One of my favorite voices in music has fallen silent. This song is from a film that didn’t get any rave reviews, but is nevertheless one of my favorites. (Put Denzel and Whitney in a film and I’m in.) It is also a song that is key to my own prayer life right now.
The Super Bowl last week garnered a record number of viewers in the U.S. : 111.3 million.
Hundreds of players in the NFL train year round for the opportunity to square off on television’s biggest stage. Only two teams and few dozen players will make that stage. One team walks off the LOSER.
But they train like maniacs for months to get to that stage so that over one hundred million people can see them. They train for glory.
And the world population is around 6.8 billion.
These players put their bodies through a lot of discipline and 99.8% of the world will NOT see what they are doing. Yet, they do it willingly. It is the glory of the game. It is fleeting. Everyone knows the Giants won’t repeat next year. It’s the NFL. It’s rare to get to the Super Bowl even in back to back years, let alone win.
For that very fleeting glory those men are willing to lay it on the line.
Meanwhile, millions of Christians have the opportunity to “play” for eternal glory. Not for the adoration of millions of viewers. It is for an audience of One. And it is not simply to be noticed by the One. It is the opportunity to lay it all on the line so that OTHERS can have the chance to see the One…
And we can’t get ourselves out of bed sometimes. We think about going to church for worship. We scramble to find our Bibles. We give our pocket change to missions.
Anything wrong with this picture?
24 Don’t you know that all the runners in the stadium run, but only one gets the prize? So run to win. 25 Everyone who competes practices self-discipline in everything. The runners do this to get a crown of leaves that shrivel up and die, but we do it to receive a crown that never dies. 26 So now this is how I run—not without a clear goal in sight. I fight like a boxer in the ring, not like someone who is shadowboxing. 27 Rather I’m landing punches on my own body and subduing it like a slave. I do this to be sure that I myself won’t be disqualified after preaching to others.(1 Cor. 9:24-27, CEB)
One of the topics I have wrestled with for quite some time is the idea of pastors as theologians, or theologians as pastors.
As a pastor, I have grown over the years in my ability to think theologically. I earned my Master’s 20 years after I finished my BA. I love pastoring.
What I have become more convinced of is the Church made the mistake centuries ago of separating the pastorate and the academy. We have a very tough time recovering from that drastic mistake. We now think that someone who is “intellectual” is destined for “academics,” and someone who isn’t quite that “intellectual” and more “practical” is therefore consigned to ministry.
Many great students I have talked to in recent years really feel that they want to pursue academic careers and will only reluctantly consider pastoring. It has reached a point where pastoring is something you get pulled into kicking and screaming, if you happen to love theology.
What I long for is a return of the two abilities. Brian over at Near Emmaus is processing the issue of the academy vs. the church and it is a very thoughtful post.
He quotes John Chrysostom, a great theologian and pastor. The earliest centuries of the Church, where the major discussion of the big foundational blocks of Christian theology were formed, were forged in the churches by pastors.
We need these gifts together again. I don’t think we’ll ever get away from having pure academics, but what we truly need to get away from is pastors who think, “I don’t need no stinkin’ ‘cemetery’ education!”
Lord, help us to think again. Think… with hearts on fire.
16 If I preach the gospel, I have no reason to brag, since I’m obligated to do it. I’m in trouble if I don’t preach the gospel.(1 Cor. 9:16, CEB)
16 For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! (1 Cor. 9:16, NIV)
16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! (1 Cor. 9:16, ESV)
The supposed freedom we may think we have in the gospel is indeed freedom, but it is a freedom binding us to a new “obligation.” The gospel of Jesus Christ turns all our definitions upside down.
Any sense of “obligation” we have in our lives today we tend to run from like it was the plague.
Any sense of “freedom” we think we may have, we sometimes viciously fight for that sense of “freedom,” only to find it has a steep price after all.
But in the Kingdom, the freedom of Christ has a sense of duty. It is a sense of call. It is the duty of proclamation. And it is not just proclamation in some way that WE feel “comfortable” with. It is the proclamation of the gospel in such a way that we work hard to make sure the gospel is communicated clearly to our audience.
For Paul, it meant that even with tremendous “freedoms” he felt no qualms about being “all things to all people so as to win some.” He wanted Jews to understand without too many barriers. He wanted Gentiles to understand without too many barriers.
That’s just hard work. Why? He was compelled. He had an obligation. Yet, it was a beautiful obligation. It was a longing for all to understand the freedom he found in Christ.
As Christians we give up “freedoms” and “privileges” at times because we want to be able to communicate as clearly as possible the beautiful message of freedom in Christ. It is not “losing” in the Kingdom. It may seem like “losing” to everyone around us, but it is not losing at all. When other find freedom in Christ, gain happens. We all win.
Ash Wednesday is only two weeks away. As we enter into this time of reflection on the church calendar, the Common English Bible has once again come up with great resources. Check out THIS NEWS RELEASE for more information. Use these resources in your churches or for your study groups or even for personal time.
I am a confessed translation junkie. As I read the Common English Bible and the NIV, I come across different ways certain phrases are turned.
Mark 1:41 is a good example. The leper comes to Christ and says, “If you are willing you can make me clean.”
The response is so interesting.
CEB:
41 Incensed,[a] Jesus reached out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do want to. Be clean.”
NIV:
41 Jesus was indignant.[a] He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”
ESV:
41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” (And no textual note. Probably because they know they are right.) 
The text note of the NET Bible indicates most manuscripts use the Greek word for “moved with compassion.”
Yet, some other texts would use the word for “indignation.” Those texts don’t seem to carry the “numbers” as the other manuscripts.
So… why did the CEB and the NIV go with a “minority” view on this point?
Paul’s passion for the ministry, his passion for souls, is amazing. He wanted Christ glorified so much he was willing to give up so much in his life to make sure the way was clear to Christ. It was not about his rights. It was about others being able to see Christ as clearly as possible.
The metaphor of “winning” was not for him as individual. It was for the glory of Christ. If others are coming to Christ, and they aren’t stumbling over him… he wins. Run to win.
24 Don’t you know that all the runners in the stadium run, but only one gets the prize? So run to win. 25 Everyone who competes practices self-discipline in everything. The runners do this to get a crown of leaves that shrivel up and die, but we do it to receive a crown that never dies. 26 So now this is how I run—not without a clear goal in sight. I fight like a boxer in the ring, not like someone who is shadowboxing. 27 Rather I’m landing punches on my own body and subduing it like a slave. I do this to be sure that I myself won’t be disqualified after preaching to others. (1 Cor. 9:24-27, CEB)
They play a football game, but when it is the Super Bowl somehow every commercial, every song, is a political statement or a controversy. Somewhere in the distant last sports used to be about the love of the game.
