St. Patrick Presbyterian Church, Epc

I just made it through Shelob’s lair in Cirith Ungol. It seemed like the quest to destroy the ring had died with a stab in the neck to Frodo by Shelob, the huge spider that haunts this dark passage and has lived there time out of mind in malice and death. It was a near thing but that is just the beginning of the trouble of Frodo and Sam. I am almost through my annual trek through Middle Earth and perhaps the hardest part of the whole quest is the thirteen days Frodo and Sam face in Mordor after Sam finds Frodo. It is a test of endurance. Small folk in a hostile environment, with the weight of the ring so heavy Sam must carry Frodo. Nothing is easy, nothing is safe, terror is around them and also in them. They are physically beat, emotionally exhausted, harassed by Gollum and plagued with doubt—doubt that almost undoes the whole quest in the end—and yet they endured. To put yourself inside the story is almost too much to bear. Our text in Hebrews reminded me a lot of that this morning. We start a new sermon se