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Every year on the 3rd Monday in April, a relatively obscure holiday in Massachusetts is observed. Its called “Patriots Day”, commemorating the battles of Lexington and Concord where the Revolutionary War’s opening shots  were fired. However, in recent times, Patriot’s Day has become better known for a major sporting event held each year on that third Monday in April – the Boston Marathon. Started in 1897 with 18 contestants, the Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest full marathon and one of the most famous. It draws contestants from all over the world. This past April, about 30,000 runners took up the challenge of Boston’s 26.2 mile marathon.

Back when I lived in Massachusetts, I used to do the Marathon every year on that third Monday in April. I didn’t RUN it! I got in my car and drove for 26.2 miles and THAT, my friends, is exhausting – in Massachusetts!

The Boston Marathon is considered one of the most difficult marathon courses. Beginning in the town of Hopkinton, the race runs on for the next 26.2 miles, wending its way through seven other communities before ending up in Boston and the finish line at Copley Square. However, the last six miles of the race are the real challenge. This is where already exhausted runners – muscle glycogen stores nearly depleted – enter the Newton Highlands, a series of four hills culminating in the famous “Heartbreak Hill.” Many Boston Marathons have been won or lost on Heartbreak Hill.

And it’s there in that most challenging part of the course that spectators get most involved. They have cheered the runners on, of course, but there on Heartbreak Hill where lungs are burning and muscles are cramping and it’s tempting to just give up, hundreds of people along the roadsides hold out cups of water for the runners. And those little cups of water give the runners enough of a boost to make it over the top of Heartbreak Hill and onto the last downhill dash into the city.

It’s amazing what a cup of water can do.

Jesus talked quite a bit about cups of water. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I might think Jesus must’ve run the Boston Marathon at one time or another because he certainly knows a lot about Heartbreak Hill. Heartbreak Hill is that place in life where you don’t know if you can go on – where you are utterly exhausted, and confused, and hurting, and discouraged. Your Heartbreak Hill might be the road you find yourself on after the death of a loved one, or the loss of a job, or the diagnosis with a serious illness, or dealing with an addiction, or facing a family crisis, or seized up in the grip of depression, or trying to accomplish some great thing and not making any progress. We all face our own Heartbreak Hill.

Or Heartbreak HillS.

The 10th chapter of Matthew’s gospel is about Jesus sending his disciples out to minister to others. Thus far, they have primarily been observers of Jesus at work. But now Jesus is saying, “It’s your turn. You’ve watched me heal and help and love others. You’ve seen me bring Good News to people. Now it’s your turn. It’s time for you to jump out of the nest and learn to fly!” You see, Christianity is not a spectator sport. We are called to participate in the work of the Gospel. This is why you can’t join a church as if you are joining an organization where you can sit back, relax and watch the organization do its thing. Our new members today are not joining an organization so much as they are joining as active participants in a MINISTRY to others in Jesus’ name. So Jesus takes some time to brief his disciples on what to do “out there”, and how to do it, and what to expect. And Jesus tells them the truth: it will not be easy. It will take hard work. And sacrifice. And some of the people you reach out to will not welcome you, he says. Others will betray and abuse you. Sometimes you’ll feel discouraged, exhausted and you’ll want to give up.

Remember? Heartbreak Hill.

But then, at the very end of his instructions, Jesus tells them something wonderful.

“If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

Jesus is probably not talking about children here. He is referring to these fledgling disciples – all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed – ready to go out there and minister to the world! He is talking about you. And me. And all us amateurs who take up the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And what he says is essentially this: as you go and serve God in my name, encountering all the challenges and even heartbreak that may go along with that, there will be folks along the roadway offering you a cup of water.

I’ve been to Heartbreak Hill many times in the course of my ministry.

Last week was a Heartbreak Hill kind of week here at our church. We had four memorial services in four days. And the thing about the death of loved ones and the services we have for them is that they take place alongside everything else that’s already going on in the church. And when these things take place around a weekend, you can imagine how exhausting it is.

But up there on Heartbreak Hill this week, someone handed us a cup of water. It was a card left on my desk, and it didn’t have anything to do with all that had gone on last weekend. But it was so refreshing! Listen:

“To the Tellico Village Community Church,

Ah! I learned 1st hand that our Community Church is definitely Christian!  After a…surgery in my ankle I had an emergency need for a wheel chair. My friend J. E. stepped up to the plate and arranged for me to borrow (the church’s) wheel chair. J.E.’s husband declared that using your (church’s) wheel chair made this little Catholic girl “1/2 Protestant.” I thank him for that honor, as I have certainly witnessed your Christianity. Thanks so much!”

After reading that note, our spirits were refreshed, and we were reenergized for the work of the Gospel. It was a cup of cold water shared with some disciples of Jesus who really needed refreshment.

Two years ago, in April, one of our members was climbing Heartbreak Hill. After a courageous battle with cancer, her dear husband passed away. All during his illness and after his death, she was amazing, still showing up for work every day and still leading her handbell choirs as they offered inspiring music for all the rest of us. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been at times. If you didn’t know what was going in her life during that time, you’d never know it by the way she served us. She was serving cups of water to you and me even while knowing the thirst of heartbreak herself. But as she climbed that hill, many of you offered her cups of water, too. One of the most important was the gift of her handbell ringers when they commissioned a song in her husband’s memory. It was played at his memorial service.

And it was a cup of water given to one of Jesus’ “little ones” on Heartbreak Hill.

You’ve known this experience, too – of being reached out to as you traveled through the Heartbreak Hills of your life. A card comes in the mail. The phone rings and it’s just the right person at just the right time. Someone says something that inspires you, a friend gives you a hand, a church family prays for you, a stranger sticks out a hand and makes you a friend, a letter comes saying you’ve been awarded a scholarship, a grandchild calls on the phone and says, “Mimi, I love you. Goodbye.”

These are all expressions of Christ’s love for you and me. I hope you appreciate them for what they are – gifts sent from heaven through a person along the roadside. Jesus says these waterpeople will be rewarded in heaven for that cup of water! Isn’t that great?

And if we have received such cups of water ourselves, we must learn to hand them out, too. And cups of water like this come in all shapes and sizes.

A smile. A compliment. A pat on the back.

Do you know how Heartbreak Hill got its name?

At the 1936 Boston Marathon, Ellison “Tarzan” Brown was leading the race as it entered the stretch through the four hills of the Newton Highlands. That’s when defending champion Johnny Kelley put on a burst of speed, caught up to Tarzan Brown, and – giving Tarzan a consoling pat on the back – zoomed past him toward that fourth hill.

Well, losing the lead was bad enough, but being patted on the back like that was even worse. That gesture by Johnny Kelley ignited Tarzan Brown’s competitive juices, and he took off after Johnny Kelly, catching up to him midway up that last hill. Tarzan passed Kelley, pulled away, and went on to win the 1936 Boston Marathon.

The next day, Boston Globe reporter Jerry Nason described the experience as “breaking (Johnny) Kelly’s heart.”

And that’s how Heartbreak Hill got its name.

Do you know how we Christians got OUR name?

When the followers of Jesus went out into the world with cups of water for thirsty people, others thought, “They are just like Jesus.”

That’s what the word “Christian” means.

Just like Jesus.

Go this week and celebrate the waterpeople who help you along the way.

And offer a refreshing cup of water to someone making their way up Heartbreak Hill.