Meditation on Hebrews 11:29-12:2
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY
Reverence Dr. Karen Crawford
Aug. 17, 2025
Any golf fans in here? Any golfers? I admit that I don’t know much about the sport. I have never played golf before. Well, only miniature golf.
My husband persuaded me to watch a new American sports comedy TV series called, “Stick.” It is and it isn’t really about golf. It’s about the things that cause us to stumble when all that seems to matter is winning and being rich and famous. It’s about the struggle of relationships, the ups and the downs. It’s about grief and loss and forgiveness and how to rise up from the ashes when you have crashed and burned. It’s about having hope and faith to endure—till the end.
It stars Owen Wilson as Pryce Cahill, a former professional golfer who is now a golf club salesman and coach. His wife, though she loves him, left him because he started drinking heavily and doing drugs and could no longer work as a professional golfer. You find out later that what stirred him to fall into this deep depression, drinking, and drugs, is that their 4-year-old son died of cancer. He can’t move beyond his grief. He loses the will to really live.
But one day, when Owen is coaching a beginner, he hears what sounds like a professional player swinging and striking balls nearby. He discovers a teenage boy with surprising skill and accuracy. Something stirs in him, when he hasn’t cared about anything for a long time. He approaches the young man, Santi Wheeler, who at first refuses to talk to him and leaves quickly. Turns out, he was there illegally. He works at a grocery store and has been chased off the course before.
Santi had quit playing golf after his father left his mother. You find out that it’s because the young boy, frustrated with his father’s criticism and obsession with Santi being the best, says he doesn’t want to play golf anymore. Santi’s mother, Elena, is still hurt and angry at her husband for leaving them. She is smart, hardworking, and ambitious, but no one in the business world will take her seriously. She manages a small store that sells, of all things, helium party balloons. Then there’s Owen’s best friend, Mitts, his former caddy, who is disgusted with Owen’s bad behavior, including compulsive lying. But Mitts is stuck in his life because he is grieving the loss of his wife. His depression comes out as anger and grouchiness.
All four characters (and another one you will find out about if you watch the series) end up going on the road together, taking Santi on a golf tour in Mitts’ RV that he bought for his wife and him to travel around the country in their retirement—a dream that was never realized.
Along this journey, Santi shows great promise. But his personal struggles and unwillingness to trust Owen after he catches him in a big lie, hold him back. All the characters begin to change from their experiences and as they learn more about each other on the road with Santi. The energy and excitement that Santi’s gift gives them carries them a long distance. But that’s not what takes them to the end. It’s their enduring hope in one another and in the promise of a brighter future. The story, though not overtly religious, is about redemption.
The writer of Hebrews uses the metaphor of a professional athlete running a race when he encourages his persecuted congregation of fledgling Christians to persevere in faith. Run like all the faithful ones in Scripture who, though they are imperfect, are models for us.
Look at this intriguing list of faithful but imperfect people, which begins with the Israelites, who didn’t trust Moses, constantly complained, and weren’t sure that God was still with them in the wilderness. Notice that this list includes both men and women! The author of Hebrews, much like Paul, applauds the gifts of women, when he lists Rahab second, emphasizing that she was a prostitute.
Another one on this long list includes David, whose character was so flawed, I can’t begin to tell you everything he did wrong, all the terrible sins he committed. And yet he was the shepherd boy chosen by God to defeat Goliath and become king, leading Israel as a man “after God’s own heart.”
We serve a gracious God, dear friends! We never have to be afraid to ask the Lord for forgiveness. We can count on God’s mercy. We can trust in God’s love. It almost seems like the Lord specifically chooses flawed people (and the Bible isn’t shy about telling us their flaws!) to accomplish God’s bigger plan to reconcile human beings with God and one another. The Lord chooses people who are going to stumble and fall and, importantly, get up, once more.
All these people, the author of Hebrews insists, are still with us now in the Great Cloud of Witnesses, cheering us on as we keep running what seems sometimes like an endless marathon. This isn’t a sprint! As we run this race, we hold onto the vision of the One who gave his life for us. We covet the image of the finish line, the end, when we will meet the One who “disregarded” the shame of the cross “for the sake of the joy that was set before him.” This joy for Christ is completing the work of our salvation—making peace with God through his own sacrifice.
Today, we have the joy of welcoming new members into our fold: Susan and Bob Buroker. After being invited by one of our families to come to worship, they discerned a call to minister with us, to become part of our family of faith, though we were already brothers and sisters in Christ. The amazing thing to me is how God continues to use us and grow us, though we are flawed like the characters in “Stick.” Sometimes, we can hit a hole in one with our ministry! Other times, it may seem like we just keeping swinging and swinging and missing or hitting the ball into a sand trap. How am I doing with my golf talk? We are Presbyterians, so we don’t make changes without careful deliberation, consideration, and agonizing over details. Am I right? We like everything to be decent and in order. And we like to work in committees, which sometimes take a while to make decisions!
In fact, we are just like all the other people of faith who have worshiped God in these pews for 200 years. And like the people of faith in the Bible whose heart was to serve the Lord with their lives but they didn’t always get it right. Still, they were loved by God and used for God’s loving purposes.
We are just like the unknown first congregation inspired by the preaching of this unknown first century author of Hebrews, who wanted to make sure that all the people knew Christ as God’s great high priest. This is the only place in the Bible where you will find this imagery of Christ as high priest. And that because of “Christ’s priesthood, followers of Christ have access to God’s mercy and grace.”[1]
Another thing unique to Hebrews is that Jesus is the “pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” Christ is the source or originator! Christ, whose faith is perfect, has perfected our faith through his priesthood. So we don’t need to pick ourselves by our bootstraps. Trying harder isn’t always the answer. But persevering always is. We ask and trust the Lord to show us God’s will and lead us on. Just think! Even when our faith is flawed or lacking, in Christ, our faith is made perfect.
One thing that stands out to me in this first season of “Stick” is when Santi can’t move beyond his mistakes. I think we all get stuck sometimes. It’s as hard to forgive ourselves as it is to forgive others, sometimes harder. He lets the memory of his failures haunt him and hold him back from being his best self for the rest of the course. Owen gives him advice. He tells him that when he makes mistakes and starts to lose his focus, he always sings Simon and Garfunkel’s “Cecilia.” And that lifts him up.
Santi, when later interviewed about how he keeps going when things go sideways, he tells them that HE sings, “Cecilia,” though he doesn’t really know the song. This will come back later when Santi is struggling on the course. He’s stuck. One by one, starting with the girl who has fallen in love with him, his fans begin to sing in increasing volume,
“Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart.
You’re shaking my confidence daily.
Oh Cecilia, I’m down on my knees,
begging you please to come home.
To come home.”
It’s the Great Cloud of Witnesses cheering him on!
Santi moves beyond the mistakes of the past and goes on to be his best, albeit imperfect self.
Susan and Bob, we thank God that you are willing to run alongside us and all the Great Cloud of Witnesses—the faithful in every time and place. We are excited about your spiritual gifts and hearts to serve. We look forward to getting to know you better, hearing your ideas, and learning from you. We promise to love and support you through our prayers and kindness.
Dear flock, may we never be discouraged through all our ups and downs. This is how it is on this lap of the race. Difficult! May our Savior comfort and strengthen us in times of trial, and in times of grief and loss, and lead us to forgive ourselves and others quickly, never allowing past mistakes to slow us down or make us stumble and fall.
May the Lord lift us up from the ashes if we crash and burn. Our God of second chances. No, third!
May God grant us the kind of hope and faith that endures—till the end.
Let us pray.
Loving God, thank you for all the faithful examples in Hebrews of those who are now in the Great Cloud of Witnesses, cheering us on as we run, each day, the race of faith. Thank you for your mercy and grace—for forgiving us for our past mistakes and helping us to overcome every hurdle. Lift us up, dear Lord, if we stumble and fall. Keep us focused on the promises in your Word and the One who died, but then was risen by you and glorified, so that our faith may be perfected in him. Help us who are imperfect to show love, mercy, and grace to one another so others may come to know our hope for eternity in your Son, through whom we pray. Amen.
[1] Paul Hooker, Connections: A Lectionary and Commentary for Preaching and Worship, Year C Vol. 3 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2019), 242-243.
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