Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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As a runner, one of my all-time favorite films is Chariots of Fire. It tells the story of the 1924 Olympic Track & Field team from Britain. One of the members of that team, and one of the two runners the film gives particular focus to, is the Scottish missionary Eric Liddell.
One of Liddell’s great struggles was having his heat for his event, the 100-meter. scheduled on a Sunday. As a missionary and a person of Faith, this was something Liddell, in good conscience, couldn’t do. He almost backed out of the Olympics completely until a fellow teammate gives him his spot in another race, the 400-meter.
Throughout the film, we see Liddell preach, oftentimes after a race. At the Olympics, we see him preach as others on his team are racing. The text he chooses includes the portion we read from Isaiah today.
Because his teammates have their own races, his reading these words from Isaiah are interwoven with scenes from the various events. There’s a lot of struggle and hardship there. It all ends with Liddell quoting from the very end of our reading:
“They shall run, and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.”
It’s powerful to juxtapose this passage with the images of these other runners failing. It reminds us of the hardships of life, the difficulties we all face.
It also fits with what we see of Liddell in the film. In one of his earlier sermons, he tells his listeners that he knows they face hardships. “You go home, maybe your dinner’s burned,” he says. “Maybe you haven’t got a job,” he adds.
He ends this sermon talking about the power of Christ Jesus, right there in our hearts. He reminds his listeners that “the Kingdom of God is within you.” “Where does the power come to see the race to its end?” he asks. “From within.”
It’s not that we don’t face hardships in life. We do. Liddell recognizes this for us. Yet God is still there with us throughout our difficulties, helping us to get through.
The people Isaiah originally spoke to would have understood that too. In fact, our reading from Isaiah today comes from a portion generally known as Second Isaiah. This part of the book would have been written by a different prophet than Isaiah, one from the same school of thought who came many years after.
Isaiah spoke to Israel in the time before the Exile, when the Israelites were taken from their homeland. Second Isaiah is speaking in the time of that Exile, when the Israelites are far from home and have very little hope for what’s ahead.
Even with all the pain and anxiety the Israelites are going through and the separation and change they faced, Second Isaiah gives them a message of hope. Even with all that is going on, God is with them. Even with all that has happened to them, God is at their side. Even when it looks like there is no hope ahead, God will be there to help them make it through.
Second Isaiah’s message is ultimately one of hope. It is a message that though things are dark now, God will bring them to light. It is a message that the Israelites will one day return to the Land of Promise.
The hope Second Isaiah gives is the same hope that Eric Liddell latched on to well over a millennium later. It’s the same hope we need right now. When the world seems to be collapsing all around us, God is still there. When life seems hard and disappointing, God is still there. When it doesn’t seem like anything will change, God is there to tell us that it will, though it may take a lot longer than we would want or desire.
Bad times do come to an end. Difficulties are overcome. It does take time, and that time can add to our sense of despair. If we can listen to the words of Second Isaiah, if we can hear what Eric Liddell has to say, we will know in our hearts that God is there. If we hold onto the hope of Jesus, we will have that power to run and not be weary. If we embrace that hope, we will be able to get through because we will know we are not alone. At the very least when we are in the worst of our despair, we will know that we don’t cry or break down by ourselves. We have the Creator of the world as our companion who is there to cry with us and let us know that we never have to do so without the Lord at our side and in our hearts.