Do you remember that classic Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Linus are lying on the ground gazing at the sky? Lucy says, "If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formations...what do you think you see, Linus?" Linus says, "Well, those clouds up there look to me like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean...that cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor...and that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the stoning of Stephen...I can see the Apostle Paul standing there to one side...." Lucy says, "Uh huh....that's very good....what do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?" Charlie Brown replies, "Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie, but I changed my mind!"
Some people know how to read the clouds and others don’t, including the "cloud of witnesses" that Hebrews says surrounds us in our race through life. After listing hero after hero among our spiritual forbears … exemplars of the kind of courageous and persevering faith … that we are told to emulate, the author says,
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.
The author of Hebrews reminds us that the spiritual life, which is not a separate, shadow life in addition to real life, but an integrated alternate way of real life itself, is not a sprint, but a marathon. We have all seen the spiritual sprinters who bolt fresh from their conversion with great energy and promise but soon turn aside exhausted and disillusioned. They just don’t have the patience and endurance it takes to stay in the race. They don’t connect with the spiritual friends who will sustain them and help them succeed. They can’t make it through the hard times alone. They can’t live two lifestyles at once.
Hebrews warns us about that, too. Set aside those things that slow us down, we are urged, things that hold us back, and make injury more likely. The Bible calls it "sin," and it’s any kind of behavior that separates us from God and from other people. Sin is a good word … a warning word … not a word the Bible wants to use in a shaming, damning way as some have used it to bash other people while pretending they don’t have any sin themselves. It’s not a word for us to use to damage and exclude people from the love of God, but a loving word, an encouraging word, a word that calls forth our best and protects us from harm. There is such a thing as right and wrong, good and evil, and we do have hard choices to make in the messy realities of our life together. Moreover, it is possible to talk about sin and righteousness, about ethics and morality, about standards and values without being judgmental or abusive or so arrogant as to think we don’t struggle with sinfulness ourselves. The author of Hebrews shows us how. He isn’t condemning or shaming. He just says, "Set that stuff aside. You don’t need that. There’s no life in that. It will only slow you down."
But what about this "cloud of witnesses" Hebrews calls us to see? What’s his point about those? In the first place, Hebrews recognizes we cannot make this long Spirit journey alone. Increasingly in the culture of our time we are pushed to be isolated individuals, lone consumers of whatever the culture wants to pass along as the latest and greatest have-to-have. Families are reduced to their most nuclear state and the generations live far apart from one another. We can work from home on our computer, we can get our news and entertainment from our television, we can shop by the internet, we can even get our groceries and meals delivered to our door. The ideal seems to be a retreat from any human relationship at all. Even in the realm of faith we have begun to separate "spirituality" … a personal, private, connection with God of our own devising. But God calls us to relationship. God has made us for each other. In the Bible personal spirituality is always secondary and in service to spiritual community … for without relationship and community our lives are incomplete.
In Seeking Enlightenment Hat by Hat Nevada Barr explains why community is necessary to the life of faith:
Church is for finding and adoring God in
community: with others, through others, because of others, in spite of others.
Only by finding this place of human interaction focused around the need for the
spiritual was I able to recognize God in other people and so in myself. Without
community, how would I learn to share? Who would I help? How would I learn to
accept help? Community is God rubbing
elbows and passing the tuna casserole, a place where we can snuggle down with
the Divine. Though I’d never have suspected it when I began this
spiritual journey, God is not separate from people. Sure we’re
hypocrites, liars, boasters, blasphemers, and cheats, but we are God’s
hypocrites, liars, boasters, blasphemers, and cheats. The spark is in each of
us. When we work together for what we sincerely hope is good, worship together
in the belief we will touch God, sing together in the hope (God) hears our
praises, the spark is fanned and God becomes as visible in us as (God) is in
new snow or mornings or a mountain lake.
By ourselves we hang by a thin thread easily broken. But entwined with one another the threads are twisted into a strong rope. As one rabbi put it, "A human life is like a single letter of the alphabet. It can be meaningless. Or it can be a part of a great meaning." We need each other. We need family and community. We need a great cloud of witnesses if we are going to survive, let alone do something beautiful for God. But why does Hebrews call them a "cloud?" Does he mean they are insubstantial? We may have been in a plane as it climbs through the clouds and blocks out everything else from view. Or we may have driven up into the mountains and moved into the cloud that breaks against the heights. Maybe he means these witnesses, while present, cannot be held or touched. Nevertheless they are present and visible and surround us like the air we breathe.
Perhaps he means they are up and not down. He was writing in a day when people thought of heaven as being "up" in the clouds. We still do that. I saw an awards show recently where the rap star pointed up to the sky to pay tribute to God. Of course, he might have pointed at God in his own heart, or at God in the women who have been so disrespected by his song lyrics (but that’s another sermon for another day. My point is that God is everywhere, but we still think of God as "up there."
Does Hebrews mean these "witnesses" are all deceased, alive but with God in heaven? The Greek word he uses for "witness" here is marturon, which also means "martyr." Perhaps Hebrews wants to point us especially to those forbears who laid it all on the line, who gave up their lives for God’s sake. Other religions and societies pay veneration to their ancestors, whom they consider to be alive in spirit and continually watching over them. In our own experience, in our families, in this church, we sense people who are gone now continuing among us in spirit. We call them by name and remember them. Their example still encourages us, we celebrate their lives, and we look forward to reunion in the presence of God. Every last one of us comes into this world already blessed by those who have gone before us. They are a gift to our lives, and we build on the foundations they have laid.
But is this "cloud of witnesses" Hebrews describes only referring to the dead heroes of days gone by? Would he not include the living among us who bear witness to the faith? Isn’t he also thinking of all the ways we might support each other? In chapter ten he has just said:
Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for (the One) who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day (of the Lord) approaching (Heb 10:23-25)
We choose our associations and then our associations shape us. I look at the young people who are strong and independent, who reject the authority of society so they can stand on their own, independent and free. Have you ever noticed that they all dress alike! They hang out with other "free and independent" peers, emulating them and seeking their approval. We all do this. We are all interdependent. We choose the community which will influence us the most. So it’s important that we choose wisely, associate with those people who will influence us towards the good.
John Claypool speaks of cellar voices and balcony people. The balcony people are those friends who send us positive messages of encouragement … "Way to go!" "You can do it!" "I believe in you!" and so on. The cellar voices are those folks who discourage and dissuade us, saying things like. "What’s the use?" "You’ll only fail again!" "What makes you think you can make a difference?"
We have both kinds of people in our lives and after a while, we don’t even need to have them around. They live in our heads. We internalize their voices. We hear them speaking in the words we say to ourselves. We hear a parent saying, "I wouldn’t try that if I were you" or "Go ahead; you can do it!" We hear a teacher saying, "I can’t believe you blew it again!" or "That’s all right. Try again. You’ll catch on soon enough." We carry them with us, our cellar voices and balcony people. The best advice I can give you: it’s time to sweep out the cellar! I’m not talking about surrounding yourself only with people who always agree with you and never confront you or hold you accountable in relationship. Those aren’t friends; they’re enablers! I’m talking about seeking the company of people who are positive and uplifting, "who speak the truth in love" (as Ephesians puts it), who challenge you in ways you can hear because all the while you know they love you, they are for you, they are with you as you live.
The trick is to ignore the cellar people and listen to the balcony voices so you can move forward with confidence instead of being paralyzed by criticism. The trick is to surround yourself with a community of balcony voices who will fill your life with good news and help you see the possibilities of what you might become. The trick is to learn how to be a balcony voice for the people in your life, to practice what Myron Madden calls "the power to bless." When is the last time you gave a word of thanks or praise or encouragement to another person? Do you realize the difference you can make?
The author of Hebrews does not
hesitate to name names where it comes to his "cloud of witnesses."
The names he lists are the heroes of our common story. They are part of our
cloud of witnesses. Abel, Enoch, and Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac, Jacob,
Esau, and Joseph, Moses, the exodus people
“who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises…” (Heb 11:33)
And Hebrews goes on to say:
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, apart from us, be made perfect (Heb 11:38b-40).
In other words, we have an obligation to finish what they began, or at least to do our part in building the loving dominion of God.
I’ve told you how much I love Fred Craddock’s story of the little boy who was carried on his father’s shoulders into the country store. The man behind the counter said to the little boy, "My, aren’t you tall today?" And the little boy replied sheepishly, "Well, it isn’t all me." What we accomplish is never all our own doing, and we are never alone in seeking to accomplish good things.
Hebrews names names, but not all the names. He remembers the nameless and leaves room for us to add the names of those who have been the balcony voices of our own faith. I want to offer you the opportunity to name your names, as a praise to God and as a reminder to yourself of those people, living and dead, who have been gifts of God to your life, whose example and influence and encouragement still call you forward to be the best God made you to be. Lift their names up as your thanksgiving to God during the time in our service when we share our joys and concerns. Don’t be shy! This is our cloud of witnesses. Thanks be to God!
We live for them, we live with them … we live by their support. We need them and we need each other to run this race set before us. Thank God, we are not alone. Let us then run the race that is set before us and create a community of joy that will bring life to us all. In the name of Christ, amen.
May we pray?
Gracious and loving God, we thank you for coming to be with us as one of us, a real life person in the flesh. And you still come to us that way in the real life in the flesh presence of each other. Thank you for the cloud of witnesses you have given us in this place. May their encouragement lead us to finish the race and to be a blessed witness to those who follow us in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa