We Gather Because of People

  My first memories of the Super Bowl were not from television. They came from a series of small books I checked out from the library as an elementary student at Marvin Pittman school in Statesboro. I read about how the Green Bay Packers won the first two games between the champions of the AFL and NFL, back in 1967 & 1968. Featuring Quarterback Bart Starr and Coach Vince Lombardi, those games set the stage for one of the most-watched traditions in history. 

  For all of the hype and attention, the Super Bowl has always been about the people. From star athletes competing at their highest levels, to coaches analyzing and inspiring to gain every advantage, to fans who stake their happiness on the outcome of a game, there would be nothing to watch without the people.

  After first reading about this game of epic proportions, I soon started watching the Super Bowl as a tradition within the church. It has almost nothing to do with Jesus, but our youth group would often accept my parents’ invitation to our home where watching the game would be coupled with ping-pong tournaments, back-yard football, snacks and, of course, the commercials. 

  For many viewers at home, it is the commercials, in between the action on the field, that are the main attraction. The cost of 30-second ads during the Super Bowl has risen from $282,857 in 1967 to $4,000,000 in 2013, when the first figure is adjusted for inflation. Yet, for all of the money spent, it is the people we remember. To help jog your memories, what about:

Farrah Fawcett shaving Joe Namath for Noxzema in 1973

The little boy handing Mean Joe Green a Coca-Cola in 1979

Cindy Crawford holding a new Pepsi can in 1992

Michael Jordan and Larry Bird shooting it out for McDonalds in 1993

The Frogs sounding out Budweiser in 1995 

Or, the Budweiser Clydsdales bowing to downtown NYC in 2002

A Snicker Bar helping one guy avoid being Betty White in 2010

  The Super Bowl is about people. The best commercials ever created are about people. They feature people and they are geared toward people. 

  Jesus’ ministry was for people, too. He attracted crowds because he spoke to and cared for people. The Sermon the Mount, in Matthew 5-7, features probably the most concise gathering of wisdom on how to live the best possible life that any person could read. He healed the sick, and advocating for people on the margins. Along with the ministry of reconciling all of Creation, at the heart of Jesus' ministry was an emphasis on God's desires for people.
  Our local church is about people, too. We occupy good buildings, sing great anthems, read from powerful devotionals, and teach from superb curriculum. None of those things define who we are. We are, and have always been, defined by our people. We are loving, we are forgiving, we are generous, and we are growing. We gather on Sundays because of people: ushers, choir members, children and students, teachers, staff, members and visitors. All of these make what we do more than super! 

  Grace and Peace, Scott

Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve

On February 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached on the story of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, asking to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus in glory. King titled sermon the “Drum Major Instinct." This is an excerpt from his conclusion...

  What was the answer that Jesus gave these men? It's very interesting. One would have thought that Jesus would have condemned them. One would have thought that Jesus would have said, "You are out of your place. You are selfish. Why would you raise such a question?"
  But that isn't what Jesus did; he did something altogether different. He said in substance, "Oh, I see, you want to be first. You want to be great. You want to be important. You want to be significant. Well, you ought to be. If you're going to be my disciple, you must be." But he reordered priorities. And he said, "Yes, don't give up this instinct. It's a good instinct if you use it right. It's a good instinct if you don't distort it and pervert it. Don't give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be first in love. I want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity. That is what I want you to do."
  And he transformed the situation by giving a new definition of greatness. And you know how he said it? He said, "Now brethren, I can't give you greatness. And really, I can't make you first." This is what Jesus said to James and John. "You must earn it. True greatness comes not by favoritism, but by fitness. And the right hand and the left are not mine to give, they belong to those who are prepared."
  And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness.
  And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant....
  Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.

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  He was preaching directly from the Word of God and that word still speaks to me and I pray speaks to you, too. We are called to be first in love. We are called to be generous. And when I look out on the faces of Epworth, that is who I see. Thanks be to God! 
  Scott

I Wish The Falcons' Win Meant Less

   Julie was standing on the front porch. I was standing in the den, yelling at the direction of the television. Jack was standing beside me, confused about some of what was happening. I don't remember where Sam was at the time. It was not a moment of family chaos or calamity. It was the NFL in January. It was a win or go home situation for the Atlanta Falcons. But, even more than all of that, it was a moment where careers are defined or burdens are carried forward without relief.

   On Sunday, the Falcons beat the Seattle Seahawks by a score of 30-28. The game itself was one of domination followed by near collapse. After leading by as many as 20 points through three quarters, the Falcons played themselves into trouble in a matter of minutes and found themselves trailing with 31 seconds remaining in the game. It would have been the greatest playoff comeback in league history and the worst collapse. It would have been the team's loss, but the blame would have fallen more heavily on one set of shoulder pads. The Falcons' young quarterback, Matt Ryan, would have been the scapegoat, fair or unfair.
   The Neilsen ratings out this week report that 70% of the homes in Atlanta with television were tuned in for the end of the game. Millions more were watching to see how they would respond. After the game, one of the Falcons' receivers remembers what his QB said when they huddled up: "First thing Matt said coming into the huddle was, ‘No matter what, everybody just do their job'." It all came down to the next three plays. 
   Here is my problem with the whole scene. Regardless of what was about to happen, it was not right. Atlanta has won 56 regular-season games over the last five years, second most of any team in the NFL, but according to some they had a reputation for choking in the playoffs. Journalists from every printed rag and crummy network had spent this season telling us the historic 13-3 record the Falcons had amassed meant nothing until they won in January and that Ryan was no good without a "W" this weekend. I don't think that is right.

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   People reduce the world down to narrow statistics. For me, what a team or a player does in the regular season is important, too. If they are great there, then I don't think it is right to disparage them simply because they haven't won in three previous tries in January. It happens just as much away from the field of play. People too easily forget a person's great record and instead want to know "what have you done for me lately?" We too quickly forget. We reduce things down to the previous moment, or day, or week. If only we treated others as we want to be treated. We need more grace. The outcome of one game, one kick, one moment, or even one win is not the only measure.
   In the Gospels, Jesus went from healing hundreds of people and preaching the most amazing sermons, to being scoffed at by companions and raged on by crowds. Reducing life into one moment or one statistic seems good, but it is wrong. 
   When the game-winning kick went through the goalposts with .08 showing on the clock, Julie knew from my shrieks of delight the outcome was good. She came in to watch the replay and, right before they showed it, Jack looked up and said, "Dad, when you watch it this time don't yell so loud when it goes through." Yes, sir. I will try and keep things in a little better perspective. It was just one game, after all.
   Grace and Peace, Scott

The Discipline of Jesus

Adapted from Discipline and Discovery by Albert Edward Day

Nothing will help us more to make spiritual disciplines what they ought to be than a continuing remembrance of Jesus. He was the most wisely disciplined person in history. Name the disciplines one by one. Then recall his perfect illustration of their meaning and purpose:

Obedience: “Not my will be done” – “my meat and drink is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” As Paul Tillich said, Jesus lived in unbroken unity with God and yet sought nothing for himself by that unity.

Simplicity: He lived simply – “foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head”; there was no effort to make an impression – he refused the spectacular, he spoke the language of the people; there was no pose of any kind; he kept silent when he did not know the answers – “of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son”

Humility: He said “Why do you call me good: No one is good but God”; “take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.”

Frugality: “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God”; “for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might be rich”; “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”; “those who wear soft raiment are in kings’ houses.” Frugal in food, he fasted long days in the wilderness. Frugal in sleep, he spent whole nights in prayer alone with God. Frugal in personal relationships, he loved people but could get along without them if his truth offended them.

Generosity: He gave everything to God. His days and nights, his dreams and deeds, his labors and his life itself, were God’s. He gave himself to people, sharing with them his truth, ministering to their souls, healing their sickness, listening to their questions, “for many were coming and going and there was no leisure even to eat.” The Bible says, “he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

Truthfulness: Even his enemies had to say, “we know that you are true. . .you do not regard the position of men but teach the way of God.” Deceit, evasion, double-talk, ambiguity, exaggeration, flattery, guile never appeared in his life even when they would have given advantage to his selfless cause.

Purity: Not even a look in the direction of evil, no mixed motives, no service adulterated by sly self-interest, nothing that did not fit the concept of God-likeness. He not only said, “Blessed are the pure in heart,” he was pure in heart.

Charity: Every quality of life that good usage names charity was Christ’s in abundance – gentleness, graciousness, quick forgiveness, bountifulness, courtesy, self-sacrifice, universal goodwill, channeling God’s love toward all people – of all this Jesus was the perfect incarnation.

Nor were all these superlative qualities of life sheer native endowment. They were his because God was in him, true! But God was in him because he did what the rest of us must do – by dedication and discipline keep one’s life open to God.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000*

   I heard someone reference this figure this week. Imagine the possibilities within the bounds of such a number. It is huge. Bigger than any measure we can fathom. Allowing that number to inspire our thinking, let us use this sum as our starting point. 

   If life is a journey, and every mile offers choices, then a number this size represents limitless choices. Life and the choices within are made in the midst of places and people. Imagine the people and places we do see in a lifetime. Chance meetings, brief encounters, lessons learned, each of them addingup, tell the story of our journeys. 

   If life is about value, what if this number were some sort of measure of good we hoped to accomplish? We would soon admit that it is not an amount we can reach on our own. It is too large. But, what if our good deeds inspired others to do the same? The idea of paying it forward could become something of a cascading equation that allows our good to be combined with the good we helped to initiate. Much like the story of the church, started by a few, it's scope has reached around the world. 

   All of this imaging comes at the start of a new year. Month, weeks and days lay out before us empty, waiting our choices that will fill them up. 

   Now imagine what it would be like to start a new year as Joseph and Mary, the parents of Jesus. Can you imagine the possibilities and thoughts running though their minds? With a newborn and a new marriage, they are turning the calendar over on a new life, as well as a year. The scriptures tell us Mary would spend some time considering what the events of the previous year could mean. Luke 2:19 says, "But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart." It is a helpful exercise to ponder what the past year means as a new one lays out before us. Often, we treat the choices, or even people, from our pasts as something far less valuable than a treasure. Instead, we would prefer that the arithmetic of our lives could subtract the past. Wisdom knows that we will never get the equation to come out right unless we use all the numbers of both the past, present and future. 

   The number above is actually the distance, in miles, of the size of the observable universe.* This estimate was offered by Professor Stephen Hawking in his classic book, A Brief History of Time. The leading theoretical physicist of our time, Hawking occupies the same position at Cambridge University once held by Sir Isaac Newton. I'm halfway through his book and have a hunch I will not agree with his ideas about the role of God in the creation if the universe, but it is a fascinating read into what we do know about the expanse of the heavens and the infinitely small particles of an atom. 

   When I first heard this number used my mind raced to its size and how appropriate such a scale is at the start of the new year. We might not reach such a figure in our lifetimes, but we certainly will my come close without an appreciation for where we have come from and all of the people and choices and blessings our pasts have contained.

   May the start of 2013 contain for each of us the limitless possibilities granted by the grace and love of God. Peace, Scott