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what a joy and a privilege it is to be with you again tonight. Will you pray with me dwell here? Oh God, dwell with us and between us. So that by the power of your

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spirit, you might teach us how to dance to the rhythm of your wisdom and show us how to laugh with the insights of your truth. Also that we can joyfully live out your call on our lives

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. Amen. We are sticking with the Book of Hebrews tonight, but tonight our scripture comes from chapter 12 verses one through three. So listen now to what the spirit is saying to her church this night

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. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely and let us run with perseverance. The race that is

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set before us. Looking to jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who, for the sake of joy that was set before him, endured the cross disregarding its shame and has taken his seat

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at the right hand of the throne of God, consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners . So that you may not grow weary or lose heart friends. This is the word of the Lord

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, Thanks be to God. When I joined the staff of trinity church in Atlanta, it just so happened that two of my clergy colleagues had been my theology professors during seminary George and Richard team taught a

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theology class that I took and when we turned in exams, they didn't divide and conquer on the grading as you might expect. They would both read all of the paper submitted. George would read them first

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and he would leave comments in on the margins of the page and then he would send on the papers to Richard who would go on to argue not with the students insights, but with George's comments in the

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margins of the page as if he was grading George instead of the students, those were the most entertaining assignments to get back. And it turns out that the way they graded papers was a really helpful introduction

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to working with them. They had the greatest respect for one another, but they disagreed more often than not. Perhaps that's why I can remember the things that they did agree on. So I once asked

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them if they thought there were any similarities between a good lecture and a good sermon, same formula. They agreed take a text or a concept that most people wouldn't consider problematic or haven't given adequate thought to

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. And then trouble it. Just hold it up to the light so you can show off the problem . Sometimes you may need to create the problem. But that's okay because ultimately what you want to do

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is solve the problem for here so that they feel like the professor or the preacher has done her job . So I am going to heed the first half of their advice tonight and hold up to the light

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everything I told you last night. So I can point out the problem with that seemingly unproblematic text, but I'm not going to commit to solving anything for you. Look up, the preacher said, And

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for good reason, thank you Sarah for looking up and sharing those reflections with us. I hope that some of you looked up last night and remembered those who went before you teaching you the way we need

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the examples of others to know how to live faithfully . If you think about it, most of us learn faith through imitation. When I see a child in worship with a head bowed and squinted eyes and

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hands clasped so tight they have white knuckles. I can usually glance to the people sitting on either side of them and figure out really quickly which adult they are imitating that child learned somehow. That that's what

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adults do when it comes time to pray during worship . Worship and they want to participate. So they imitate so much of our faith begins with imitation. And I think that's a good thing. What a

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gift it is to have people who can show us the way. So we pay attention to those people , we add them to our list of heroes. Indeed, we are surrounded by so great a cloud

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of witnesses. Here's the problem with heroes though, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. We look up and we remember how they accomplished remarkable things. We learn their remarkable stories and

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we linger over their memories at the dinner table. We think about them when we need encouragement to keep going. But sometimes we gaze up toward our heroes for so long that we build pedestals for them and

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with every retelling of their story and recitation of their accomplishments, the pedestal gets a little bit taller, a little bit grander and their stories start to tower over us and become more compelling than our own stories

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. And then without even noticing it in the retelling of their stories that we do out of respect and admiration. We internalize their accomplishments as the standard for our success. And then we go on to judge

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ourselves based on their achievements. Can anyone relate to this or is it just me? Okay, good . The person who inspired you to become a pastor or a professor or a lawyer or a psychologist or

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a social worker suddenly becomes the litmus test for measuring your success. And so you begin to ask yourself if you're keeping pace with their accomplishments, Getting the same accolades and the same promotions and the same respect

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all on the same timeline as them. We look up and sometimes what starts as captive ation with our heroes becomes captivity to their achievements, their commitments, their ministries, their curiosities, their convictions since we

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are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely. Now we could all name weights and sins that are unique to each of us.

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And if you are feeling the need to confess some of those things I offer you ted services. He'll be here all night. I'm not really interested in the individual weights and sins tonight because I think that

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there is a universal weight and sin that we all have to lay down. At some point. We have got to lay down the temptation to run someone else's race. We want an easy formula, don't

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we? We want on your mark. Get set go. So many of us make it to our mark with the intention of running our own race. But then as we get set, we look up

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and we start staring at that great cloud of witnesses , admiring how glamorous their races seem, wondering how they would run the race, what advice they would give us. And for anyone who is the least

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bit competitive, we wonder what times we're trying to beat. And then the race begins and we're off . But we're off on someone else's race. If we can learn anything from our spiritual ancestors, it's

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that that's not how to run the race of faith . Abraham moses rehab. They didn't have time to get set. They didn't have a map of the course. They didn't know where they were going to

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go. They weren't trying to beat the race times of their ancestors. It wasn't on your mark. Get set. Go for them. It was more like on your mark. Go get set. They

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ran in faith and got set along the way as they put one ft in front of the other, running with perseverance. And that's what made them great . That's what makes them heroes of the faith.

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It's not about what they accomplished. It's that they ran by faith with perseverance. It's just so human to want to run someone else's race. It spares us of the effort of having to figure out what

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race were called to run. And that's the hard part, isn't it? Figuring that out is more challenging than you think it should be. So, I wonder what is the name of the race that

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God is calling us to run right now? Is it how to live with covid? Is it will people come back to the pews? Is it will our nation continue to be so divided? Is it

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about voting rights? Is it about how to do church in this new age? Is it about climate change? Is it about how to support a generation of Children who have endured a communal trauma? Is

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it about relinquishing control of our lives trusting that God's call is bigger than our own logic or well laid plans? Is it about privileging the voices of the marginalized? Is it about refugee resettlement? Is it

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about following in the path of courage paved by the young people in our midst. Is it about holding fast to our christian convictions in a world that would like to do nothing more than dilute the power of

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the cross? Maybe the race were called to run , is figuring out what we need to let go of. Here's what I know. God is calling every one of us to run a race of faith

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. I believe that, but we have got to get over ourselves and lay down the temptation to run someone else's race. God doesn't need you running the race of your heroes by faith. They've already done

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that. God needs you to run the race set before you. So, what is the name of the race you're being called to run for Austin Seminary ? It's running a race of faith without Ted Wardlaw

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faculty and administrators and students have trusted his leadership for decades. Now, in the question looms, what will Austin Seminary become without Ted's leadership? Who will follow running this race? You might just discover that

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you have to put more faith in God trusting that the spirit will join this community to the person called to lead it next Ted. What race are you called to run for? Two decades now, you

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have been running the same race, shaping the landscape of theological education, but it's time to pass the baton and figure out what's next. Okay, none of us are naive enough to think that that Ted

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has run solo in these past decades. So the same question can be asked of you, What race is God calling you to run in this next chapter by the way. Okay, Ted if you want

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to take a year in Dallas, I would love to make some arrangements so that can happen. We sure could use you both there. Pastors. What races your congregation being called to run right now?

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Students? What race are you being called to run ? Dave David. Eric, wherever he is. High matt, Sarah, Evelyn, Bill Dana. What race is God calling you to run right now

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? I don't know what the name of your races . I'm still figuring out what the name of my own races, but I do know this. We can't figure out our own races. If we're held

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captive by the races of our heroes, we can respect them. We can honor them, we can celebrate them. But they've already run those races and that's okay because we don't run their races, but

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we do all race in the same way with Perseverance and with faith and with joy, one step at a time. And the only way to do that is to run by faith. Getting set along the

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way as you put one ft in front of the other, trusting that God has put a race before you. And how do we discern that? Well , we look to jesus, the pioneer and perfecter

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of our faith. Austin Seminary, faculty students, friends, God has set a race before you. Are you ready on your mark? Go get set