Introduction
Does anyone know what today is? Has anyone heard what’s going on later? THE event of today is about someone important and something significant. Super bowl fifty-one will be played at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. Some of you may have heard about this somewhat followed event. Some of you may have heard about the two teams, the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons. There have been plenty of words spoken about the abilities of these two teams and the players who compose their ranks.
I’ve listening to the television as folks look forward to the game today, so many make predictions on what this player will do, or how that player will react. There has been an abundance of “lofty speech” and “wisdom” from players and coaches, from fans and commentators, in print, and on countless sports talk shows. But, in the last few weeks there has been some media blitz, with thousands of reporters grabbing and grasping for any kind of story. Some of the conversation has been expected with talk about one team’s capabilities versus the other, or the statistics throughout the season. Yes folks, today is a special day. Today is football sermon day.
On the Atlanta side…. commentators have stated that the Falcons will win because of their outstanding offense, the best in the NFL, the defensive and offensive talents of an amazing player, Vic Beasley, and a team coach who not only understands his team’s strengths and weaknesses, but understands how to use them to his advantage, and take the risks necessary to close the gap with his adversaries. Oh yes, some say the Falcons will prove to be the champions today!
But, wait, there’s more. Everyone doesn’t exactly see it this way. In fact, all of the conversation hasn’t been on the Falcons side…. Oh no! In fact, other writers believe that New England has the edge in this ultimate pit of football wills. Some believe that the Patriots are going to take the winning trophy home. Some feel that the Pats, as they’re often called, have the right combination of players that can round out the team on both the offensive and defensive sides of the field. Even when some very talented players have left the Pats, New England has found a way to fill the void in the capabilities of the team. But, the biggest claim of those supporting the Patriots, is that, now get this… Tom Brady wants a win just too bad!
So, there you have it, some root for the Falcons while others say the Patriots will be triumphant today. I’ll leave it up to each of you to decide which of these conversations has any real value. Most of the conversation has really been saying a lot about nothing, and the game itself, will settle it all. Someone will do something spectacular. Or something will happen to someone, that’s unexpected, and either awful or awesome. A referee will make a call that some praise, and others condemn, but will likely be controversial. A player will perform less than expected, while another will certainly prove the star player of the day.
The game will decide who the winner is, and the conversation of the past weeks won’t mean a thing. There’s a lot of talk going around that is meaningless in the big picture, and we’ll just have to see how the men perform on the field to find out who celebrates afterwards. So many words, but so little value in the big picture.
The story I want to look at today, is a little bit different. Since I started by talking about commentators and the words they use, let’s take the idea of using words, to look at Paul’s address to the church at Corinth. He’s the complete opposite with how he couch-es what he wants to say. Paul says he didn’t come to them with lofty speech and wisdom. He didn’t, in fact, have a lot to say—at least not about a lot of different things. Certainly, he didn’t say a lot about nothing. He had a lot of things to say, with only a few words to say it in. With those few select words, he didn’t focus on himself, or how great he was, or the amazing way that God selected a fantastic man such as himself. Instead, he focused on three simple concepts: The purpose of God, the plan of God, and the power of God. But, since this is a football sermon, we might throw the old pigskin in here from time to time, just to make sure we stay on point.
So, back to football….
The Purpose of God
Lets start by talking about PURPOSE. In the sport of football, the ball itself is a key component of the game. Without the ball, there can be no game. With such dependence on this piece of the action, the image of the oblong shaped ball has become synonymous with the game. But, even this simple ball has standards.
Perhaps you’ve heard some of the controversies over the last year or so about how much air should be in the ball? Tom Brady, the quarterback of the New England Patriots, was suspended for four games this season due to his involvement with under-inflated footballs. Except for recent stories about air pressure, we don’t normally hear a lot about the football.
The more common stories are those we hear about the man in the center of the action who determines how and where that football will move from one person to another down the field. Football can’t work without a quarterback. Someone has to get the ball in motion farther down the field. The quarterback is that someone. He has one purpose in mind, how to get the ball down the field and into the in-zone. He has one purpose that drives him, avoid the players coming towards him and get that ball to his own teammates. He has one purpose to aim for, how to score more points than the opposing team. This one purpose of winning the game determines how he will use the football to achieve his goal of another set of points on the scoreboard.
So back to Paul… Paul was God’s quarterback with his own one purpose in mind. It wasn’t his goal to score points with the audience. It wasn’t his aim to entertain the church at Corinth. It wasn’t his purpose to place himself on a lofty pedestal with worldly recognition. Instead, his desire was to spread the Good News and wisdom of God.
And he does that by talking about “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2, ESV). He uses the Words of God, and the explanation of what Jesus has done when he hung on the cross. He spends some time talking about the Wisdom of God that some have not understood, and what God was trying to accomplish. In short, that wisdom centered on the saving grace of the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ, for only through that single sacrifice could the sins of mankind be paid in full. Only through the willing offering of the body or Christ, could errored humans be called home for salvation.
Through man’s lens of understanding, this makes no sense, but with the help of the Spirit, even sinful people can understand the bigger purpose of our Heavenly Father above. Paul served God as a quarterback, getting out the information each person needed on the field of Corinth, distributing the longer game plan that God was putting in motion, and ensuring the church understood the direction the Christian Team was supposed to travel. Paul may have been the quarterback, but God is still in charge as the Coach.
And back to football…
The Plan (Wisdom) of God
For a coach, let’s take a look at his biggest job, let’s take a look at his Plan. After all, the Coach of any team is the man with the plan! He’s the guy who looks at the long game and how one play can lead to another, and another. He’s the one who can see one, two, three steps ahead to get his team to where they need to be. He’s the guy calling the shots, and the guy that will be praised or condemned for setting up the plan of the day.
Remember those commentators I talked about earlier? They study the players, the plays, and the coaches to try to figure out the future and predict how many points, and how many yards the teams will gain during the contest. They spend untold hours studying the information they can find, yet they can’t see inside the coach’s head to see the plays that will be called. But, they try so very hard to do that.
It’s similar with the thoughts of God. So many look at the world around them and try to figure out why something was allowed, or why one was blessed and another not. People try to psychoanalyze God through social experiments and worldly philosophies. But some of these same seekers of information, won’t pick up a copy of His Word to see what the bigger game plan is. Some don’t recognize that the game is already in motion.
People have a hard time figuring how a few minutes of Football will turn out and often can’t understand what the coach was thinking about in that last play. How much more are people going to struggle with an infinite God who can’t even be defined by a game clock measured in centuries, or even millennia.
God is the big coach, and He has a plan that’s much larger than any of us. The Small Catechism describes the dilemma this way, because the Holy Spirit “calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church… no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2: 11b).
“None of the rulers of this age understood “God’s” secret and hidden wisdom” (1 Cor 2: 8, 7), and in ignorance, they crucified the Lord of glory. They did not, in fact, they could not, understand that God’s wisdom was greater and that it had been in place “before the ages” (1 Cor 2: 7). They did not understand, and, without the Spirit’s works, neither do we. God has prepared this, and the Spirit has made it known.
Truly no one can grasp God’s eternal plan, from first promise in the book of Genesis, to final fulfillment and future glory in John’s Apocalypse. No one can discover the Good News of salvation on our own. We try to figure God out, but we don’t always get it. We don’t understand why things happen. We don’t understand why things don’t go our way. We don’t understand why our team isn’t in the Super bowl. Whether big or small, these things happen for a reason. God knows that reason, and he will reveal it to us in HIS time, not necessarily ours. A coach doesn’t explain all of his plan at one time. But eventually, he does reveal it.
The Power of God
And timing is a big part of God’s plan, but so is the power and ability to deliver that plan. We’ve looked at a PURPOSE, and we’ve looked at a PLAN, so, let’s move on and take a look at the idea of POWER.
So back to football…
Have you ever witnessed the energy of a fully functioning, well-oiled defensive line? I don’t mean just watch it on television, but experienced it firsthand. Have you played on the field, or cheered from the benches, or rooted on your favorite players from the stands, or perhaps coached a team of dedicated players? The power of a trained defensive line is a sight to see. The players are often some of the biggest, tallest, widest, strongest, and most intimidating players on the field. It’s their job to stop the other side from catching the ball, and if they can, to tackle the player who has it.
When the offensive snaps, the ball play begins. Often you can hear the crash of the defensive line colliding with the offensive as each player fights for ground. The power of these athletes is a sight to see as you sometime can feel the force of the impacts. The power of a group of men playing as a single team is awesome to witness. I know for certain that I don’t want to stand in front of them.
But the power of God is so much more than this. Paul talks about being weak, fearful, and trembling (1 Cor 2: 3) in the face of those who opposed his message in Corinth. Perhaps some of us have felt that way from time to time in our own lives. The world around us is not always friendly to God’s plan, but often likes to make fun of those who believe in a risen savior.
Instead, the world of today is amazed at the athletic prowess of world champion athletes, but not the living cell that gave them life… enthralled with movies of star performers who tell stories of terrible concussion injuries, yet bored by the stories of the Bible… obsessed with the wisdom of Facebook, Instagram, and Snap Chat and the short messages they spread at the speed of light, but fail to pick up a copy of the Good Book that has survived history. We live in a world where prayer is often condemned in schools, the name of Jesus may be frowned upon at work, and football players who kneel in thanks to God are shunned by some of the world around them. The creator is not viewed as the primary source of power, but another actor on the stage of mankind.
In short, the people see the wisdom of the world in front of them with their eyes and ears, yet ignore the less seen miracles of a gentle-breeze, a living cell, or even a blessed savior. The unseen miracles don’t get recognized, because man’s wisdom is not always perfect.
But God is so much more than an unseen entity. He’s the power behind the moon, and the forces that generate the waves of the ocean, crashing down every minute of the day on beaches around the world. He’s the power of the invisible DNA, as it replicates another life in the miracle of childbirth, all from the microscopic size of a living cell. He’s the power of life over death as we look forward to our place in the heavenly glory of things yet to come. He’s the power of forgiveness, as he settles the storm of a sinful world around us. God showed Paul that he could be strong in an unfriendly neighborhood through the power of God’s presence, and the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit. The power that God blesses us each and everyday gives us the power, to confront a world that may not have heard His message, but still needs to listen just the same. God grants us that power through His Church, His baptism, and His Word. God has the power to defeat all things, including death. Like Paul, the Spirit can bless us with that power, to stand firm in a world that is not always friendly to God’s message.
Conclusion
So, it’s a football message on Super bowl Sunday.
As God’s quarterback, Paul had an inspiring message that has a lot to say about the Purpose of God, the Wisdom behind that purpose, and the Power that God uses to give us the knowledge and strength we need, to go through each and every day of our lives. His message is one of hope, one of Jesus on the cross, one of salvation. Paul’s words are God’s Words, and our Heavenly Father was the coach behind every play on the field. God provided us Paul and put him in the game to help us understand the wisdom of God, when we didn’t even understand the game. Through Paul, He demonstrated the Power of God, by showing how to defeat fear and trembling in front of one’s opponents, even when the other team is not that friendly. There’s a lot to be said for this simple letter to the Corinthians.
But perhaps a football legend can summarize Paul’s words a bit differently.
Tom Landry was both a successful football coach, and a man of God. He probably summed up this sermon best. He said, “The thrill of knowing Jesus is the greatest thing that ever happened to me… I think God has put me in a very special place, and He expects me to use it to His glory in everything I do… whether coaching football or talking to the press, I’m always a Christian… Christ is first, family second, and football third.” (source unknown)
Wow, he had a way to describe what’s really important. God’s wisdom and purpose, his plan and foresight, his power and reliability. It’s all there for each of. It’s all there because we are saved. It’s all there because we are loved by God. Through the Spirit, we too can grasp the message, and have hope in the future for all of our souls.
Amen.
(portions of the introduction, and a few sentences in other places, are based on the sermon “No, No one, Nothing”, by Marc D. Barz, Concordia Pulpit Resources, Vol 27, Part 1, Series A)
