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Sunday, March 28, 2004
Sermon: "The Four Minute Mile"
Scripture: Phillippians 3:4-14
Reverend Larry Gerber

Fifty years ago, a med student named Roger Bannister shattered the four-minute mile, a barrier that many thought was unbreakable. Taking some tips from Roger the runner and Paul the apostle, we can attain an even greater goal.
1. Inconceivable.

That's what people said about the possibility of running a mile in less than four minutes. Sports commentators claimed that it simply couldn't be done. Physiologists believed that the human body and mind would rise up and rebel against the strain of such a race. The four-minute mile came to be seen as a barrier that no human being would ever be able to break.

Then, in the spring of 1954, exactly 50 years ago, Roger Bannister stepped onto the track.

He was a British medical student and runner for the Amateur Athletic Association, a young man absolutely determined to break the barrier. Bannister knew that many outstanding milers had attempted to achieve the goal, including one who had missed by a mere 1.5 seconds. But Bannister would not allow the four-minute threshold to intimidate him.

On a cold and windy spring day, he took his place at the starting line of a track in Oxford, England. There were about 3,000 spectators in the stands. The race was carefully planned, and Bannister was aided by two other runners who acted as pacemakers, Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway. As they began the race, Brasher took the lead and Bannister fell in behind, with Chataway running in third place. When Brasher began to wear out, Bannister called for Chataway to take over.

Then, just about 200 yards from the finish, Bannister exploded into first place with a final burst of energy. He sprinted to the finish line and collapsed into the arms of a minister friend, Nicholas Stacey. "It was only then that real pain overtook me," reported Bannister. "I felt like an exploded flashlight with no will to live."
A hush came over the crowd as the announcer read Bannister's time. "Three minutes, 59 seconds …." In an instant, absolute pandemonium broke out as the crowd realized that they had just witnessed the greatest feat in the history of the mile. In three minutes and 59 seconds, Roger Bannister had broken an unbreakable record and ran what came to be known as the "Miracle Mile."

We can relate to Bannister and others who thought a four-minute mile was impossible. We have our own impossible four-minute miles. Think about it. What personal goal seems to you to be attractive, alluring, exciting and enticing … but also elusive and maybe even inconceivable?

Is it getting over bitterness and disappointment?
Is it having a heart big enough to love your enemies?
Is it finding the strength to live with constant pain?
Is it forgetting the past and moving forward through the present?
Is it working on your marriage?
Is it learning how to live within your financial means?

The apostle Paul had a particular four-minute mile in mind: the goal of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection (3:10-11). He was so committed to attaining this goal that he threw himself completely into the race, and said, "Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus" (vv. 13-14).
2. Remember Paul? He was a very good Jew of his time, persecuting Christians, until his conversion experience! If Paul could let go of the things he did in the past, and look forward to that which lies ahead, what is stopping you form letting go of the past, and pressing forward to the goal of the greatest prize?

Did Paul achieve his goal? No doubt about it. And so can we. The good news for us today is that we can run a Miracle Mile.

Let's begin our training by gleaning some tips from Paul the apostle and Roger the runner, and then take their insights with us into our own personal races. If we begin to think like runners, we'll develop some daily disciplines that can help us to move ever closer to achieving our elusive personal goals.

The first tip is to let go of any attitudes that can distract us, dismay us or destroy us as we run the race that lies before us. For Roger Bannister, this meant rejecting the idea that running a mile in less than four minutes was inconceivable. For the apostle Paul, this meant tossing out his old religious orientation, because he discovered that it was trash compared to "the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus" (v. 8).

For us, destructive attitudes might include the fear that we cannot find a meaningful career, or succeed in a marriage, or build bonds in a small group at church. It might be the fear that God will never forgive us of doing wrong to others, whether it be deception, physical pain, emotional instability, you name it. When we encounter these attitudes, we need to trash them. They are rubbish, and can get in the way of our goal. God forgives, and God offers peace for today, and promise for tomorrow. Are you still hanging onto some guilt that God has forgiven you for? Let go, run the four minute mile, break out of the shell of fear and into the life of abundance.

The second running tip is to train over time and stick to a schedule. Bannister didn't decide on the spur of the moment to set a world record, but he worked long and hard in a disciplined way to prepare himself for the Miracle Mile. He had been a competitive runner for years, and then, in the weeks prior to the record-setting race, his training intensity increased. Every day, for one half-hour during his medical school lunch break, he ran 10 quarter-mile races at a pace of 59 seconds a piece. He took breaks of only two minutes between each race.

Not a lazy lunch hour.

This is the same kind of discipline that we are challenged to show as we pursue our professional, personal and spiritual goals. By doing good things a little at a time, week in and week out, we reach the point where we can achieve some very significant objectives.

This may mean that we will have a specific time each day to spend with God. We will have a program of devotional reading that includes portions of the Bible. It means that we have decided how we will spend our time in the car during the morning commute, or waiting our turn on the golf course, or the tennis court. It means that we will have a strategy for prayer and a method of remembering those who need our prayers. And helping others in a variety of ways will inspire us and enable us to "run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 12:1-2).
A third tip is this: Expect bad days. Every runner knows that some training runs feel awful, and as an athlete you have to try to put the bad days behind you. Will Bannister be able to run the four minute mile every time. No, emphatically, no!! But will he give up. Again, the answer is no.

Will we face injuries? No doubt. Gossip and unfair criticism can cause terrible pain at work, in social circles and in the Christian community.

Will we have setbacks? Certainly. It would be wonderful if promotions always came on schedule, relationships were marked by nothing but peace and joy and harmony, and churches never lost members or suffered divisions. But we know that disappointment, pain and conflict are part of the daily race we face. Fortunately, God always gives us what we need, and he will not let us be tested beyond our strength (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Which brings us to the last training tip: Don't run alone. Notice that Roger Bannister did not run his Miracle Mile by himself — he was assisted by pacemakers Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway. They ran with him, inspired him and ultimately enabled him to set his amazing world record.

This is the function of the ChristBody. We're pacemakers for race-makers. We call out, watch out, step out and reach out — for each other. We can't do this alone.

In the end, it is this spiritual Miracle Mile that matters the most. World records in running are remarkable, for sure, but they rarely last very long — and certainly not forever. Roger Bannister's record was broken about six weeks after he set it. Since then, the time for the mile has consistently dropped, and in 1999 a Moroccan athlete ran one in three minutes, 43 seconds.

The most important race we'll ever run is the one that ends in resurrection life. Straining forward to what lies ahead, we're challenged to keep our eyes on Christ and trust him to show us the way to go. I want to "gain Christ and be found in him," wrote the pacemaker Paul, "not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ" (vv. 8-9).
We are constantly faced with, and challenged by the church law. Every denomination faces these challenges. The law of the church must some times be superceded by the faith in Christ. Are we Pharisees, who keep the law no matter the consequences, or are we the Sadducees, who reach out in human kindness, regardless of the law of humanity.
Of course we are citizens of the USA, and there are laws we must abide by. Yes, we are members of the United Methodist Church. Yes, we have the Bible as our basis for the Christian way of life, but as individuals, we have a conscience, and we have a God who forgives us of our sins "against the law". We have a Father image in God that says our faith shall get us across the finish line.
Mankind will interpret the Bible, interpret the church law, and the law of the land. Sometimes it just doesn't seem fair, but it is the law. Which finish line are you aiming for in your four minute mile?

It is our faith in Christ that will get us across the finish line. Faith, combined with good training and the support of our fellow runners along the way, will propel us over the finish line called resurrection life.

It's a Miraculous Mile, but there's nothing inconceivable about it.
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Sources:

"1954: Bannister breaks four-minute mile," On This Day, BBC Web Site, News.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved August 26, 2003.
"The miracle mile," Central College Web Site, Central.edu. Retrieved September 15, 2003.

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766