From the Pulpit: ‘Thank someone in your cloud of witnesses today’

I’m a person who loves to travel to new places. I’m also a person who likes to do extensive research on these new places and read stories of people who have been to these places and their experiences there. I obsessively get all the information I can from these stories to help me make decisions about where I will go, what I will eat, and where I will stay. 

I do this on long trips, like my travels with friends to the beach, or on shorter trips, like over a weekend. I love to ask for a person’s favorites. I know that the only way to truly know something is to experience it, but I love hearing people’s stories about their experiences as I think about what my own will be like. 

In the book of Hebrews, the writer is trying to do the same thing. He was trying to tell stories that would help the community by relating the experiences of those who have done something – in this case, be people of faith in the midst of being persecuted. 

The author is trying to be encouraging to those who are navigating territory that seems uncharted and very scary. People were being persecuted for their faith, even killed and at the same time they were trying to defend their faith and make new disciples. They were a Jewish community that was trying to find their new identity of followers of Jesus – of people of grace, not people of law.

And so, the Hebrews writer is trying to be encouraging. And how does he do this? The same way that many of us get our information and encouragement – by telling stories. They tell examples of people’s stories, heroes of faith, who have gone before. 

We do this very naturally, too. We tell stories of people who make a difference in our lives – we introduce others to the people and places we love. 

I know we also have heroes in our lives. People who have shared their faith experiences, shared their stories, and have impacted us deeply. The writer of Hebrews says it so poetically, we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. (Hebrews 12) People who have shaped us and made us the people we are today. Some that are still on this earth and some who remain with us in spirit. Thank some of the people in your cloud of witnesses today. We never know when it’s the last time we get to tell them.