ECCLESIASTICUS 2:1-11

PSALM 149

EPHESIANS 1:11-23

LUKE 6:20-36

Sermon – November 2, 2003

We are now in the midst of football season. All over America, there are hordes of guys who spend a lot of time, energy and effort preparing for Friday night, Saturday afternoon, or Sunday afternoon – or even Monday night – and there are more hordes of people who live and breathe the games as fans at some level. So, a large part of our nation inhales and exhales according to one or more of these weekly cycles.

Football is different from baseball, which at the professional level is played nearly every day. Football is a weekly game; you could even say that in the NFL, players spend six days getting ready for one day, six days of instruction, practice, rest, exercise, review of tape and preparation to get ready for one day of playing, six days spent everywhere to get ready for one day focussed within the time and space parameters of a football game on a football field.

Christians spend one day – or really, part of one day – preparing for six days, one day (or maybe even one hour) within the time and space parameters of a church service in a church building to prepare to play “the game of life” on a field which is everywhere they go and lasts 167 hours a week. Then we come back here for an hour or so of instruction, practice, rest, exercise, review and preparation to enable us to play another 167 hours with our Coach’s game plan and words in our heads.

And some people figure they can play 168 hours a week and cut practice and still know all the plays – meaning how to cope with what life throws at us.

Is there any player who could do that?

And there are some who figure they don’t need to come to weekly practice because they had a year of Pop Warner – uh, Sunday school – way back when and they know all they need to know.

“Right.”

And then there are those who know they need to come to practice, learn from the “Coach” – I mean Jesus, not me – but they’re afraid they won’t be welcome because they’ve missed so many practices.

I have good news.

“Walk-ons” are welcome every week.

And no one “rides the bench” on Jesus’ team; we all get to play. It’s called living – and trying not just to live to survive, but to live the abundant life that Christ promises to those who adopt the discipline of being his disciples. Since we’re living anyway, why not learn how to live right, and as a result to experience the abundant life?

O.K., so what does “Coach” have to tell us this week? Well, in today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Hmm. Sounds vaguely familiar. “The Golden Rule” is basic; this is like “blocking and tackling”; if you don’t know how to do those basics, no play is going to work. If we don’t try to treat others – not the way they treat us, but the way we would like to be treated – we can’t go on to more advanced Christianity.

Like what Jesus also says in today’s Gospel – “I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you...” It is going to take more than one hour of practice to learn this play. This is hard. And, perhaps, subtle: Jesus doesn’t ask us to accept or endorse, never mind emulate, the behavior that is painful in whatever sense, but to love (not like) the person who is “inside” that behavior. Love means not lowering your own behavior to meet theirs; love means seeing inside the behavior a person for whom Christ died so that we may offer them a chance to make a U-turn and embrace life and love.

This is a “play” which will take much more than an hour to learn and put into practice. But if enough people try it and practice again and again and again, we can change the world.

I remember hearing about a pro football player who was traded from the Cardinals to the Saints and observed, “religiously, it’s a promotion.” That’s true. And that’s the “team” we all have been “drafted” by: the saints. And I don’t mean the ones whose home field is in New Orleans.

There are two meanings to the word “saint” as Christians use it. One is Saint with a capital “S”, as in the “Hall of Famers” we know by name – Peter, Paul, Mary, Mary Magdalene and so on. But God’s “Hall of Fame” doubtless has members who are not household names, so saint with a lower case “s” refers to all the faithful in Christ, all of whom have unlimited spiritual potential.

Churches exist so that people can begin to realize their unlimited spiritual potential. And it is, indeed, a team effort. In the baptismal service, I ask the parents and godparents, “Will you by your prayers and witness help this child to grow into the full stature of Christ?” That’s what you call “unlimited spiritual potential.” And then the entire congregation is asked, “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support this person in her life in Christ?” “All in your power”: on Jesus’ team, the letters “me” stand not for “me”, but for “maximum effort.”

On All Saints’ Sunday, we remember all those who have gone before us in the Christian faith who have not departed this life...though they are still “on the team”, because the community of Jesus’ followers is the only group you can join and get a longer than lifetime membership.

Some of the people we each remember on All Saints’ Sunday as inspirations to us may be famous – like Martha and Mary or Barnabas, or perhaps St. Patrick or St. Francis. Others might be people who aren’t famous who made an impression on us: perhaps a grandmother who read us Bible Stories, a father who taught us right from wrong, a godparent who helped us memorize the Lord’s Prayer, A Sunday School teacher who helped us understand what communion is all about, a Youth Group leader who helped us discover the face of Christ in a person in need.

And we are here because we all can be – and need to be – the saints of God today who will inspire our peers – and the next generation, and the next, and the next.

There’s always openings on the team – but to play your best all through the week, we need to show up for practice, learn, rest, review, reflect, practice some more, bond with our teammates, work together, ask questions, listen to our coach, have fun doing it all, persevere in good times and challenging times, and give God the glory.

Let us pray. In the words of today’s Epistle, “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe...”

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church