So Great a Cloud of Witnesses

There are some Sundays when it’s hard to find good news in the lectionary readings. This Sunday is one of them. The parable of the vineyard in Isaiah starts out as a love-song between God and the people of Israel. The vineyard is lovingly built and tended, but fails to yield the expected choice fruit. When only wild grapes emerge, judgment is given: the vineyard will be torn down and turned into a wasteland. That condemnation must have been chilling to the people who heard it – God was no longer going to love them, and they would be destroyed.

The letter to the Hebrews isn’t much better. Yes, the heroes of the faith are held up for admiration, but when I hear what happened to them (being sawn in two and going about in the skins of sheep and goats are my favorites), I start looking for a place to hide. And Jesus seems almost to be drooling with anticipation as he talks about bringing fire and division to the earth, pitting members of families against one another. As one of my seminary professors used to say, “What’s that about?”

Well, for one thing, it means that true Christianity isn’t a happy clappy religion. Religious entertainment and a prosperity gospel and the “law of attraction” are nowhere in these readings. To truly be a Christian is hard work, and almost certainly will create conflict. That’s a difficult message to preach in a consumer culture, where people go to church to feel good and are ready to move on if they aren’t satisfied. Others avoid organized religion entirely because they already see too much conflict in the church.

Why is discipleship so hard? For one thing, it’s easy to mistake the form of religion for its content. That’s what the Israelites did; they followed all the rules for sacrifice and keeping kosher and observing the prescribed feasts. But they conveniently overlooked the fact that justice was part of the plan. They thought they could cheat the poor and ignore the needy and God would smell incense and not notice. They were wrong, and they didn’t like the prophets who told them so.

Jesus saw even more clearly where following him would lead. Given the opposition he created with the religious authorities, he knew that his death was certain and didn’t expect much better for his disciples. Everywhere Christianity is persecuted, Christian/non-Christian conflict still occurs. As those fleeing organized religion perceive, some of the more militant forms of Christianity create conflict even among fellow Christians.

So where is the good news in all of this? It’s found in that great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, those who have come before. They, too, sinned; they faltered, they suffered as we do. Yet they persevered. They saw the promises, and believed. They threw off the weight that held them down, and the sin that clings so closely. Of course we should cast those aside if we are to run! And run with perseverance, we are told. Run toward the goal of Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. And the best part about this race is that even now Jesus is coming toward us from the future. As the cloud of witnesses cheers us on, we will not have as far to go. With that kind of promise, who wouldn’t keep running?