Hurry and Help Us

  Hurry and Help Us

Fourth Sunday in Advent

Collect of the Day: O Lord, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succor us; that whereas though our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honor and glory, world without end. Amen.

In 2012 Meghan Vogel was running in a high school track meet in Ohio. As she prepared to pass Arden McMath, McMath collapsed on the track. That should have been the end of the race for McMath, but she received help. Vogel didn’t continue on. She stopped, got McMath to her feet, put her arm around her shoulders, and supported her across the the finish line.

One of the images the Bible gives us for the Christian life is a race. And we all need help to finish.

1. The Race

1.1. In 1 Corinthians St. Paul pictures the Christian life as a race that requires focus and effort:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable (1 Cor. 9:24, 25).

1.2. When Paul was very near the end of his life, he was confident that he had completed the race of the Christian life:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing (2 Tim. 4:7, 8).

1.3. The writer of Hebrews described the Christian life a lifelong race that requires endurance:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…(Hebrews 12:1,2)

1.4. The Christian life is a race that begins with our faith-commitment to Christ. It does not end till we cross the finish line at the end of life. It’s not a short sprint but a life-long race that requires endurance. It requires dedication and self-control. We must run with the focus and determination of a runner who wants to win the prize. Jesus was the first to run the race, and he is our example of how to run this race to the finish with endurance. Other believers have finished the race and are are watching us run our earthly race from their places in “the stands of heaven.”  When we finish our race, we will receive the imperishable prize of perfected righteousness and eternal life.

2. The Hindrances

2.1. The Christian life is a lifelong race. But we need to know there are hindrances to running it. The writer of Hebrews tells us that to run the race we should “lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely (“so easily besets us” KJV). The Collect for today confesses that “through our sins and wickedness we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us.”

We might find some of language of the Prayer Book confusing.  What does it mean that “through our sins and wickedness we are sore let”?

When the Collect uses the word “sore” it doesn’t mean what we do when we say, “I worked in the garden yesterday, and I’m sore all over.” You may remember the story in the King James version of the Shepherds in the fields the night Christ was born. The angel of the Lord appeared, and the glory of the Lord shone all around them. They were “sore afraid.” Sore means “very.”

But what does “let” mean? This is a word which in the 1600s meant the opposite from what it means today. Today “let” means “to allow.” “I let my kids go to the concert.” But then the word meant “to prevent” or “to thwart.” We are “sore let” or greatly thwarted in running the race of the Christian life.

What prevents and hinders us running the race of the Christian life are our “sins and wickedness.”

2.2. Here is the way the New Testament understands our relationship to sin.

• Before we are Christians, we are slaves to sin. Sin controls us, directs us, and condemns us to judgment. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say unto you, everyone who practices sin is the slave of sin” (Jn. 8:34). But, when we become believers, we are set free from slavery to sin. St. Paul wrote:

...thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness (Rom.6:17,18).

Non-believers have sin as their master. They have to

do what sin says. But once we are in Christ by faith, sin

is no longer our boss. We have freedom to say yes to

God’s commands.

• It would seem then that the Christian life should be easy. Why then does the Collect say we are “sore let and hindered through our sins and wickedness”? Because there is another reality. Sin is defeated but not powerless. It remains within us and is powerful. St. Paul wrote to the Galatians that there is a struggle between the good desires the Holy Spirit gives and the evil desires of the sinful flesh:

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do (Galatians 5:17).

• In Romans 7 Paul describes the difficulty of running the Christian life in terms of his own personal struggle. The new person he really is in Christ loves what is good and wants to do it but often fails. That same new person hates sin and wants not to do it, but often does:

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not

do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate...For I

      know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my

      flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not

      the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I

      want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on

      doing. (See Romans 7:14-24).

• The non-Christian does not worry much about his sins, unless he has to face its consequences or thinks about future judgment. A Christian experiences a struggle. He does not love sin but hates it; yet he sins. He loves God’s commands; yet struggles to keep them. This is what the Collect means when it say our sin “sore lets hinders” us in running the race of the Christian life.

3. The Help

3.1. There are Christians whose struggles with sin are obvious. Their sins have been exposed. Other Christians struggle in secret. They are keenly aware of how sin hinders their running the race of the Christian life. They are frustrated with themselves, and want deliverance, but they continue to struggle.

There are many Christians who have trouble identifying with the Collect’s description of them as being sore let and hindered by their sins and wickedness. But who of us would claim to be more holy than St. Paul? Yet after his description of his personal struggle with sin, he cried out in frustration and desperation:

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:25).

That is an exclamation that should be found in the heart of every Christian.

3.2. So what does a Christian whose sins and wickedness sore let and hinder him or her in running the race set before us? The Christian who feels defeated, helpless, and frustrated. He cries out to the Lord for help: “O Lord, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succor (help) us…”.  A Christian prays that “thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us.” Sin is too big and powerful for us to deal with in our own strength. Though a defeated foe, sin remains in our hearts and wants to control us. So we must ask the Lord for his power, might, grace, and mercy.

The ground of our hope in dealing with sin is in Christ and what he has done for us in his righteous life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection.* We place our trust in him and his righteousness is credited to us so that we stand righteous in God’s sight. We trust his death for the payment of our sins and the removal of God’s judgment.

Some find this unbelievable and some are offended by it, but this is true: we can receive forgiveness as often as we need it. You don’t buy forgiveness by how sorry you are for your sins, or how strongly you resolve not to do it again, or how deep your repentance. Have you ever noticed that in the Communion Service we make the same confession of sin every week and the minister in Christ’s name pronounces our sins forgiven? Because Christ died for our sins, our sins are forgiven. Forgiveness is not offered to high-handed sinners who have no desire to be free from their sins. But forgiveness is free and freely offered to us as often as we need it when we confess our sins and trust in Christ. We should not despair, but trust in Christ continually.

When we sincerely ask for forgiveness, we are also saying, “Lord I am grieved by my sin; I am so frustrated by it. Nothing would make me happier than to be free of my sin’s power in my life. Please help me, strengthen me, and give me hope. Help me to die to sin’s power and make me alive to live for you and righteousness.”

We will be freed from sin completely when we die. That is one of the things to look forward to at death. The fire of sin will be put out forever. The struggle will end, and we will be free. And at the Second Advent we will be raised with Christ to be like him - righteous in body and soul.

Because the victory over sin is not in ourselves but in Christ, we come to Christ’s Table with St. Paul’s confidence despite the struggle with sin:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 8:1)

* I am not sure why, but our Prayer Book does not have this phrase which gives the ground of our petition to be delivered from our sins and wickedness: “through the satisfaction of thy Son our Lord.”