Epiphany 3

Author and columnist George Will once noted that “Football combines the two worst things about America: It is violence punctuated by committee meetings.” 

            Well, we are in the midst of the NFL playoffs right now. There are just six teams left competing to play in the Big One, including our own Pewter Pirates.  By next Sunday, we’ll know which two teams will get to the Super Bowl. Then, two weeks later, the endless hoopla, the frenzied advertising and, almost incidentally, the football game itself, will be over.  Super Bowl Sunday will have come and gone for another year.

            One more observation: The Super Bowl wouldn’t be a true sporting event without an endless string of both pre-game and post-game interviews.  Fair or not, we have come to expect our sports professionals to be as articulate as they are athletic.  There are probably only about three different interviews available to any athlete.  We’ve all heard them, and we’ve heard them all.

            First, there is the “I’m the greatest; nothing can stop me” interview.  This is usually, but not always, a pre-game display – as players psyche themselves up and hope to psyche out the competition.  These are big guys, in the big leagues, earning big bucks, and they have big egos to match.  At their worst, these pre-game boasting contests are the ones we cringe at and hope our children do not hear.

            The second type of interview is usually a post-game display.  Typically the star player praises his teammates, his coaches, throws a gnawed-bone compliment to the opposition, and then admits that, “Yes, I played a great game.  I was able to do what I do best.”  These interviews are really about giving a star more on-camera time.

            The third type of interview is increasingly rare and makes a lot of people uncomfortable.  This is the Christian-athlete interview.  In it the athlete uses his player-podium to offer a bit of Christian witnessing.  With humility and sincerity, these Christian athletes praise God and thank Jesus for their game performance.  They don’t boast or brag; they know they are good, but they point to a different source of power for their abilities than the coaching staff, or the weight-training regime, or their individual determination.

            These Christian-athlete interviews seem to be getting less frequent because these muscular witnesses often find themselves castigated by both believers and non-believers.  Non-believers first guffaw and then get huffy – claiming these Christian-athletes are not appreciative enough of their coach or fellow team members.

            One network reporter said, “I think it’s a disgrace.  I don’t think it’s the right time or the right place.  I believe in God, but I’m going to save my prayers for something I consider more important than a football game.”

            Notice how it’s all right for high-ego athletes to yell and gesture, “I’m number one; I’m the best; am I good or what?”  They can dance and strut their stuff all they want.

            But if high-character athletes give glory to God rather than to themselves, if they thank God rather than their genes, they get criticized.

            Amazingly, believers are often the most uncomfortable with this kind of post-game confession of faith.  We back off and button our lips or look embarrassed.  Perhaps we believers don’t want to take the blame the next time this guy plays lousy or drops the winning touchdown pass.  But it’s probably more likely that we are turned off by the notion that the Lord of the universe, the Savior of all creation, is sitting down on a Sunday watching a football game.

            Does God have a favorite NFL team?  Does Jesus root for special players?  What do we do and say when a buff football player claims that Christ helped him win the big game or make the fantastic play? 

            Right up front, let’s agree that no, God does not have a favorite team and that Jesus really doesn’t care who wins this weekend’s playoff games.  But our Lord and savior does care about how the game is played.  Even more importantly, He cares about how our life-games are played.  At all times, in all places, in all our games, Christians are to play like Christians – win or lose.

            This brings us to today’s Gospel.  Here, Jesus reveals the four essential plays he is going to use as he competes in the real super bowl of life.  How is Jesus playing the game?

            First, Jesus declares that he brings good news to the poor.  Second, he seeks the release of those bound in all types of captivity.  Third, he offers new vision to those who have been living blind, healing for those who are wounded and diseased.  Finally, he gives freedom to those who are oppressed. 

            These are the plays in Jesus’ playbook, and they represent a radical departure from the conventional approach to the game.  After watching the Bucs’ game this afternoon, we will go back to our normal Monday morning routines filled with work, school, family and running around.  In each encounter we make with someone else during the day, we, too, will be coming face to face with the poor – those who have little of the world’s goods, or those who are poor in spirit.  Or we will face the captive – someone bound by habits, prejudice, guilt or despair.

We will encounter the blind – those who are physically blind as well as those who are spiritually unsighted, people who walk about with blinders, afraid to take a look at what Jesus has to offer.

            We will also find the oppressed – those who are used and abused and those who are marginalized and forgotten.  This is the genuine big game we are all engaged in every day – the test of our Christian witness and spirit.

            God is not keeping score to see if we win or lose the small skirmishes that we think occupy so much of our time and energy at work and at home.  There is no divine scoreboard keeping track of the number of accounts we brought in, the number of A’s we’ve received, or the skill with which we’ve managed to get through so much busyness at business.

            But God is concerned with how we conduct ourselves in all our endeavors and in each encounter.  Are we focused on the final score, on perfecting our own, individual performance?  Or are we able to shift our vision away from ourselves, open our playbook, and connect with the poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed?

            It’s a team game.  The Apostle Paul points this out in today’s Epistle from 1^st Corinthians.  The Super Bowl version might go something like this: “For the team is one and has many players, and all the players of the team, though many, are one team . . . Indeed, the team does not consist of one player, but of many.  If the defensive end would say, ‘Because I am not the quarterback, I do not belong to the team,’ that would not make him any less a part of the team.  But as it is, the coach has arranged the players of the team, each one of them, as he chose.  If all were quarterbacks, where would the team be?  The quarterback cannot say to the tackle, “I don’t need you.’  On the contrary . . . if one player suffers, the team suffers together with him; if one player is honored, the team rejoices with him.”

            We may or may not be involved in this year’s Super Bowl (the Bucs have to win two more games to get there), but we are all involved in the real big game, the super bowl of life.  And yes, Jesus does care how we play this lifelong game.  May we look to Him as our coach, run the plays He has called, and play the game as a team.  If we do that, we’ll never have to punt.