Conversations with Paul: Finish the Race Sermon 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. Amen.

Throughout this month we have looked at Paul’s second letter to Timothy. We have seen how Paul uses this last occasion to offer Timothy some encouragement and some confidence so that Timothy can continue working on what Paul began. Paul knew that his time was almost at an end. You can hear that in the words from our Scripture lesson. Paul knows that this might be the final conversation that Paul has with Timothy. So he concludes his letter with some final advice. Paul wants Timothy to follow his example of living and evangelizing. Paul wants Timothy to endure to the end, to work until it is Timothy’s time to make that final journey. Paul uses the example of an athlete, a long distance runner, to make his point of endurance. Paul tells Timothy that he has finished his race and he kept the faith until the end.

Paul wants Timothy to be like a marathon runner. A marathon is 26.2 miles long. Most of us get tired if we have to drive that distance much less run it. A marathon runner is much different than a sprinter. A sprinter runs as fast as he/she can for a short distance, 100 or 200 meters, but a marathoner has to pace him/herself and endure to the end. It is like the old saying goes, slow and steady wins the race. The same is true in the Christian life. We must make a slow and steady effort in order to endure through the trials and tribulations of this life. If we run to fast on our own or if we leave our brothers and sisters behind we might find ourselves burned out and lost on the side of the road. We must run and endure together.

Paul gives Timothy three ways of endurance to use in our Christian life. Just as a runner needs water or GatoradeÒ to replenish fluids lost in sweat, these are the necessities that one needs along the Christian journey. One is to give one’s whole self to God not begrudgingly, but with joy. Second, is to live a forgiving life and finally, to rely on God, not on ourselves, for our strength.

Paul tells Timothy that he is “poured out like a libation”. A libation is a drink offering made to a god or goddess and was done by many religions including Judaism; this is the context that Paul was most likely coming from. One would pour wine or oil on the altar or into a fire and offer it as a sacrifice to God. This observance was done in joyfully obedience, it was not an offering for penance or to remove guilt, but was a joyful sacrifice made to God who blessed the person on some way. Paul poured himself out to God, fully and completely. Paul put his entire self, his mind, body, and soul in God’s hands and followed where God’s send him. This is what Paul asked Timothy to do and this is what God asks of us today. Paul described the human body and life as a living sacrifice to God to be put to use to further God’s kingdom.

This is to be done joyfully not with reservation or reluctance. It is also not to be done out of fear of punishment. How many people work their whole lives for the Church because they are afraid of going to Hell? This kind of motivation only causes resentment and malice towards God. This is not what God wants. He wants service not out of fear, but out of love given joyfully. This is the sacrifice that Paul made. He had such an experience on the Damascus Road, such an experience of love and power that his only reaction, his only course of action was to give himself entirely to God. Have you had an experience like that, an experience so deep that you had no alternative, but to pour yourself out to God, fully and joyfully?

The work of the Church is God’s work. It is not my work or your work it is the work of God. I have told you the story of the rock singer Bono, but it is such a good story and it touched me so deeply that I want to share it again. Bono was preparing to go on tour and he was talking with his local priest. Bono felt like nothing he was doing was being blest by God and the priest told him to stop. Stop asking God to bless what you are doing; instead get into what God is doing because that is already blest. Remember that God gave of himself fully on the cross of Calvary. God stretched out his arms for us and gave everything that he had and God expects nothing less from us. A marathon runner does not wake up one morning and decide to run the race. It takes months if not years of training to prepare one’s body for the endurance it takes to run a marathon. A runner has to give 100% in order to be successful. In order to endure and be successful in the Christian life, we have to give 100% to God and put our entire selves in God’s work.

Secondly, we have to live a forgiving life. When Paul was arrested he was abandoned and betrayed by almost every person he had worked with. Paul said that no one came to his defense and he was placed in prison with no hope of being free again. Paul had every right to be angry and to hold those people accountable, but instead he demonstrates his forgiving nature, by asking God not to hold their betrayal against them. He asks God to forgive them just as he had forgiven them. Paul forgave them even though what those people had done caused him so much pain and suffering. That sounds familiar doesn’t it? Paul was following the example of Christ as he hung on the cross. Jesus asked God to forgive those people even as they drove the nails into his flesh. Paul followed that example and we should follow both their examples.

I have said this before and I will say it again now that holding a grudge is like drinking poison ourselves and waiting for someone else to die. It damages our very spirits and poisons our souls. Hold grudges hurts not only ourselves, but those around us as well. It is a selfish way of life; it puts our lives and our needs above everyone else’s. Unforgiveness destroys relationships and divides communities. There is nothing that can destroy a church faster than people with unforgiving hearts. We must realize that forgiveness brings freedom; forgiveness lifts a burden from our shoulders. A marathon runner would not run with a piano on his/her back. We cannot hope to endure through this life with the burden of unforgiveness.

Finally we must rely on God’s strength if we are to endure this life. Paul said that when everyone else had abandoned him, when he thought he was alone. God stood with him. Paul was relying on God’s strength not his own. Paul had to endure many things in his ministry and only by leaning on God could he have survived the journey. Paul relied on God to rescue him from evil attacks and the hardships of life.

We cannot rely on our own strength. We simple are not strong enough to endure the evil in this world. There are so many bad things happening in this world. I saw a reporter in California reporting on the wildfires only to see his own house, a place he had lived for 25 years go up in flames. How can a person recover from something like that or the death of a child without the strength of God? We must put our trust in God’s strength. Paul said that he could do anything with God in his corner. No matter what this world might throw at us and no matter where we might find ourselves God is with us. That is the beauty of God’s love. God’s love endures forever. It was there in the beginning of time and he will be there throughout eternity. Runner’s talk about what is called hitting the “wall”. The wall is when your body feels like it can’t go any further. Your muscles are burning, your joints are aching and you feel like you might explode. But then something strange happens, you catch your second wind, the endorphins, the pain killing chemicals in our brains, are released and you become recharged and rejuvenated and are able to continues. God’s strength is our second wind. God is always there to give us the push when we need it and sometimes God is there to carry us when we cannot go further by ourselves.

We do not endure for nothing. Our reward is coming soon. With each day that we endure we are a day closer to the kingdom of God, a place of peace, a place with no evil, with no pain, with no sadness. We are one day closer to seeing those who have gone before us. The finish line is in sight, can you see it in the distance? The finish line when all our work is ended and our rest will come. Until then we have miles to travel and a race left to run. Can we endure to the end? If we have God with us and if we have each other in communion together, I believe we can.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.