Proper 15 (2025)

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

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Scripture Reading Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Hebrews 11:29–12:2 NIV

By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days. By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. 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. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Sermon

Have you ever tried to plug something in and found that there wasn’t a plug where you wanted it? Have you ever grabbed a pen to write something down and discover it’s out of ink? Ever gone into the kitchen to fix something to discover midway you lack that one ingredient?

I am convinced it isn’t always the big things that cause us problems. More often than not, it’s the little things. Or sometimes what helps us is having the little things. In fact, if you think of what the writer to the Hebrews has said, this list of people, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and on and on did great things because they had one little thing. A five-letter word called “faith”.

Hebrews 11 would not exist without people who exhibited faith in God to do mighty things through them. If Noah had laughed at God’s call to build an ark. If Moses had stood at the edge of the Red Sea, water in front with the enemy army behind and joined in with the nation of Israel in saying, “There’s no way”.

No. The reason we have Hebrews 11 is because each of these individuals named, both men and women looked beyond their circumstances to see a God who regularly makes the impossible possible. But God doesn’t do it only for them.

As the writer to the Hebrews continues, he tells them there isn’t even enough time to tell all the stories of the men and women who experienced the power of God through faith. And indeed, he lists only characters of the Old Testament, there is no mention of Peter and Paul and Barnabas and the rest of the disciples. There is no mention of the men and women who helped spread the gospel and build the church.

And even today, you and I who are here must recognize those who went before us who prayed and sacrificed and gave and believed and taught and preached and cried and worked and trusted God to do what seemed otherwise impossible.

And we continue to pray and sacrifice and give and believe and teach and preach and cry and work and trust God in faith to do the impossible. Believe it or not, you and I are in a long list of those who may feel and seem ordinary but are invited by God to something extraordinary by faith alone.

And some have gone away. Indeed, the writer to the Hebrews says, “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised”. And I was confused by that. I wreslted with it. I know Abraham didn’t see in this life the fulfillment of God’s blessing. I know Moses did not get to live in the Promised Land. But still there were others. Many, many, many others.

So I wondered about this until I read further and the writer to the Hebrews continues, “God had planned something better for us.” And it dawned on me that all of these promises, all of these “faith” moments, dealt with the here and now. With this life.

But through faith in Christ, we know we don’t just get a “better” here and now. We are recipients of the promises of everlasting life. But this is a gift not to be taken for granted. When someone gives you a gift how do you usually respond? Do you take it and throw it around? Do you see how to tear it up? Do you put it on the ground and walk on it? No, you treasure it. You hold it in a special place.

So too, the author to the Hebrews, calls the listeners to practice their faith as a precious gift given by God to lead them to eternal life. As we think of all those who went before us, who held on to the gift of faith, who demonstrated for us what it meant to be followers of God, “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”

So don’t treat faith casually. It is God’s gift to you, pointing you toward everlasting life in Christ. Cherish it, guard it, and above all, live it. Because we are not running this race alone—we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and above them all, Jesus is running with us, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

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