Busy Week! August 18, 2013 (full size gallery)
A busy week with Vacation Bible School (VBS) from Monday Aug 12 through Thursday Aug 15 and then the Community Dinner on Aug 16.
Brad was on vacation last week and this week and it was good to have Denise Symonds back as organist who was the organist from 2000 until 2007.
Today, we had 35 but we had a heavy rain that appeared to be a soaker for the crops. The river in addition was foggy. The trees and flower had delicate drops of rain that was a special touch.
We also celebrated Nancy Wick’s birthday and the 55th wedding anniversary of Woody and Cherry Evert! Wow!
Thanks go out to the Vacation Bible School team this past week – the Fishers, the Wisdoms, Liz Heimbach, Catherine, Marion who taught or supported it with food. We had 8 to 10 children a night for four days plus two adults studying Galatians with Catherine. The theme was Paul. It was taught on 3 levels – friendship with children, travels with the older children and teens and a full study of the Letter to the Galatians for the adults.
The focus of last week’s selection from Hebrews (11:1-3, 8-16) was the faith of Abraham and Sarah. Today’s text follows a similarly expansive review of the faith of Moses that began in verse 23. Once the text leaves Moses, however, the examples of those who lived “by faith” fly by in rapid fashion as “time fails” the narrator (verse 32). The readings are here. The bulletin is here.
In verse 32, Chapter 11’s eclectic list of the heroes of faith includes some from among the Judges of Israel (Gideon, Samson, Jephthah, Samuel), one commissioned by a Judge (Barak), David, as well as the prophets.
By the end of the passage one is persuaded not only of the great numbers of those of faith that have gone before, but the strong and quite creative endurance of this long chain of witnesses “of whom the world was not worthy” (verse 38). Somewhat hidden behind this list, of course, is a God who is both worthy of such loyalty and the one actually equipping people with the faith that makes resistance to the enemies of God possible, the foremost of which is suffering that leads to death.
It was appropriate that the sermon took its title from Hebrews, "Running the Race" and continues this discussion. We were tired after this week but not like the Christians in Hebrews "discouraged, overworked and worn out, Christians who were so tired and disillusioned that they were ready to walk out the door that Sunday and not bother to come back. First of all, he tells them to lay aside every weight and the sin that clings to them so closely. And then he reminds them who is leading the race—who we are to keep our eyes on while we are running this race—Jesus Christ himself…but Jesus, instead of becoming discouraged, tired, and disillusioned, became more determined than ever to carry out his mission, even while knowing that division would have to take place before the peace of God could ever become a reality"
"But suffering of any sort, as Thomas Long says, these “seasons of sorrow” in our lives, whether disciplinary or just downright undeserved, can help us develop good, strong and true muscles that can come to our aid when we’re exhausted—and these muscles grow in us as we run in the race that Jesus is leading. "
"So as we run our races, surrounded by the cloud of heavenly witnesses cheering us on, the ones who have already finished the race, the writer of Hebrews reminds us to keep our eyes on Jesus, our leader, to feel him grasp our hands in his and pull us along when we’re tired and discouraged, as he’s done for all who have run before us"