Peter McNabb
Wheatland UMC
Dallas, Texas
February 5, 2012 – Scout Sunday

Strength

Psalm 147: 1-11
Isaiah 40: 21-31

 Today is Scout Sunday and I think it’s very appropriate that our Lectionary reading today is the Isaiah 40 Wings of Eagles passage.  It’s my favorite passage in the entire Old Testament.  And it has been for many years. 

As a boy growing up, I was a Boy Scout, striving to become an Eagle Scout like some of these fine young men here that you see on Scout Sunday.  And the imagery of mounting up on wings like eagles captured my imagination.  You know, an eagle doesn’t really struggle and flap and flounder around like some old pigeon hunting for bread crumbs underneath a bridge. An eagle soars. An eagle is strong. An eagle knows exactly what he or she is going for and scoops down and grabs it. An eagle flies literally and figuratively above the storms.

As an adult, this passage of Isaiah captured my attention while I trained for Philmont, the rugged Scout ranch in northern New Mexico that’s in a range called the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, literally, the Blood of Christ Mountains.  It’s a rugged course and takes months of preparation to be able to tackle.  While training to go to Philmont, I would run two miles a day at a park near my house.  And part of what kept me going, over and over in my head, were these words:

Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the Earth.  He will not grow tired or weary.  And His understanding, no one can fathom.    He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall.  But those whose hope is in the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings like eagles.  They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not be faint.

I can’t tell you what those words do for me. They remind me fully that God is going to see me through.  When I would be running and start to tire, these words from Isaiah would make me run a little further, a little stronger and little longer.

And now as an older adult, I am seeing this passage in an even newer light.  I see the words tired or weary and I realize that this is not just talking about physical strength, but true inner strength to literally soar on the wings of the Lord over the steep mountains and through the dark valleys we can face in life. 

Tired and weary.  You see these two words together a lot. They seem to mean the same thing on the surface.  But look deeper.  I think the word tired has to do with physical energy.  You might say you went to bed last night really tired.  The word weary seems to be about mental, emotional or spiritual energy. You might say your mother-in-law makes you weary. She may say the same thing about her daughter-in-law or son-in-law!    But keeping up with that that 4-year-old grandson just makes everyone tired!  If you’re an athlete like Shaylee or Jenna or Joshua or Andrew, you may say after a big game, “I’m tired!”  If you’re a Cowboys fan, you may say after a long season, “I’m weary!” 

Just out of curiosity, how many are sick and tired AND weary of seeing teams like the Patriots and the Giants in the Super Bowl and the Cowboys nowhere close? 

Today is Scout Sunday and we are celebrating one of the greatest character-building institutions in the world today.  The Boy Scouts of America and the United Methodist Church have been for me like two giant redwoods which have supported me and guided me all my life. Both Scouting and the Church are big on building character and shaping future generations.  It is very fitting that we take time out now to recognize the Scouting program and let me just ask:

If you were a Boy Scout, a Girl Scout, in Campfire, an adult leader, a Scoutmaster, a Cubmaster or a Den Mother or Den Dad or if your children were involved in Scouting in any way, would you please stand?

Scouting for me taught me how to:

·       Start a fire with only 2 matches and wet wood

·       Fix a meal with no utensils

·       Swamp a canoe in water over my head and put it back upright

·       Stand up in front of a group and speak or teach a skill

Probably more important than anything, Scouting taught me a sense of Duty to God, Country and others.  

You all know I am a big Texas Tech fan, but I have to say that my Eagle Scout rank to me is more valuable than my college degree.  I know Sam Bubeck here today is already an Eagle Scout.  And Jesse Perkins and Joshua Brown are working on it.  So I wanted to give you three a chance today to share with the Wheatland Church congregation the colors of the Eagle rank and what they symbolize:

Scout #1 - White

An Eagle Scout is to live with honor.  To an Eagle Scout, honor is the foundation of all character. You are forever a marked man, a leader for good or ill, and people will follow the example you set.  Give up all else before you surrender your reputation and good name.   The white of the Eagle badge reminds us always to live with honor.

Scout #2 - Blue

An Eagle Scout is to be loyal.  A leader is loyal to those he serves; true to his family, friends, scout leaders, school and nation. You also must be loyal to your ideals. A leader does not betray those standards he has set for himself and for others.  The blue of the Eagle badge reminds us to be loyal.

Scout #3 -- Red

An Eagle Scout is to be courageous. Courage has always been a quality by which men measure themselves and others. To a scout, courage not only means bravery to face physical danger, but the determination to stand up for your principles and for what you believe in. A leader has the courage to do what is right, regardless of what other people do or say.   The red of the Eagle badge reminds us to be courageous.

Scout #4 -- Silver

An Eagle Scout is to serve others.  For a leader is above all else, a servant.  An Eagle Scout upholds the rights of others while defending his own. He will always “Be Prepared” to put forth his best efforts for himself and others. The silver eagle reminds us to have vision.

The Scouts also have a Scout Oath and a Scout Law.  I would like to ask all of these Scouts and their leaders and anyone else here who was a Scout before to stand and let’s repeat them, starting with the Scout Oath:

“On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law: to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.”

Now the Scout Law: “A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.”

These Scouts know the Scout Oath and Law---and many of you in the audience still know it, too.  What an amazing thing!  They know it because they repeat it regularly.  And they live it.   It’s like their mission statement. What if we as a church, took to heart our mission statement as deliberately as these Scouts take theirs? 

Let’s turn to the back of our bulletin and repeat our Wheatland Mission Statement, it’s only 11 words:  “Our Mission is to serve God in faith, fellowship and outreach.”    I bet you could memorize that. Let’s try it again without looking: “Our Mission is to serve God in faith, fellowship and outreach.”   

And what about the mission statement of the United Methodist Church.  Let’s recite that one: “The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”  It’s only 20 words.  Can you memorize that one as well?  Once again: “The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” 

No matter what vows and oaths we take, or mission statements and laws we recite, we learn from today’s Scripture that we are powerless without God.  The Scriptures today, both in Psalm 147 and Isaiah 40 paint pictures for us of God’s power and man’s limitations.

The Scout often doesn’t recognize that he has limitations---but he does.  The Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico is a good place to go---to test those limits.  I remember going at age 15 before I hit my growth spurt.  Philmont just about killed me.  I went back two years later at age 17 a foot taller and 40 pounds of muscle heavier and led a group of 16 people for 10 days over 70 miles of mountainous terrain.  Then I went back at age 42 and Philmont nearly killed me again!

Limitations.  Sometimes we don’t want to recognize that we have them.  But we do!  Tired AND weary.  It happens.  What God is saying in the Scriptures is that He is there for you, to strengthen you.  To renew you. To help you.  It’s not about being young and strong or having your own might or your own money or your own power.   Because, believe me, all those things are fleeting.  Here today, gone tomorrow.    But living and walking with God is about being dependent on God.  It’s about asking for God’s strength, to carry you on wings like eagles, to help you run and not grow weary, to walk and not grow faint.

God is reminding you and me that even in our weakness, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

One of the most memorable times I ever felt that grace being made perfect in my weakness was the last time I went to Philmont.  I woke up that morning tired AND weary.  My stomach was bloated and in pain from sleeping on the ground five nights in a cramped tent. And we had five more nights to go.   I was stressed from the pressures of leadership.  The boys weren’t giving us much trouble.   It was just the adults!    Every muscle in my body was tense.  And this was the day we had to go 16 miles and climb, not one, but two mountains.  After we had hiked about five miles that morning, we took lunch.  And lunch, by the way, was nothing to brag about.  We had energy bars, breakfast bars, cereal bars and power bars.  But all of them were really the same thing: ultra-dry granola bars -- just in different colored wrappers.

At lunch, we realized we didn’t have enough water and there would not be any water stations until tomorrow on the other side of two mountains.  So a small group of older boys emptied one backpack and filled it with empty water bottles.  They took that backpack an additional six-mile round trip to get water. I was wiped out.  Tired AND weary. So I rested along with the rest of the crew.  Still, when the older boys returned with the water, I didn’t feel much better.  By the time we made it to the top of the first mountain, it was 4 o’clock in the afternoon. We took a few photos. Those pictures show me with a thin smile, filthy, dirty, weary, already wiped out.  But we had to go on.  We trekked on down the other side of the mountain and back up the second mountain, Mount Phillips, 12,000 feet above sea level.

I knew I was in bad shape.  But one of my adult assistant leaders, my tent partner, was in far worse shape.  His knees were about gone.  He was completely out of breath.  Holding himself up by two walking sticks he could barely step a few inches at a time.  He just could not keep up.  Some of the boys went back and took some of the contents of his backpack and put it into theirs. 

By the time I got to the top of Mount Phillips about 6 o’clock, I was almost doubled over in pain.  The boys who were with me were wiped out, too, just collapsing under a shade tree.  The other adult leader, his son and another boy were straggling way down the mountain. Despite my tiredness, despite my weariness, something deep inside me, maybe the Scout Oath maybe the Scout Law, maybe Isaiah 40, said, “Go.”  I left my backpack at the top of the mountain and went back down the mountain, and took the burden of my friend’s backpack upon my shoulders and went back up the mountain. 

When I got back to the top the second time, this time carrying not my burden but that of another man’s, one of the 16-year-old boys saw me at a distance and yelled out, “Mr. McNabb, you ROCK!’  And I thought to myself, “No, I don’t.  I’m just an old man.  A tired and very weary old man, but one who knows from where his strength comes from.”

“Even youths grow tired and weary.  And young men stumble and fall.  But those whose hope is in the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings like Eagles. They shall run and not grow weary.  They shall walk and not grow faint.”

There was no level ground on that mountain, so we pitched our tents on slanted, rocky ground.  And I went to bed that night at 7 o’clock in broad day light.  And, of course, that’s the night the bear came!  But that’s another story.

The next morning, I woke up early, to the beauty of God’s creation.  My stomach was healed. My mind was at peace.  And I climbed out of my tent to see a whole new world.  God’s creation at 12,000 feet.  Birds I’d never seen before with totally white heads and gray bodies.  Insects I’d never seen before that looked like pieces of bark with wings.  And the trees.  It was like Christmas morning.  Hundreds of Christmas trees. I felt like I was walking through Calloway’s Nursery.  Only all the trees were alive.  And so was I. 

*****

Many of you are familiar with the popular story of The Footprints of God.  When you walk along the beach and notice two sets of footprints: yours and God’s.  But then you notice the time there was only one set.  And God says, “My precious child, that’s when I carried you.” 

Another lesser-known version of Footprints has God and your footprints in straight lines along the beach. But suddenly they seem to zig-zag in disarray and what looks like confusion.  And you ask God, “Why?”  And He says, my precious child, THAT is when we danced.”

My prayer for you, especially in times when you are tired and weary and afraid that you are going to stumble and fall… My prayer for you is that in those difficult times, you may Dance with the Lord of Life. That you may laugh and love and live in His house forever.  And that you may mount up on wings like Eagles and soar.   Amen.

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