Hello,
I am watching my beloved Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois,
and for the first time in 9 games, they are actually ahead at half time! You may not care, but it has not been a
happy winter for us who root for the Illini. They have lost 8 of their last 9 games…..ugh!
After starting out as a team to beat, they have now become a team that
is easily beaten. As you might
expect, there has been a mounting call to fire their coach, Bruce Webber. I’ve always liked Coach Webber. He’s always seemed to have a positive
attitude toward his players, and has generally done a good job in getting the
most out of his players…..he also happens to be a Lutheran. But this year things have fallen apart,
and the blame has fallen on his shoulders. In the eyes of many, he has failed…he is a loser…he is not
wanted anymore. His tenure as
coach may soon be over, and all because he isn’t winning.
It isn’t only college basketball coaches who are wanted when they are
winning, and not wanted when they are losing. It happens every day.
We live in a world that loves winners, and tends to get rid of
losers. Your employer loves you if
you are exceeding your expectations, but isn’t so loving if you have not met
your quotas month after month. The
phone rings off the hook for dates for those in high school who are cute and
popular, but put on too much weight or make a big mistake and the phone turns
silent. Even little kids learn
that if you are smart, things go better for you, but if you are “dumb” life is
hard. We live in a world that
loves winners and welcomes winners, but is not so loving or welcoming to
losers.
So where do you go if you are a “looser”?
Where do you go if you have no friends because you have cheated everyone
around you to get ahead (like Zacchaeaus)? Where are you welcomed if you are a failure as a spouse and
have failed at marriage over and over again (like the Samaritan woman Jesus met
at the well)? Where do you go if
you have made a fool of yourself and the whispers of the community blare in
your ears (like the prodigal son)?
Where are you wanted if you just don’t seem to be able to temper your
desires (like the man who crazily prowled the graveyard)? Where will you find open arms if you
are not a winner, but a loser?
Well, the world may not want you, but Jesus does. If you are a loser, come to
church. From the very beginning,
Jesus welcomed people who the world thought were losers: prostitutes, tax
collectors, adulterers, habitual sinners, thieves, criminals, and outcasts of
every kind. The church….the church
that Jesus created is not a hotel for the holy to haughtingly hang out, it is a
hospital for the hurting to be healed in order to head back out into the world
whole.
A wise man that was a member of one of my congregations was telling me
of the failures of his life, and he said that he learned that if you scratch
beneath the surface of any one’s life, there’s a river full of failures, a
river that flows to the heart of Jesus.
Looking at the people that Jesus gathered around him, that certainly is
true. Often church signs say,
“Visitors Welcome”, and so visitors are.
But a clearer message to all those who go by a church would be “Losers
Welcome”, for that is the deepest connecting truth for those who walk in the
church’s doors. So, where do you
go if you’re a loser? Come to
church….you’ll be welcome there.
Even if you are Bruce Webber.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace,
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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