• "We Should Live the Christian Life Like Athletes in Training"
• Sermon for Septuagesima, the Third Sunday before Lent
• February 8, 2004
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

In the epistle (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) St. Paul says that we should live the Christian life like athletes in training to compete for a prize: "Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown" (1 Corinthians 9:25 NKJV).

The contests to which St. Paul alludes were called the Isthmian games, which were held in Corinth. They were second only to the Olympics in stature in the ancient world. The games included competitions in running, wrestling, jumping, boxing, javelin and discus. The winners received a crown made of foliage. But they also achieved a great name for themselves. Monuments were erected to memorialize their feats.

It is likely that Paul was in Corinth during these games on at least one occasion. The competitors came from long distances and often lodged in tents. Paul was a tentmaker. He may have carried on business and an evangelistic ministry during the games. He was, in any event, impressed by the effort the athletes gave for the goal of temporal glory and saw in them a model for the Christian life.

Paul assessed his own life in this manner in 2 Timothy. He wrote, "The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing" (4:6-8 NKJV).

The main point is that athletes practice discipline and take upon themselves difficult regimens of training because they hope one day to achieve the glory of a victory in a major contest. So we, as Christians, ought to live the Christian life in a disciplined manner because we hope to be crowned with glory on the day of resurrection.

In our nominally Christian culture, eternal life is infrequently seen as the overarching goal towards which daily life is aimed. More typically, the Christian hope is reduced to insurance policy status. The attitude seems to be that we should have some sort of connection with Jesus that assures us that we will live forever and, thus, enables us to go on living life now as we please.

In many of our popular expressions of Christianity, our culture is guilty of the same sin that Israel became guilty of at the end of the Old Testament: namely, presumption. Israel believed that because God was present in his temple in Jerusalem, the nation could count on God's protection, come what may. The prophets warned and the Babylonians proved otherwise. Faithlessness leads to judgment. So we, as a culture, tend to presume that God's favor rests upon us no matter what we actually do. It is a presumptuous belief.

In the epistle, Paul raises the possibility that the Christian athlete might not win the prize. He says that he practiced discipline, "lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified." Paul trusted in the mercy of God. But he did not presume upon the grace of God. He trusted that Jesus died for him and that his sins were forgiven, but he did not presume that he could live any way he chose and be accepted by Christ on the last day.

Too often, people adopt a minimalist approach to the Christian life. They ask, "What is the minimum I need to do to be saved?" People say things like, "I don't think I need to go to church or study the Bible or fast or practice various other disciplines to be saved." To which one might respond, "Perhaps not. We will see." But whether or not we can get into heaven by the skin of our teeth after living a disobedient or uncommitted life, clearly, this is the wrong way to look at it.

A good athlete would never ask, "What is the minimum amount of training I need in order to be competitive? A good athlete asks, "What is the optimal program of training that will help me reach my goal?" A faithful Christian should ask, "What is the best way to live the Christian life so as to grow in grace towards the goal of perfection and resurrection?"

For both athlete and Christian, the best way is a planned and disciplined approach. In the language of the church, we call such a disciplined approach a "rule of life." A rule of life is roughly equivalent to an athlete's training plan. It is a plan for spiritual training and exercise.

In our tradition, a rule of life has certain components. It includes at least weekly participation in the Eucharist, some daily participation in the offices of Morning and Evening Prayer-which include a cyclical reading of the Bible-and habits of private, conversational prayer. Under these broad headings, we confess sins, praise God, give thanks, intercede for others and grow in grace and virtue. Our rule of life is firmly imbedded in the church calendar. We pray our way through the Christian revelation, from Advent through Trinity, observing disciplines, feasts and fasts appropriate to each season.

The life of prayer provides the impetus for service and good works. It is precisely inasmuch as we habitually take time to come into the presence of God that we are led by God to serve others and do the good works God has prepared for us. Praying to the Father through the Son in the Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

Today is the first of three pre-lenten Sundays. It is two and a half weeks before Ash Wednesday. This is a season of time to reflect upon the coming penitential season so that we might use Lent to institute real changes in our lives. This season of time provides an opportunity to step on the spiritual scale and assess our spiritual condition. Do we have unconfessed sin? Have we been neglecting spiritual disciplines of worship, daily prayer and Bible study? Are we using the spiritual gifts that God has given us? Have we neglected the good works that God has prepared for us to walk in?

This season provides an opportunity to become more disciplined about the duties of faith as we look toward Easter and the crown of immortality that the Lord will give to all who love him. This season provides us an opportunity to do some new things that make our life in this world conform to the demands of faith; to reverse the common trend in which faith is always conformed to the demands of life in this world-lest by any means after we have told others about Christ, we should be disqualified.

As St. Paul says, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it."