Changing sides isn't just a Brett Favre thing.
August 23, 2009
Pastor Paul
Sermon for August 23, 2009 Pentecost 12B
Texts:
Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18
John 6:56-69
Sermon Title: “Changing Sides Isn’t Just a Brett Favre Thing”
Friends in Christ, grace to you and peace, from the God who made you, the Christ who loves you, the Holy Spirit, who lives in you. Amen.
Unless you were living under a rock this week, you’ve heard that Brett Favre is now a Minnesota Viking. After sixteen years with the archrival Green Bay Packers and a year in New York, the one who once bled green and gold donned the purple number 4 and took the field for the Vikings, sending shock waves through the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota.
People all over were left asking, “how can this be?” It is so far beyond the imaginable for any sports fan that such a breach of loyalty could occur. While Vikings fans gloat, Packer fans scoff with disdain at the flippant, arrogant quarterback, who seems to care little or not at all, about sixteen years of history.
I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
But I can give you about 12 million reasons why this took place this week. When a 39 nearing 40 year-old quarterback, can miss training camp, fly in the personal team jet, be handed the starting job, surrounded by some of the best players in the league, and get paid a guaranteed $12 million dollars, with the possibility of it becoming $25 million over two years, loyalty and history are left behind for the lucrative purple grass on the other side of the hill.
And all that football fans once thought was sacred, and all that they held to be true about faithfulness, loyalty and team colors, is discarded for the lure of more fame and more fortune, more attention and more wins…maybe…we’ll see…wont we!?
I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
But Brett Favre is certainly not the first to break with loyalty. In fact, I was intrigued by the connection of feeling in this week of football with the Old Testament text for today. From the 24th chapter of Joshua, we hear of the Israelites, moving into the land which God had promised to them. The God of Israel has remained faithful to promise, freeing them from their 400 year slavery in Egypt and returning them to the land which had originally been promised through Abraham and Sarah. Moses has died overlooking the land, so the mantle was handed to Joshua who has led them in.
And now, Joshua is soon to depart the earth, so he gathers all the elders, the leaders, the judges and the officials of Israel to be presented before God. And like Vince Lombardi, if he were alive today, might have said to Brett Favre, Joshua gives them a rousing farewell address, reminding them of all that God has done for them in their past, from the promise to Abraham and Sarah, to Moses parting the sea and setting them free, to the defeat of the Amorites, the Moabites, the land of Jericho, the Canaanites, Hittites the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Denver Jebusites for the Super bowl victory.
Which brings us to the portion of text in our worship today. Joshua is overlooking the leaders and calling for their loyalty, saying to them, ‘now you can choose to serve the gods from across the river in Egypt, or you can choose to serve the gods of the land of the Amorites in which we now dwell, or you can serve the Lord, the God of Israel, who has been with us in our past and who has blessed us along our way, who had brought us to this place and held us together for ten generations.
Joshua recites the line that has become the needlepoint on many walls and bookmarks in many bibles, saying, “choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
And I’ve always struggled with that. I’ve struggled with the first commandment, not because I don’t embrace it’s truth, but because I struggle with the thought that God is a jealous God. The first commandment reads:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out slavery in Egypt. You shall have no other Gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God am a jealous God.”
And I struggle with that, because whenever I have felt jealousy, it has never felt like a Godly characteristic. It feels possessive and controlling, even manipulating at times, full of self-centered demand and desire that seems to defy what I think of when I think of who God is.
And yet, the thought that God demands our complete loyalty seems fitting, and that God made it the first commandment is attention grabbing, because it says to me that our relationship with God is not halfway, not ¾, but 100%...there is no partial trust when it comes to God, there is only the giving of our entire lives…we can’t keep back a portion of it, we can’t withhold the parts we want to keep for ourselves…God demands my life, my soul, my all, and I give it, because the truth is, I’ve done nothing in my life to have my life, but only by the grace and love of God, am I who I am…
I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
A father and mother were bringing their son to college for his freshman year. They walked through the typical first day of orientation, hearing from the President of the college, learning about the history, the campus, the things to come. The boy’s father stood in the chapel up in the balcony, looking over all of the families who were saying goodbye to their children. Dad had prepared a lengthy speech, a farewell discourse for his son, but had decided not to deliver. The son, was anticipating the speech, certain that his father wouldn’t be able to pass up this opportunity to deliver a message about the dos and don’ts of college.
But the day went by, and the speech never came. The son was shocked that he kissed his Mom and Dad goodbye at the car and heard nothing. As the new freshman made his way back to his dorm to unpack, he was reflecting upon all that was behind him and all that was to come. He smiled at the thought of his independence and gave thanks for the love of his parents, and yet, he was wondering why his father had said nothing.
Back at his dorm, he pulled out the boxes of his stuff and started to unpack. On top of one of the boxes, there was an envelope..’I knew it,’ he thought. ‘Dad wouldn’t miss this opportunity,’ like Lombardi in the Packer locker room or Joshua before his death, the young man knew this was coming.
He opened the envelope, and unfolded the letter, but much to his surprise, it simply said this, “Remember who you are. We love you, Mom and Dad.”
And like Joshua in the land of the Amorites, what the boy heard was, “remember where you come from and all that has been provided. Remember that God is with you, loves you and has blessed you all along the way. When the night gets dark, when the distractions and temptations come, when the loneliness sets in, remember…remember that you are a child of God and that is where your loyalty lies…that is what you can always count on…no matter what!
In our Gospel lesson, Jesus says to his followers, ‘ingest me, take me in, that I may live in you and you in me.’ “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me and I in them.”
And some of the followers, offended by the cannibalistic sound of this, and recognizing the breach it meant from their religious practices of not drinking the blood of anything, walked away and didn’t follow him anymore.
And Jesus, turning to the twelve, for the first time in John’s Gospel, called the twelve, and since we’re using football metaphors today, one more than a football team, must’ve included the kicker….Jesus turns to the twelve and like Joshua with the Israelites in the land of the Amorites, reveals the truth of the first commandment, “I the Lord your God am a jealous God,” in the ringing truth of those words, Jesus asks them, “will you also go away?”
And Simon Peter leads the way, speaking for them all, using “we” for the twelve, saying the words we sing each week in worship as we prepare to hear the Gospel read, “Lord(greek word as in Joshua 24)…Lord, to whom can we go, you have the words of eternal life.”
Choose this day whom you will serve. Will you also go away? When things are tough, when God seems absent, when distractions and temptations are everywhere, when you have little or nothing left in your spiritual tank, when grief overwhelms and fear consumes…”remember who we are…remember what God has done in our past…remember that Jesus died for us...we are children of God…we are loved by God…Jesus lives in us and we in him…that you can count on…when the chips are down, when all seems lost, when the struggles are great, remember this, you belong to God…God jealously holds you, holds us as his people, demanding our loyalty and complete obedience…child of God…child of God…child of God, you are!…wear that on the front of your jersey. AMEN
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