What We're Carrying

Hebrews 12:1-4

February 6, 2022 • Mount Pleasant UMC

Our family loves all things Disney, and that love has only been strengthened (at least for me) since Disney’s acquisition of both Marvel and Star Wars. So this past November, I was very excited to go to Disneyland in California to visit both the Avengers Campus and Galaxy’s Edge (or what I lovingly call “Star Wars Land”). I’ve been asked if there are a lot of differences between Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida, and of course the biggest difference is size. Disneyland covers 500 acres while Disney World is spread out over almost 43 square miles (or 27,000 acres). You could fit 51 Disneylands inside Disney World. So most all of our travel at Disneyland was on foot; even our hotel was just across the street from the entrance. We walked in and we walked out. By contrast, at Disney World we learned to use their bus system to get where we needed to go. And most of all we learned that when those busses arrive, you’ve got to move fast. There’s no time to stand around. If you don’t move, you’ll get trampled or pushed aside. (People are not always nice at the happiest place on earth!) So we learned to travel light in the Florida parks. Only take the essentials because traveling light helps you move faster.

That’s not only true at theme parks; it’s true in other areas of life as well. Athletes, for instance, learn to travel light. Skaters know they can’t effectively do all those jumps and spins if they wear heavy clothes or if they carry full backpacks. Skiers can’t compete if they wear a baggy sweatshirt and bobsledders can’t get into the sled quickly if they have heavy boots on. (And no, I still haven’t figured out curling.) When you watch the competitors in the Olympics, you’ll notice they wear only what they have to in order to compete. In the ancient Olympics, athletes often competed with no clothes on. The legend is that in 720 BC, a runner lost his shorts while sprinting but still won the race. That sparked the idea that maybe they could run faster if they had absolutely nothing slowing them down, including their clothes. Even when athletes began wearing clothes again, they chose clothing that was lightweight, garments that would not hinder breathing or prevent them from freely moving their limbs. Even in the winter, they wear only what gear they absolutely need (cf. Guthrie, NIV Application Commentary: Hebrews, pg. 397). You can’t win if you can’t move or spin or jump, if something is weighing you down. And the writer to the Hebrews says that if that’s true in athletic competitions, it’s even more true in our walk with Jesus. We can’t move ahead if we have things weighing us down. What we’re carrying can get in the way, so the call from Hebrews this morning is to remove any hindrances we might have.

So the Winter Olympics are happening (mostly spectator-free) in Beijing, China, and we’re spending some time in Hebrews 12, thinking together about what it means to run the “race” that is the Christian faith, what it takes to go for “More Than Gold.” Overall, this letter to the Hebrews was apparently written to a group of Jewish Christians who were trying to understand what impact their heritage had on their faith. Some may have been tempted to give up their worship of Jesus and return to Temple worship, to the things they knew. What we have as a letter actually reads more like a sermon originally written to encourage these people, to help them to keep “running the race” of faith, to keep following Jesus (Archaeological Study Bible, pgs. 1981-1982). But to do that effectively, to follow Jesus closely, the author knew they would have to leave some things behind. They couldn’t keep living the way they always had. So, after spending several chapters describing the superiority of Jesus over other religious systems, he writes this verse we began talking about last week: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” (12:1). Last week, the first piece of our winning strategy was to “remember the witnesses.” This morning, we’re going to add this part of our strategy: remove any hindrances.

Now, “hindrances” are not necessarily bad things. Sometimes even good or neutral things can get in the way of our spiritual growth. I’ve been thinking about time recently, and how we spend the 24 hours we get. And we all get the same amount every day. We talk about “making time,” but that’s not a thing. You can’t “make time.” You can only spend the time you’re given, and aside from work, the next biggest thing we spend our time with is the television. Americans spend an average of 2 hours and 48 minutes in front of the tube. Now, television is neither good nor bad by itself; what matters is what we do with it and how we allow what we watch to shape us. Here’s some other ways we spend our days:

• An hour and 11 minutes a day eating and drinking.
• 45 minutes a day walking and playing with our pets. Barney demands more than that!
• 9 minutes a day with phone calls, mail and email (and honestly, that seems a little low).

But here’s one that really struck me. We spend 51 minutes a day grooming, making ourselves look good, and 18 minutes a day in “religious activities,” including prayer, devotions and volunteering. That’s quite a contrast! One other thing I noticed is that such surveys used to include “online activities,” but our lives have so morphed to where it’s hard to tell when we’re online and when we’re not. Online time now includes watching television, socializing, shopping and so on. The online world has become our culture’s default world, and so we find ourselves scrolling Facebook or clicking news articles without thinking about it. I know there have been times I find myself doing that and then wondering, “Why am I reading this? What wisdom is there here?” The answer is usually, “Not much.” The first president of Facebook seems to agree; in an interview he admitted that their goal when developing the social network was this: “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” (qtd. in McGever, The Good News of Our Limits, pg. 98). Online has become our main world.

There are other activities that are harder to measure, like raising children or grandchildren, going to their activities and events. Sometimes we get them involved in so many things that they don’t have time to be a kid and they don’t have time to get to know God. Then we wonder why they leave the faith when they are older. We also spend time, especially in this online world, comparing ourselves to others, watching social media influencers and wondering why our lives can’t be like theirs. I’ve got a secret for you: pastors do this too! We compare our ministries and churches to others we know and if we’re doing better than them, we feel good about it, and if we’re not, well, we either give into discouragement or work harder to “beat them.” But pastors are not the only ones who do this. How many of us work really hard to present a curated life online? We only show the best pictures, our best sides, our greatest vacations and our happiest memories. Johnny Diaz wrote about that in a song called “There.”

Throwing back to cool places that they've been

Seaside selfies and a summer tan, I want that

Why can't that be me?

Rolling through life like a VIP

Living like an endless celebrity, I want that

I wanna be there

Hindrances don’t always start out as things that get in our way, but it’s possible at times for even good things to become a problem in our lives (cf. Guthrie 411). I think about a time when I was in seminary and our neighbors, Rob and Katie, bought a used piano. Would I help them move it in? Sure, I said. I was young and stupid and I didn’t realize how heavy a piano is or how many steps led up to our second floor apartments. There was no elevator, only a set of outdoor cement steps. So about six or eight of us went to get the piano, and we got it into the truck, no problem. Getting it out of the truck and up the stairs was another story. When I think about that day, the one image that sticks in my mind is when we almost lost control of it and I was pinned between the piano and the side rail of the steps. How that rail kept from breaking I don’t know. I probably should have been seriously hurt that day, but thank God the railing held and we somehow managed to get it up the stairs and into the apartment. That’s when Rob said that when they moved from there, the piano was staying. They realized it wasn’t something they really needed, not that badly. It was extra weight they could leave behind. I just wish he had realized that before we carried it up the stairs. That’s when we need to recognize the extra weight that is in our spiritual lives, before it becomes a problem and before it threatens our wellbeing.

“Throw off everything that hinders” before it consumes your life. If we want to live for more than gold, we want to be more like those athletes who are competing in Beijing. They have spent years training, focusing on their sport. They don’t let other things get in the way. They have a goal—the gold medal—and they do everything they can to win it. They don’t let anything weigh them down. What if we had that same passion, that same determination, when it came to our faith? If our faith was important to us in the time before Covid changed our world, why is it less so now? What hinders us? Hebrews says throw off everything that hinders; there are things we hang onto that we simply don’t need, things that distract us and slow us down.

And then the author goes one step further, as he tells us we also must lay aside “the sin that so easily entangles” (12:1). Not everything that gets in our way is sin, but some things are, even though that’s not a popular perspective these days. We have “relabeled” sin. We don’t lie; we “embellish the truth.” We don’t gossip; we “share confidential prayer requests.” We don’t tear other people down; we “help them see where they are wrong (and we are right).” (Especially by arguing with them online, right?) We don’t disobey God; we “live our truth (rather than God’s).” But the Bible says that no matter what we call it, it’s still sin. Hebrews says it entangles us and breaks our relationship with God. A better translation would be that sin “gets in our way.” It tries to trip us up (Wright, Hebrews for Everyone, pg. 149). Sin is like the danger a runner faces if the track isn’t clear, like a cord that gets between a runner’s legs, tripping him, causing her to trip or fall, possibly breaking something, possibly even ending a career. Sin does that to us, but it doesn't have to. The whole “faith hall of fame” in Hebrews 11 is full of people who are flawed and messed-up people. Abraham lies about his wife being his sister (not once, but twice) in order to save his own skin. Moses kills a man in order to protect someone else. David steals a man’s wife, has the man murdered, and thinks he has gotten away with it. We could go on and on but suffice it to say the people in the Bible aren't perfect. But they do know and worship a God who is. What that tells us is we’re in good company, the company of grace-surrounded sinners—people who aren’t perfect, people who struggle with sin, but people who trust in a good and forgiving God. Sin is real, but if we’re going to run to win we need to lay aside the sin that easily entangles.

To do that, we first have to name them. Now, that’s not as difficult as it sounds; most of us know the sins that get in our way. We’ve known them for a long time. They’ve nagged at our soul for years. We’ve become friends with them. We know their names. The hard part is admitting to ourselves and to God that they are sins, because they’ve become our friends. And it’s hard to come clean, to be honest, to say to God (and maybe to a trusted friend), “Yes, I admit that I struggle with lust, with greed, with coveting. I admit that there is unforgiveness in my heart, that there is anger and hatred and prejudice in my life.” Still, hard as it is, the first step in removing the hindrances is to name them.

Let’s be clear about something, though: temptation is not sin. Every one of us is tempted to sin; sin is the action we take, not the temptation we feel. Jesus was tempted, and in the wilderness, Satan named three very powerful sins (Matthew 4:1-11). He offered Jesus very real temptations. After all, Jesus was not only fully divine; he was also fully human and was tempted in every way we are (Hebrews 4:15). Maybe, Satan thought, Jesus could be made to sin, especially in his weakened condition, having fasted forty days and forty nights. “Show your power, Jesus. Perform a spectacle, Jesus. Take control, Jesus. All you have to do is worship me.” But do you notice what Jesus does? He doesn’t waver. He doesn’t hesitate. Each time, he responds to Satan immediately because the battle with sin is usually lost in the first few seconds of a temptation. “The longer you consider the devil’s offer the more likely it is that you will lose” (Mains 2004 sermon, “Remove Any Hindrances”). Naming the sin ahead of time, knowing the things we struggle with, enables us to fight temptation immediately. Name our hindrances and sins.

Naming is followed by confessing and repenting. John wrote, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). We spend so much energy trying to deny our sin or to blame someone else. “I didn’t do that. I didn’t sin. I would never do that.” We live out the Garden of Eden over and over (cf. Genesis 3:1-20). You know the story: Eve does exactly what God told the first couple not to do, then she gets Adam to join her, and when God comes calling, Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent, and the serpent doesn’t have a leg to stand on. (Where’s my rim shot, Chuck?) We blame everyone else rather than taking responsibility. We balk at confessing what we have done. Let’s say it clearly: we do struggle with sin, and John says if we’re going to find forgiveness, we need to be honest and practice confession. Confession allows us to accept responsibility for our actions, and it also causes us to acknowledge what God already knows (Liddick sermon, “Remove Any Hindrances”). Confession ought to lead naturally to repentance, which is turning our back on the sin and turning toward God. Repentance is more than saying, “I’m sorry.” It’s turning away from the sin and determining not to do it again.

The power to do that, however, comes from the third piece: being filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:15-18). The word Paul uses could be translated “be continuously filled.” In other words, this “filling” is not a one-time thing. We need to be filled up with God’s Spirit daily if we’re going to have any hope of laying aside the sin that so easily entangles (Gumbel, Questions of Life, pg. 163). We leak. Eery day, God fills us up and we leak some more. So we need to invite the Spirit to dwell within us every day, every moment, because sin easily entangles. As God said to Cain way back in Genesis, “Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:7). But we can ask the Holy Spirit to fill us so full up that there’s no room for anything else. As the Spirit fills us, our first desire and priority becomes pleasing God. In the book of Acts, the early Christians experienced the power of the Spirit filling them. It caused them to turn away from all sorts of things and gave them power to do things they never thought they could do. In fact, they couldn’t have, had it not been for the Spirit that lived within them. Name it. Confess it and repent. Be filled with the Spirit. These things enable us to remove any hindrances.

Every month, we gather at the communion table. Every month, just as we’re going to do in a few moments, we come before Christ, remember his sacrifice and celebrate his forgiveness. Every month, we are given a formal opportunity to remove any hindrances that have gotten in our way, to lay down the things we’re carrying that have slowed us down. This morning, at the ends of your pews is a half-sheet of paper. If you’re on the end, can you make sure everyone in your pew has one? As we’re preparing for communion this morning, I invite you to ask God what’s slowing you down. Maybe something has already come to mind. What “weight” are you carrying that you don’t need? What’s the sin that consistently trips you up? Listen for what the Spirit is saying, and then write that down on the paper. No names, just a word like “bitterness” or “anger” or “selfishness” or even some initials is all you need. No one’s going to read these papers, and don’t read your neighbor’s. When you come for communion, then, I invite you to take that piece of paper and throw it away in these trash cans as a symbolic act of being done with that sin. As I said, these won’t be read. In fact, they will be destroyed after the services this morning. The purpose is to give you a chance to name the hindrance, to confess it and symbolically repent by throwing it away. Then you can receive the presence of the Holy Spirit through the bread and cup. This morning, in the name of the Lord, I invite you to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” Spiritual champions, those who pursue more than gold, remove any hindrance. So, let’s prepare our hearts for Holy Communion.