My mother and I used to laugh about the things you could do on crowded elevators to make people uncomfortable.  Like…

  -  Stopping the elevator on every floor, stepping just out of the doors, then sigh and say, “Nope…that’s not my floor.” and make your way back on.

or

  -  Looking as suspicious as possible, you creep into the corner of the elevator, open your purse (or briefcase…or lunchbox…whatever you happen to be carrying) and you say “Are you alright in there?  Can you breath?”  It works a bit better if you jiggle the bag a bit before hand.

Then there is the one that always seems to work…and is perhaps the most annoying crowded elevator trick.  All you have to do is get on the elevator and whistle the first 7 notes of “It’s a small world after all” over and over and over again.  The thing that makes that song so annoying is that it is a very simple tune, and is so repetitive that people can’t help but stop singing it.  Some of you probably have the song stuck in your right now…have fun getting that out. 

Sally has asked me to help her with a Taize prayer service this weekend for the National Youth Worker’s Convention here in Nashville.  I’m not sure if you have ever heard Taize music…but…it can be very much like “It’s a Small World After All”.  The tunes are short, simple, and repetitive. 

And they get stuck in your head.

The only real difference is, they aren’t nearly as annoying…they are holy.

Thanks be to God.

So, after I wrote my blog last week, I went in to the church to start my new job.  It was great, but, as with anything new, it seemed to be somewhat overwhelming to me.

I think ministry in itself can seem overwhelming sometimes…especially at this stage, as we try to sort out what we are doing as a community, why we are doing it, and how we as a community listen for God and follow Christ.

So I went to the church, and was assessing what supplies I had, I was trying to organize a bit, and trying to pray through this sense of overwhelming that I felt creeping over me.  It was about this time that I looked at they wall, and I saw that verse that I spoke about in my previous post.  Hebrews 12:1.  It wasn’t planned, it was simply a sign.

I smiled slightly, and continued with my work.

I saw that scripture in three other places in the church that day.  It seemed to be following me around.  The witnesses…the saints that have gone before were watching me, and encouraging me. 

The cloud of witnesses was at its best.

I’m happy today.  For a long time now, I feel that I’ve been running…with no real destination.  Just running.  Hoping desperately that something will work out for me.  Feeling called to do so much, yet having little opportunity to fulfill that calling.

I spent this morning at the church that I will soon be working for.  It was my second visit to the church on a Sunday, so only the second time I’ve been there for a service.  What a gift it was!  Today, the church celebrated one of my favorite days of the year.  All Saint’s Day.  Now, why they celebrated this day a week after I thought it would have been celebrated, I don’t know.  But what a gift it was to experience this day with them.

It was simple liturgy.  Nothing major.  But VERY powerful.  People from the church had given the names of the people who were saints (with a lower case ’s’) to them.  As we read the names out loud in the service, a candle was lit in rememberance of that saint.  Now, I didn’t know this was happening, or surely I would have added my own…I will list only a few of them here instead, feel free to light a candle:  Father Tom, Sally, Grandpa, Randy, Doyle, St. Nicholaus.  These are people who are a part of my life that have pointed me to something deeper.  They have taught me Truth (with a capital ‘T’).  And for that they are my heroes.  My saints. 

As I sat in the service this morning, thinking of my saints, and hearing the names of the saints of the community around me, I couldn’t help but think of letter that this guy named Paul wrote to these people called the Hebrews:

 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, 

               - Hebrews 12:1 (ESV)

The great cloud of witnesses.  The Saints and saints that have gone before us.  As I meditated on that passage, hearing the names, seeing the candles lit, watching the smoke rise, I saw those people take their place among the great cloud.  The holy congregation of Saints and saints. 

And I visioned myself running.  Not running away, but running toward something.  Running to the God that calls me.  Running to the Truth that the members of that holy congregation of saints point to. 

And I wasn’t exhausted.  My endurance kicked in.  The strength I have needed for the past year once again kicked in.  I made it through.  The weight and the sin that has held me back was released…at least for today.  And I couldn’t have made it without that holy congregation.  I couldn’t have done it without those Saints and saints.  I couldn’t have done it without my heroes.  Because we all need heroes.

May I continue to keep running that race, spurred on by that great cloud of witnesses that release us from this world, and point to something greater.

The Peace of the Lord be with you.