Just yesterday, I heard my call to ministry.  Mind you, it wasn’t the first time I heard the call, yet the words I heard named it in a new way.  “In life, we are confronted with a world full of struggle and pain.  But we are also given glimpses of the world as it could be…our job is to bring our world into what it can become.”

This is the season of high-minded idealism.  We’ve just watched the world’s greatest athletes test the vision and impulse which guided their training and prepared them for competition.  Now, we’re listening to the party convention speeches, where our political leaders frame the issues and values at stake in November’s election.  Is it any wonder that the parties prefer to package their message in ideas and generalities, to avoid getting pinned down by commitments too early, leaving nowhere to move should the polls indicate a weakness in their position?

Have we fallen for idealism too many times?  Is that why so few people even bother to vote, let alone seek a deep understanding of the issues?  Does it feel easier to disengage from the dialogue and inquiry than to risk making a commitment and be made a fool of?  Maybe that’s why our culture has grown suspicious of political parties and denominations.  Maybe that’s why we seem so wary of institutions which claim a set of values and inevitably fall short as they try to live them out.

Still, it seems, we come back for more.  No matter how many times we’ve been crushed to learn of athletes caught using drugs to enhance their performances, we are captivated by the stories of those who are able to do the seemingly impossible.  Something deep within us is drawn to the heroic -  even super-human -  virtues of our Olympians.

People of faith have shared this fascination for eons.  Prior even to the advent of written communication, the stories that carried the deepest truths from generation to generation revolved around mythical, and often super-human, characters.  Indeed, the Judeo-Christian tradition was born in the midst of great pantheons of gods and their divine-human offspring.  It’s no wonder that the Greco-Roman world which first heard about Jesus was often more keen to clarify his divine lineage and super-human nature than to follow the example and teachings which Jesus directed to flesh and blood humans.

Are things that different today?  Like the Romans and Athenians of the ancient world, we-too have our pantheon of heroes.  Do we, too, not find it easier to brand ourselves with their glory, than to adopt the discipline, persistence, and collaborative patterns of relationship which make their achievements possible in the first place?

For the ancient Greeks, Mount Olympus was the mythical dwelling place of the gods.  For the last 60 years, the people of North Seattle, who live within view of the Olympic mountain range, have been able to see God at work in our church.  Built by and for members of this community, Olympic View has been a place for its children to learn Jesus’ teachings, for its youth to live them out, and for its adults to invite others to follow in his steps.

For the last 300 years, our world has been able to see God at work through the Church of the Brethren’s unique witness to some of Jesus’ most important and challenging teachings.

When some people, in that time, used their religion to claim and preserve power or privilege, we have sought justice for the poor and oppressed.

Where nations have waged war in God’s name, members of our church have proclaimed, in word and deed, that war always represents our failure to be obedient to God’s command and our lack of faith in the transformative power of Christian love.

Where many have taught that faith is characterized by the adherence to a creed, we, believing that any statement of our faith is liable to fall short of the fullness of faith’s expression, have trusted in the manner of our living to be our witness.

And where people or nations imagine that they have become the greatest that any can be, we have recalled the humility with which Jesus stooped to wash his disciples’ feet and we have sought to continue his work.

For the last 2000 years, those who have seen in the hearts and hands of their sisters and brothers a desire to follow Jesus have seen the New Olympians.  They have seen people who were less concerned with the name of their faith than with how they were called to live it out.  They have seen people who seek neither safety nor prestige by their faith, but the courage to advocate for the truth and the strength to endure the persecution that follows.  They have seen people less interested in reward, less afraid of punishment, and more dedicated to the disciplines, practices, and partnerships which bring our reality closer to the world that can be, the world which our Beloved desires for us.  They have seen people who ask not, “When will we have a leader…?” but instead, “How is Christ equipping us to lead?”

May they continue to glimpse in our common life an uncommon commitment to the good of all people.  May they see persistence in our pursuit of justice and peace among families and nations.  May they come to claim, within themselves, the unique gifts and the call they have received to share with our world, for the glory of Christ and their neighbor’s good.