This is a sermon that I preached on Sunday, 8/31/25, at Berkeley Friends Church. The scripture reading for this sermon was: Hebrews 13:1-16.
It’s been a long summer. A long year. A long decade. We’ve been through a lot as individuals, as a church, as a country. With political upheavals, a global pandemic, a nation in struggle, and none of us are getting any younger.
Are you tired? I’m tired.
The author of Hebrews was writing to exhausted people, Christians who had run a long race, faced trials and disturbances, and persecution. And the worst part was, they knew things might very well get worse. The race wasn’t over yet.
The recipients of the Epistle to the Hebrews were experiencing what the Book of Revelation calls, “a call for the patient endurance of the saints.” They had discovered that the path of discipleship was a long-distance race.
Now, the ultimate long-distance race is the marathon. Based on the legendary route of an ancient Greek messenger from the Battle of Marathon to the city of Athens in 490 BC, marathon runners have to make it 26.2 miles, hopefully while keeping good time.
I’ve never run a marathon myself, but a lot of people have. There are some established patterns in the race. One of the most well-known of these is the phenomenon of “hitting the wall.” When someone hits the wall in a long-distance run, they experience a sudden, radical loss of energy; the runner experiences fatigue, weakness, and may not be able to finish the race.
Hitting the wall occurs because the the stores of glycogen (complex sugars) in the runner’s muscles are depleted. Without these fast-energy reserves, the body has to turn to converting fat into energy, which is much slower. Too slow for running. The body can’t keep up with the energy needs of the marathon.
Hitting the wall is common, and it typically happens around the twenty-mile mark in a marathon. If this physical limit isn’t handled well, hitting the wall can absolutely break a runner, forcing them to quit the race.
But there are ways to avoid a devastating burn out at the twenty mile mark. Through careful pacing, consuming enough carbs before and during the race, and staying hydrated with electrolytes throughout the run, it’s possible to keep the body’s stores of glycogen high and avoid collapsing before reaching the goal.
This bears a lot of relationship to the journey of discipleship with Jesus. It’s one thing to start out on the race, full of enthusiasm and bravado. It’s another thing entirely to make it all the way to the end of the marathon in one piece, avoiding burnout and finishing well.
When I first started this race, back in my early twenties, I didn’t want to talk about pacing. I was far too romantic for that. I wanted to make grand gestures for truth. I wanted to sacrifice for what I knew was right. I wanted to be a hero.
But this kind of attitude usually doesn’t get us past mile twenty. To go the distance, we can’t just have enthusiasm and courage – we’ve got to have a plan. The reality is, all my quick, heroic gestures are huge burners of glycogen. Sometimes they’re necessary, but they don’t form the entirety of a successful marathon.
How do we stay hydrated, fueled, and focused as we run the long race? Well, again, looking to real marathons, we get a clue. We tend to think of marathons as solo activities, the individual struggling against all odds to make it to 26.2. But the reality is, standard marathons are highly organized events with an enormous infrastructure of support that allows these atheletes to go the distance.
There are aid stations set up every 2-3 miles, to help runners get the hydration and care that they need. There’s medical support. There are course marshalls and volunteers available to provide assistance. And there are crowds, especially towards the end of the race, waiting to provide encouragement to runners who are closing in on the finish line.
It is not typical to run a marathon alone. It’s a community effort, and the odds of success go up dramatically the more healthy, supportive, and mission-oriented that community is.
The author of Hebrews understood this. In our reading this morning from the concluding chapter of the epistle, he provides advice for how the fatigued, long-running Christian community can support each other to finish the race well.
He starts off by saying, “Let mutual affection continue.” If we’re going to endure the times we live in, we have to take care of one another. We need people ready at aid stations, there to help those who are stumbling and hitting the wall.
And we’re not just there to help the runners that we personally know, either. According to Hebrews, our aid stations must be open to everyone – even total strangers. Show hospitality to every runner who passes by. You never know who you’re dealing with; they might even turn out to be angelic runners in disguise!
Remember those who are in prison and suffering torture. Remember them as if it were you yourself being tortured. Because in a very important sense, it is. When one of us hits the wall, we all do. When one of us is injured, we are all wounded. We are all part of one body in Jesus.
Honor marriage. Support the relationships in our community and don’t let anyone undermine them. Marriages, families, friendships, networks of trust – these are the foundation of our life as a community. They are the reason that we can run. We know that the aid stations and medical workers and supportive volunteers are all working together to support the runners.
Be generous; reject greed and give to those in need. We don’t need to hold back Gatorade and ration power bars. There’s more where that came from. God has promised to provide, and to run with us every step of the way. He will never abandon us.
These are the kind of simple reminders that weary runners need as we settle into the last phase of our marathon with Jesus. These are the words we need to hear, calling us to support one another as we continue this pilgrimage together.
The author of Hebrews reminds us that we are on a racing team, not a debate club. We don’t have the luxury of getting distracted by all the culture war arguments going on around us. We don’t have time for all these strange teachings – regulations and warnings that haven’t benefited anyone. It’s time to get off YouTube and focus on the task at hand – we have a race to run!
Cling to love, and remember that Jesus has shown us what real love looks like. He is the ultimate marathon runner. He ran the race alone and paved the way for us to become a well-organized team of marathoners, with all of our supports and way stations.
He was the one who went all the way to 26.2 and beyond, to show love to those who didn’t have any support. He is the savior who suffers at the finish line, alone. (He didn’t hit the wall, the wall hit him!) Jesus endures the cross in order to redeem us all.
The author of Hebrews says, “Let us then go to [Jesus] outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”
Don’t worry about anything. All this darkness around us now, all the weariness that seems to cling so closely now, Jesus has endured all this and more for our sake. He’s giving us power to become like him, to endure like he did.
He is sustaining us. He set up the original aid station along the path. He is teaching us to establish more of these stations, so that everyone who runs in earnest can make it to the finish line.
Jesus is giving us a powerful love that removes all our guilt and shame. It’s a love that gives us the courage to move to the margins and bear witness where the suffering is. Among the poor. The imprisoned. The tortured. The scapegoats of our society.
Remember what Jesus endured and learn from him. Remember who Jesus loved, then go and do likewise. Remember where God was found – off the beaten path – and lose your fear of being cast out and ashamed.
Through Jesus, “let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.” Let his name be known. Don’t be ashamed of him. Share with the people in your life all the good that God has done for you. Point them to the aid stations – like this community – where we can get support for the journey. Point them to the path, so we can all get in the race.
“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Share the good news. Share bread and rent and gas money – the Gatorade of daily life. Share your lives with those around you, so that they know that God loves them just like you do.We are running this race together, confident in the one who has already gone before us. We are building a community of support where no one is left behind. And when it feels like we are at risk of hitting the wall, we are leaning on one another, discovering the truth of the words of Isaiah, that “those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”