“To Him Be The Glory”
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Before entering the ministry, in what I like to call my former life. I worked a couple of years for the cable company that served Hawkinsville, Cochran, Unadilla, and Pinehurst. Not long after I started, I was sent to their corporate training center located in Roanoke, Al.; not to be confused with Roanoke, Virginia.
The first week, among other things, our focus was climbing. We learned all about ladder safety, how to carry one, how to set it up. You know, it can be dangerous if you don’t get just the right pitch to your ladder. Setting a ladder up leaning on a telephone pull is nothing but setting it up on the wire between the poles is something entirely different.
The hardest thing we learned was how to gaff [climb] a telephone pole. A gaff was a leather harness that fits over your boot and on the inside is a spike-like apparatus that you use to climb. It’s important that you don’t put your spike too far into the pole that it’s hard to pull out. But it needs to be far enough to support your weight. You can’t hustle up the pole, it’s one step at a time; stick your gaff, step up, rinse and repeat.
As part of our training, they had five poles linked together in the training yard and five of us climbed to the top of our pole, strapped ourselves off, and proceeded to throw a basketball to the next pole. That ball had to go all the way across the poles and back without hitting the ground or we had to go down and start all over. One of the hardest things about this exercise was that your feet would start to go to sleep; so, you would need to pull your gaff out, knock your foot on the pole to wake it up, and then re-seed your gaff.
At the end of the first week, we had our final climbing exam. You climbed to the top of the pole, rotated around the pole in each direction, strapped yourself off for a little break, and then descended the pole, which is also done slowly, one step at a time. This wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, so I was very nervous about this exam. I was praying hard about this, my preacher was praying hard about this, and a couple of my classmates were praying as well. I went up the pole, did my rotating, and strapped myself off. I was feeling pretty good about myself at this point. Coming down the pole, I hit what is termed as a “widow maker,” in other words, a bad spot on the pole. One of our lessons was about what to do if you start to fall. If you grab onto the pole you’re going to get torn up. The best thing to do is push off and fall, so that’s what I did. I’m not sure how far I fell but it was if God had me in His arms because I didn’t get hurt at all. [Like landing on a pillow]
Our instructor said, “Technically you failed, but because you paid attention to what to do in case of a fall, I have to pass you.”
You know, there were many who considered Jesus a failure because He was hung on a tree, which was a terrible curse back then. I failed my climbing test, so I passed. Jesus failed so that we can live.
When the time came for His purification rites, as was the custom, Joseph and Mary took Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. They met an old man there, Simeon, who was waiting for the consolation of Israel. He was so moved that Joseph and Mary marveled at what he said about their Son. And then he said, “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” [Luke 2:34-35]
In his book, Love Goes First, Pastor Andrew Forrest writes: “The church that shaped Western culture for two millennia is now in the process of being rejected by that same culture—Jesus Himself warned us to expect opposition.”
During His ministry, Jesus desired to go several places, do several things, and minister to several people but was opposed and not welcomed. He was asked to leave several locations. And when sending out His disciples He even prepared them to fail by telling them to wipe the dust from their feet and move on from any house or town that didn’t welcome them.
The Apostle Paul was met with opposition several times during his ministry and there must have been times when he felt like a complete failure—but he kept trucking on.
As he neared the end of his life, Paul could confidently say that he had been faithful to his call. Thus, he could face death calmly, knowing that he would be rewarded by Christ. Is your life preparing you for death? How do you live each day in the light of eternity? Paul confidently expected and looked forward to seeing Jesus again [Damascus Road]. The Good News of Jesus proclaims that all believers, from the insignificant and average to the giants of faith like Paul—will receive the heavenly reward of being with God for eternity. I honestly can’t tell you how many times I’ve used these words at a funeral, but it has been a lot.
Paul wrote these words to encourage Timothy and us that no matter how difficult the fight seems, we can keep fighting. When we are with Jesus Christ, we will discover that everything we experienced for Christ’s sake was worth it.
The Message Translation says it this way: “You take over. I’m about to die, my life an offering on God’s altar. This is the only race worth running. I’ve run hard right to the finish, believed all the way.”
We know that before his conversion Paul was a bad man, persecuting any who followed was what referred to as “The Way.” And after his Damascus Road experience Luke, in Acts 9 reports: “At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.” Even the people who were astonished by what he was saying questioned his devotion and there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him. Not the reception that I’m sure he expected. But this didn’t deter him and with the help of Barnabus [meaning encourager] he was able to prove himself and go on to be the greatest evangelist the early church produced. Don’t we all need and encourager, a Barnabus in our life?
The Message Translation put it this way: “At my preliminary hearing no one stood by me. They all ran like scared rabbits. But it doesn’t matter—the Master stood by me and helped me spread the Message loud and clear to those who had never heard it.”
The secret of life is not where you begin but where you finish. Sometimes that means you “keep on keeping on” even when it would be much easier to simply throw up your hands in futility and despair and walk away. That means that you “hang in there” and “see it through” when a person of lesser determination, lesser courage, lesser character would “cut his or her losses” and seek to escape. That is true in a good marriage; it is true in raising children; it is true in pursuing your dreams in your vocation; it is true in battling disease and old age, and it is true in a host of other areas of life, including your faithfulness to Christ.
The life that Paul preached was an incredible declaration when you consider the reasons he had to renounce his faith and give it all up. “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily pressure of my concern for all the churches” [2 Corinthians 11:23-28].
Why, or maybe how, can Paul look back on such a life as a success? He succeeded because he kept the faith.
It’s easy to lose your faith in bad times, but it is just as easy to lose faith in the good times. In bad times you feel deserted, in good times you feel like you don’t need God. So, the bottom line is: we have remained constant through the good and the bad, feast and famine. In the 60’s, the phrase “keep the faith” became somewhat of a period cliché. Those words must mean more to us than a motto. They go to the very heart of our belief in the one who created us and sustains us.
In the Broadway play “The Miracle Worker,” we see the story of Ann Sullivan, the woman who taught Helen Keller how to communicate. It was during the 1890’s, in the hills of northern Alabama, that she struggled with Helen and her handicaps—deaf, blind, and mute. Helen Kellor was the miracle, but Ann Sullivan was the miracle worker.
What was the quality of her life? Was it that she fought a good fight? Clearly, she did. It’s hard to even imagine not only the primitive care and the prejudices of that day, but also the fact that Helen’s parents saw her as a hopeless case. Was it in the fact that she finished the race? Clearly, she did that as well. Ann Sullivan went on when most everyone else would have given in. Her reward? Her student Helen Kellor received the PhD from Temple University and became an inspiration for thousands. The thing that most distinguished Ann Sullivan’s life, is that she kept the faith. Through it all, she kept believing.
Some days we’re going to be the windshield and some days we’ll be the bug. We’re going to have our ups and downs. Some days we’ll feel like winners and some days a loser. We’re going to meet all kinds of opposition. But we must, we must keep, keeping on, because just like the Apostle Paul, God is going with us. And when people ask us how we do it, like Paul, we can proudly say, “To Him be the Glory!”
Eastman First Methodist Church 