July 14, 2024 Traditional | On Track: Equanimity

With both of our kids

being choir to my wife Whitney me and

I had to keep ourselves entertained for an

entire are week, you know, we're at that

stage in our lives where she and I

have lots of opportunities to hang out together,

what with the boys you know, very busy

social schedules and the demands of their extracurricular

activities.

It's kinda weird honestly,

our oldest is 17. So all these years,

you know, our lives have all drum, the

boys.

So not having

1 or both of the boys around nearly

all the time is

something new.

We're adjusting.

We're We very much love each other's company.

So so what's all good, But it just

so happens that while the boys were on

k to or She and I watched several

historical

films. You know, Amazon Prime has that feature

where they recommend,

movies we think you'll like. So what they

call it, and they they had several movie

recommendations about historical

incidents. And so far, all the films that

they've recommended had been very good. So we've

watched the imitation game. If you've ever seen

that 1. That stars been at a c.

It's about the British breaking the Nazis

secret radio codes or world war 2. Great

mood. We've seen

Parkland about the Kennedy assassination, starring paul Ama

as Abraham

Zap p.

We watched a movie called the report, which

was is about the investigation into the Cia

use of so called enhanced interrogation techniques

after 09:11,

And we finally

got around to watching

Oppenheimer, been wanting to watch it for a

year. Last year's

I guess this year's Oscar Winner for best

motion picture about the development of the the

nuclear bomb.

All of these films

were excellent. They all tell these very compelling

stories

about,

important historical

events. They all shed light on things that

you know, deserve our attention,

and they also

tell the truth about the complexities of life.

And an excellent example

is

the story of Robert

Oppenheimer.

Last year's brilliant film by Christopher Nolan

was an adaptation of part of the equally

brilliant and much more thorough biography of Oppenheimer

by K bird and Martin She.

Oppenheimer was a was a complicated,

imperfect man with an at times troubling

history. But

as a Jewish scientist,

he was crystal clear in his moral assessment

of Nazi Germany and he he may very

well have been the only person on Earth

who had the the charisma, the drive and

the grasp both con... Quantum physics.

To lead a team that could,

win a race of unimaginable

consequences,

which, of course, the United States did,

which, of course, brought the war with Japan

to a close

several months after the nazis had surrendered.

The goal of beating the nazis to the

bomb became almost irrelevant,

in the final analysis, difficult decisions that had

to be made at the end of this

just uni

awful

conflict

And the legacy of the Manhattan project would

would haunt Oppenheimer for the rest of his

life. It would lead to a complicated legacy

of his own

because as the movie makes clear as the

history makes clear, even the most

obvious choice a between good

and evil led to

difficult and morally complicated

outcomes.

And that's because

life is full of complexities,

and it always has been.

Which brings us to our subject for today.

This is week 2 of our 4 week

sermon series on track

throughout the month of July as the world

prepares to turn its attention to the Paris

20 24 summer are Olympics, which show... It's

going to be wonderful. I'm sure. We're going

to be exploring

in scripture places where sports metaphors show up

sports metaphors that illustrate the journey of faith.

Last week, we kicked off with a passage

from the letter to the Hebrews

that highlights the need for perseverance.

In our spiritual lives.

Today, we're turning to the book of

ec,

which is a book of the bible about

which people have

honestly mixed feelings.

Ec is in the Wisdom tradition, and it

deals with very practical theology. It's written from

the perspective of

an aging,

rich,

powerful man who is looking back on his

own life and

assessing the state of the world in general.

Now tradition as describes it to solomon,

but the scholar of the evidence makes clear

that it was written centuries after the time

of David's son.

And its tone,

and its message

and its wisdom in the wisdom tradition.

Are pretty different than than their places in

scripture.

Some read the books, 12 chapters as kind

of bleak,

in a sense,

depicting a life that is

fleeting and empty of

meaning. For example,

the second verse of the book says Vanity

of Vanity says the teacher, vanity of van.

All as vanity.

Mh.

But others read it in the in the

context of Eastern philosophy,

in which the world is seen as a

mystery in which,

good and bad things happen

sometimes see without explanation,

in which our relationship with God

is the thing that gives our lives comfort

and and meaning and purpose.

Cards on the table. I love ec.

I appreciate it's honesty. I appreciate its clear

headed,

when it comes to the complexities and and

challenges

of the world and we're gonna kind of

unpack some of that together.

Today. So our reading is actually from a

relatively obscure part of book from the ninth

chapter.

I'm gonna read the first 6 versus of

the chapter now. We'll come back and read

the rest later. So listen friends for the

Word of God as it is proclaimed by

God's servant, the author of ec,

the

All this,

I laid to heart,

examining it all how the righteous and the

wise and their deeds

are in the hand of god.

Whether it is love or hate,

1 does not know.

Everything that comforts them as vanity

since the same fate comes to all to

the righteous and to the wicked to the

good and the evil to the queen and

the uncle

to those who sacrifice

and those who do not sacrifice.

As are the good, so are the sinner,

those

who swear are like those who shu a

oath.

This is an evil in all that happens

under the sun that the same thing comes

to everyone

Moreover the hearts of all are full of

evil madness in their hearts while they live.

And after that, they go to the dead.

But whoever is joined with all the living

has hope

for a living dog is better than a

dead lion.

The living know that they will die, but

the dead know nothing.

They have no more reward, and even the

memory of them is lost.

Their love and their hate and their envy

have already perished.

Never again, will they have any share in

all that happens

under the sun.

And this is the word of God for

the people of God.

Thanks, Peter God.

Alright. That was 6 versus

a lot in there,

and you may be thinking,

Chris. What exactly does this have to do

with the Olympics,

which is a fair question. We're gonna get

to the sports metaphor in the in the

second half of the reading.

We should talk for a minute here about

the author. Because, this is a passage. This

is a book that is written from the

first person singular

perspective, which is actually... It's a pretty infrequent

point of view in the Bible. And the

opening verse of ec

tells us that these are, quote, the words

of the teacher.

The teacher is a sage, a wise person

who has lived long and prosper life and

who's trying to pass on to others,

what he has learned. And as I mentioned,

You know, people are divided in their opinion

of this book if you've read it. You

probably have a strong opinion 1 way or

another about this book. Some

read it to be pessimistic

with not enough faith in the power of

God.

While some read it to be an honest

to say assessment of the difficulties and

of life,

trusting that God is with us through it

all.

And much of this

difference of opinion,

really comes down to the interpretation of the

phrase that I read earlier, vanity of Van

says the teacher of vanity of Van all

is vanity.

Now,

those who dislike ec,

vanity to mean

meaningless

or

absurdity

or

emptiness.

And if if everything is emptiness and a

absurdity or if this author believes that everything

is emptiness and absurdity

why exactly do we care what the teacher

has to say.

Right?

But that word

Vanity

in in hebrew is he,

EVEL,

and it literally means

breath or

or breeze,

which is before something that's important, but that's

only there briefly.

And so, I read that verse vanity of

Vanity says the teacher of Vanity of Van

all is vanity. I read that to mean

that life is

fleeting.

Life on on this side of the grave,

and no matter how many years we're given

is

nonetheless

temper.

And the teacher is clear that in our

fleeting lives,

we should be present in this moment.

Grateful for what God. It's given us aware

that God

is with us and authentically knowing that that

we control very little of what happens

in this life.

And that that eastern philosophy

or better put that theology

is what's captured in the most famous passage

from ec

the third chapter which begins with the verse,

which you surely have heard for everything.

There is a season and a time for

every matter under heaven.

And then that section of ec

goes on to list 14 pairs of of

realities a time to be born and a

time to die. A time to week, and

a time to laugh, a time to mourn

and a time to dance.

And while

chapter 3 is the most famous part of

ec,

all of its 12 chapters

contain that same kind of wisdom that life

can be

wonderful

and blessed and also sorrow

and grief

we can experience tremendous success and and terrible

failure. We can be built up by those

around us and we can be oppressed by

those who have power over us. We can

be

consumed with our desires,

and we can be glorious

glorious content with whatever it is

that we have.

In my harper column study bible the heading

for our for our reading today is take

life as it comes.

Which seems like pretty wise advice, really.

The teacher is saying that all of us

are a mixed bag.

Got. We're all imperfect. We're all

sinner. We can all be, you know, selfish

and and and shorts sighted.

We we all have the capacity for hate

and envy.

If we're honest with ourselves, we know that

we can we can miss the mark. That's

what the teacher is saying and ec and

certainly

in our passage from ninth chapter.

But there's another side of us.

We also have the capacity for great love

and virtue. Of for honesty and and generosity

and and goodness. We all have it within

ourselves to love

God

with all of our heart soul mind and

strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

We've got both of these possibilities

within us.

And an un

look at the world makes clear

that the sun rises and falls on the

best

and the worst of us all.

Now,

unfortunately, for God's people,

it's it's not just the faithful who thrive

I mean,

we would love that. That would be awesome

if only God's faithful

thrived. But the teacher says, and we read

it. The same fate comes to all to

the righteous and the wicked to the good

and the evil to the queen and the

uncle to the to those who sacrifice and

those who do not

sacrifice.

It's not as though only the faithful succeed

is not as though only people who suffer

are those who don't love God.

That's not the way the world works.

And that's not the way God works in

the world. We know that.

Now our divine reward is more spiritual than

that As followers of Jesus, we believe that

it's eternal.

But the question that this author is

asking the question that this author is trying

to answer

is how is it in such a world

are we to live

today?

So he he gets into that at the

end of our

reading here chapter 9 versus

7 through 11.

Go,

eat your bread with enjoyment and drink your

wine

with a merry heart.

For God has long ago approve what you

do.

Let your garments always be white. Do not

let oil be lacking on your head.

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love,

all the days of your

vain life, your ep life, your temporary life

that you are given

under the sun because that is your portion

in life and in your toil at which

you toil under the sun, whatever, your hand

finds to do

do with your mind.

For there's no work or thought or knowledge

or wisdom,

in chill

to which you are going.

Again,

I saw that that under the sun

the race is not to the swift,

nor the battle to the strong,

nor the bread to the wise,

nor riches to the intelligent

nor favor to the skill,

but time and chance

happened them to them mall.

Last week, we learned from the letter to

the Hebrews that are that our spiritual journey

should be marked by perseverance.

Meaning the steadfast and patient endurance

that the life of faith requires.

Well, this week, The author of rec ec

is commend to us the value of e.

I love that word. It was my word

for the year, 1 year. It means

the mental balance of

being calm and even tempered

through the up and downs of life.

Because our spiritual journeys unfold in a world

full of complexities and joys and

sorrows in the context of communities

filled with people who may or may not

have value similar

to hours in a life

that will throw at us,

loss and illness and sorrow and and distractions.

The race is not always to the swift.

We know that. The battle is not always

to the strong. The victory is not always

to the faithful the blessings are not always

to the righteous.

At the Paris some Olympics in a few

weeks, some who cheat

may very well not get caught, and they

might win and get all the glory.

And and some who are truly the best

at their sport may stumble or they may

make a mistake and miss the metal stand

entirely.

There is

0 chance that a hundred percent of the

results in every event will accurately

reflect the best of the best of the

more than 10000 athletes for more 200 countries

who will compete.

We know that.

Because the world is not a perfect place.

And things don't always go like they should.

But at the end of it all, the

teacher notes in the last chapter

of ec

this.

He says all must go to their eternal

home.

And the dust

returns to earth as it was

and the breath

returns to god who gave it.

Which means

that our spiritual lives are on track when

we have the e to accept life as

it is.

Even even when things are not as they

should be to be grateful

to the god who has blessed us with

this day

and and to walk humbly with the 1

who

we love with all of our heart and

soul and mind and strength.

Come what name.

There's a name you may know,

Rick H. He was born in 19 62,

and he had cerebral palsy.

He was quad

as a result of that condition. He was

unable to move his limbs. He was unable

to speak.

When he was 10, he began to use

a a specialized computer to help him communicate.

And when he was 15 and 19 77,

he asked for something that seemed

impossible. There was AA5

mile benefit run somewhere in their area for

AAA

cross player who had been paralyzed in an

accident.

And, Rick told his father, he wanted to

participate. He wanted to show this young man

that that,

things were still possible. It was still possible

to be an active teenager

despite the challenges that life throws at you.

Now, Rick's father, whose name was Dick.

Was 37 years old at the time. He

was not an endurance athlete,

any he and he certainly never

never aspire to be a distance runner.

But he couldn't tell his son no.

And so they ran the race.

They finished second to last,

and they started an odyssey that would last

the rest of their lives.

Over the coming decades, they would participate in

more than 1100

races, including marathons

and triathlon,

including 6 iron man competitions. And now if

you're not familiar with iron man competitions,

they include They start with 2.4

miles of swimming, then that's followed by a

hundred and 12 miles of bi, and then

it ends, the whole thing ends with a

up marathon, 26.2

miles of running. And in these triathlon,

Dick would pull his son in a boat.

With a bungee cord around his waist, and

then he would pedal a special 2 seater

bicycle, and then he'd push him in his

custom made chair for the marathon.

Natives of Massachusetts, they ran the Boston Marathon

32 times.

32 times between 19 80 and 20 14.

If you are, a runner, you know that

the Boston Marathon is

just hall around for runners. And they... These

these 2, the father and son became an

institution at that hall event.

Their

passion for running,

evolved into a non profit organization called the

H Foundation. That was founded in 19 89,

and they still today raise money and give

grants to support this mission to build the

individual character self confidence and self esteem of

America's young people with disabilities.

Through inclusion in all facets of daily life,

including in family and community, activities,

especially sports at home in schools

and in the workplace.

And to support this vision, In 19 92,

so 3 years after the foundation was established.

They spiked and ran across the United States.

3735

miles.

And and all of it started because a

young man

journey with e,

not letting the substantial hardships of his life,

derail his desire to live well.

In 20 13,

a statue of the v was installed at

the Boston Marathon

starting line.

Dick died in 20 21

at the age of 80. Rick died last

year at the age of 61, but they

will forever remain a a presence at the

legendary start line of the race that they

loved.

Asked once,

if he could give his father 1 thing,

what would it be?

Rick said,

the thing I'd most like

for my dad to sit in the chair,

and I would push him for once.

Those are 2 remarkable lives.

Lived beautifully

and faithfully.

Friends

the world is a complicated

and and sometimes heartbreaking

place.

No matter how good or loving or faithful.

We are... There will be challenges to overcome,

and there will be grief to face, and

there will be

sorrows to journey through, but our faith is

clear.

God is with us through it all.

So as the as the teacher taught us

so long ago, our spiritual journeys can be

defined by this great word e.

The mental balance of being calm and even

tempered through the ups and downs of life

because

as he wrote,

all will ultimately go to their eternal home.

And the dust returns to Earth as it

was.

And the breath

returns to god who gave it.

I'm amen.