Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Very soon, we are getting ready to celebrate the Summer Olympic Games in Rio.
And as we are doing so, my mind has turned to some of the lessons we have
learned from Olympics in the past. Mainly from the 1924 Games in Paris.
Some of you may be familiar with Chariots of Fire, a film about the British team during these Olympics. It is personally one of my favorite films, particularly as a runner.
One of the focuses of this movie is on the Scottish runner, Eric Liddell. He was the missionary son of missionaries. And his primary purpose in running was to give glory to God for the abilities He had given him.
The problem that Liddell faces before the Olympics is the posting of one the heats for his event, the 100 meter dash, is on a Sunday. The day Liddell wishes to reserve to give praise and thanks to God.
Liddell makes a stand, and says he will not run this race. And of course the leaders of the British Olympic Committee, including the Prince of Wales, try to convince him otherwise. That he needs to run for the sake of national pride.
In this meeting, one member of the committee, an older gentleman, gruffly says "In my day, it was king first, God after." To which another member promptly responds "Yes, and the war to end wars bitterly proved your point."
Despite clear animosities, the situation is resolved. Lord Lindsay, another runner who had just won a medal in the hurdles says "I've already got my medal, so why don't you let Eric take my place in the 400 meters." When Eric tries to get up to thank him, Lindsay just places his arm on him and says "just to see you run."
After the crisis is over, two of the members of the committee talk about how thankful they are at the solution. And one of them, the same member who made the jab about the war to end wars, a comment which is a great recognition of the powerlessness of our reliance on things earthly. This same man thanks God that they were able to come up with this solution. Because he realizes that they were in the wrong to try and convince Liddell to run on Sunday. Because it would have separated him from the source of his speed. Which is the power of his faith. His conviction. And doing so would have ruined Eric's chances.
Some of you may be familiar with Chariots of Fire, a film about the British team during these Olympics. It is personally one of my favorite films, particularly as a runner.
One of the focuses of this movie is on the Scottish runner, Eric Liddell. He was the missionary son of missionaries. And his primary purpose in running was to give glory to God for the abilities He had given him.
The problem that Liddell faces before the Olympics is the posting of one the heats for his event, the 100 meter dash, is on a Sunday. The day Liddell wishes to reserve to give praise and thanks to God.
Liddell makes a stand, and says he will not run this race. And of course the leaders of the British Olympic Committee, including the Prince of Wales, try to convince him otherwise. That he needs to run for the sake of national pride.
In this meeting, one member of the committee, an older gentleman, gruffly says "In my day, it was king first, God after." To which another member promptly responds "Yes, and the war to end wars bitterly proved your point."
Despite clear animosities, the situation is resolved. Lord Lindsay, another runner who had just won a medal in the hurdles says "I've already got my medal, so why don't you let Eric take my place in the 400 meters." When Eric tries to get up to thank him, Lindsay just places his arm on him and says "just to see you run."
After the crisis is over, two of the members of the committee talk about how thankful they are at the solution. And one of them, the same member who made the jab about the war to end wars, a comment which is a great recognition of the powerlessness of our reliance on things earthly. This same man thanks God that they were able to come up with this solution. Because he realizes that they were in the wrong to try and convince Liddell to run on Sunday. Because it would have separated him from the source of his speed. Which is the power of his faith. His conviction. And doing so would have ruined Eric's chances.
At the end, what we do on our own does not matter. Contests, such as these, will
not always be winnable for us. The praise and glory that comes from victory will
one day be gone. Records achieved will be broken. And the memory of our deeds
will one day be lost to time.
But, what we do for God, that has lasting consequences. It can bring others to faith and give hope to those who have lost it. So if we do our actions for God, not ourselves, well then, our actions do have real worth.
This is the lesson that we hear in our readings this morning. That, as Ecclesiastes says, all that we do on our own is vanity. It is done in vain. Because whatever we accomplish will just be used to profit another. And even our worry about what the future in this life will bring is, in the end, done in vain.
And as Jesus says, in the end, what good will the goods we have stored up for ourselves be when we go to our maker? How will they help us then?
The point of these lessons, though, is not to despair. It is to realize the truth. We can accomplish nothing of worth on our own. And any gain we obtain purely for ourselves will one day come to naught.
That is why Jesus, at the end of the Gospel lesson, tells us to turn towards God, and to be rich towards Him instead of our riches in this life. And that is the truth we also gain from Paul and from the Psalm this morning.
Paul tells us to put behind the earthly things. Our wants and passions for things earthly. Our allegiances to those groups we belong to. That we are no longer "Greek or Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free."
And instead, Paul calls us to seek Christ in all things. The one who loved us so much that He was willing to die for us, so that we might be raised to the one thing that truly matters: life in Him.
Because we cannot do anything without Christ in us. As the Psalm says, "We can never ransom ourselves, or deliver to God the price of our live; For the ransom of our life is so great that we should never have enough to pay it."
Without God, anything we do is in vain. We cannot accomplish anything of
worth. And thank God we don't have to. Thank God that He came down to pay
the ransom of our life which we could not ever pay on our own.
If you want to really make your life matter, if you want to move beyond the vanity of our actions as Ecclesiastes shows us, if you want to move towards the riches of God instead of the riches of our own treasures, then look at the example of those saints like Eric Liddell. Those people who have given their lives so completely to God, that they know they can do nothing unless they offer all that they have, all that they do, and all that they are back to the One who died for us. Back to the One who without Him we could not even exist. Back to the One who showed His love for us through the death and sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
If you want to really make your life matter, if you want to move beyond the vanity of our actions as Ecclesiastes shows us, if you want to move towards the riches of God instead of the riches of our own treasures, then look at the example of those saints like Eric Liddell. Those people who have given their lives so completely to God, that they know they can do nothing unless they offer all that they have, all that they do, and all that they are back to the One who died for us. Back to the One who without Him we could not even exist. Back to the One who showed His love for us through the death and sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.