"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009 | |||
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Run for the Prize | |||
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I've tried to be a regular runner since college, with a few
periods of months or a year when I ran very little. Long ago, in the
middle of one of those running lapses, I was convinced to enter a
friendly fund raising race, a 5K (about 3 miles). Since, when I did run,
I was used to distances of 4 or 5 miles, I thought I could do it, even
though I hadn't run in half a year. It was a disaster. I pooped out on a
gentle hill and ended up walking the last half of the race, barely
finishing. It wasn't long after that I pushed myself back into the
discipline of regular running. The Apostle Paul probably became acquainted with running as a sport during his times in Greece. He would certainly have been aware of the various stadia and the games which took place in them. So in I Corinthians 9:24-27, Paul applies an image of the Greek athlete in training to the spiritual life, urging us to observe strict training and run "so as to get the prize." It is perfectly acceptable to hear in this text an individualized call to strive faithfully in the Christian life. Paul himself states in verse 27 that he engages in self-discipline so that he personally might not be disqualified from the spiritual prize. Yet it's also good to read the text carefully in its context, sandwiched in a discussion of the proper exercise of Christian freedom in the community (the subject of chapters 8-10). The spiritual self-discipline pictured by athletic training in Paul's metaphor is the restraint of personal freedom for the sake of others in the Church. So the focus is not wholly on individual spiritual accomplishment and reward as it is on the well-being of the Church community as a whole. Richard Hays, in his Interpretation commentary on I Corinthians, boldly suggests that if Paul had known about team sports (a rarity in the ancient world), it might have been an even better athletic image for what he was driving at. One's Christian self-sacrifice, training and discipline are all aimed at a mutual victory, not just a single super-saint attaining a heavenly reward. Paul's implied community sense is heard in verse 25, when he uses the first person plural to say, "we do it to get a crown that will last forever." In any case, this text "jogs" us to active, disciplined participation in the new life we have in Christ. There are no spectators in the Christian stadium. We are all in the games. May we show it in the way we live and seek to avoid those lapses in discipline that can be as spiritually disastrous as my unprepared 5K was years ago. | |||
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I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
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