INTRODUCTION
The
favorite topic for conversation at Village Place is stories from our past.
We
love to reminiscence about the good times long ago.
Sometimes
we even enjoy recalling struggles and difficulties and tribulations we have
endured.
Someone
said, “What’s bitter to experience is sweet to recall.”
That’s
not always true, but sometimes we do get satisfaction from recalling the times
when we struggled against long odds, refused to give up, and proved to
ourselves that we had the faith and courage to stick it out.
I
don’t know what we old people would do without our memories.
A
famous psychiatrist wrote in one of his books that he doesn’t envy young
people. Young people have possibilities in the future; but instead of possibilities, we old people have realities
in our past—the reality of work done
and of love loved and of sufferings bravely suffered. He says, “Those
sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud—though these are things
which cannot inspire envy” (Viktor Frankl, Man’s
Search for Meaning, (pp125 and 151).
When
I was a sophomore at the University of Kansas, my English professor assigned us
to write an essay on the subject: “What Success Means to Me.”
I
was a new Christian and had been reading Second Timothy and was impressed with
the words St. Paul wrote in his last letter included in our Bible—a letter he
wrote not long before he was executed for his faith.
When
our professor asked us to write about success, I thought right away of these
sentences in Second Timothy 4:6-8:
I am already on the point of being sacrificed;
the time of my departure has come.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the
faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day,
and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
I.
As we near the end of life, we see things more as they really are than we ever
did before.
A.
Probably, like all of us, Paul had regrets. He knew he was a sinner: he had
failed miserably at times. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul referred to
himself as the chief of sinners (1
Timothy 1:15).
I
have regrets and you have regrets.
In
one of his letters, Paul writes about his attitude toward his failures in the
past. He writes, “One thing I do,
forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press
on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”
(Philippians 3:13).
B.
As we get old and look back on our lives we see the real value of things.
We
have little desire to tell people about our business successes, or about the
degrees we earned, or awards we’ve received.
We
talk about how we survived the Great Depression.
We
talk about the work we did and about the satisfaction we received from it.
A
favorite topic of conversation for men my age is our experiences in the army or
navy during World War 2 or Korea.
We
talk about life on the farm. We talk about our school days.
We
talk about our children and grandchildren.
These
are the things in the past that we value.
II.
Paul writes, “I have fought the good
fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…
A.
Life was, for Paul, a struggle.
Do
you remember the story of Paul’s conversion on the Road to Damascus in Acts 9?
Jesus
told Paul to go into the city and he would be told what to do.
In
the meantime God visited an old disciple named Ananias.
God
sent Ananias to meet Paul. He said, “Go,
for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and
kings and the sons of Israel; for I will
show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”
So
Paul’s life was full of hardship and suffering. He was stoned and left for
dead; he was imprisoned several times. He was hated and scorned. Some of the
Christians turned against him. Some turned away from the faith.
Paul
had some kind of a physical disability he called his “thorn in the flesh.”
And
now he was facing death. He says, “I am
already on the point of being sacrificed.”
B.
Now Paul was in prison awaiting his beheading. But he was not despondent.
But
he looked back on his struggles with satisfaction: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept
the faith…”
According
to my commentary, Paul is not thinking of fighting in a war but of the struggle
of an athletic contest. A favorite sport among the ancients was wrestling. The
Christian life is like a wrestling match.
We
wrestle against our innate selfishness—the
natural desire to “look out for number one.”
We
wrestle against our own sinful
inclinations—especially the desire to take the easy way.
We
wrestle against the false values of the
world that are contrary to God’s values.
Jesus
warned that the way of the Cross would involve costly obedience. If you want an easy life, don’t follow Jesus!
C.
Life for Paul—and for you and me—has been a fight: the main thing is not to give up!
I
read about a famous Christian who refused to have his biography written in the
days of his fame and when he was still alive. He said, “I have seen too many
people fall out on the last lap of the race.”
Many
have faithfully gone to church all their lives—but near the end they drop out.
They still consider themselves Christians, but going to church is a thing of
their past. They still think they believe, but they don’t do anything about their faith!
But
you have not dropped out. The fact that you are here indicates that you are
still in the race.
One
of our residents asked me if we had a Lutheran service. When I told her we were
non-denominational, she wasn’t interested.
I
should have said, “Well, you know, there won’t be any Lutherans in Heaven—nor
any Baptists or Methodists or Catholics or Presbyterians either.
In
heaven we will have shed our labels—we will just be Christians, and we will
love each other.”
Of
course, going to church is only a small part of living for God—of keeping the
faith. But it is still important to get to church—even if it’s a humble little
service with an amateur preacher and weak singing.
It
is important that we believers meet together to encourage one another.
It
is important that we bear witness that we take
our stand with those who love Jesus.
D.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a saint of the Middle Ages wrote a beautiful hymn to
Jesus. It ends this way:
“What language can I borrow
To thank thee dearest Friend
For this Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine for ever,
And should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
Outlive my love for Thee.”
CONCLUSION
I
believe that you love God. You have served him as you were able.
You
can take heart from these words of St. Paul.
You
can look forward, as St. Paul, did to meeting Jesus and knowing that your work
was not in vain.
Whether
you’ve been successful or not…whether anyone has noticed your efforts or
not…God noticed. God takes note of faithfulness.
This
is also our encouragement to keep on to
the end.
Our
life is not yet over.
There
is more of the fight to be fought.
There
is more of the race to be run.
God
still has things for you to do.
But
in the end, we will finish the race and we will receive our “crown of
righteousness”—our Lord’s words: “Well
done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord”—and
that’s something to look forward to.
“Little things are little things, but
faithfulness in little things is something great.”
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