So today is
the day. Today is the day that millions
of people have been waiting for.
Millions of dollars have been spent and millions more will be by the end
of the day. Today cholesterol counts
will climb. For today is Super Bowl
Sunday – I’m sorry – “Big Game” Sunday.
I believe there might be copyright restrictions on the term “super
bowl”. Today prayer lines to the
Almighty will be overrun with Broncos and Seahawks fans all pleading for holy
victory over their enemy.
If today is
anything like last year, by days’ end 1.25 billion chicken wings will be
consumed. Along with 15,000 tons of
chips. Oh and pizza? How does 27 million slices of pizza from just
Pizza Hut and Dominos alone sound?
It all
sounds harmless and kind of fun doesn’t it?
All those wings, chips and pizza.
Unless of course a different number applies to you. It’s all well and good unless you are one of
the 47 million Americans dependent upon food stamps to put food on your table, or
one of the more than 35 million Americans (mostly veterans) who are currently
homeless.
Here are
some little known numbers you may be interested in, if you think that the
football game on TV tonight is just a football game:
A level
three suite rental at MetLife Stadium:
$899,270
Average cost
of a new home: $340,300
Average
price of a ticket to the Superbowl:
$4,084
Average
weekly salary: $831
30-second
television commercial: $4 million
Total ad
revenues at tonight’s game: $300 million
By the way,
that money would educate 272,727 kids for one year in this country.
Last year
3.9 million pieces of new furniture were purchased for the big game.
Meanwhile many
of the 1.6 million Americans who have just lost unemployment insurance run the
danger of not having enough
money to put food on the table, and are even at risk of not having a
home to put furniture into.
Oh and by
the way, if you are someone who believes that by praying to God, your team will
win, or you believe your team is cursed by God or that God somehow determines
the outcome of games, you are 1 in 2 Americans.
But what I
don’t believe is that God cares one little bit about a game’s outcome. In fact given Jesus’ placement in 1st
Century Palestine, it is quite possible that Jesus doesn’t know squat about
football.
Judging by
this morning’s opening sentences of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, it would appear
that Jesus’ values are light years away from the rough and tumble, muscular
ethos of Superbowl football teams.
This morning
we discover that Jesus doesn’t care who’s going to Disney World after the game
tonight. Instead he embraces the weak,
the powerless and the vulnerable. You
know: The losers!
Blessed are those who mourn – those who suffer the emptiness and
pain of hearts that have been shattered.
Blessed are the meek – those who are gentle and refuse to
use power over others.
Blessed are the merciful – those who willingly surrender
their privileges for the well-being of others.
Blessed are the persecuted – those who refuse to give up their
quest for justice and truth resulting in the loss of their rights, wholeness or
dignity.
Blessed is the one-fourth of Newark’s
population living below
the line of poverty just outside the gates of MetLife Stadium tonight.
From Jesus’
words on that mountain top this morning, it becomes all too clear that those
whom Jesus highlights are the ones we do not:
Those living out of our sight; under society’s radar. Those living under the bleachers and out by
the dumpsters.
This
Blessing stuff is pretty important to Jesus:
Perhaps the most important. Why
else would Matthew make it the first of Jesus’ teachings? As we see here this morning and throughout
Matthew’s gospel, like the Old Testament prophets of old who held God’s people
to a higher standard, Jesus is all about challenging the status quo: reaching out to those living at the margins
of the world while exposing and challenging those living in society’s center to
love God and love their neighbor: In
other words, challenging us to re-order our priorities.
My purpose
this morning is not to vilify the Superbowl or its aficionados. Neither is my purpose to dump a keg of
ice-cold Gatorade over get-togethers with family and friends this evening.
But I
believe that Jesus invites us this morning to look at what we value and what
our culture values and then put that template up against what God values.
And what
does God value?
From what I
can tell, It’s not the “win” column. In
our winner-take-all way of understanding things, it would make a lot of sense
if Jesus had come as a superhero, kicking butt and taking names, showing
everyone how strong God is by winning at our game.
But instead,
at the cross we see how strong God is by voluntarily losing at our
game. There on that torturous cross of
death, Jesus willingly becomes the biggest loser in human history. All so that you and I have life. And with that life a new perspective. With that life a new heart poured out in love for God and
all the world: Especially the poor in
spirit, the meek, those who mourn, the outcast …. Well you get the picture
here.
Where the
outcomes of things are involved, I am not by nature a betting person. But in this case I’ll make an exception. Tonight I will not be betting on either
Denver or Seattle. The God of Abraham,
Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Prophets, John the Baptist and Jesus could care
less. Instead the promise upon which
I’ll be putting my bets, is that all who are broken, hurting and forgotten are
in God’s heart. And there in God’s heart
of love we all win. Every single one of
us!
Amen.
