Water Tables at a 10k – Dr. Rev. Carol Kerr

Many of you know that I go jogging regularly. I have done so since I was a teenager and would go with my father. It became a life long habit and I jog about 3 miles about 3 times a week. Once, however, I decided to run in a race. It was a 10k in Cape Elizabeth around Thanksgiving called “The Turkey Trot.” Even though I never ran in a race before, I did it because I was feeling fat. That January I had given birth to Ian and had put on many pounds in the process. So, I thought signing up for a race would motivate me to run a little further and so loose some weight.

However, a couple days before the race I had come down with the 24 hour stomach flu which I was still feeling slightly weird from. I showed up for the race wearing what I always wear jogging, big ripped, faded, mismatched baggy sweats. I went to the registration table and paid my money. I got this little vest with my big yellow numbers, 132. I was feeling pretty spiffy until I went to gather where all the other runners were. There were these really tall men who were wearing matching Spandex tights and tops in neon colors that looked like they were painted on. They were warming up, with in place sprinting, and vigorous stretching. You could see their huge thigh muscles bulging out from behind the Spandex. One stranger came up to me and whispered in a low voice as if I was about to divulge a state secret “What is your race strategy?” However, that was the first time it ever occurred to me to have a strategy. My strategy was to show up, sign in, and start jogging.

I was wondering maybe I shouldn’t be here. I was wondering if I had gotten in over my head. It was like I had found myself in the middle of a bull fight. These people around me were the bulls snorting and pounding the ground. Their strategies were like the red capes the matador’s flinging to and fro in front of the bulls. If this was a bull fight, I was Ferdinand the bull. I am the most uncompetitive runner ever. I never time myself. I never do intervals, I don’t take my heart rate or keep charts, or pack carbs. When I go jogging, I trot along, enjoy the weather, and stop to pet as many dogs as I can.

The race started and I immediately fell behind everyone. There was one other nice woman who was slow too. She could see this was my first race. Out of mercy she jogged along next to me to keep me company. The only problem was that my shoe laces kept untying. So, I had to keep stopping and tie them. Finally, she wondered if I would mind if she went on ahead.

Then I was all alone. Right when I was sure I was on the wrong road, I turned a corner and there was a water table. On the ground around the table there was a kind of mayhem of Dixie cups left behind by the runners. But there were a few remaining cups on the table. There were three people standing behind the table. When they saw me they started cheering, “Good job, you can do it! Keep going!” Since I never had been in a race before I was totally surprised, not only by the water, but by the cheers. They held out a dixie cup just for me. I wasn’t at all thirsty, it was about 45 degrees and overcast. But, I stop and drank it anyway because they were just so nice. I thanked them and went on my way with “You can do it” and applause trailing behind me.

There were two more water tables. I loved them. Each one waited until I came before they packed up. When they saw me they started cheering as if I was the first and not the last.. I would wave, smile, and stop and drink some water not because I was particularly thirsty, but because they were so nice. They would encourage me, “Not far to go now! You are only about 10 minutes behind the last guy. He was limping so I think you might catch up. “

Between the second and the third water table, Dave drove by with Gavin and Ian in the car. They rolled down the window and cheered me on too! What a pleasant surprise. Finally I passed the finish line, more hydrated with water than I had been in years, and only 5 minutes behind the guy limping. I was dead last. But, I didn’t care. I loved the race because I loved people cheering me on.

Life is like running a race with no experience. We are born at the starting line with no strategy, no instructions, and little coaching. In life we face challenges and situations that have never encountered and often never expected. The world often doesn’t run like the world we grew up in and we are unprepared. There are strange twists and turns that unnerve us. For instance, any one going through a divorce never expected to find themselves in that situation. They wonder how did my marriage turn out this way? What happened? Anyone who ever had a serious illness never expected that to happen. They come home one day and pick up the messages on their answering machine with a message from the nurse saying the doctor want to talk to you about the results of your test. Or, who here expected to be in a recession as deep as the Depression of 1930’s? There are middle class citizens living in tents down in Florida. They didn’t expect they would be unemployed and bankrupt when they graduated from college 20 years ago. Parent’s never expect to get a call from the police telling them that there daughter is caught with drugs on her.

The writer of Hebrews knew about this race we of life that we are in. They also were running it. They also had encountered strange and unexpected twists and turns. The letter is addressed to Christians who are facing an uncertain future. It is sometime around the year AD 100 so these people represented the third and fourth generation of Christians. They can recall the faith of their grandparents who had eagerly expected the return of Jesus. And, as the writer of Hebrews reminds them, there was a time when their own faith was strong. And they had stood up to threats and public torment. But now that strong, clear faith was slipping away. Christ had not returned. Persecution was increasing. The future looked grim. The initial enthusiasm of faith was waning and the community was unraveling. What in the world would give those Christians the courage to move boldly into the future?

The writer of Hebrews tells them: Christ has gone first. Christ is already leading the way, he knows the route and has already made it past the finish line. It says, “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfector of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross.”

As if that were not enough that Christ has gone first, the writer of Hebrews reminds us of generation after generation of faithful heroes and heroines in the Hebrew scripture who preceded Christ. Chapter 11, is the prelude to the verses we have read. It is a litany of woman and men who “by faith” endured every form of suffering and pain and disillusionment. The author gathers them all together in dramatic image calling them a cloud of witnesses. By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain did, and still speaks even through he is death. By faith Enoch was taken from this life and was commended as one who pleased God. By faith Noah was warned by God and built his ark. By faith Abraham was called to go to a place he did not know to receive his inheritance. By faith Abraham, and Sarah even though they were passed age were enabled to become parents. It continues a long list of people who lived by faith and then says that all these people were still living by faith and saw the things promised and welcomed them from a distance. It says that by faith they were aliens and strangers in this world and were looking for a better country a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for God has prepared a city for them. And so it says, faith is being sure of what we hope for, proof of what we do not see. This cloud of faithful witnesses surround us now and are cheering us on as we run the long-distance race they too ran.

We run the race. But, at times our hearts grow faint. We think we don’t have what it takes, aren’t prepared, had no idea what we got ourselves into. Perhaps you are feeling that now? But then we have come to church to day and it is “All Saints Day.” This Sunday we pause and listen to the great chant of the saints, that cloud of witnesses that have run the race before us cheering us on, no matter how slow we are. “Run the race, run the race! Look to Jesus, look to Jesus!”

Like the race I was in, at church these saints gather around a table waiting for us to refresh us. It isn’t the water table, it is the communion table. It quenches our thirst with many little cups, the blood of Christ, and satisfies our hunger with little broken pieces of bread, the body of Christ. There will be a time during todays’ sacrament where we can name the names of those saints that mean a lot to us. People we have known. They may be people who are still alive. They may be people who have passed on. But they have been people who have been our teachers, and mentors in the faith. Maybe it is a friend who died in High school of cancer, but you still hear his voice saying “I just want to see Jesus.” Maybe, it is a Sunday School teacher who had done mission in Honduras, and you can still hear her voice asking, “How are you doing

There are times when we have been in church and come to the communion table bearing burdens and worry and we receive the sacrament and listen to the choir and once again hear the chant, “Run the race, run the race, look to Jesus, look to Jesus!” Perhaps there is a surge of hope in your heart when things look hopeless. Perhaps it reminds you of a friends encouragements. Perhaps it is the patience to pick up on foot and put it in front of the other and get through another day. Perhaps it is the silent prayer that was filled with a mysterious presence as you feel the communion wine trickle down your throat. Perhaps it was when you stood up against injustice and your knees were shaking and your voice quivering but you heard inside a voice crying out for what is right and good and just. “Run the race, run the race, look to Jesus look to Jesus.”

Listen for their voices. For when you hear them, you will see that Christ ahs gone before you and first. You will drink and eat and receive the grace and strength to go on and finish the race.