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Sermon - February 2nd, 2008
A Sermon for Super Bowl Sunday
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12
Prayer: We give thanks, O God, for sacred scriptures. Through your word you nurture our imaginations, increase our awareness, and challenge our assumptions. May the words of my mouth and meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Okay, because of the title of this sermon, it’s time for some congregation participation. Raise your hand if you are going to watch the Super Bowl this afternoon.
Now, raise your hand if you hope the Patriots win. Raise your hand if you hope the Giants win. Raise your hand if you just hope it’s a good game, no matter who wins. Now, raise your hand if you don’t care. Last question, raise your hand if you are not even going to watch the game, or the commercials, or the half-time entertainment.
I learned the rules of football when I sat by my Dad, watching the Heppner Mustangs play. The whole community went to the football games then. I think they still do. He explained the rules to me, and from that point on, I had the advantage over every other girl in school. I knew how to play football. I knew how to watch the game. And I loved watching the hometown team play football.
As for today, I usually like the underdogs to win, so people tell me that would be the Giants. I do hope it’s a good game, exciting, close, not one-sided.
I like sports. But I always preferred playing sports to watching sports. I grew up before Title IX gave the girls equal opportunity, so my high school experience in sports was very limited. When I got to college, though, I took a class in volleyball, did really well, and from that point on the women’s coach was recruiting me for whatever collegiate sport was that season. I started with Basketball. I did tennis even though I didn’t even own a tennis racquet. I played volleyball. I did a season of track and thought I was going to die of sore muscles. I loved playing the team sports the most and I loved winning. I learned a lot about people and teamwork and hard work and building character and being present by playing sports. I learned about sitting on the bench too. All of it was a valuable experience for me.
But sport in America has become more than sport. It is something more like a secular religion, that’s if we define religion as the ritualization of our values, what we believe.
Paul Tillich, 20th century theologian, defined religion as “ultimate concern.” With this definition, he meant that you could find what a person’s religion was, no matter where they went to church, or whether they went to church. Their religion was most important for them, where their priorities were, what they were willing to sacrifice for. That’s the test. And it is determined by one’s behavior.
In America, a high value is winning, being number 1. So if sport has become the religion of winning, then the Super Bowl is its high holy day. The winner is awarded the Vince Lombardi Trophy, named for the man who said, “Winning is not the most important thing. It is the only thing.”
I would even dare to say that the religion of winning is so powerful in America, it has affect the way Christianity is preached. All you have to do to test this is to count the number of times a relationship with Jesus is recommended as a way to success. If you believe in Jesus, you will have an edge in the competition of life. If you believe in Jesus, you will prosper, you will succeed in more ways you can imagine. This is called prosperity theology. And it is alive and well in the pulpit.
However, listen to this logic—if believing in Jesus is the means of getting something, then Jesus is not the most important thing. The “something” that we are trying to get is the most important thing. If we think that believing in Jesus is going to make us rich, then Jesus is not our Lord. Getting rich is. Success is. Winning is.
However, the heart and soul of the Gospel is this: love one another, forgive one another, be reconciled with one another. In other words, build community in this world even with those whom we are estranged. This is not about winning and losing, it’s about reconciliation. If there is one consistent message in the Bible from beginning to end, it is that God created us to be in community.
That is what makes it so prophetic to have the Beatitudes read on Super Bowl Sunday—because there is nothing so far away from winning in them. They are the opening verses of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said: “If you are going to follow me, this is the way you will live….in the state of blessedness.” “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Now what would happen in a Super Bowl football game if these were read to the players right before the game, “Blessed are the meek….blessed are the merciful….blessed are the peacemakers….those who mourn… those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…the pure in heart.”
I think we just have to admit that the Gospel message is talking about something that is entirely different from the spirit of our times in America. So different that I’m sure it feels totally foreign to us. We don’t understand it. We don’t understand Jesus when he says the goal in our life is to be blessed.
What is blessedness, anyway? It means “joy.” Some translations use the word “happy” instead of “blessed.” I don’t particularly like that translation of the word “blessed.” Joy is deeper than happiness.
Life happens and it is a real mixture of stuff, and not equally distributed either. Joy is the result of things being right inside of us no matter what life brings us. Joy comes from living our life the way we are supposed to live it. Joy is having our deepest longings as a human being fulfilled. Joy is the result of being loved. Joy is living our lives with meaning. Joy rises up out of simply being alive, of being part of the ugliness as well as the incredible beauty of life.
When Jesus was eating his last meal with his friends, knowing that his death was only a few hours away, he was in no sense happy, nor did he offer his friends happiness any more that he offers happiness to you and me. What Jesus offers is more precious than happiness because it is beyond the world’s power either to give or take away. Jesus said, “These thing have I spoken to you that my joy may be in you.”
Joy is as poignant as grief. Joy brings tears to your eyes. God created us in joy and created us for joy, and in the long run not all the darkness there is in the world and in ourselves can separate us finally from the joy. We have God’s joy in our blood because we were created in God’s image.
So, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are meek” which means those who are humble, those who think of other people and do not assert themselves in such a way as to take advantage of other people. “Blessed are those who mourn.” They can see the suffering and injustice in this world and it causes them pain to see it, and they are moved to do something about it. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness’ sake.” Blessed are those who don’t try to please everyone, but live their lives according to the highest standard that they know. “Blessed are the pure in heart.” That means, those who are focused and passionate in their lives, living with purpose and love. “Blessed are the peacemakers.” In other words, those who are building up the world, not tearing it down, who are seeking reconciliation, not division. “Blessed are the persecuted” which seems to say that if you do all of the above you are going to meet resistance and misunderstandings.
Jesus met resistance, not because there was something wrong with him, but because there was some things wrong in the world. One thing of the things is that it divides itself into winners and losers. Winning is defined as being superior to someone else, or possessing all of the truth, which implies that those who are different that I am, are inferior than I am, or in error. I’m right and you are wrong—this infects our entire world.
I have been listening to bits and pieces of the Super Bowl build up. The perfect Patriots vs. the imperfect Giants. There is a lot of speculation, a lot of analyzing, a lot of special interest stories of heroism in one form or another. All of it to keep us interested in this game called the Super Bowl. But in the end, one team is the winner and the other is the loser. Where the values that Jesus is preaching on the sermon on the mount is: the winner is the loser and the loser is the winner. That’s how radical Jesus is.
Now, I’m not telling you to not watch the game, get involved, or let out a blood-curdling scream when your team gets a touchdown. I’m just telling you to notice, pay attention, look at the values of the Super Bowl vs. the values of Jesus. Watch and see the difference. Be awake to these things. These are interesting questions to ask ourselves in today’s world on this day that Americans call Super Bowl Sunday. I wonder if Jesus would say today, “Blessed are those who fail to win the most points…”
Amen.