August 31, 2008
Rev. Kip Gilts and Coach Mark Johnson

         
            Have you ever noticed that we seem to have different personas for different settings? We have our work persona, our home persona, our out in the neighborhood persona, our athletic events persona (which may or may not involve face and body painting), and our church persona.  More than likely, these differences are unavoidable and in many ways appropriate.  Sitting on the couch and watching Sportscenter, one of my favorite ways to relax at home, is not the best way for the church staff to find me in the middle of the day in the office.  Shouting “hit him” and “rickety rickety riff-raff” are actually kind of fun at Kyle Field, but hissing my wife’s lasagna at home is not acceptable. 

There is nothing inherently wrong with having different personas in different places, but if we lose any sense of center, if we cannot identify what is our core, we have a serious problem.  About four months ago we distributed a worship survey to our congregation.  At the end of the survey were thirteen statements that we were instructed to rate on a scale of 1-10.  The statements included things like “The Quality of Music”, “The Quality of Sermons”, and “The appearance of the church”.  I am pleased to report that you rated all of these statements in the upper range.  Then there was a category that received one of our lowest ratings of the thirteen statements.  It was this, “The degree to which your faith impacts how you live your life.”  Can it be that our faith is on the periphery of our lives?  Can it be that it has been relegated to one of several compartments, as if there is work, school, sports, friends, faith, entertainment, etc.?  Have we moved to a point where faith simply does not matter?

For the next four weeks we have the opportunity to look at questions like that.  I wanted to identify some of the important elements of our world and our community that often bracket faith as if it is not allowed in this particular arena.  Those four areas are athletics, psychology, medicine, and science.

Of course, most of you will not be surprised that I chose to start with the topic: Faith and Athletics.  I have been a sports fan much longer than I have been a Christian.  I have to admit sometimes the two areas of my life do not always get along.  I wonder if the ancient Corinthians had the same problem.  They were in a sports laden environment.  The Isthmian Games were huge, as big as the Olympics that were held north of there.  First Century athletes were no different than 21^st century athletes in that they trained long and hard for these brief games.  If they won, they were celebrities.  If they lost, they were reduced to obscurity.  The apostle Paul drew on this mentality when talking about faith.  Listen to his words in I Corinthians 9:24-27.  Hear now the word of the Lord:

²⁴Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. ²⁵Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. ²⁶So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; ²⁷but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.

This is the word of God for the people of God.  In this passage the apostle Paul encouraged his Corinthian readers to live their lives of faith with the same focus with which an athlete trains to compete.  I think it is safe to say after reading this passage that faith matters.  Faith matters so much that it is to be at our very core.  An athlete that is truly devoted to compete at the highest level will align all of life – diet, exercise (toning the right muscles), sleep, attitude, study, and so many other elements to the feat for which the athlete is preparing.  Faith matters.

Four years ago I met a man whose faith had a great to do with how he lives his life.  Coach Mark Johnson has made a career on the baseball field.  He played college ball for the University of New Mexico, spent a few seasons with the New York Mets organization, then settled into a career of coaching collegiate athletes.  He has coach at the University of New Mexico, Texas A&M University, and Sam Houston State University.  At each school the teams he has coached have won a lot.  He is the winningest baseball coach in the history of Texas A&M and had received numerous awards for his success.  However, it is not his excellent coaching that has inspired me most, it is his faith.  I have invited Coach Johnson to share with us this morning how faith matters in his life in athletics.

Coach Johnson shared the importance of seeing the big picture and having a spiritual stability.  While God is capable of doing anything and does still perform miracles the outcome of a game is not that important in the big picture.  Life has changed very little after a big win or big loss.  Perception can change a great deal in these moments, but the big picture of God and God’s purposes for our lives does not swing on athletics wins or losses.  Stability is that which calls us to keep God at the center of our lives.  The temptation to compromise integrity and individuals arise in all of our lives, but stability enables us to stay the course. (For the complete reflections of Coach Mark Johnson, go to http://www.am-umc.org/podcast.htm August 31, 2008 podcast)

I have a friend who came up to me in the middle of an intense slow pitch softball game.  I had just run off the field after yelling at umpires, shouting instructions to fielders, and announcing the batting line-up for the inning.  I was sweating, panting, and nearly blood red with excitement.  My friend smiled at me and said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we lived for God with the zeal with which we approached sports?”  I almost didn’t hear him for my preoccupation with the score, but his words have echoed in my soul for decades.  Rate on a scale of 1-10, “The degree to which your faith impacts how you live your life.”

So what if we approached our faith with the zeal of an Olympic athlete?  We would compete, train, and focus with a passion that would inspire.  We would do this because faith matters.

We would compete like faith matters, because we know that we are going for the gold that does not tarnish.  Granted gold medals last a lot longer than the laurel wreaths of Corinth’s Isthmian Games, but they still only last as long as one’s life.  Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter, will not be able to take his medals beyond this life.  We on the other hand are involved in something so much bigger.  Let us compete like faith matters.

We would train like faith matters, because we know that we are preparing for an abundant life here and eternal life beyond.  I was touched by so many of the stories of the Olympics of athletes whose dedication and accomplishments enabled their families and them to experience a much more abundant life in their country that they would have had otherwise.  We have the same promise in our training.  As we commit ourselves to matters of faith, life becomes clearer and Christ closer.  The apostle Paul saw himself as a person in constant training.  I saw Brian Clay the gold medal winner of the decathlon, on a talk show the other day and he spoke of how regimented his training was.  He ate a special diet, worked out on all events regularly, even monitored his sleep throughout his training.  It was a way of life for him, not just a two day event every four years.  “Wouldn’t it be great”, my friend said, “if we lived for God with the same zeal with which we approach sports?”  Let us train like faith matters.

We would focus like faith matters.  Paul was clear about focus.  He wrote, “I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air.”  He was focused.  One commentator wrote that Paul was referring to the premier event of the Isthmian Games, which coincidentally was about a 200 meter sprint.  The race then as now had marked lanes from which the runners could not veer.  This was the same event that athletes were disqualified in this month’s Olympic Games for running out of their lanes.  They had lost their focus for just a split second, and it made the difference between a medal and last place.  John Wesley wrote that if Paul worried about being disqualified, we should certainly remain focused in our own faith walk.  Too much is at stake for us and for the kingdom for us to anything else.  Let us focus like faith matters.

I want to thank my friend, Mark Johnson, for living his life in the world of athletics like faith matters.  I invite you to compete, train and focus your life like faith matters, because it does.  Amen.