Hello,
When I was a kid, the neighborhood kids would often gather in the park
across the street from my house to play football. Six or eight of us.
That left 3 or four to a side.
On offense, one of us would line up over the ball to snap it, one of us
would be the quarterback, and the rest would line up as receivers, who with the
center would go out on pass routes that had been diagramed in the huddle on the
palm of the quarterback’s hand.
Defensive coverage was always man on man, leaving one player to rush the
passer.
Since there was no one to block the rusher, the rusher had to count
before crossing the line. Usually,
they had to count off three seconds….well, what they had to count was, “one
thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three,” which was rattled off as
fast as possible, making the wait far less than three seconds. The only restriction on the speed of
the count was that the counter had to count so that everyone could hear it and
so that everyone could understand it.
The best rushers, therefore, were the ones whose articulation skills
were the best.
Every year, it seems as though the one who counts “June, July, and August” is able to
count far faster than the one who counts “December, January, and February.” As August is coming to an end, I have
felt like I have been out in the park this summer facing a rapid rush, trying
to complete the plans that we had made when we huddled in May. Some completed…some incomplete.
Well, with “September, October, November” upon us, it is time for
huddling and drawing up our pass routes for these months ahead. As we lean into the circle, Jesus, our
quarterback, starts to draw out the patterns for us to run….to our neighbor who
has lost a loved one and is lonely in grief….to the kid in school who gets
teased about her weight and always eats alone….to the son or daughter who has
struggled with life’s decisions and is bruised from their falls…to our jobs
where we share our skills and talents with Christ driven devotion….to Sunday
worship, our spiritual weight room, to be strengthened to handle the hard
blocks of the world. And when the patterns are all drawn out
on Christ’s nail scarred hand, we all put our hands on his and breaking the
huddle, Jesus shouts, “Lo, I am with you always.”
When one reads the Bible, there is immediacy to the message (especially
in the Book of Mark where “immediately” is one of the most written words). It is as if Jesus is facing a “three
second” rush…then….and now. People
are hurting and suffering. People are
confused and lonely. People are being
crushed and trampled on.
In football, accuracy of the passer, accuracy of the route runner and
timing are crucial to completion.
I have great confidence in Jesus’ accuracy and timing. It is my hope and prayer that I will
run my routes without getting sidetracked by the world so that those who are in
the midst of their struggles and for whom their “three seconds” seem like an
eternity will receive Christ’s life giving grace in their time of need.
“One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three.”
“Hit me Jesus! I’m open!”
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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