|
|
 |
|
 November 8, 2009 Sermon: "Measuring the Game of Life" Scripture: Mark 12: 28-34 Reverend Larry Gerber In pro football, one "old school" device still settles arguments about the location of the ball. Keeping with our theme of The Game of Life: Transforming Lives for Jesus we are aware that there are a lot of rules, or commandments beyond rules and regulations of sporting events such as football. Football has so many rules that not even the players, coaches, referees and commentators can possibly know them all. That's why football players can sometimes appear, well, a tad ignorant. Former Dallas Cowboy Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson once said of former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who has four Super Bowl rings and now sits in the TV analyst booth, that he "couldn't spell 'cat' if you spotted him the 'c' and the 'a.' " You may not be interested in football, but it is hard to avoid the game at this time of the year. So this connection is too good to pass up. When you fire up your flat-screens this Sunday, you may want to watch for something very old out there on the field amid all the high-tech hoopla. Football is arguably the most technologically advanced sport today: You've got the radio receiver sending plays into the quarterback's helmet from the sidelines, overhead cameras, super slow-mo video replay, challenge calls by the refs and computer-generated graphics on the field indicating "downs and distance" to the audience watching at home. From the perspective of one's favorite recliner, the live game doesn't look all that much different from the version played on your average video game console. But in person, things are a little more "old school," particularly when it comes to one of the game's most important aspects: determining where exactly the ball is supposed to be located and how far the offense has to move it for a first down. The way that's done today is the way it's been done since 1906 -- the year the NCAA determined that a team needed 10 yards, not five, for a first down, and the year that the forward pass was legalized. Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide of 1907 set down the rules that have lasted for more than 100 years: "To assist in measuring the progress of the ball, it is desirable to provide two light poles about six feet in length, connected at their lower ends with a stout cord or chain 10 yards in length." Since then, at every football game from Pee Wees to pros, a group of officials stands about six feet off the sideline holding blaze-orange "poles" with a 10-yard length of chain stretched between them. One end is placed ostensibly at the football's original spot, lined up by the official's eyeballs with the nose of the ball (even though the ball itself may be more than 25 yards from the sideline). The other end marks the line to gain 10 yards away. When the play ends, an on-field official estimates the new spot of the ball, marking it with his foot and tossing the ball to another official to set for the next play. When the new spot is close to the first down end of the chain, that's when the "chain gang" trots out to "measure" whether or not the offense gets a new set of downs. Often, this is one of the most dramatic and breathless moments in a football game. Sometimes the drive continues by an inch; sometimes it comes up just a chain link short. Sure, a lot of tradition is associated with the chains. A measurement can swing momentum in a game as much as a pass or a handoff can. But because the chains are set purely based on the eyeballs of human officials, the margin for human error is still a big factor. "There must be a better way," says longtime NFL broadcaster and former player Pat Summerall. "Because games are decided, careers are decided, on those measurements." Now, you'd think with technological advances such as GPS and lasers it would be a no-brainer to figure out just where, in a pile of large, sweaty humans, the ball actually was when the running back's knee hit the ground. Just put a computer chip in the ball or something. And if they can paint a virtual yellow line on the field to show the TV audience the yardage the offense has to gain for a first down, then surely they can figure out a way to do that on the turf itself, right? Well, no. At least not yet. For years, inventors and tech-obsessed fans have tried to come up with alternatives to the old chain gang. As early as 1929, a guy named Luther More from Seattle patented something called a "Measuring Device for Football Games," which used telescopic sights along with wheels and pulleys moving along a track on the sidelines. In 1967, another patent for a "football liner up device" using sites and mirrors was issued but never fielded. Lasers have been tried from the sidelines and from the stadium lights. Nothing seems to work as well or as efficiently as the old analog way of marking progress from point A to point B one chain link at a time. How does Jesus measure forward progress? Sometimes the "old school" way is the best way to measure, whether it's on the football field or in the game of life. Finding himself in an argument with some religious referees in his own day, Jesus is asked about the criteria for measuring the progress of a person's life. For his answer, he reaches back to an ancient rule book. One of the "scribes" hears the argument going on there at the sidelines of the temple and sees that Jesus is holding his own against the verbal jousting of a self-appointed competition committee. Up to this point, all the bickering has been about some subtle interpretations of the rules -- rules such as paying taxes (Mark 12:13-17) and about who would be married to whom after the resurrection (vv. 18-27). The religious leaders want Jesus to give them a favorable spot on the field of religiosity, but it becomes clear to them that he's playing by a different set of rules. So this scribe, perceiving that Jesus is an authority on the game, asks Jesus to name the number-one rule: "Which commandment is the first of all?" (v. 28). In response, Jesus breaks out the old-school measuring sticks -- two of them. Reaching back to Deuteronomy 6:5, Jesus spots the first and greatest commandment: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength" (vv. 29-30). This text, also known as the Shema, was and still is foundational in Jewish tradition as the prayer that begins and ends each day. The starting point for everything, according to Jesus, is worship. Worship is essential not only because we recognize who God is but also because it sets the agenda for who we are called to be. If we're made in God's image, as the old school, or Old Testament, tells us, then we will find our true position and purpose in life only when we learn to love and worship the One we were designed to reflect. On a football field, players must focus all their attention to the snap of the ball, all their minds on running the play correctly, all their strength in blocking and tackling, and all their hearts on winning -- on every play -- if they're going to move the chains. The same is true for us if we want to truly make progress in growing into the image of God individually. Then, as a team, we are to collectively participate with God in moving the world toward the ultimate "goal line" of God's kingdom. Worshiping God isn't just a head trip or about coming up with more technological gadgets for Sunday morning to put more people in the stands, er, pews. It's about putting our whole selves passionately in the game. First down, first priority, first movement, is always focused on worship. The scribe asked only about the first commandment, the marker of worship, but Jesus adds the other end of the measuring stick as the line to gain that helps move humanity forward toward God's kingdom. Jesus goes old school again when he quotes Leviticus 19:18: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." If we begin at first down with worship, loving God with our whole selves, then we'll also make progress, chain link by chain link, toward the next stick, which is loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. In the stadium, you know your team is doing well when it consistently moves the chains and drives forward toward the end zone. At the end of the day, the team that has the most first downs usually is the winner. If we're following Christ, our success is measured not only by how our love for God transforms us but by how that love finds its way through us to someone else. Time and again, Jesus coached his disciples by saying that their love for God would be measured by the love they showed to others, particularly people in need (see Matthew 25:31-46 or Luke 10:25-37). The scribe understood the old-school wisdom that Jesus was teaching, and Jesus blessed him for it. "You are not far from the kingdom of God," he said (v. 34). You are not far from the end zone, the place of victory. Every 10 yards get you a first down and another chance to move the chains toward the goal post of life. Transforming lives for Jesus will score a touchdown in life every time. If Jesus were to break out the sticks and measure your faith, where would you be: first and goal, or fourth and 30? Let us pray Source: Branch, John. "In high-tech game, football sticks to an old measure of success." The New York Times, January 1, 2009. |
