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For a faithful middle-aged man

The Good Fight

2 Timothy 4:6b-8

There is a poem that's been going through my mind:

Ah, Love, could thou and I with fate conspire
To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire,
Would we not shatter it to bits -- and then
Remould it nearer to the heart's desire!
-- Omar Khayyam

Surely that is a reflection of how we feel today as we come to lay to rest this good man, Richard, whom we knew affectionately as Rick. We'd like to cast away this outcome and remold it, give the story a different ending, one in which Rick lives in good health to a ripe old age.

Of course, that is not our choice to make, but let me offer you another set of words, these from the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy:

... the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

These words were probably written during the time that Paul was expecting to be arrested at any moment -- which indeed happened, and he was thereafter martyred. He could have avoided coming to that point, but it would have meant not being faithful to his work for the Lord.

But he has no complaints. He looks back over his life with first, acceptance. He says plainly, "The time of my departure has come." He does not protest, beg, or express anger at the injustice of it all. Instead, he saw dying simply as the doorway to a better world. He was satisfied that the summation of his life was not its length, but its faithfulness.

And so he says, "I have fought the good fight." His life had involved struggle, disappointment, weariness, imprisonment, all on behalf of God, but he says it was a good fight, one worth staying in.

Rick, too, has had a fight -- against cancer -- and that fight has had its share of pain, disappointment, frustration, and weariness. As we stand here today, we are tempted, perhaps, to say that he lost the fight. But we would be wrong, for like Paul, he kept the faith.

During a hospitalization of Rick's father-in-law, Rick and I were in the hospital hallway together for a few moments. We had stepped out of Albert's room to let some other visitors go in. Rick was looking out the window, and suddenly he said to me, "I don't know how people go through things like this without faith. It made a difference for me." (That's when he told me about his first bout with cancer.) "You find out what matters -- your faith and your family."

You see, if we think of Rick's death at this age, we may think of it as a fight lost, but when we realize that he kept the faith, we recognize that the real fight has been won.

Paul went on to say, "I have finished the race." Paul probably had a foot race in mind, but Rick, with his interest in drag racing, would probably think of a drag race. Either way, if we compare life to a racecourse, we tend to think only of length. In God's eyes, finishing is determined by how the race has been won. The measure of a life is in how the race is driven, as the perseverance of the driver to the end, whenever that comes.

I believe God now sees Rick as a winner in the race of life.

Finally Paul says, "There is reserved for me a crown of righteousness." The New Testament word for crown means a garland that is placed on the head of the winner of an event. It is a symbol of triumph.

Rick has driven a good race. We celebrate today his life, and expect that in another world he wears the garland of a winner. Amen.