1 Chronicles 28:6-10
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
February 8, 2026
God creates mission-driven community – whether it be a chosen people sent to be a light to all the nations or a church sent to bring the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth.
We can compare the community God creates to a long twine rope that, other than God Himself, has no strand that runs the entire length of it. The community fulfills its mission by different people at different times. Each member advances the mission for a while, and then turns over the work to others. For example, to build God’s temple, David provided the money and the material, but passed on the task of its actual construction to his son, Solomon.
We can also compare the community God creates to a team of runners in a relay race. No one runs the entire length of the race, and no one, not even the fastest, wins the race all by themselves. Each teammate must carry the baton and run their leg of the race – and then let go of it all, except for cheering on those still running.
Developing skill in baton-passing is, then, as crucial as developing skill in running like the wind.
American relay teams learned this the hard way in two consecutive Olympics at the start of this millennium.
In a relay race, teams dash around a track passing on a foot-long cylindrical “stick” called a baton. It is handed on from one runner to another in designated exchange zones. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, shoddy baton passing by the American men allowed the British team to pull off an upset and take the gold medal. For the American women that year, there was an even more agonizing defeat. Heavily favored to win the gold, the women’s 4 x 100 relay team featured Marion Jones who’d won four gold medals at the previous games in Sydney. The American team was already off to a strong start when Jones took the baton for the second leg of the race. She increased the team’s lead as she ran her 100 meters leg and approached the third runner, Lauryn Williams, who was running to build up her speed for the moment she’d receive the baton. Williams stretched her hand behind her to take the stick, and Jones thrust it forward to her once, twice, three times. But Williams couldn’t find it and grab it. Finally, on the fourth try, they completed the transfer; but by then they’d passed the limit of the 20-meter-long exchange zone – and the American team was disqualified. Though everyone knew they were the fastest team, they finished last because they failed to transfer the baton successfully.
And, believe it or not, at the next Olympics, in 2008 in Beijing, both the American men’s 4 x 100 team and the women’s flubbed again in transferring the baton successfully!
In the church’s relay race to carry out the mission of Christ, the older of us must successfully pass on the baton to the younger; and those of the dominant culture, must pass it on to those of a different culture.
Yes, each team member must run their leg of the race well; but, just as importantly, they must pass on the baton well to those next up.
To pass on Christ’s mission and send it forward on its way, every runner for Jesus must bear in mind that victory is never one person’s job. It takes many making their unique contribution, and eventually giving it up and depending on others to carry it further.
Two years ago, The Wall Street Journal ran an article with the intriguing headline: “The Downside of Success? It Can Lead to Failure!” Researchers found that a sports team victory comes with a trap. It tempts a team to rely too much on its “stars”, which makes it less adaptable and more likely to get stuck in old ways of doing things – which in turn increases the statistical chances of its losing the next game.
Using archived camera data from 60,000 NBA games played over 34 years, the researchers discovered that, after a win, a team’s passing patterns and shot distribution changed to reflect an excessive focus on the top players – which resulted in the team’s becoming less likely to win again by reducing the opportunities other players had to help the team. A single success then can lessen the prospects of a repeat success!
What then did the researchers recommend to diminish the threat? A deliberate intention to use everyone’s contribution. And “everyone” here means everyone! The most successful teams look carefully to notice and appreciate the contribution every last teammate can make. They recognize the rewards of coordinated collaboration and realize the whole can be more than the sum of the parts.
The three smallest and most unacknowledged bones in the human body are the middle ear ossicles – the malleus, incus and stapes. Though hidden from view and rarely thought of, those little guys are essential to our hearing well. Without them, only 0.1% of the sound that hits our eardrum is transferred to our inner ear. In other words, these tiniest of bones make a big difference.
In his book, Living Amazed, James Robison writes, “Just as the human body has no insignificant parts, the body of Christ has no small or unimportant members. We all have a sphere of influence – however large or small, however visible or invisible – and we all have a vital role to play in God’s great plan for redeeming and restoring the world…Every person is absolutely essential in the eternal purposes of God.”
That why the baton of Christ’s mission advances only as each of us runs with it a ways, but then hands it off that it might be carried by someone else on another leg of the race.
To hand it off we must trust those to whom we hand it off. Now, people become trustworthy in the cause of Christ only if they’ve been moved to follow Jesus. We may so move some if we ourselves follow Him faithfully and become living evidence of how wonderful it is to follow Him. Few may listen to us, but many watch us!
So, whom are we seen to serve more: ourselves or our Savior? Do we embody His love by how we revere God? Do we make an all-out effort to engage in worship with focused attention and full fervor, attending to God’s word as if our life depended on it and singing God’s praise as if our heart can’t hold back? And do we embody His love by how we respect people? Do we treat others as Jesus treats us, disciplining ourselves not to be mean when we’re in a bad mood and showing sensitivity, kindness, graciousness and generosity to everyone?
No one expects perfection from us, but rightly they expect improvement in us. Our humble, honest, whole-hearted intention to grow to be more like Jesus may give some pause – and move some to give Him and a life of carrying the baton of His mission a second look.
No one will join Jesus’ relay team apart from feeling His love. Some won’t feel it at all apart from feeling it from us. And that is the most important aspect of our running well our leg of the race!
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