Eric Liddell, a Scottish sprinter and missionary of the early twentieth century and man of great Faith/faith, exemplifies the four characteristics of Biblical faith as well as anyone in history has to me. Please allow me to share a sermon on Eric's life by the Reverend Dr. Robert K. Greer of First Presbyterian Church with links added, as if I attempted to recount Eric's life, I would be depriving any potential readers of such an accurate, beautiful account of the life of one of my true heroes. Even though this account is somewhat lengthy, it is worth every second of reading and depicts the life of Eric Liddell. My sources:
Reverend Dr. Robert K. Greer. Eric Liddell: The Flying Scotsman. April 24, 2005. http://www.firstpresbyterianwellsboro.org/2005Sermons/serm050424.htm
McCasland, David. Eric Liddell: Pure Gold. Discovery House Publishers July 1, 2004.
Hudson, Hugh. Chariots of Fire. Enigma Productions. 1981.
Eric Liddell: The Flying Scotsman
Acts 7:55-60; 1 Pet. 2:2-10; John 14:1-14
A sermon preached by the Reverend Dr. Robert K. Greer
First Presbyterian Church of Wellsboro, Pennsylvania
Easter V April 24, 2005
Eric Liddell was the popular Olympic champion whose faith story was chronicled in the award winning movie, Chariots of Fire. His running style was rather unorthodox. He ran with abandon, head tilted toward the skies, knees thrust upward to his chin, feet rising high from the ground. Before each race, Liddell would shake hands with each competitor and he’d even offer his trowel to fellow runners who struggled to dig their starting holes in cinder tracks with their cleats.
When asked how he knew where the finish line was located, he replied in his deliberate Scottish brogue, "The Lord guides me."
Eric was renown as Scotland’s fastest sprinter. He was expected to be the first Scotsman to win an Olympic gold metal in track and field.
Eric Liddell was born January 12, 1902 in Tientsin, China to Presbyterian missionaries James and Mary Liddell. At age seven he was enrolled in a boarding school in Britain and spent most of his childhood separated from his parents. He devoted himself to sports and to knowing more fully his God.
While attending the University of Edinburgh, he studied science and he continued to excel in sports, especially track. He became a national hero.
On April 6, 1923, in a small town hall in Armadale, Scotland, Eric Liddell spoke for the first time in public about his faith in Christ. Eighty people came out to hear Scotland's famous runner give his testimony. In slow clear words he told the world what God meant to him. He said he never questioned things that happened either to himself or to others, because he didn't need explanations from God. He said he simply believed in God and accepted whatever came. News of Liddell's talk was reported in every newspaper in Scotland the next morning.
The 1924 Olympiad was held in Paris. When the schedule of races was published, it called for the first heats of the 100 meters and the 4X100 and 4X400 relays, his best events, to be held on Sunday. Liddell announced flatly, "I'm not running." He considered Sunday a day set apart for the Lord; and he promised to honor his convictions even at the expense of fame. The British press denounced Eric as a “Traitor to Scottish sporting.” The movie depicted Eric struggling with his conscience, but there was no struggle. Right from the start he knew he wouldn’t and couldn’t run on the Lord’s Day.
Eric then turned his attention to train for the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes, events in which he had not excelled. He won an unexpected bronze medal in the 200-meter sprint. In unspectacular form he made his way through the heats of the 400 meters race but was not expected to win.
His competitors had already set two world records in their qualifying heats. Liddell finished fifteen feet ahead of the runner in second place. "The Flying Scotsman" had a gold metal and a world record, 47.6 seconds. And Eric Liddell had kept his commitment to his convictions of faith.
The next year, Liddell returned to China, as a teacher and missionary. He served in the same school his parents had served. In 1932, he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister and in 1934 he was married to Florence McKenzie, a former member of his youth group. Florence’s parents insisted that she complete her nurses training before she marry. She was twenty-two and he was thirty-two. While they served together in China, they had two daughters.
In 1937 Eric was asked to go to serve in a rural area in China that had been devastated by fighting. Three separate factions, including the Japanese, were fighting each other. The villages had been plundered and many people had been killed. The young men were forced to join whichever group had captured their village.
Eric mostly traveled about China on bicycle. His decision to share Christ in these isolated communities, forced him to leave his wife and children behind. Such a decision was the result of insistent prayer. "Complete surrender" was his description of this attitude.
This was an eventful and dangerous time for Eric and it was two years before he was able to leave China with his family for a break. After his year furlough, in 1940 he and the family returned to China and Eric went back to Siao Chang to continue his small village missionary work. Eventually the Japanese gained the upper hand in China and ordered all foreigners to leave the country. Florence and the children went to Canada where they could live with her parents. She was pregnant. Eric stayed behind in Tientsin to continue his work. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States and Britain declared war on the Japanese.
In March of 1943, Liddell, along with other Brits and Americans, entered a Japanese internment camp. He taught the children of the camp math and science and wrote his own science textbook. He carried water for the sick and elderly, plus he supervised a sports and games program and he taught Bible classes. Early each morning he rose to study his Bible he and greeted everyone he met with a broad smile. He was the cheer of the camp.
But his health deteriorated rapidly. A brain tumor ravaged his body with severe headaches. Shortly after his forty-third birthday in January 1945, Eric Liddell collapsed. His last words, spoken to a camp nurse, were, "It's complete surrender." He died on February 21, 1945, just a few months before World War II ended. He never saw his third child, Maureen Liddell. Upon learning of his death, all of Scotland mourned. But Heaven rejoiced.
You do not have to be famous or skilled to make a difference for Christ. God asks only that you serve Him faithfully and wholeheartedly in whatever you do. God has "appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide" (John 15:16). During the Sunday Olympic races that Eric did not attend, he preached at the Scots Presbyterian Church in Paris. A worshipper slipped him a note that said, “Honor God in all you do, and God will honor your obedience with a life that counts for eternity.”
Eric Liddell saw his whole life as a race: a race for the kingdom of heaven. One of his most favored Bible verse was Phil. 3:13-14, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Jesus Christ.”
Serving was his goal. Eric Liddell saw the need in China for science education; thus he devoted himself to the study of science at Edinburgh University. Sports was but a sideline in his pursuit of that goal. The Bible teaches us that life is a “race that is set before us.” And for Christ’s sake we must run our race with determination (Heb. 12:1).
Today we celebrated the sacrament of Baptism for Talia Sarah Crocco. We the church promised to picture vividly for her the holy goal toward which we press. We pray that she will be so encouraged, strengthened and inspired to give her self gladly to building God’s kingdom and winning that heavenly prize awaiting for us all in Jesus Christ.
"Complete surrender" to Christ is total victory.
The Reverend's Sources:
Ellen Caughey, Eric Liddell: Olympian and Missionary, Barbour Publishing, Uhrichsville, OH: 2000.
GLIMPSES, # 161. Published by Christian History Institute, Box 540, Worcester, PA 19490.
In Touch Ministries, http://www.intouch.org/eric_liddell.
Video: “The Eric Liddell Story,” Day of Discovery produced by RBC Ministries.
From his life, we see that Eric Liddell was truly a man of great faith in God, himself, his family, and what he knew to be his duty in life. We can all use him and his "race for Heaven" life as examples to strive for. Perhaps my favorite thing about Eric is how selflessly he used his gifts for the good of others and how determined he was to follow what he knew God wanted him to do.