Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our Faith

Scripture Lessons: Isaiah 5: 1-7 and Hebrews 11: 29 – 12: 2 Preached on August 14, 2022 Sermon Title: Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our Faith The first day of class for Marietta High School was on the Wednesday before last. Along with several others representing institutions in the community, I was asked by our new principal to be there to welcome students back from summer vacation as they got off the bus. Being there reminded me that there’s nothing like the energy of the first day of school. While I was there, everyone was happy, even the students. They were excited to greet friends they hadn’t seen. They smiled as teachers greeted them by name. They all looked bright and new in their first day of school outfits, although some of those outfits, I just couldn’t believe. Of course, that means I’m getting old. That’s what that means when you think young people should dress differently, and of course there were trends when I was in high school that my parents thought were weird and that my children now make fun of. This has always been the case. It has always been the case that the most fashionable students of this school year, the ones whose parents will buy them all the stuff that everyone wants, will be the ones whom the children of the 2023 graduating class will be making fun of 20 years from now. That’s true. 20 years from now, the children of the 2023 graduating class will be pointing at the pictures in their parents’ yearbooks and saying, “Who would ever wear jeans like that? Who would go out of the house with their hair that way? Why is she showing off her belly button?” for it’s all temporary; be it the clothing trends of high school or the suffering that comes from not having the trendy clothes, it’s all temporary. I haven’t always known it, but I know it now, that fitting in today might hold you back from fitting in tomorrow. Bill Gates wasn’t cool in high school, but look where he is now. In the same way, our second Scripture lesson tells us about those of whom the world was not worthy. They lived here, and as they did, they suffered. We just read all about it. They were mocked and flogged, put in chains and imprisoned. They were stoned, sawn in two. They went about in skins of sheep and goats. Can you imagine how the kids in high school would have talked about them on the first day of school when they showed up in the skins of sheep and goats? However, while they suffered and didn’t fit in, they could see that over the mountains of hardship were green pastures and flowing streams that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, was leading them towards. That’s one of the names we have for Jesus: The Good Shepherd. We also call Him: The Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Light of the World and the Bright Morning Star. Maybe you call Him friend, or maybe you know Him as the embodiment of love. The Bible calls Him by many names, though only this second Scripture lesson from the book of Hebrews, as far as I know, calls Him the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith. What does it mean to call Jesus the Pioneer? Who were the pioneers? What do you know about them? Back when I was growing up, we had video games, but they weren’t any good. One was called Oregon Trail, and as the leader of a wagon train, you led group of pioneers from Independence, Missouri to Willamette Valley, Oregon in 1848. However, I always ended up dying of dysentery about half-way there. Pioneers suffer, but that’s not what defines them. I’ve been watching a TV show about them called 1883, which follows a group of people who left their homeland, boarded ships, sailed across the Atlantic, bought stagecoaches, and hired a stranger to lead them west into the unchartered territories of North America. Worse, according to Sam Elliott’s character, they’re doing so without much hope of ever making it. They have no horses, no guns, they can’t ride, and yet they think they can travel two thousand miles with no skills to survive what’s ahead. That’s not exactly true, for they have one skill that is most essential. They have faith. What is faith? According to the book of Hebrews, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Translation: Faith is enduring the pain of the trail because you know you’ll make it to Oregon. Faith is never letting the suffering of today get to you because you have your eyes on tomorrow. Faith is looking around at your reality and trusting, not just what you see, but your imagination, your dreams, and the promises of God because you know that just as God made a way out of no way long ago when the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, so God might make a way out of no way today. That’s faith. It takes faith to be a pioneer. Jesus had it. He perfected it. Do you remember what He said to the man hanging next to Him on the cross? Now think about how He was doing up on that cross. His friends had all abandoned Him. One of them betrayed Him. He had been whipped, falsely accused, tried without representation, stripped of His clothes, and they put a crown of thorns on His head. If you’ve ever been the kid walking the halls of a high school down, dejected, friendless, and betrayed, then you need to know what He said to the man next to Him on the cross. If you’ve ever been fired from a job you loved while you’re fighting with your wife, then you come in the door, your daughters make fun of your clothes, and you open a bill that you can’t pay, then you need to know what Jesus said to the man next to Him on the cross. If you’ve ever been forced into early retirement, felt like you’ve been sidelined from everything, looked at the future and assumed that your best days are in the past, felt like your baby is never going to sleep through the night and is never going to give up her pacifier, then you need to know what Jesus said to the man next to Him on the cross. If you’ve ever wondered why the caged bird sings or not been able to get yourself out of bed, then you need to hear what the Pioneer and Perfector of faith said to the man hanging next to Him on the cross. He said, “Today, you will be with me in paradise,” and He said it because He is the Pioneer and Perfector of faith. Faith is looking around at today and knowing that it’s temporary. Faith is knowing that, being rejected from one crowd, you’ll still be OK because you’re a member of the household of God. Faith is dreaming of something better than what you see, but it’s more than dreaming because faith is rooted in the mighty works of God from the past. That’s one reason Bible study matters so much. When we study the Bible, we learn about what God has done, so we have an idea of what God might do next. What then has God done? It’s all right there: By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land. By faith the walls of Jericho fell. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish, because she had received the spies in peace. And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of everyone who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, or escaped the edge of the sword, so suffice it to say that if you know your history, then you’ll dare believe that the Pioneer and Perfector of our faith has more in store for us than what we can see right now. That’s faith. Do you have it? Not everyone does, and no one besides Jesus has it all the time. I’ve said before that the opposite of faith isn’t doubt but certainty. Some people are certain that their current sufferings are all that there is and all that there ever will be. The great Christian author C. S. Lewis wrote that once we are thinking that way, believing that our temporary suffering is not in fact temporary but permanent, that’s when the evil one has us right where he wants us. On the other hand is that great cloud of witnesses who were stoned, sawn in two, killed by the sword; went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented, wandering in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground, yet were able to keep going for they knew that their suffering was temporary and that they were on their way to joy. Jesus Himself, on the cross, knew He was on the way to Paradise. Do you know what you’re on the way to? Or has the evil one convinced you that this is it? I know the feeling. I do. When I get too sad or too frustrated, I can’t sleep, and when I can’t sleep, guess what happens? I get more sad and more frustrated. It’s like the negative thoughts spin through my mind like a record on a record player, stuck on the same groove. Then I walk into this place, and I hear the stories again, and it’s like a fist on the table. The needle moves. I hear the song again, and the sun comes back out. My friends, the sun comes back out. Do you have faith in the sun? Do you have faith in hope? Do you have faith in God, believing that just as God made a way through the Red Sea, so also will God open a way for you to get from where you are to where you were meant to be? That’s what being a pioneer is all about. Pioneers cross rivers, survive tornadoes, walk for miles, all the while holding a picture in their minds of where they’re going. Be it Oregon or Heaven, we must keep a picture in our minds of where He’s leading us, or we’ll be up all night worrying over global warming, the war in Ukraine, and Monkey Pox so that the next morning we don’t have enough faith to do anything besides give up. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. The pain of today will give way to the joy of tomorrow. Thanks be to God. Amen.