"The NFL of Grace"

By Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn

(2 Cor. 4:13-5:1)

But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture--"I believed, and so I spoke"--we also believe, and so we speak, [14] because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. [15] Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

[16] So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. [17] For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, [18] because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

[5:1] For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

(NRSV)

INTRODUCTION:

There's a story told about a football game between the big animals and the little animals. At the end of the first half the big animals were ahead 24 to 7. It seems the little animals just couldn't stop the Rhinoceros. He wasn't fast but every time he got the ball, he ran in for a touchdown. The little animals were devastated.

At the beginning of the second half it looked like, "second verse, same as the first." On the kick off, they gave the ball to the Rhino. Off he took. But this time he took about three steps and "Whoomp" down he went. Nobody could figure out what happened. So on the next play the gave him the ball again. The Rhino took about three steps and "Whoomp" down he went. On the third down, same thing.

The Rhino took about three steps and "Whoomp" down he went.

Finally as they were unpiling from the tackle, they noticed that the last player up was a centipede. One of his teammates asked, "Did you make those tackles?" The centipede answered, "Yeah, I made those tackles. Why? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah! Where were you in the first half?"

And the centipede replied, "I was in the locker room putting on my shoes." (1)

In keeping with this mornings title and a theme, I thought we might look at a way to increase attendance by changing some of our Church language into football terms. That way we might attract more folks to worship with us.

BLOCKING: Talking endlessly to the pastor at the church door and keeping everyone else from exiting.

DRAFT CHOICE: The decision to sit close to an air-conditioning vent. Extra Point: What you would receive if you told the preacher his sermon was too short. (Nobody has ever told me that).

FORWARD MOTION: The invitation at the end of the service.

ILLEGAL USE OF HANDS: Clapping inappropriate times in the service.

ILLEGAL MOTION: Leaving before the benediction.

IN THE POCKET: Where some church members keep God's tithe.

QUATERBACK: What tightwads want after putting fifty cents in the offering.

RUNNING BACKS: Those who make repeated trips to the rest room. Two-Minute Warning: When the chairman of the Administrative Board or the Staff Parish Relations Committee starts looking at and shaking their watch in full view of the preacher. (2)

Last week we talked about how God knows our name. How God knew us before we were born and named us. God knows our name and God calls us by name. God calls you by name to accept the gift of love, Grace and forgiveness God offers through Christ Jesus, God's son.

So, how does God do that? God does it through the NFL. Not the National Football League, this sermon isn't about football, despite all of the football stories. It's about Grace, the NFL of God's Grace. In this case NFL stands for the Nudging, Forgiving and Leading of God's grace.

I. NUDGING:

Let's look at the Nudging of God's Grace. Wesley called this Prevenient Grace. The grace of God working in our lives before we're really aware that it is working. It is God knowing our name and calling us by that name to get our attention. It is God wooing us with love songs and all the blessings of life. It is God whispering our name and showing us God's great love for us.

I can tell you how that took place in my life. You see, I didn't grow up in the Church. I wasn't a Christian when Mary and I got married or even when our oldest son was born. It came later. Mary likes to tell everybody that she "married a nothing and made a Methodist preacher out of him." And it's true.

As I look back, I can see how God continually called my name and kept nudging me toward a life of faith through her gentle witness and through her life of faith. My lack of faith didn't stop her from living out her faith. She didn't try to cram it down my throat. She just lived what she believed.

I can also see how God called me and began nudging me with people I met early in life. While I wasn't a Christian and didn't go to Church on a regular basis, I did attend Sunday School occasionally with some friends. I went Vacation Bible School and later their Youth Group with them.

I didn't realize then how much of a foundation they really gave me. Or how much of that was God's nudging grace. God's prevenient grace nudging me to both a decision for Christ and a decision for the ministry. For all those years God just loved me and let that love nudge me closer and closer to God until I could see it, feel it and accept it for my own.

It wasn't my doing, it was God's. That's what Grace is all about, God's free gift of love to us so that God may glorified through us. What Paul writes in verse 15 is true. "everything is for our sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God." God is continually calling and nudging us along in our relationship.

II. FORGIVING:

A. Then there is the Forgiving grace of God. This is the grace that makes it all real. This is the grace that brings it all home, so to speak. God calls our name and continually nudges us toward a loving relationship with God. In that relationship God offers us forgiveness. Once we accept God's love and forgiveness, it all becomes real. It is at that moment that Jesus becomes our friend, our Savior, our companion and our Lord, and not just a name.

Wesley called this Grace Justifying Grace. Through the forgiving and justifying grace of God we are brought into a right relationship with God. A friend of mine explains it like this, it's "just if I'd never done it." We are forgiven and the slate is wiped clean.

B. Some of you may know the story of "Wrong Way Riegels." On New Year's Day, l929, Georgia Tech played UCLA in the Rose Bowl. In that game a young man named Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for UCLA. Picking up the loose ball, he lost his direction and ran sixty-five yards toward the wrong goal line. One of his own teammates ran him down and tackled him just before he scored for the opposing team. Several plays later the UCLA had to punt. Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety, demoralizing the UCLA team. That strange play came in the first half. At half-time the UCLA players filed off the field and into the dressing room. As the others sat down on the benches and the floor, Riegels put a blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, and put his face in his hands. A football coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during half time. That day Coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels. When the time keeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time, Coach Price looked at the team and said, "Men, the same team that played the first half will start the second."

The players got up and started out, all but Riegels. He didn't budge. The coach looked back and called to him. Riegels didn't move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, "Roy, didn't you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second."

Roy Riegels looked up, his cheeks wet with tears and said, "Coach, I can't do it. I've ruined you. The university's reputation. I've ruined myself. I can't face that crowd out there." Coach Price put his hand on Riegels' shoulder, and said, "Roy, get up and go on back. The game is only half over." He finally got up, went onto the field and the fans saw him play hard and well.

All of us have run in the wrong direction at some point. But because of the forgiveness of Christ, the game is only half over. We don't have to give up. Jesus is God's way of getting rid of a bad reputation. The nudging grace of God whispers God's love to us, and the forgiving grace of God gives us a second chance.

III. LEADING:

Once we've accepted that forgiving grace. God's leading grace takes over, leading us into a life that everyday becomes more and more like the life of Jesus.

It was a comical picture that caused Dad to burst out in a roar of laughter and cause the rest of family to come running to Dad's workout room. There in the middle of the workout room was the pro football players seven year old son. He had dressed out in a full set of Dad's pads and uniform. He had tied a string around the bottoms of the pants and pulled the waistband up under his arms. The jersey hung to his knees. The helmet looked like it had swallowed the boys head. You could just barely see his eyes peeking out. The boy's feet were lost in his father's size-eleven shoes. The little boy said, "Look, Daddy, I want to be just like you!"

That's what we all say when we encounter Jesus. We want to be as loving and kind and caring and as God centered in our lives as Jesus. We want to be as compassionate and as forgiving. We want our lives to make a difference as his life did. We want to touch people with the Good News as he did. And the Good News is that we can. Through God's Holy Spirit and the leading grace of God we become more and more like Christ in our daily lives.

CONCLUSION:

Tom Landry once said, "The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don't want to do, in order to achieve what they've always wanted to be." In a sense that's the NFL of God's grace. The Holy Spirit nudges us to do what we don't want to do in order to become what we've always wanted to be. God nudges us and loves us into a relationship. God forgives us and sets us free to become a child of God. And then God leads us into becoming like Christ.

That's the life of faith and that's the Nudging, Forgiving, Leading Grace of God. Let God nudge you a little so you can experience the forgiveness God offers and be lead to become more and more like Christ each day.

1. Pastor's Story File, August 1993. Adapted

2. By William Ellis, Lay Leadership III, 42-43

3. Wayne Rouse Astoria, Illinois Leadership-Vol. 13, #2

4. Parables, Etc., October 1986