Paul's Passing Thoughts

Other than following Tom Brady here and there (because of his life story, which is instructive), I no longer follow the NFL because it allows tyranny. I don’t tune into football to get politics, football is respite care from the rigors of life. Some entertainers like Reba McEntire acknowledge this no-brainer and refrain from politics while entertaining. Paying good money to be entertained and then ambushed with someone’s political views while calling you immoral because you disagree is in-your-face tyranny.

With that said, I don’t tune into football to get my religion either. Yes, I believe God is sovereign, but no, I don’t believe He predetermines the outcome of football games. In fact, while certainly aware that some games are going on, I am not sure He even tunes in. And by the way, God and I get along just fine while I can’t say for certain that He is a football fan.

So, at the end of the college football national championship game last night, church, and its silliness, was on full display. But the players and coaches are not the tyrants in this case, they unwittingly make God the tyrant.

I wanted Clemson to win. I like the true freshman quarterback because he is a Tom Brady-like story.  These are men who believe in themselves regardless of the odds and what is not supposed to be. A six-round draft pick isn’t supposed to win five Super Bowls while barely falling short of winning eight.  A true freshman, and his true freshman favorite receiver are not supposed to win a national title against the blue chip of college football. These two young men didn’t get the memo. They not only won, they gave Bama a spanking. Others should never dictate the sum and substance of your life because you alone answer for it; you alone have to live with the results.

So, I wanted to remain tuned in to watch Clemson celebrate a little. Instead, I got a typical church gospel presentation from Clemson’s head coach, and it was surprisingly long, by the way, but had all of the usual church stuff as those listening scratch their heads with the RCA doggy look on their face. Er?

Apparently, somehow, the coach knew God was watching the game in order to make sure it turned out according to His sovereign will. The coach had a typical church answer for why God wanted Clemson to win: they are a Christian team and apparently Bama isn’t. He didn’t say that outright, but it was insinuated. At any rate, logic creeps in and asks why they lost to Bama last year if such was the case. Who knows, God works in mysterious ways. Anything that is a contradiction is actually a “paradox.”

However, A more direct reason was offered by the coach: God wanted the underdog to win so that everyone would know God did it, and not the team. Hey, because the Tigers totally thumped Bama, it was obviously God that did it, not the team.

And no church gospel presentation would be complete without false humility. The coach referred to Clemson as “little ole Clemson'”  prevailing against insurmountable odds only because God intervened for reasons I guess we will never know. If you are skeptical because you think God might have bigger fish to fry than a college football game, I doubt you are very alone. This is just one more point where the church gospel never ceases to confuse; if it was all in God’s hands, and He gets the glory either way (always remember; for mysterious reasons), why was the Clemson couch continually unhinged on the sideline as if the game really did depend on human execution?

Indeed, throughout the postgame interview/gospel presentation the coach continually flip-flopped back and forth between giving God “all the glory” and attributing their success to the team effort. So, which is it? Well, if you are a Churchian, whatever you prefer at the moment. After all, truth is fluid in any given church-speak going on at any given time.

It never ceases to amaze me how I see church-speak being played out according to the ancient doctrines of the church. The questions I pose above can be answered according to those doctrines even though few Churchians have ever read them or even know of them. Because of church tradition and indoctrination, Churchians function according to these doctrines. And in this case, bless their hearts, they aren’t being the tyrants like the NFL players, they make God the tyrant.

You see, and this would be right out of Martin Luther’s Theology of the Cross (1518), If you believe that you can do any good work, and God doesn’t predetermine every human event, you are a proponent of the “Glory Story” (the glory of man) and not the “Cross Story” (the redemptive metaphysical narrative that defines all reality). So, though the coach was very happy that they won, he doesn’t want to go to hell or get struck by lightening before he goes to hell. Giving God this public recognition will prevent such because God is a god that hates the Glory Story and demands that all reality is seen through the cross according to Saint Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Calvin, the big three of church. Therefore, we can’t blame the coach too much because who wants to end up stricken with leprosy or worse?

So, Churchians kinda slip up in their excitement or mere recognition of what normal people know intuitively, but must quickly preserve their lives by sanctifying the previous Glory Story statements with the Cross Story. Their eternal existence depends on it because the church perception of God is that of a merciless tyrant demanding all the glory. While they claim to believe God is merciful and loving, their obvious fear of offending God betrays them. As a former Churchian, I can tell you that when someone says emphatically, “I didn’t do it! The Spirit did it!” you can see the fear in their eyes.

So, the flip-flopping between saying we did it and God did it is really a flip-flopping back and froth from the Glory Story to the Cross Story. If the latter is more strongly emphasized, you might see a long life, but on the other hand, God works in mysterious ways. Let’s just say giving God the glory for everything is your best shot.

The coach even alluded to the idea that many listening would probably think he was crazy. Probably not, because a lot of people go to church and hear the same doublespeak every Sunday. They might not understand the deep theology of the Heidelberg Disputation, but they do understand fire insurance.

paul