Faithful to the End
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
Today we hold a special fundraising to build a museum in honour of those who were faithful to the end – the Uganda Martyrs who are remembered year after year; All Saints Day is another annual feast celebrated in honour of all saints, known and unknown, including apostles, evangelists and martyrs – whose life of faithful devotion and witness remains a great encouragement for today’s believers. William’s old hymn captures well the important theme:
For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed. Alleluia, Alleluia!
O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold. Alleluia, Alleluia!
These saints were faithful to the end and now form the Church triumphant where ‘There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain’, while believers on earth are the Church militant where as Paul the Apostle encourages Timothy, they ought to ‘Fight the good fight of the faith.’ Faithful means manifesting a true spirit to a person to whom one is bound by a promise, a pledge, honor, or love. Ruth was bound by marriage and love, and as she clung to Naomi on the way from the land of Moab to Bethlehem, demonstrated deep faithfulness.
Naomi was led astray by her husband Elimelech who led his family from Bethlehem, the house of bread, to the land of Moab, a place of waste and nothingness. God had sent a famine in their homeland to incite the people to repentance. This man who ran away from death due to famine actually died in the ‘land of plenty’ – in Moab; and his two sons died there as well. A bitter Naomi on her way back prefers to cry alone, so she begs and presses her committed daughters-in-law to turn and go back to their people. As Orpah succumbed to the appeal, Naomi who now thought she had more negotiating power to turn away even the other soon realized that Ruth had vowed to cling.
God respects faithfulness in following Him, no matter where you are coming from. The end of her faithfulness ended Ruth as restorer of an endangered famiy and finally a grandmother of or Lord and Messiah. In our following the Lord, we have many examples of faithful endurance – the martyrs of Uganda occupying a clear place in the list. Like the saints we commemorate, if you remain faithful to the end, God in His faithfulness has accepted you. Let us support the museum project to tell generation to come of the exemplary witness and faithfulness to spur them to the same.
God bless you all.