Hello,
It was a good weekend for my team, the Fighting Illini of the University
of Illinois. We didn’t lose…..well,
we didn’t play.
It
looks like another long year for the Illini. I tell people that it sure must be boring cheering for a
winning team, because when they win, there’s nothing to get very excited
about. But when you cheer for a
cellar dweller…..when (rare as it may be) we win, life is thrilling!
Some years ago when I was living in Ohio (Ohio State territory) I got
tickets to the Illinois vs Ohio State game. It was a late November game which meant that it was snowy,
cold and windy. One of my sons
went with me (I don’t remember what I used to bribe him to go with me?). We bundled up. I put on my orange stocking cap, my
orange stadium jacket, and my insulated boots. My son was not so orange-ly clad.
When we arrived at the “Horseshoe” we wove our way upstream through the
river of scarlet and gray to our seats.
In the seats all around us were similarly clad folks, some even waving
scarlet and grey pom-poms. If the
weather was not lousy enough to make it a miserable day, the score made it even
worse. 44-0 in the third
quarter….Ohio State. The worst
thing about the game was that with every score, the woman sitting next to me
made sure that I was aware of the mounting score….cheering as if each touchdown
was a game winner, turning toward me as she sang (off pitch, of course) the
Ohio State fight song, and flinging her pom-pom in my face.
Sometime in the fourth quarter when the score had ballooned even more,
as the person next to me was rubbing my nose in it, I felt a tap on my
shoulder. I turned around, and
there was a man in Notre Dame garb behind me. Apparently he had been taking note of the abuse that I had
been absorbing, and he said to me, “Aren’t Ohio State fans a pain in the #$%!”
No comment then….no comment now.
Truth be told, Ohio State fans are not the only ones who like to kick
you in the teeth when you’re being crushed and humiliated. The world seems to delight in it,
too. Scandals are not hidden deep
in newspapers. They are on the
front page so everyone will see them.
It often only takes one misstep for a person to lose their job, and that
misstep clings onto them like a stubborn tic when they try and find a new
job. Friends, when they see you at
the mall, turn around and go the other way. It may be that the world doesn’t make losers wear a scarlet letter as were
made to do in the days of the Puritans, but they wear letters…invisible
ones…ones that everyone can amazingly see.
The Christian church has often been accused of kicking people when they are down, even to the point of
shunning people for the mess they have made in their lives. Fact is, the shoe too often has fit.
But in my church, and a lot of other churches, we are trying not to be
people who wear that shoe. We try
to be people who wear Christ-like sandals….sandals that took him to the homes
of outcasts….sandals that brought him to touch lepers…sandals that walked with
compassion alongside those who had foolishly ruined their lives…sandals that
kicked stones away rather than gathered them up to throw.
If you find yourself dealing with a world that is akin to my teeth
kicking, rubbing noses in it, dirt slinging Ohio State fan, let me tap you on
the shoulder today and instead of commenting on what a pain in the @#%! the world is…let me invite you to come
to a place where people who have walked in shoes like yours have been picked up
off the ground by one wearing sandals.
Let me invite you to church.
The treatment you will get will be far better than an Illinois fan gets
at the “Horseshoe”!
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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