James T. Cleland - "The Race That Is Set before Us" (January 14, 1968)
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| - | Father who art in heaven, | 0:03 |
| hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come , | 0:06 | |
| thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 0:10 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread, | 0:14 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses, | 0:17 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 0:19 | |
| and lead us not into temptation, | 0:23 | |
| but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom | 0:25 | |
| and the power and the glory forever. | 0:30 | |
| Amen. | 0:34 | |
| - | Peace be unto you within this house of God, | 0:57 |
| and to all who worship with us. | 1:01 | |
| There are three reasons why this particular sermon, | 1:08 | |
| is being preached this morning. | 1:12 | |
| First, there was insufficient time, | 1:16 | |
| to complete the intended sermon | 1:21 | |
| because of the concatenation of weather, | 1:25 | |
| sickness, death and a funeral. | 1:28 | |
| Second, 1968, is a year of the Olympic games. | 1:34 | |
| And if the National Collegiate Athletic Association | 1:43 | |
| and the Amateur Athletic Union | 1:48 | |
| can terminate their civil war, | 1:50 | |
| and if black power does not boycott the games, | 1:54 | |
| we shall look forward to an exciting meet. | 1:59 | |
| Usually during an Olympic year, | 2:04 | |
| I preach at least once on a Scottish sprinter, | 2:07 | |
| who made an unusual name for himself, | 2:13 | |
| in the Paris Olympics, of 1924. | 2:16 | |
| And third, during Christmas, | 2:22 | |
| I read an intriguing book by Langdon Gilkey, | 2:25 | |
| Professor of Theology | 2:30 | |
| at the University of Chicago Divinity School, | 2:31 | |
| entitled Shantung Compound. | 2:36 | |
| The story of his two and a half years imprisonment, | 2:41 | |
| in a Japanese internment camp, in China. | 2:46 | |
| The memories are enriched by reflection, | 2:52 | |
| because the book was not published until 1966. | 2:56 | |
| And in that volume, | 3:02 | |
| he tells of the Scottish Olympic sprinter. | 3:04 | |
| Let me read you two paragraphs | 3:10 | |
| with a one sentence prologue from the preface. | 3:12 | |
| Here is the sentence, to save embarrassment all around, | 3:18 | |
| I have changed the name of every person in the book. | 3:23 | |
| The two paragraphs deal with | 3:30 | |
| the explosive problem of teenagers in the camp, | 3:32 | |
| a crisis situation. | 3:38 | |
| And I quote, "the man who more than anyone | 3:42 | |
| brought about the solution of the teenage problem, | 3:47 | |
| was Eric Ridley. | 3:50 | |
| It is rare indeed | 3:53 | |
| when a person has the good fortune to meet a Saint, | 3:55 | |
| but he came as close to it as anyone I have ever known. | 4:00 | |
| Often in an evening of that last year, | 4:05 | |
| I headed for some pleasant rendezvous with my girlfriend, | 4:08 | |
| would pass the game room, | 4:14 | |
| and peer in to see what the missionaries | 4:16 | |
| had cooking for the teenagers. | 4:18 | |
| As often as not Eric Ridley would be bent over a chessboard | 4:21 | |
| or a model boat or directing some sort of square dance, | 4:26 | |
| absorbed, warm, and interested, | 4:31 | |
| pouring all of himself into this effort to capture the minds | 4:35 | |
| and imagination of those pinned up youths. | 4:39 | |
| If anyone could have done it, he could. | 4:44 | |
| Attract men, he had won the 440 in the Olympics | 4:48 | |
| for England in the twenties, | 4:52 | |
| and then had come to China as a missionary. | 4:54 | |
| In camp, he was in his middle forties, | 4:58 | |
| life and springy of step, | 5:01 | |
| and above all overflowing with good humor and love of life. | 5:04 | |
| He was aided by others to be sure, | 5:09 | |
| but it was Eric's enthusiasm and charm | 5:12 | |
| that carried the day with the whole effort. | 5:14 | |
| Shortly before the camp ended, | 5:18 | |
| he was stricken suddenly with a brain tumor | 5:21 | |
| and died the same day. | 5:25 | |
| For the entire camp, | 5:28 | |
| especially its youth was stunned for days. | 5:29 | |
| So great was the vacuum that Eric's death had left." | 5:34 | |
| Who was this Eric Ridley? | 5:41 | |
| Beloved of teenagers? | 5:45 | |
| A saint to Langdon Gilkey. | 5:48 | |
| He was Eric Liddell. | 5:53 | |
| And I want to tell you about him now. | 5:57 | |
| Eric Liddell was born in Tientsin in North China, | 6:02 | |
| on January 16th 1902. | 6:06 | |
| The son of missionary parents, | 6:10 | |
| both of whom hailed from Scotland. | 6:13 | |
| He spent the first six years of his life in China, | 6:16 | |
| 1907 saw him at a school in Scotland | 6:20 | |
| and from 1908 to 1920, he was a pupil in England, | 6:26 | |
| at the school for the sons of missionaries. | 6:31 | |
| He came to Edinburgh University in 1920 and graduated | 6:35 | |
| with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pure Science in 1924. | 6:40 | |
| He spent the next year at the congregational college, | 6:48 | |
| and in 1925, returned to China as a missionary, | 6:52 | |
| and died there in the Shantung Compound age 43. | 6:57 | |
| Now that is a good life well spent, but as outlined, | 7:06 | |
| there is nothing unusually unusual about him, | 7:13 | |
| Liddell is worthy of a steam, | 7:19 | |
| but others have lived similar lives of service | 7:23 | |
| without public acclaim. | 7:27 | |
| There is nothing in that Curriculum Vitae which tells how | 7:30 | |
| or why he captured the imagination of his fellow Scouts, | 7:36 | |
| especially the student generation. | 7:42 | |
| Why his name was a household word in my undergraduate days | 7:46 | |
| throughout Scotland, yes, and even in England. | 7:52 | |
| To another aspect of his life, | 7:58 | |
| we must turn for his astounding popularity. | 8:01 | |
| When he came up to Edinburgh university in 1920, | 8:07 | |
| he brought with him quite a record as an athlete. | 8:11 | |
| At his prep school, he had been captain of cricket, | 8:15 | |
| which is a point of view rather than a game, | 8:21 | |
| and captain of rugby, | 8:27 | |
| which is a refined form of American Football. | 8:29 | |
| He also won several cups for his prowess in track. | 8:35 | |
| At Edinburgh, he continued his track career, | 8:41 | |
| which left his opponents both breathless and defeated, | 8:45 | |
| and made him the most popular | 8:50 | |
| and best loved athlete, Scotland has ever produced. | 8:52 | |
| He was primarily a sprinter, but from 1921 to 23, | 8:58 | |
| he played rugby for Edinburgh university | 9:04 | |
| and was chosen to represent Scotland as a wing three quarter | 9:08 | |
| in the international matches against France, Ireland, Wales, | 9:14 | |
| and England. | 9:19 | |
| But rugby interfered with track. | 9:21 | |
| And so after these two seasons, he dropped it, | 9:25 | |
| to concentrate on running. | 9:29 | |
| Now, how can I help you to capture the enthusiasm | 9:33 | |
| and admiration for him which grew and grew, | 9:38 | |
| as meet after meet, he emerged the winner. | 9:43 | |
| He was a Scottish Dave Sim plus. | 9:49 | |
| Will statistics help? | 9:56 | |
| As a freshman in 1921, he won the 100 and 200, | 9:59 | |
| I mean 100 and 220 at Edinburgh university. | 10:05 | |
| He also won both races in the inter-varsity meet | 10:09 | |
| and he won them both again in the Scottish Championship. | 10:13 | |
| In fact, he won the 100 and the 220 | 10:18 | |
| in the Scottish championships from 1921 to 25, | 10:22 | |
| and added the 440 in 24 and 25. | 10:28 | |
| And on four of these five occasions, | 10:34 | |
| he also led the Edinburgh University relay team to victory. | 10:37 | |
| In 1923, he was the British, not the Scottish, | 10:44 | |
| but the British amateur champion in the 100 and 220 | 10:48 | |
| and a week later at the triangular international contest | 10:54 | |
| with England and Ireland, | 10:58 | |
| he not only won the a 100 and the 220, | 11:00 | |
| but added a first in the 440. | 11:03 | |
| Something that had never been done before, | 11:07 | |
| and to my knowledge has never been accomplished since, | 11:10 | |
| in great Britain, a triple international victory | 11:13 | |
| in the short distance races. | 11:18 | |
| That winter, he looked forward to one thing, | 11:23 | |
| the hundred meters at the Olympic games | 11:27 | |
| to be held in Paris, in 1924. | 11:32 | |
| He was the first choice of the British Olympic Committee. | 11:37 | |
| He went into serious training and then refused to run. | 11:43 | |
| The heats for the 100 were scheduled to be run on a Sunday. | 11:52 | |
| The British committee had done all in its power | 12:02 | |
| to have the day altered. | 12:05 | |
| Its members knew that Liddell would not run on Sunday. | 12:07 | |
| They recognized that they were dealing | 12:13 | |
| with a man of religious principle. | 12:15 | |
| Liddell made his statement in three words, | 12:19 | |
| "I'm not running." | 12:23 | |
| It took President Calvin Coolidge, | 12:28 | |
| six words to say the same thing. | 12:30 | |
| "I do not choose to run." | 12:33 | |
| But Liddell was on economic Scott. | 12:38 | |
| However, it was not the end | 12:44 | |
| of the Olympic games for Liddell. | 12:46 | |
| He switched his training to the 400 meters | 12:50 | |
| and on Friday, July 11th, 1924, he won that race, | 12:55 | |
| breaking the world record 47.6 seconds. | 13:03 | |
| In 1964 it came down to 45.1, | 13:12 | |
| but he broke the world record in his day. | 13:16 | |
| And there's one incident connected with that race, | 13:20 | |
| which suggests that truth is stranger than fiction. | 13:23 | |
| Just before the final, | 13:28 | |
| a man came to him and slipped a piece of paper into his hand | 13:30 | |
| and on the paper was written, | 13:37 | |
| 'them that honor me, I will honor, 1st Samuel 2:30.' | 13:41 | |
| Liddell never knew who the man was. | 13:52 | |
| A week later Liddell was back in Edinburgh to graduate. | 13:58 | |
| I wish there were time to tell you, | 14:03 | |
| of the reaction of Edinburgh to her most recent hero, | 14:05 | |
| a laurel wreath, as well as a hood at graduation, | 14:11 | |
| when the president of the university said to him, | 14:17 | |
| Mr. Lindell, you have proved that no one can pass you, | 14:19 | |
| except the examiners. | 14:25 | |
| I drive through the streets | 14:30 | |
| with the carriage drawn by a group of university blues, | 14:31 | |
| which being interpreted is Letterman, | 14:36 | |
| and three complimentary dinners. | 14:39 | |
| Staid old Edinburgh, | 14:44 | |
| lifted her petticoats and did a Highland fling. | 14:47 | |
| 1924, 25 was spent in special study | 14:53 | |
| for his projected work in China | 14:57 | |
| and in evangelistic campaigns, | 15:00 | |
| among students and the unemployed | 15:03 | |
| and not unreasonable combination. | 15:07 | |
| Then for 20 years, he served his Lord in China | 15:12 | |
| with occasional fuddlers to Scotland, | 15:18 | |
| to persuade others, to join him in the Far East. | 15:21 | |
| And he died of a brain tumor in that internment camp | 15:25 | |
| on May 8th, 1945. | 15:31 | |
| And Scotland went into mourning for the man | 15:36 | |
| whom Langdon Gilkey in Shantung Compound calls a Saint. | 15:41 | |
| There is but one aspect of his life story | 15:50 | |
| that we might reflect on. | 15:52 | |
| I shall say nothing about the academic aspect of his life, | 15:55 | |
| except for the observation that while you | 16:00 | |
| who are undergraduates may rejoice to know | 16:03 | |
| that he was not a brilliant student. | 16:06 | |
| You may be embarrassed to know just before exams, | 16:09 | |
| that he was a steady and conscientious worker. | 16:13 | |
| I shall say nothing about the athletic aspect of his life, | 16:20 | |
| except to come in that while he trained | 16:24 | |
| with serious purpose, there was fun in it. | 16:27 | |
| He used to race the corporation buses | 16:32 | |
| up the mound in Edinburgh, | 16:35 | |
| regularly winning to the chagrin of the transit company. | 16:38 | |
| And he also practiced mashie shots, | 16:45 | |
| over the home of the President of the University. | 16:50 | |
| It's the spiritual aspect of his character, | 16:56 | |
| which would interest us just now, | 16:59 | |
| which would say something to us. | 17:02 | |
| The things of the spirit, were basic for Liddell, | 17:05 | |
| the groundwork on which all else was built. | 17:10 | |
| Eichem Abrahams, the British Olympic captain in 1924, | 17:15 | |
| who interestingly enough, took Liddell's place, | 17:20 | |
| in the hundred meters and won it. | 17:24 | |
| He said this about his teammate, | 17:28 | |
| "Eric Liddell was a man whose intense spiritual convictions | 17:31 | |
| contributed largely to his athletic triumphs. | 17:36 | |
| While his ability must've been great, | 17:41 | |
| but for his profound intensity of spirit, | 17:44 | |
| he surely could not have achieved so much. | 17:48 | |
| He sought first the kingdom | 17:56 | |
| and the other things were added to him." | 18:00 | |
| Here are two reflections on his spiritual life | 18:05 | |
| which I would share with you. | 18:07 | |
| First, his refusal to run on Sunday, | 18:11 | |
| was the symbol of a principle, | 18:17 | |
| his primary loyalty to God. | 18:21 | |
| Religion is self committal to the more than self. | 18:26 | |
| It's the recognition of something, someone, | 18:34 | |
| other than ourselves, greater than ourselves, | 18:39 | |
| to whom we render a willing obedience, | 18:43 | |
| homage, worship. | 18:47 | |
| God is first. | 18:50 | |
| Nothing may come before him. | 18:53 | |
| That's all was the central fact in any higher religion, | 18:56 | |
| Liddell knew that, he believed that. | 19:01 | |
| The keeping of the Lord's day holy, | 19:06 | |
| in a different manner from the other days of the week | 19:10 | |
| was for him, both a requirement | 19:14 | |
| and the sign of his particular, | 19:18 | |
| conservative Christian loyalty. | 19:22 | |
| In an age and in a world of compromise. | 19:27 | |
| It is salutary to have one central loyalty, | 19:32 | |
| which is constant and one symbol, | 19:36 | |
| which signifies an eternal value. | 19:41 | |
| I do not suggest that you choose Liddell's symbol. | 19:46 | |
| It is not mine. | 19:53 | |
| I shall watch the Superbowl this afternoon. | 19:56 | |
| And yet Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers would not pitch | 20:02 | |
| on Yom Kippur, the Jewish holy day. | 20:07 | |
| And Bobby Richardson to the Yankees arrived late | 20:13 | |
| for batting practice every Sunday | 20:17 | |
| because he worshiped at 11:00 AM. | 20:21 | |
| What I am asking is that we have one hill in our heart, | 20:26 | |
| which towers above the rolling Plains | 20:35 | |
| of inevitable compromise in our lives. | 20:39 | |
| It may be our attitude to people of other races, | 20:44 | |
| born of religious conviction. | 20:48 | |
| It may be our attitude to the use of alcohol, | 20:52 | |
| born of religious conviction. | 20:56 | |
| It may be a religious pacifism in a bewildered world, | 21:00 | |
| which resorts to undeclared, un-understood war. | 21:06 | |
| It may center on honesty and on an honor code | 21:13 | |
| on chastity or noblesse oblige. | 21:20 | |
| And one day on that hill in the heart, | 21:26 | |
| a cross maybe erected and any one of us, | 21:33 | |
| maybe on that cross. | 21:39 | |
| The second reflection is this, | 21:47 | |
| Liddell did not insist, | 21:51 | |
| that others should not run on Sunday. | 21:55 | |
| He never tried to change the day of the heats. | 22:02 | |
| Though The British Committee did for patriotic reasons. | 22:09 | |
| He did not force his view on others. | 22:15 | |
| The freedom here rightfully claimed to keep the Sabbath, | 22:22 | |
| He willingly granted to others to ignore the Sabbath, | 22:26 | |
| or more accurately The Lord's Day. | 22:32 | |
| Liddell did not demand that others, | 22:36 | |
| have the courage of his convictions, | 22:40 | |
| but he had the courage not to yield | 22:45 | |
| to the convictions of others, when they were contrary | 22:49 | |
| to that which he considered | 22:53 | |
| to be of spiritual importance. | 22:56 | |
| Therefore, what I am suggesting is that as Christians, | 23:00 | |
| we do not insist or even expect that others accept | 23:04 | |
| the symbol of ultimate loyalty, | 23:11 | |
| which is particularly dear to us. | 23:14 | |
| Be it total abstinence or no movies on Sunday | 23:19 | |
| or church attendance morning and evening, | 23:26 | |
| or tithing or the like. | 23:30 | |
| we live under tremendous pressures to conform, | 23:36 | |
| even our non-conformity is in a conforming mode, | 23:41 | |
| weird hairstyles, innumerable matches, | 23:48 | |
| noisy picketing, petition signing. | 23:54 | |
| Grant every person the spiritual freedom we desire. | 23:59 | |
| Grant him the right to be different from us, | 24:06 | |
| provided he's reasonably quiet, | 24:11 | |
| during the normal hours for sleep and study. | 24:13 | |
| And doesn't so express himself on the street, | 24:18 | |
| that he frightens the horses. | 24:24 | |
| It is good to have a center of reference which is holy, | 24:28 | |
| and a symbol of that holiness, which is sacred. | 24:35 | |
| It is also good to make no demands | 24:41 | |
| that others accept that center and that symbol. | 24:47 | |
| These were twin loyalties for Eric Liddell. | 24:53 | |
| For many of you it is normal | 25:01 | |
| that a sermon begin with a text from the Bible, | 25:03 | |
| I would close with one. | 25:07 | |
| If I had been asked to choose | 25:10 | |
| the words to place on a Memorial tablet to Eric Liddell, | 25:12 | |
| I would have turned to the two verses from our lesson, | 25:18 | |
| which opened the 12th chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, | 25:22 | |
| wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about | 25:28 | |
| with so great, a cloud of witnesses, | 25:35 | |
| let us lay aside every weight and the sin, | 25:39 | |
| which doth so easily beset us. | 25:43 | |
| And let us run with patience, | 25:48 | |
| the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus, | 25:51 | |
| the author and finisher of our faith. | 25:57 | |
| Remember the race that is set before us, us. | 26:02 | |
| Eric Liddell might be a good coach for that race. | 26:13 | |
| Let us pray. | 26:23 | |
| Almighty God, | 26:28 | |
| seeing we also are compassed about | 26:31 | |
| with so great a cloud of witnesses, | 26:33 | |
| help us to lay aside every weight and the sin, | 26:36 | |
| which does so easily beset us, and to run with patience. | 26:39 | |
| The race that is set before us looking unto Jesus | 26:44 | |
| the author and finisher of our faith, | 26:49 | |
| who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, | 26:53 | |
| despising the shame and is set down | 26:59 | |
| at the right hand of thy throne. | 27:03 | |
| Amen. | 27:09 | |
| (gentle music playing) | 27:21 |
