A pastor named Ivan Downing had decided to retire from the ministry, and one Sunday it was time to explain his decision to the congregation. He said, “I wear two hearing aids and trifocal glasses; I have a partial plate; and I sometimes walk with a cane. It seems to me that the Lord is telling me it’s time to retire.” After the service, an older woman in the congregation came up to Rev. Downing and said, “Pastor, you have misinterpreted what the Lord has been saying to you. He’s not telling you it’s time to retire; he’s telling you that if you keep going, he’ll keep you patched up!”
Rev. Downing clearly had a faith that was built to last, if he made it in ministry long enough to be old enough to require all those physical assistance aids. And in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, we are reminded of a whole cast of Biblical characters who had that kind of faith, too. The writer started with Abel, the second son of Adam and Eve, who offered the better sacrifice to God because of his faith. There was Noah, who was obedient and built a ship in the middle of the desert because he believed what he could not see. There was Abraham, who, in spite of everything, never stopped believing that God would keep his promises. There was Moses, raised in the wealth and power of pharaoh’s household, who chose to be mistreated as a Hebrew slave and led his people to the Promised Land. There was Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets.
To that list of Old Testament characters, we would add the names of Christian saints. Surely, we would have to include Simon Peter, who was transformed from a simple, uneducated fisherman into the Rock on which the church was built. He became a powerful and eloquent preacher, who traveled to Rome, where he was martyred in the year 65 under the persecution of Nero, being crucified upside down.
We might also add the women who followed Jesus, leaving behind their families and their good reputations in the process. They supported the work of Jesus out of their own means. It was unheard of in that day for woman to travel unaccompanied by a husband or father, much less in the company of other men. And yet they came, following Jesus all the way to the foot of the cross and becoming the first witnesses to his resurrection.
And what about Paul? He was born a Roman citizen, and was well-educated in secular knowledge as well as Jewish law, taught by Gamaliel, the greatest Hebrew scholar of his day. Paul became the earliest persecutor of the church, supervising the stoning of Stephen, and yet was God’s chosen instrument to take the gospel to the Gentiles. In less than 30 years, he established churches along the main roads and in the major cities from Antioch to Rome. He was the first great theologian of the church. Tradition tells us that he was executed under the persecution of Nero by beheading.
A man named Justin Martyr was born around 100 to Gentile parents in Samaria. He was converted to Christianity due to the courage of the early martyrs. He was a highly educated man and used his knowledge to defend Christianity, even to the Roman emperor. He wrote about how the New Testament was the fulfillment of the Old Testament and worked to prove that Jesus was really the Messiah. He was put on trial with six other Christians in 165 and courageously faced his death, telling the emperor, “You can kill us, but you cannot hurt us.”
Origen was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 185. He was well-educated and became the greatest Christian scholar of his time. He defended the Christian faith against both heretics and the Roman authorities. His father was beheaded in 202, at the outbreak of a new persecution, and Origen wanted to join him in his martyrdom. But his mother prevented him from going by hiding all his clothes! Origen traveled in Europe and the Near East as a mediator who settled church disputes. In 250, he was put in prison and brutally tortured under the persecution of Emperor Decius. He was eventually released but died three years later as a result of his injuries.
Catherine of Sienna was born in Italy in 1347, one of 24 children. She felt a sense of duty to reform the church, to evangelize, to comfort the sick and the poor, and to visit condemned prisoners. And yet she longed to be an activist at a time when women’s religious vocation was supposed to mean leaving confined in a convent, secluded from the world. Catherine never joined a convent, because that would have limited her too much. She attracted a huge group of followers, both men and women, mostly lay people. They nursed those who had cancer and leprosy and visited prisoners. Catherine even preached informally. Through her letters, she influenced many people in power, including the pope.
Martin Luther was born in Germany in 1483. He became a monk and professor, but as he studied scripture, he came to believe in justification by grace alone through faith alone. He said that the Bible should be the only authority for Christians, not the pope. He wanted to work to reform the church and correct the abuses he saw, such as the corruption of the priests. He was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1521, but he continued to write and teach, advising both princes and pastors. He also translated the Bible into German, so that common people could read it for them-selves.
Teresa of Avila was born in 1515 into a deeply religious family. When she was a child, she tried to run away to the Holy Land, along with her brother, hoping to be martyred by the Turks, but she was safely returned home to her family. She was educated at home, under the supervision of her father, and at sixteen was sent to a convent for further schooling. She eventually decided to become a nun herself but did not feel that the Carmelites were strict enough. She developed a heightened spiritual state, which led her to become a reformer. In 1563, she created the Discalced (Shoeless) Carmelite order, whose nuns lived under a much stricter rule. Teresa wrote The Way of Perfection, a guide to the mystical and contemplative life. She wrote it mostly for her nuns and said that it was their primary obligation to save the church from Protestants. She also expected the nuns to pray for the salvation of all people. Teresa suffered for most of her life with various physical ailments, including partial paralysis. She died in 1582, and in 1622 Pope Gregory XV proclaimed her a saint.
William Carey, who lived from 1761 till 1834, is known as the Father of Modern Missions. He was born in England and educated himself through night school. He was convinced of the great need for foreign missions and volunteered to go to India. He served there for 40 years. The first seven years, which he spent near Calcutta, were very difficult, and he made no converts. Due to poor food supply and inferior health care, his 5-year-old son died. Then, in 1800, his family moved to a new city, and within three years he had made 25 converts. After working for 25 years, the number had risen to 700. Carey also translated the Bible into six of the languages of India. He was committed to creating an indigenous church through training nationals and adapting the gospel to their context. He also called for women to come and serve as missionaries in order to reach out to the Indian women.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran theologian and pastor in Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler and the beginning of World War II. He had great concern for justice and for world peace. His book, The Cost of Discipleship, has influenced millions of people worldwide. Bonhoeffer openly opposed the Nazis and criticized Hitler from 1933 onward. He became involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler in 1940, being used as a courier because of his contacts in other countries. Even though he had no direct role in the assassination attempt, his name was discovered as being connected with the conspirators. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp. After being accused of being associated with the plot to assassinate Adolf
Hitler, he was quickly tried, along with other accused plotters, and then executed by hanging on April 9, 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing. His ideas on resistance have influenced both the South African anti-apartheid movement and the liberation theology of South America.
There have been countless other Christian saints who have lived before us. Maybe they were famous; or maybe they were relatively unknown, people like a Sunday School teacher, or a grandmother, or a friend, or even a spouse. Your list might include teachers, coaches, Scout leaders, choir directors, pastors, parents, or classmates. They are all a part of what we call the great cloud of witnesses, encouraging us in our own walk of faith. They all had a faith that lasts. But that faith did not come about because things were always easy for them. Quite the contrary. Their faith was able to endure because it was made strong through hard times. You don’t always know how strong your faith is until it is tested in some way.
Back in the early 1990s, a series of tornadoes swept across Alabama on Palm Sunday. Goshen United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Alabama suffered a direct hit from one of the tornadoes during its Palm Sunday service. The children had gathered at the front of the church to put on a Holy Week play. The church was literally destroyed, and a number of people were killed, including some of the children. One of the children who died was the daughter of Pastor Kelly Clem. She not only had to try to deal with her own grief, but with the grief of her congregation as well. I remember in one interview, the reporter asked her how she was managing to get through. She said, “You don’t know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” I’ve never forgotten that. Kelly Clem had a faith that is built to last.
We know that we can build a faith that lasts, because so many others before us have done that. A man named Longinus wrote about the heroes of Greek literature and philosophy, but his words apply to heroes of faith as well. He said, “When the faces of these people come before us … they will … illumine our road and will lift us up to those standards of perfection which we have imagined in our minds.”
One of my favorite Christian singers is Larnelle Harris, and a number of years ago he recorded a song that is a fitting conclusion for this sermon:
I’ve got hope when things look bad, and I can smile when I should be sad.
I’ve got friends who lift me up when I’m feeling low, and they watch over me wherever I may go.
There’s the Father, right by his Son, and the angels, each and every one,
and other friends I miss so much and I long to see,
but knowing I’ll be with them one day comforts me.
I’ve got friends in high places, so high, but not so far away.
I’ve got friends in high places, and I’m gonna be with them someday.
Why should I run, why should I hide?
What’s there to fear when my friends are on my side?
