Talking to the Institution

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday November 14, 2010, the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Isaiah 65:17-25
Isaiah 12
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

One of the greatest stories of faith in recent times came from of all places a high school football field in Texas. If this story sounds familiar, either you read it on ESPN.com or maybe you read it on my sermon blog. If you were on the Pastor Nominating Committee, you heard this story because this was the major illustration in the sermon I sent. This is how it began:

Rick Reilly is a columnist for ESPN the Magazine. He tells the story of what he calls the “oddest game in high school football history.” Faith High School in Grapevine, Texas played the Gainesville State School on Grapevine’s home turf, but after these facts, everything else was the Texas High School Football equivalent of The Twilight Zone.

The team from Gainesville hit the field running a 40-yard spirit line before crashing through a banner that said “Go Tornadoes.” This is nothing unusual. It’s like many other high school football games until you learn that the fans who filled the spirit line and made the banner were from Grapevine.

Yes, visiting team’s fans and banner were courtesy of the home team. More than 200 Faith fans sat in the Gainesville stands cheering on the kids from Gainesville. The visitors were cheered by name and there were even cheerleaders from the home team rooting on the visitors.

This sounds so very odd, especially in Texas where high school football is not only its own religion but has temples in every corner of the state. Still, there is one thing I haven’t mentioned about Gainesville that takes this story to a whole new level; Gainesville State School is one of the Texas Youth Commission’s twelve secure institutions. The TYC is the Texas juvenile corrections agency and Gainesville State is a maximum security youth facility.

According to their literature, “The [Texas Youth Commission] provides for the care, custody, rehabilitation, and reestablishment in society of Texas’ most chronically delinquent or serious juvenile offenders. Texas judges commit these youth to TYC for felony-level offenses committed when they were at least age 10 but not yet 17.” Yes, the Texas Youth Commission has maximum security facilities and they play football against Texas high schools.

The thought of providing a cheering section for Gainesville State started when Grapevine Faith’s head coach, Kris Hogan, “wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team.” I think it’s important to note that Coach Hogan wanted to do something “kind.” He didn’t pity the boys in jail. He didn’t fear them either. He wanted them to receive kindness.

Reilly writes, “Faith had never played Gainesville, but Coach Hogan already knew the score. Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 [touchdowns] all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.

“So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the [Faith high school] faithful to do just that. ‘Here's the message I want you to send: You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth.’

“Some people were naturally confused. One Faith player walked into Hogan's office and asked, ‘Coach, why are we doing this?’

And Hogan said, ‘Imagine if you didn't have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you.’”

After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray. Everyone was taken aback when Isaiah, Gainesville State’s starting quarterback and middle linebacker, asked to lead the prayer, but this is what happens when the Holy Spirit gets in the way of our expectations. Isaiah prayed: “Lord, I don’t know how this happened, so I don’t know how to say thank You, but I never would’ve known there was so many people in the world that cared about us.”

Reilly wrote, “And it was a good thing everybody’s heads were bowed because they might’ve seen Hogan wiping away tears.”

After the game, “The Gainesville coach saw Hogan, grabbed him hard by the shoulders and said, ‘You'll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You’ll never, ever know.’

“And as the bus pulled away, all the Gainesville players crammed to one side and pressed their hands to the window, staring at these people they’d never met before, watching their waves and smiles disappearing into the night.”

I love this story. This is sharing the Gospel; this is sharing the good news with someone who needs to hear it more than anything else in the world. Coach Hogan knew the gospel and responded to it. He did it at risk of his job too. Sure, there was no way that the Grapevine Lions would lose to the Gainesville Tornadoes, but if you want to upset a lot of parents who have the power to make the life of a football coach miserable, ask their friends to root against their kids.

When I was in Fort Worth a couple of weeks ago, I was chatting with some of the pastors at a conference and this story came up. I was asked if I had heard the next chapter in this story and this was news to me, so I excitedly asked what that happened next.

Well, it seems that a woman from New York was so impressed and dumbfounded by Coach Hogan’s act of grace that she called him. She tracked him down from half a country away to ask him why he did what he did. Sure, she had read the article, but she wanted to hear it for herself from the source. She wanted to know why he did what he did.

So when they talked, Coach Hogan shared the plan of salvation with the woman and she was promptly sorry she asked. I don’t know what in her life turned her off to this presentation of the good news of Jesus Christ, but this wasn’t what she wanted to hear. She wanted to hear about why he acted like he did. She wanted to hear about how what they did changed the lives of the boys in prison, the boys from Grapevine, and maybe most of all how it changed him.

It’s like the famous line out of the Paul Newman movie “Cool Hand Luke,” “What we got here is… failure to communicate.” Coach Hogan was answering her question. It just didn’t sound like the answer to her. “What we got here is… failure to communicate.”

Jesus tells us that we will be called before others; kings and governors and other powerful people, and this is our opportunity to testify. And when we testify we aren’t to have defense strategies prepared because the Lord will give us the words none of our opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.

This was what Coach Hogan did; he took his prepared defense and presented it. Sadly, the script he had did not interest the woman, she was hoping for something different.

Jesus promises to give us words, and in all truth, we have been given the words to use when kings and governors ask us to testify. The best source of words when the world’s institutions call; we are to use are right in front of us, we have the words of scripture. These words give us the best defense, more than we could ever imagine. And in these words, we are given the speech to talk about who God is.

The Lord is bold and caring and loving. The Old Testament shows us a multifaceted God, one that creates humanity because God wants a loving relationship with humanity. We are also presented a jealous God who disciplines when we stray and worship other gods.

This is the same Lord who is presented in the New Testament in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ. This is the same Lord who turns over the money changer’s tables in the temple invoking the words of Isaiah and Jeremiah when he tells them they are making the temple a den of thieves. The same God who John tells us not only is the perfect personification of love, but is love.

In scripture we are not only presented with the image of God, but with the narrative of how God stands in relationship with God’s people and all of creation. Theologian George Lindbeck writes “the primary focus of [of the bible] is not on God’s being in itself, for that is not what the text is about, but on how life is to be lived and reality constructed in the light of God’s character as an agent as this is depicted in the stories of Israel and of Jesus.” Scripture gives us a complete picture of the Lord in relationship with creation and humanity.

Scripture also tells the story of Israel, the story of how the Lord says and lives the announcement, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” It is the story of the Lordship of God, the kingship of God in the kingdom of God. It is the story of a disobedient Nazirite who becomes the renowned and notorious Sampson. It’s the intimate story of a prophet who anoints a simple shepherd boy who becomes King David.

It is the story of how Jesus interacts with the disciples, and not just how Jesus interacts with Peter, James and John; the “popular kids” disciples. It is the story of Jesus’ relationship with Simon the Zealot, Peter’s brother Andrew, Matthew the tax collector; and even the story of Jesus’ relationship with Judas, the disciple who would betray him.

Our testimony is both who the Lord our God is, and who the Lord our God is in our lives. And when people ask us about who Jesus is, when people ask you what you believe; they don’t want to hear theological rhetoric. This is a pity because these wonderful words include the plan of salvation Coach Hogan shared with this woman. It’s a grand and glorious story, it is the Good News even if this woman wasn’t ready to hear it.

People want us to tell them about who God is and why God is important in our lives. They want to know why God is important to us. They want to hear stories of power and glory, stories of faith and redemption. People want to know not just who God is, but why God is important in our lives.

Even more important than the testimony of our tongue is the testimony of our hands. Jesus said much, but what he did intensified what he said. He not only tells us to behave with compassion, he was compassionate. He healed when the rest of the world rested. He fed the multitudes when others would send them home hungry. He forgave when others passed the sentence of death. He returned from places others remained, and he remained in places others left. And we are called to follow him in these acts of peace, grace, and mercy.

Seemingly what this woman wanted to hear is why Coach Hogan did what he did. Let’s consider Rick Reilly’s article again for a reminder of what he did.

Coach Hogan, “wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team.” He didn’t pity the boys in jail. He didn’t fear them either. He wanted them to receive kindness. He wanted the boys from Gainesville to get this message, ‘You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth.’” He even wanted his players to walk a mile or two in the shoes of their opponents, “Imagine if you didn't have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you.”

Coach Hogan was living into these words from Matthew’s gospel: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Kris Hogan was blessed and he knew it, and he knew the source of his blessings too. He knew the salvation story and just as importantly he knew that he was called to respond to the gospel. He knew that whatever he did for one of the least of these brothers of Christ, he also did for Christ. I believe Kris Hogan knew that he couldn’t change the world; he couldn’t end poverty or hunger. World peace was out of his grasp, but on one shining evening under the Texas sky he could touch the lives of these boys. He knew that as he did for the least of these brothers of Christ, he also did for Christ.

Maybe, just maybe, that’s what this woman needed to hear and how she needed to hear it. She wanted to know why Coach Hogan did what he did and he did what he did because that’s what his faith called him to do. As he was tending to these young men, he was tending to Christ.

Jesus warns us though; we are called to testify in very difficult times. We are warned that others will vie for our attention. Some will even claim to be like gods or even gods themselves. Idols will abound in times like these. We will hear that end times are near, whether individually or as a nation or a people. We will hear that end times are near, and we are instructed not to follow them. We are told that terrifying things will happen and terrifying things will be rumored, yet as long as we know who God is and who God is in our lives, we are set upon ground that cannot be shaken even by the earthquakes of our lives.

We live in a world that no longer knows scripture and faith. We may call this a Christian nation, but in truth we live in a nation that is more inclined toward salvation on its own terms than on the creator’s. So we need to share the good news, the same good news Coach Hogan shared with this woman, but we need new words in addition to the words that have been used for generations.

We are also warned that on the basis or our testimony, on the basis of the one we testify about, we will be hated and some will be put to death. History, both ancient and current, show us this is what happens when we speak truth to the institutions. But through our endurance, through the perseverance of the faith and the one in whom we have faith, we will not simply persevere, we will gain life. We will gain our souls. We are saved by grace through faith. It is this faith, this grace we are to share with the world. We are called to share God’s story and we are called to share our stories as the children of God.

To testify brings an outrageous level of terror; with good reason. Jesus warns us that in this time we are called to testify we will be in danger. We will be called to testify when kings will be in a place to take our lives and Pharisees eject us from the temple. Worse, our friends and neighbors may begin calling us names like Jesus freak. But our witness, our testimony is the church’s evangelism. Through testimony in the faith of our Lord and God we are called to be disciples. We are called to be God’s people, because the Lord is our God.

It’s scary; then again the Greek word for witness is martyr. It’s supposed to be scary. But in God, we have nothing to fear. Our life is our testimony and in our testimony is the life of the Lord in our lives. It is up to us to testify, to share the good news of who God is and what God does in our lives.

Text Notes

Now I’ve Seen Everything, http://timelovesahero.blogspot.com/2008/12/now-ive-seen-everything.html, retrieved November 13, 2010.

Reilly, Rick, Life of Reilly, ESPN the Magazine, cited from ESPN.com, http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373, retrieved December 24, 2008. Quotes from Reilly’s article are found in quotation marks throughout this sermon. Thanks to Rick Reilly, Glory to God!

Overview of the Juvenile Corrections System in Texas, http://www.tyc.state.tx.us/about/overview.html, retrieved November 14, 2010.

Note: the Texas Juvenile Corrections System does not release last names of inmates.

Lindbeck, George A., The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age. Louisville; Westminster/John Knox Press, 1984, page 121.