Seminary intern, Western Presbyterian Church
Washington, D.C.
February 15, 2009
Text: I Corinthians 9:24-27
In our Epistle lesson for today, Paul uses the metaphor of a runner to describe discipleship. I find this an intriguing way to think about Christian discipleship when we have just had the Super Bowl, March Madness and the Stanley Cup are upon us and Spring Training is just around the corner. Now, I must admit that I am not a huge sports fan so my view will be biased. Given that caveat, I find all of the professional sporting events, such as those just mentioned, the antithesis of Christian discipleship.
They are open to only a few players and to those spectators who are able to afford to participate. They are outrageously expensive productions, with outrageously paid professional athletes. Winning is everything and the looser is just that, a looser. I apologize right now to all of you whom I am offending. I beg your indulgence while I use a different type of athletic competition as a metaphor for Christian discipleship. This would be my son, Deven’s, high school cross-country and track teams.
First, however, let’s remember Paul’s context. His letter was addressed to the Christians living in Corinth. This city was a commercial hub as well as the location of the “Isthmian Games” which honored the Greek God Poseidon and which had been held about 8 miles from Corinth less than a year before the composition of this letter (NIB).
Athletic contests would have been familiar to Paul’s audience and would have been an appropriate metaphor for him to use as they were considered to be a religious event. Greek athletes needed to be disciplined and to exercise self-control, in all things. Paul uses the Greek word “panta” which means always, in every way.
In order to win an event in the Greek athletic competitions, the athlete needed to be disciplined in all aspects of life. So, too, should the Christian lead a life of discipline and self-control. The difference is that in the Greek games there was only one winner of a perishable prize, a laurel wreath. For Paul, the Christian is striving for an imperishable wreath, eternal life. Paul uses the pronouns “you” and “we”. This is not an individual running a race but the community of believers striving for the prize of eternal life. Do the Greek games sound a bit like the Super Bowl? In a way they do and so I would like to use my son’s high school team as our metaphor for Christian discipleship.
Yes, only one person, team or school came in first but for these student athletes everyone was a winner. The same is true for Christian discipleship. There are five areas I would like to suggest where Deven’s team is instructive. These are discipline, self-control, the team, the individual and strategic understanding.
Discipline is a given, it is what allows us to manage the myriad activities of life. For my son, the discipline of being on the team was a part of his life from August through May. It meant early morning practices, late night arrivals from a meet, giving up one activity in order to be where he needed to be for his sport. I especially loved the cold January mornings when, by 7 AM, I was sitting on metal bleachers in the unheated athletic center where the indoor track meets were held.
Discipline is also a component of Christian discipleship. We need to give up some of our own personal desires for the common good. This will be different for each of us. Parents and students do this all the time. How many of us are using CFL bulbs for all or most of our household lighting needs. How many of us turn down the thermostat or use alternative forms of transportation? Everyone in the congregation today needed a routine different from a Saturday or a workday in order to be here for worship. Many of us are involved in the many and varied volunteer opportunities offered by Western Presbyterian Church. Just look at the bulletin insert any Sunday, or read “Western Word” for an idea of the scope of these activities. I am also sure that many of us are involved in other forms of volunteer service. We are all giving up some of our own personal time in order to serve the common good in our neighborhoods and in the world.
Self-control goes hand-in-hand with discipline. Deven could not be out late if he had practice or a meet the next day. He watched his diet, made sure he drank plenty of water and ate nutritious snacks. By the time he graduated I did not want to see pasta or chicken for a long time as they had been staples of our diet for four years.
The discipline needed to be a disciple of Christ also requires self-control. I am sure we know of those times when we need to stop and think before responding to an unkind comment. It also takes self-control for us to marshal our resources to speak out against, or work for, causes at home and abroad. We exercise self-control when we budget our time and money in order to contribute to agencies important to us.
Self-control and discipline are necessary for both successful athletes and successful disciples. Unlike the athletic contests of ancient Greece, success is not just one individual winning a contest. For a Christian disciple, as for my son, success comes as a
communal effort. He was part of a team and that team was part of his school community. As Christians, I believe that our team is all of God’s creation.
Deven’s team trained together, worked together, consoled and celebrated together. While waiting for their own event the members of the team would be on the sideline cheering for their teammates. They cheered as loudly for the slower runners as they did for those who set records. They even cheered for another team if that team was doing especially well, or especially badly. When the cross-country meet was in a location where there was a steep hill, both in the middle and at the end of the race, anyone not running was cheering for all of the runners. The team was a community.
In much the same way the church is a community. We are a community here at Western and as the church we are all part of the body of Christ. Just as the individuals on the track team worked for the good of the team, we as individuals work for the good of the community of all of God’s creation. Christian discipleship means that we consider others when we make decisions.
We do feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoners. We might do so in a literal way by donating to a food bank or volunteering to provide literacy services in a local jail. I believe we do this as we support Project Create which feeds and clothes the imaginations of children and brings relief to their prisons of bleakness. Those of you who are involved in various artistic expressions do so even more directly. Everyone who is patient in a long check-out line is an example of Christian discipleship. And so there are the individual expressions of discipleship within the community of the church as well as of the world.
As much as the track team cheered on their teammates there is nothing like the thrill of coming in first. This was certainly celebrated. So also was the PB, the personal best of each runner. My son was pleased when his time was better than it had been in an earlier race. In fact, improving one’s own time was almost as important as winning. Well, notice that I said almost.
Each of us is called to do our own personal best; to be the best disciple that we can be at any given time in our lives. Every athlete has an event that just did not go well. Each of us has a time in our lives when we can give more and a time when we have little to give. I believe that if we are each doing what Paul suggests, “Running in such a way that you may win…”, we will be doing our best.
How do we know if we are doing our best at any one time? This is what I call “strategic understanding”. Those of you who are athletes, current, former, or just occasional ones, know that an athlete needs to learn strategies. Deven needed to learn how to run, how to position his feet and the rest of his body in order to maximize his speed. He needed to know which shoes were best for him. Some of this came from his coach, some from his team-mates and some from his own discernment.
Christian discipleship also requires “strategic understanding”. I believe we can gain this understanding through corporate and individual worship experiences. We need to engage in study and prayer. We need to experiment with which forms of prayer, which Scripture, which author will give us the understanding and discernment to know how to be the best disciple we can be.
There is one ingredient which is missing in my metaphor but which is present in our lives of discipleship. That ingredient is the grace of God which is always with us. It is the grace of God which allows Christian discipleship to be a joy and not a burden. It is this gift from God which sustains us in all that we do. It is like the pasta my son ate before a track meet. He just had to take it in and use it to do his best. God’s grace is available, more than that, it is always with us. It is there to sustain us in the smooth races and in the rough races of our lives. We don’t even need to take it in. We just need to know that this grace is freely given. We respond to that gift of grace with the gratitude that prompts us to be the best disciples we can be.
Discipline and self-control are part of what is needed to be an athlete or a disciple. Are you now feeling exhausted and burdened by this? Remember what it is like to see a very fine athlete do well or see a lovely sunset or painting or hear a wonderful piece of music. I hope that all of the effort needed to be a disciple will feel more like these experiences.
I would like to share with you a time when I experienced the most profound sense of joy I have ever felt, in a setting which should have been filled with exhaustion and despair. In 1968, I was a student delegate to an interfaith conference which was held in Calcutta. On a day when the afternoon was free, Father Fallon, a priest in Calcutta, took two of us to lunch, explaining that he had something he wanted to share with us.
During lunch in a small restaurant near the Kalighat Temple, Father Fallon told us about the work Mother Theresa was doing with the destitute men and women who were dying in the streets of Calcutta. He explained that those who had no other place to go to die would lie down in the gutters and die there. Mother Theresa opened her hospital to care for them and grant them some measure of dignity as they died. Here they had a place which was clean, and where they would receive food and care, as their lives were ending.
Father Fallon took us across the street to this hospital which consisted of just a few rooms. In each room were low cots, no more than 6 inches off the floor. Each person was being attended by one of the members of Mother Theresa’s order. I saw them gently wipe faces or give a sip of water, or a kind word.
Every time I tell this story I have chills because I have never again been in the presence of such profound joy that I knew God was present. This is both the great joy and the great burden of Christian discipleship. I know there is no way that I can even come close to what I saw that day in Calcutta. However, my charge to each of us is that we train for discipleship so that we reflect God’s grace and serve as the hands and feet of Jesus, who shows us the way.
In the name of God, our Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
