The Making of a Real-life Hero

 

The Making of a Real-life Hero

A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, June 6, 2021

Psalm 82:1-4 NIV; reading from Joseph Campbell’s, The Hero’s Journey

As already announced, tomorrow evening we will begin another week of Vacation Church School for our younger children and any of our older children or youth who would like to be junior helpers.  We have chosen for this year’s general theme “Heroes and Superheroes.”  We will be sharing stories with the children of some of the world heroes of the past 200 years and talking about – on their level – what makes for a real-life hero today.  We will be looking at Davy Crockett, Gandhi, Rosa Parks, and Mother Teresa.

Every now and then, we hear talk in the news about a modern-day hero.  For instance, when the shooting occurred in Times Square a few weeks ago, police officer Alyssa Vogel raced through the chaotic crowd and grabbed up and ran with the four-year-old child who had been shot by the spray of bullets.  After whisking the little girl to safety, Vogel applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, then got her to an ambulance.  Vogel was described as a hero. 

The world is always in desperate need of real-life heroes.   This truth was impressed upon me about this time last year as I looked at all that was going wrong in our country and world and realized how desperate we are for heroes like some of those of the past.  And I realized that children need to become familiar with major heroes of the past, and that by hearing or reading about them they might be encouraged to become heroes in their own right.  So, about this time last year, while we were all quarantined at home, I began working on a book about heroes for middle-age children.  I’m still working to get it in print.  But Suzanne felt that the material would be a good springboard for this year’s Vacation Church School.

But heroes have been celebrated and hero stories have circulated for millennia, probably all the way back to the beginning of verbal communication.  I am guessing that as soon as humankind discovered the ability to communicate, stories were shared of some hero of a previous generation.  The ancient Greeks and Romans had stories of heroes; Homer’s accounts of Odysseus come to mind.  The ancient Hebrews had their stories of heroes who accomplished great feats, like Samson of old.  And one could even argue that the early Christians had their heroes as well, especially some of those early apostles who were martyred for their faith. 

Robin Hood, Superman and Batman, were imaginary heroes held in high esteem during the time when I was growing up.  In recent years Spiderman and Spiderman 2 and Wonder Woman have been big hero movies.  Children have their cartoon heroes, and teenagers have their rock star heroes.  There seems to be this innate need to look up to a person or a power greater than ourselves to whom we can turn to for inspiration or turn to when the going gets tough or depend upon to right the wrongs of our world.

As is my habit, I went to the scriptures in search of some material that relates to heroes.  As one might imagine, in ancient times the term hero is most often associated with physical might or military strength, as in the case of giants (Genesis 6:4 GNT).  For instance, the giant Goliath was looked upon as the hero of the Philistines.  But then in the Psalms, King David is spoken of as a hero.  David is said to have slain Goliath, but David was also celebrated as a mighty hero in battle. 

But the actual use of the word “hero” is limited in the scriptures.  So I decided that the word “hero” itself doesn’t have to be used in a passage to describe the characteristics of a true hero.  I debated between passages, but finally settled on the passage that I read earlier from the Psalms.  Drawing on the thought of the psalmist, a hero (at least in my thinking) is one who works for justice for the weak, maintains the right of the lowly and the destitute, rescues the needy, and seeks to set people free from the hands of the wicked.  It occurred to me that using that definition, Jesus of Nazareth embodied a new paradigm of what it means to be a hero.  In standing up for the rights of those who were oppressed and beaten down socially, religiously and politically; in standing up to the powers that be; and seeing a wrong and putting his life on the line to make it right, Jesus was a hero par excellence. 

But could it be that the “hero potential” is hidden within each of us?  Author Joseph Campbell thought so.  He wrote there is a “hero lurking within” each of us.  And “A hero is someone who gives his or her life to something greater than themselves,” Campbell contended. And as Campbell reminds us, becoming a hero is a journey; a journey that involves courage and the willingness to change.

It seems that what makes for a hero is someone willing to give of self and place more importance upon the well-being of others, concerned primarily with their good.  As I worked on this sermon, I remembered our daughter and son-in-law’s very good friends, Jeremy and Maria, who have served as missionaries in Cambodia.  One of Jeremy’s and Maria’s primary areas of work involved putting a stop to human trafficking and human slavery, especially in the area of child sexual slavery.  In my book, such constitutes Jeremy and Maria as heroes.

And as in the case of officer Alyssa Vogel, anyone who is willing to put their life on the line, willing to take a chance, willing to step out on a limb in order to help the weak, rescue the helpless, work for justice and make things right for another, or anyone who is willing to give his or her life for the good of others may also be seen as a hero.  When you think about it that way, there are a lot of heroes walking around in the world today. 

So, I had the idea of going to the Internet to find a warm and fuzzy story of a modern day, real-life hero to share with you.  But when I searched for modern day heroes, story after story came up, and I couldn’t decide on just one.  We find stories of people rescuing strangers from fiery buildings, from drowning, from vicious animals, and so on; people helping disabled veterans and foster children; going to the jungle to provide free medical care; and providing transportation for kids to get their chemo treatments.  The list is endless.  

But then a short article in today's Knoxville News Sentinel caught my eye about a man named Jimmy Allen Ruth, who died recently.  Ruth was a Trailways Bus driver.  In 1961, when a group of Freedom Riders wanted to ride from Nashville to Jackson, MS, Ruth - a 23-year-old white man - was the only one driver who was willing to do so.  His family shared that Ruth's decision to take that drive was one of the proudest moments of his life.  What I discovered is there are good people all over the world who can be termed heroes in their own right.  Real-life heroes are seeing a need and filling it, finding a hurt and healing it, observing a wrong and righting it.  I love the way Eleanor Roosevelt put it: “We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up…discovering we have the strength to stare it down.”

This week, as some of our children and youth will be thinking about what it takes to make for a hero, maybe a question for all of us to carry home with us is whether or not we are willing to tap into the “hero potential” within us; the commitment to be the hero that we could possibly be.  Indeed, may we have the grace to rise to the occasion when need be to help the weak, reach out to the helpless, work for justice, make things right where we see a wrong, and improve the life of another.  By doing such, then we, too, will have what it takes to be a real-life hero.  Amen.