Is everybody here ready for the Superbowl this evening?
It’s Sunday. The Sabbath. Day of rest. The Lord’s Day.
And it is SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!
You know the drill. We all know the drill. This is Super Bowl Sunday, the High Holy Day for whole legions of armchair athletes. For many, this is the most sacred sporting event of a nationwide army of faithful NFL fans.
Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?!
Tonight is the battle of the titans, the bone-crushing championship conflict between our country’s greatest gridiron gods. The NFC and the AFC will hurl their most valiant warriors at each other in an orgy of hitting, kicking, running, tackling, passing, catching, punting and praising God.
Wait a minute ... "Praising God"? No way!
Yes, WAY. Have you noticed? Sometimes the NFL sounds a little like a subsidiary of a Christian television station. For all the trouble in the world, it is encouraging to hear some of these well known athletes opening profess their faith.
Have you ever thought of us as a team? We’ve often been referred to as in an army…. As in “Onward Christian Solders.” Today, why don’t we consider ourselves as teammates with Jesus as our quarterback? Teammates, you know the score, the true score, and the victory we have with Jesus. The battle is raging, but the outcome for us is assured. We are on the winning team with Christ.
Some of the players on the winning team in today’s Super Bowl will no doubt give God the glory. But if we think about today’s scripture in a little different way, perhaps we can see…this giving glory to God is really nothing new, and not unique to the NFL.
In today’s lesson from Mark, there is another huddle of sorts, and it takes place in the synagogue in Capernaum. Jesus is teaching….providing the Game Plan for his players. This morning, lets put ourselves in Capernaum in the synagogue, with Jesus preaching… Suddenly, a psychotic stranger jumps on the playing field ... kinda like a streaker running across the 50 yard line… a possessed, raving fan ... a fan-a-tic frothing like a Cleveland Browns dawg.
Getting right in Jesus’ face, he screeches, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?"
Hey buddy, it’s the Sabbath.
"Have you come to destroy us?"
Chill out, friend. This is our day of rest.
"I know who you are," he thunders, "the Holy One of God."
Okay. Jesus has called the play, and not its time to execute!
Jesus knows exactly who’s behind all this shouting and ranting. He drops back… or not…. and lets go a bullet pass of words…..commands really…. "Be silent, and come out of him!" And the unclean spirit, convulsing the man and crying with a loud voice, comes popping out like a fumbled football.
You see, Jesus, far more so than any quarterback to ever walk out on a football field, Jesus… exudes such authority that even demons obey instantly.
Jesus possesses such poise that even evil forces know that he is the Holy One of God. Jesus is pumped up with such power that even unclean spirits know that his arrival on the field marks the end of the Super Bowl for them, the end of their season of domination over men and women. And the power and authority of Jesus is revealed!
Do you think there is chaos in the world today? Commercials cost a million a pop. The Super Bowl hype has been on for weeks, though, with the inauguration and all the news of the economy, I haven’t heard as much as some years. But surely we are all aware of the chaos all around us in the world today, even in our own communities.
Jesus is not phased by any of this anymore then He was of the man in the Synagogue … He simply takes control. In the center of the huddle, our lives, our church… In Capernaum, Jesus calls the play: a two-point conversion designed to give victory to this demented fan. Point one: Be silent. Point two: Come out of him.
(MOVE)
A conversion is a life-changing, life game-winning event. Whether we are talking about that personal conversion which first crafted us into a committed disciple of Jesus Christ, or the conversion which later calls us to reorder our priorities, we probably need to do two things.
First, be quiet -- and listen to the authoritative voice of God. Taking time to be still and quiet and listen for God’s voice, sense His nudging, His will for us.
Second, "Come out of him" -- that is, break free, let go, get rid of something. Something’s always got to give. Everyone of us has something we are holding back.
So how do we execute what the playbook lays out for us? The command to be silent and listen is no small challenge. How often in prayer we ask for what we want, whether it’s victory on the gridiron or vision for a business plan? When a University who shall go unnamed beat their arch rival in overtime, the winning coach declared on ABC-TV that “This was Jesus Christ working through my players"
Say, what? You mean the Lord Jesus turned his back on the other team? That God’s ears were tuned only to the petitions of the people of the winning team?
That’s crazy! Better to shut our mouths and listen to the authoritative voice of God. Fortunately we don’t hear as much of that as we used to. Better we pray for safety, to do our best and to do God’s will.
(MOVE)
Author Kathleen Norris used to play a game with elementary-school children in which she would make a deal with them. "First you get to make noise," she would bargain, "and then you’ll make silence."
The time of noise was always predictably chaotic -- shouting, pounding and stomping, like a football team exploding out of a locker room. But the period of silence that followed was unexpectedly passionate and creative. When the children were asked to write about it, reflects Norris, "their images often had a depth and maturity that was unlike anything else they wrote."
One boy discovered that "Silence is a tree spreading its branches to the sun."
One third-grader’s poem turned into a prayer: "Silence is spiders spinning their webs; it’s like a silkworm making its silk. Lord, help me to know when to be silent."
And a little girl offered a gem of spiritual wisdom that Norris finds herself returning to when her life becomes too noisy and distracting: "Silence reminds me to take my soul with me wherever I go" (Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith [New York: Riverhead Books, 1998], 16-17).
When we follow the command of Jesus to be silent, we spread our branches to the sun and soak up the light of God’s love, forgiveness and peace. When we hear God’s still, small voice, we are like silkworms spinning the silk of a sanctified life. When we listen for the guidance of the Lord -- really listen, instead of telling the Almighty all about what we are convinced we need to achieve -- we rediscover that our most precious treasure is the God-breathed soul that each of us has from the very beginning of life, a soul that we really should remember to take with us into all the splendid surprises of each day.
You won’t hear this kind of wisdom during the color commentary at tonight’s Super Bowl. This kind of insight requires a certain amount of simplicity ... and silence.
(MOVE)
But hey, don’t quit after you’ve found quiet. Jesus goes on to say, "Come out of him!" -- meaning break free, let go, get rid of something. Something’s got to give if you’re going to get to where Jesus wants you to go.
Think about this. What’s motivating today’s NFC champion? Is it more than just brotherly love between teammates who respect each other, work well together, and believe in the same game plan? Do you think there might be a deep, desperate, driving desire to dominate the AFC champion.
"It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love," wrote Sigmund Freud in his book Civilization and Its Discontents, "so long as there are other people left over to receive the manifestations of their aggressiveness"
You don’t have to be Freudian to see Freud may have been on to something. Just look around at Serbs who love one another and kill Kosovars, Duke fans who love each other and hate the University of North Carolina, Michigan fans vs Ohio State fans…and Christians who are bound by love for one another, but also by aggression toward anyone who threatens to disrupt the morals, the mission and the ministry of the Christian church.
Nothing puts us in an "Onward, Christian Soldiers" mode faster than a threat to the health of the church. Ok, if you’re thinking, “well not me, I don’t know what he’s talking about.” How does this make you feel… No more prayer in school, let’s take “In God We Trust” off our currency and coins… and so on.
Our blood starts rushing, our wrath starts rising, and our passion starts to push us into a rampage of righteousness. But as natural as this burst of aggression is, it doesn’t seem to be terribly Christ-centered. After all, our Lord is the one who broke tradition by breaking bread with sinners, who loved the one lost sheep as much as the 99 in the fold, and who came to call "not the righteous but sinners" (Mark 2:17).
Jesus commands, "Come out of him!" -- meaning break free, let go, get rid of something. Break free of the natural desire to beat or berate our enemies into submission. Better we submit ourselves to God, and to let our good works show the world the awesome power of the Christian life.
We need to get rid of some of that competitive spirit that forces people to end up as either winners or losers, the victors or the vanquished. Perhaps some of need to let go of that constant urge to have a little more… a little higher place of power or authority, a little “holier than thou” attitude.
Better, wouldn’t you agree, to welcome and share the Holy Spirit, who wants everyone to win by discovering and accepting the salvation of our gracious God. Better to see ALL our brothers and sisters as God sees them. His children….some suffering, some sad, many hurting, but all loved by God.
Something’s got to give if we’re going to get to where Jesus wants all of us to go. That’s heaven, by the way ... not Super Bowl XLIII.
