Our Scripture
Reading this morning comes to us from Hebrews 12:13-17
13
“Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but
rather healed. 14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be
holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls
short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and
defile many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau,
who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17
Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was
rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change
what he had done. This is the word of God for the
People of God, Thanks be to God.
The
press have been calling them the Fierce five, and for good reason, the Women’s
2012 Olympic Gymnastics team composed of Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Kyla Ross,
Jordyn Wieber and McKayla Maroney have been balancing medals, a lot of them.
The
many events that make up the Gymnastics portion of the Olympic games has four
phases: qualification, Team final, Individual All-Around final and individual
apparatus finals. So
not only do each of the Olympic team athletes have a chance to win a medal for
themselves but they also have a chance to win one for the TEAM
I
believe that this way of competition leads to more humbleness, more friendship,
more teamwork and better balance. And while these athletes may look like they achieve
great feats almost effortlessly as they went through the different gymnastic
events, such as the balance beam, floor exercise, pummel horse and vaulting,
the training off camera has been constant.
there are not many breaks, there is hard work, which the joys and pains
of training can bring.
In Hebrews 12:11,
Paul talks of the seriousness of Spiritual training, as he says,
“11 No discipline seems pleasant at
the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of
righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble
arms and weak knees.”
One
of the earliest Spiritual gymnists is
St. Symeon Stylites. Symeon was
known for very hard spiritual training. Symeon was born about the year 390 in the
mountain village of Sis, having first been a shepherd, he entered the monastic
discipline at a young age. After trying
various kinds of ascetical practices, both in the monastery and then in the
wilderness, he began standing on pillars of progressively greater height, and
heroically persevered in this for more than forty years; and to the height of
fifty feet in the air and the greater part of this time on the pillers he spent
standing upright,…..
Symeon
dedicated his life to spiritual training, and spiritual gymnastics and while we
might not all feel inclined to spend our lives standing on top of a pillar
fifty feet in the air, we are still called to spiritual training and Spiritual
gymnastics, and as we train and as we prepare God will do amazing feats within
us this is the point of the letter that
Paul writes to the Hebrew people it is a letter of encouragement, of not giving
up, of training hard and of the greatness of God’s mercy grace and love, to reinforce the need to Spiritual
training in the ways of Discipleship, but also for us to understand that we are
not to train alone. That there is a
balance to be had, a sort of Spiritual Olympics to be held within us as we
strive to train to life of holiness, of
peace with one another and love for God, we are called to a life of devotion
and a life of teamwork, building the Kingdom of God, for the transformation of
the world.
And
any gymnastic training starts with finding a balance between mind and body,
your brain has to tell your feet where to go.
Paul says, “Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but
rather healed.
When we feel that we are spiritually
lame, or dry, there might even be some periods where we feel unable to walk,
you know the feeling of having your leg fall asleep on you? There are times where it is hard to tell your
feet where to go or how to walk when your body is asleep and your mind
awake. When your leg falls asleep on you, it feels numb
and tingles, when you try to stand on it, it gives way to the weight it has
forgotten how to carry, your feet become temporarily disabled until you have to
shake it out to regain its feeling again. Sometimes this is how we can be
spiritually. Yet we are called to “make
level paths for our feet to continue walking to LEVEL out those paths so that
we will not be disabled, so that we will not fall out of our Spiritual
practices.” To Level out any path you
need to have constant movement on it. In
Hebrews 12 Paul continues the conversation by telling the people to “Make every effort to live in peace with
everyone and to be holy;
without holiness no one will see the
Lord.” Part of
our spiritual training is to find peace with each-other, that in some way when
we find ways to live in peace with one another we become closer to God and closer to living lives that are
holy.
For
Olympian athletes, while there is a sense of competitiveness between nations as
well as teammates, it is vital that the athletes make an effort to be at peace
with each other no matter the results the triumphs or disappointments. And as for the team whether it is the men’s
or woman’s swim team, the Gymnastics team, track, cycling or basketball teams,
the team does better when they support each other. while it is ok to have hopes and dreams of
the gold, it is of equally and greater importance to lift up the entire team
and not just the oneself. We are to lift
each-other up, rather than bring others down around us for our own personal
glory. As Paul says we are to “see to it
that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to
cause trouble and defile many.”
Paul explains to us that we are not
to hinder another’s path to Grace, this is one of the reasons that we have an
open table at Communion, it is another reason why we allow any and all people
to come forward and receive communion, because it is about God’s actions of Grace
and Communion is a means of accepting that Grace which God extends out to
us. Paul tells us that it is our
responsibility to make sure that others if they have the chance to not miss out
in having a heartwarming experience of God, to be filled with the Spirit and to
feel the redemptive waters that pour our forgiveness, love, grace and
redemption. The stumbling blocks of these
redemptive waters can come from ourselves when we do not prone out the roots of
bitterness which separate us from the love of God, sharing in peace with one
another and as a result cannot just defile ourselves and our relationship to
God but also others around us.
To win an achievement
or medal can be honorable, yet when we win an achievement at the expense of
others there is no glory to be had.
There always has been talk of cheating that can spring up during the
Olympic games whether there are extra weights in a toboggan, steroid use,
hurting another teammate to make a play for fame. There are always temptations to forfeit part
of the hardship of training to find an easier way, a way around the system and
the same can be said for our very souls, yet with preference comes reward, with
patience comes celebration with disappointment comes new sprouts of
possibility. The stories that stand out
and have the longest staying power post-Olympic games, are not those of the
negative, or those of cheating, but for those stories of athletes, that have
overcome. Overcome obstacles to help
support their team and country with honor and respect achieving what many might
have though unachievable, there is more joy then despair that comes from
training. And the same is true for us.
As we are called to the life of
Spiritual gymnastics, sometimes that means that we need to learn how to balance
our life, our work, our faith, our family, every part of our life, when it
might seem impossible to day, we are called to a balance, even if it is finding
a balance within chaos, we are called to a spiritual gymnastics training
balancing, stretching, moving, bending yet NOT Breaking, As Paul calls us today to,
“strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees.” Level the path, continue on, it is
not easy, but the rewards are heavenly,
Thanks be to God
AMEN
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