportsmanlike? But think what was involved in that runner’s failure. The watching, hopeful French people were disappointed. Two men who ran before him had their work ruined. The 4th man of his team never had a chance because of the accident.

How much of our living is like a relay race! In the race of life no one starts, each for himself, “at scratch.” Others - many others - have run before us. And we start at the point where their lives touch ours. Our parents come down the track. For a while we run beside them until they are able to pass the baton of their work and character on to us; then we carry on, while our parents slow down and eventually fall out of the race. Ultimately we come to the place where we transfer our interests and unfulfilled hopes to our children -- Thus generation is linked with generation.

The resemblance of life to a relay race is borne out in the letter to the Hebrews. In the 11th chapter, the author gives a glimpse of his nation’s great fore-runners: Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and the others. He pictures them as heroic figures who had followed their God in faith. -- Then he ends the chapter thus: “They all won their record for faith, but the Promise they did not obtain. God had something better in store for us; he would not have them perfected apart from us.” This Scripture suggests how each generation is called of God to fulfill the faith of its forerunners.

(1) The idea of life as a relay race, for one thing, humbles us with a sense of indebtedness. A person of fine nature is ever humbly grateful. He lives always with a sense of high privilege. He recognizes his indebtedness to parents for their nurture during his infancy and their care and thoughtfulness as he grew. When he sits down to eat, he bows his head in gratitude for the bounties of earth, and the services of people, which in the complexities of God’s providence, have brought his food to him.

When he stands to speak in public; when he enters church for worship; when he goes to the voting booth --- he remembers the cost by which these freedoms were purchased and at which they are to be maintained. He is conscious that the words blessing and bleed come from the same root word --- and that the red blood of sacrifice is on all the blessings he enjoys.

Consider the flag of our nation; white stripes for purity; red (blood color) stripes for sacrificial bravery -- all 13 stripes for 13 colonies that became the original states of the union. Blue field for loyalty. Stars, one for each of the 50 states. But why stars? Why not white circles or triangles or squares?

There was a woman from abroad who married a citizen of the US. She wanted to make his country hers as quickly as possible. She learned about its history. She began with the flag. She asked the question, “Why are there stars in the flag?” People said, “One star for each of the states.” “But why stars?” No one could tell her --- could you? She asked at the public library -- she asked her husband’s friends; she searched until she found the answer in a little book which said: “The reason why our forefathers placed stars in our national emblem is given in the Congressional Act of June 14, 1777 which adopted the flag and which prescribed ‘that the Union be thirteen stars in a blue field representing a new constellation ---- signaling to mankind the birth of the first nation on earth dedicated to personal and religious liberty, a sanctuary to which men and women the world over, oppressed because of religious and other beliefs, might take refuge and enjoy Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.’”

Our national forefathers chose stars -- a constellation of stars -- as the “signal” of our freedoms, enjoyed and defended in each state, and in the “constellation” of states. Any grateful citizen will remember and preserve this purpose -- and give thoughtful attention to a continuance of the purpose that others, oppressed by reason of religious and other beliefs, may in this land find refuge “and enjoy Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

High minded people feel with Paul that we are “Heirs of God by adoption.” The world does not owe us a living just because we were born into it. The grace of God has been woven into our inheritance, and we are recipients of favors not earned by physical birth.

Many years ago, while Mark Hopkins was president of Williams College, some village buildings were defaced. The culprit proved to be the son of a wealthy supporter of the college, then a student. When he was called before the president, the fellow pulled out his pocketbook and said jauntily, “Well, doctor, what’s the damage?” President Hopkins replied, “Young man, put up your purse. Tomorrow at prayers, you will make public acknowledgment of your offense, or you will be expelled.” Speaking later on, Mark Hopkins said: “Rich young men come here and take that tone, as if they could pay for what they get here! No student can pay for what he gets at Williams College. Can any student pay for the sacrifice of Colonel Williams and our other benefactors? For the heroic sacrifices of half-paid professors who have given their lives that young men might have, at the smallest cost, a liberal education? Every man here is a charity student!”

Human beings could be divided into these groups: (1) those who feel they give more than they get -- grumbling and restless -- living on the principle of “grab and spend;” (2) those who feel they get more than they give, keeping a certain dignity and peace of mind, living on the principle of serve and share. It was Chesterton who said: “He who is conscious of a debt he can never pay, will be forever paying it.”

Of the graduates here, each one has that obligation -- and, in proportion to his or her real growth, will acknowledge it through the years. Members of this class have distinguished themselves in varying ways, according to the ability of each. The young folk have won distinction in speech, in science, in journalistic accomplishment, in dramatics, in athletics and sportsmanship, in music, and scholarship. We take pride and hope in seeing them take the baton of mature life for their portion of life’s continuing race. May they remember with gratitude all that has been passed to them by parents, teachers, church friends, country.

A particular debt of gratitude is to be remembered at this memorial season. An elderly man, Professor Gilbert Murray of Oxford University, during World War I, went around the quadrangle with heavy heart. For he knew that brave young men were dying for him in France. Let none of us be so callous as to forget the lives laid down, and the vigorous bodies laid to rest for us in our country’s battles. There were at least six from our church families in the latest war, and others in earlier conflicts. Memorial Day is a day of grateful remembrance. Praises? Parades and speeches? Putting screens on the summer home? motoring? Yes, for it is a holiday. But each of us ought spend some time in actual thought of what our liberties are worth in terms of what has been paid for them.

(2) The thought of life as a relay race sobers us with a sense of responsibility. Those who have gone before us received not the fulfilled promise of their faith; “God had something better in store for us; he would not have them perfected without us.” We are responsible for the fulfillment of their lives.

Many a father has worked hard without reaching his desired goal. He looks to his sons to go farther toward it than he. Such a father, pleased at the achievement of one of his daughters, exclaimed: “O, if only her mother could have lived to see this day.” But if one of us falls or fails to do the best of which we are capable, the exclamation may be: “It’s a blessing his mother did not live to see this day.”

“Seeing that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run with patience (& persistence) the race that is set before us.” [Hebrews 12: 1].

We cannot deny the obligation of love to keep faith with those who have gone before us. Loyalty to the dead is a high test of our character.

Twenty-five years ago, the Mayo brothers of Rochester, made a magnificent gift to the University of Minnesota, for graduate medical study and research. The gift was accompanied by a letter from Dr. William J. Mayo, in which he said: “Our father recognized certain definite social obligations. He believed that any man who had better opportunity than others, greater strength of mind, body or character, owed something to those who had not been so provided; that is, that the important thing in life is not to accomplish for one’s self alone, but for each to carry his share of collective responsibilities.”

If each strong person, like Dr. Mayo, had carried his full share of collective responsibility, we should not be having so much collective government regimenting the freedoms of people. If free 10-talent Russians of the 19th century had helped bear one another’s burdens in that land, thus fulfilling the law of Christ, we would not have the communist Russia of the 20th century.

Jesus looked at his followers and then looked up to God saying, “For their sakes I consecrate myself.” So must each of his followers -- for the sake of his forerunners, his fellows, and his followers -- consecrate himself. “For without us they shall not be made perfect.”

(3) The idea of life as a relay race does a third thing for us. It not only humbles us with a sense of indebtedness, and sobers us with a sense of responsibility; it also strengthens us with a sense of continuity. King David desired to crown his life work with a glorious temple to God. It remained for Solomon, his son, to carry through his father’s dream. But David was enabled to accomplish other great achievements, because he was striving for something beyond his reach. “The reach must exceed the grasp; else what is heaven for?”

Great causes are on foot -- world peace, racial brotherhood, church unity and cooperation; they will not be perfected in our time; some may be tragically halted. But our efforts can bring them nearer and hasten their day.

Truth and justice have behind them, God, who said, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the things whereunto I sent it.” [Isaiah 55: 11].

These are times for real living. Noah lived in a time for real living. He and his family had survived the disastrous flood. They had a chance for a whole new start. Some of it was well done. But Noah became so impressed with the fruits of his vineyard that he got himself dead drunk -- which is one way of escaping from reality, of walking out on the responsibilities of living. [Genesis 9: 20, 21]. There are other means of escape, and we are tempted to indulge them.

But I hope it will be our purpose not to escape the job of real living that needs to be done, but to encounter the races, the duties, the opportunities of life with a will!

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, May 28, 1950

Wisconsin Rapids, May 28, 1961