Run Without Stumbling

“Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises.” So says the Collect for this coming Sunday. “Grant that we may run,” certainly. We should joyfully run toward God. But what insight into human nature led an anonymous author to add “without stumbling”? Was it his own awareness of how many times he had fallen short of God’s goodness? Or was it a thorough knowledge of the Bible? (“If you run [in the way of wisdom], you will not stumble.” – Proverbs 4:12)

I run a lot, figuratively speaking. I’m always on the go. It’s rare for me to sit and do nothing. I don’t watch TV because it’s way too passive for me. I’m unable to sit at a computer for long periods of time, in spite of its seductive qualities. A desire to always do something is not that unusual, however. Being on the go is an essential characteristic of our culture, which has drive-up everything and calendars so booked that researchers study how sleep-deprived we are.

The prophet Habakkuk knew about running. He cried out to the Lord day and night, for all he could see was destruction and violence, strife and contention. Finally one day at his watchpost, he was told to write a vision so plainly on a tablet that a runner could read it as he sped by. The letters must have been pretty big, and the message must have been pretty short. “The righteous live by their faith” may have been it; that is only three words in Hebrew.

Zacchaeus knew about running, too. He was short, and as a rich tax collector he was probably also portly. He wanted to see Jesus but couldn’t because of the crowd’s height. So he huffed and puffed along the route he expected Jesus to take, got there early enough to clamber up a sycamore that sagged under his weight, and waited. Sure enough, Jesus came by and spotted him. Not only that, but Jesus told him to hurry up and get down because the whole entourage was about to show up at his house for dinner.

That encounter changed Zacchaeus’ entire life. From a grasping, Roman-collaborating tax collector he turned into a philanthropist for the poor, rendering judgment on himself for his cheating ways. His running had saved him. He was just the type Jesus had come to save: those who were perishing in their own sins. Zacchaeus had figured out how to run without stumbling.

Living the Christian life sometimes reminds me of a toddler who runs happily but unsteadily toward a loving parent. Like the toddler, we move too quickly for our own good or something distracts us, and we fall. It takes comfort from a parent (or God) to make another attempt possible.

Eventually, children learn to run without falling. Somehow we never quite get there in the life of faith. Maybe that comes from always being on the go, always finding something to distract us from God. Maybe that’s just part of the human condition. And so I, for one, am glad that we will be praying this Sunday, “Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises.”

Pentecost 23: Habakkuk 1:1-4,2:1-4 and Luke 19:1-10.