Text: 1 Kings 2:1-4, 10-11

It’s race day and some are missing.  Twenty-five years ago, I arrived in Indianapolis with little knowledge or connection to the Indy 500 race.  To my surprise, I discovered that some congregations close on race day. I learned the size and scale of the traffic in the Speedway area necessitated their closure. But when someone suggested that we shut down, I was amazed.

 

We moved to Indiana in time to see the old gasoline alley. Jim Holland, one of our saints who has gone before us, took me on a tour of the track and to a luncheon where then Indy Car driver Derrick Daly spoke. He didn’t enter the race that year as he was recovering from an accident. A few years later, we attended our first race and froze to death. The temperature was in the forties and it was marked by lots of crashes because the tires would stick to the pavement.      

 

Many if not most of you have attended at least one race and almost everyone has a memory. Most of them are about exciting finishes. As we arrived in Indianapolis, people were still talking about Gordon Johncock slipping by Rick Mears in 1982. The race we went to in 1992, the coldest race on record, had Al Unser finish one half car ahead of Scott Goodyear.  But the all time, greatest finish happened so long ago that none of you have memory of it. It was the second Indy 500 in 1912.       

 

The pacesetter for the 1912 speedway event set a blistering tempo. One driver, Ralph DePalma, immediately took the lead and led the pack of wheel twisters for 198 laps, breaking every existing speedway record for 450 miles. With victory within his grasp and an eight-lap lead, DePalma was a sure winner.[1]

 

Accounts differ as to what happened. Some say that DePalma’s car developed an oil leak. Others report that his Mercedes broke a piston. In any event, his car went dead on the backstretch. The sure victory vanished into thin air with less than a mile to go. Undaunted, DePalma and riding mechanic Rupert Jeffkins climbed out of the car and pushed it for over a mile until they managed to shove it across the finish line. Meanwhile, Joe Dawson passed them to win the race.

 

DePalma was disqualified but that didn’t matter. The crowd gave him a standing ovation, and the story of DePalma pushing his car across the finish line swept across the country, propelling the 500 into national attention. DePalma went on to drive for more than 4,000 miles on that Indy track, which was a record for years and in 1915, crossed the finish line as a winner.[2]

 

This weekend, we remember those who have crossed the finish or who were pushed involuntarily across the line during war. Memorial Day was originally a day to remember fallen soldiers.  It was first conceived in 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the grand Army of the Republic, as a day to place flowers on the graves of the Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. New York declared Memorial Day a holiday 5 years later. A number of others states soon followed.  Not surprisingly the South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I. In 1971, it was declared a national holiday but surprisingly, much of the ceremony of honoring war heroes was beginning to subside and the day is increasing a day for remembering those who have died.[3]

 

I will admit that the military significance of Memorial Day was lost to me in my own personal formation because our family did not have a fallen hero to remember; but we did remember. When I was young, each Memorial Day weekend, we’d make a trip to the small cemetery near Coweta, Oklahoma to place flowers on the graves of my maternal relatives. It was always a long hot drive and I was restless when we got there. It was never a solitary experience; our family wasn’t the only ones there. Some were putting flags on graves, others, like us, just flowers. If I wandered off or made noise, I was chastised without explanation. One trip, I stumbled over a grave, something considered disrespectful at that time and place and then was asked an odd question by my grandmother whose parenting style was to engender shame.  “What do you think they would say to you walking on their graves?”

 

It was a spooky question for a young kid, one which I’ve thought about occasionally when I’ve been in modern cemeteries where it is impossible not to walk on a grave. But the question has some merit, particularly on Memorial Day. What if those who have gone before us were to rise from the grave for a few moments and offer advice.  What would they say?

 

It would probably vary depending upon the descendent, but scripture gives us a clue in something called the “farewell speech.” There are lots of farewell speeches in the Bible, advice offered as someone is dying and going to God. Our lesson today is from father to a son.  “When David’s time to die drew near, he charged his son Solomon, saying ‘I am about to go the way of all the earth.” (1 Kings 2:1-2).  What follows is advice to Solomon and us. It is simple and three-fold.    Be strong, be courageous and be faithful. When it comes to this race we call life, that’s good counsel.

 

Be strong. A few years ago, our son Andrew worked out at St. Vincent’s Sports Medicine in a conditioning program for baseball players. Also working out with his own trainer was Indy Car driver Dan Weldon. Today, race car drivers train like other elite athletes. I suspect that race car drivers weren’t pumping iron when Ralph DePalma had his famous finish. I’m also certain that he didn’t imagine when he began his race that he’d need to get out of his Mercedes and push the dead-weight across the finish line himself, using his own power and strength. The car was supposed to provide forward progress on its own. It was an auto-mobile, an invention that was only 15 years old.  

 

I think DePalma’s experience though is a metaphor for how we approach life. We just let it carry us along. We go with the flow and then are surprised when suddenly, something breaks and we have to climb out and start pushing. 

 

“Be strong,” David says. It is a familiar word in scripture. God says to Joshua when he is assuming leadership, “Be strong and lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.” (Joshua 1:6). 

 

The Psalmist says, “Wait for the LORD; be strong…” (Psalm 27:14a.)

 

Paul says, “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.” (Ephesians 6:10). The strength that the Bible passage is talking about isn’t doing push-ups or weight-lifting or the strength that allows you to push a car. It is the strength that allows you to persevere and it comes from living in the Word.

 

David is very specific about where Solomon will find his strength. He says: “keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies…” (1 Kings 2-3).

 

When I was a kid, I loved the cartoon Popeye.  I don’t know if kids today even know who Popeye is. You know, Popeye wasn’t very strong; in fact, he was pretty weak. He couldn’t pump iron. He never exercised. Brutus could push him around whenever he wanted; except of course when he used his secret weapon. When he ate spinach, he had all of the strength that he needed. King David never watched Popeye but if he had, he’d say, “Living in the Word is like Popeye eating spinach. It gives you the strength.”

 

Be strong, David says and be courageous. I can’t image how DePalma felt as his car came to a grinding halt with an eight lap lead. I also couldn’t imagine the courage to get out on the track with cars passing around. How did the crowd respond when they saw him begin to push the car? Did they laugh? Point fingers? We don’t know. We only know that when he crossed the finish line, they erupted with a thunderous ovation.  Like Hebrews said, he had a great cloud of witnesses that supported him.  He had courage.

 

Where does spiritual courage come from? It comes from doing the right thing even though some might ridicule you or even though you might fail.

 

Spiritual courage is “standing by one’s core”, being true to yourself in your words and actions. It’s not easy. We often fear that being ourselves might put at risk our popularity, our employment, and most importantly the acceptance and love of others. It often feels safer to be who we think others want us to be rather than our real selves.

 

Courage is living an authentic life, committing yourself to your core beliefs and acting in the knowledge that God has the power and control of any situation, even failure. If failure comes, it is courage which learns and goes forward.

 

Finally King David told Solomon to be faithful, to “walk before God in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul…” (1 Kings 2:4b).   It’s an extension of what he said earlier about walking in his ways. Granted, you may be strong and courageous without having faith in God…history is full of examples. But more often than not, such strength and courage is likely to be misplaced or misdirected. Strength and courage are fortified with faith. 

 

The author of Hebrews tells us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the convinced of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received their approval.” (Hebrews 11: 1-2).

 

·       By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.

·       By faith, Enoch walked with God and didn’t see death.

·       By faith, Noah saved his family from the flood.

·       By faith Abraham obeyed and set out to receive his inheritance.

·       By faith Moses was hidden by his parents and by faith Moses led the people through the Red Sea.

·       By faith Rahab the prostitute hid the spies so that Jericho might captured.

 

Then he adds, “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.

 

David is saying to Solomon, we have this great cloud of witnesses, those who’ve gone before us. Walk in their steps, have faith like them.  Be faithful.

 

We do have a great cloud of witnesses and on this weekend, we remember them. If indeed, like my grandmother threatened, they would get up from their graves and speak to us, I think they would say what David says to Solomon. Be strong, be courageous, and be faithful. Such people make it to the finish line and join the mighty cloud of witnesses. My prayer is that we will be such a people.