"This Is a Football!"

It’s that time again – football season is here! You can’t miss it even if you try. There will be high school games on Friday night, college games on Saturday and NFL games all day Sunday, Monday nights and occasionally other nights.

Critics of football note that football is as close to religion as some folks ever get. Critics of religion (like me) can only say “thank God” for that. Let’s get close to God, but lets’ get as far away from religion as possible.

The legendary coach Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers is said to have given a “THIS is a football” lecture to his team at the beginning of every season – and sometimes after a humiliating loss.

The lecture would begin with self-evident, elementary information – fundamentals so obvious new players not yet aware of Lombardi’s philosophy initially felt bewildered and even patronized. Holding up a football Lombardi would begin by saying. “THIS is a football.”

The lecture continued with the basics, as Lombardi told his team about the ways in which a football should be held, advanced down the field via a run or pass – and the way in which a football can be kicked, fumbled, intercepted and taken away.

At times he took the entire team to the field and walked them around the familiar territory – patiently rehearsing the dimensions of the field, the rules and how the game is played. Even rookies don’t like to wade through the fundamentals, and for veterans, well, elementary lectures can seem insulting and demeaning.

Lombardi’s principle holds true throughout many facets of life, including what it means to be a Christian. As “seasoned Christians” we are tempted to bypass the basics and fundamentals so that the game might begin.

But it’s the fundamentals and basics that determine whether the game is won or lost. Religious people can get excited about all kinds of games that are played within Christianity. Their cry – “let the games begin!”.

The “games” include:
* Promises of health and wealth in return for obedience to specific religious regulation, rites and rituals.
* Prophetic speculations about end times events and when they will happen.
* Crusading and forming picket lines against abortion doctors.
* Healing Crusades.
* Pay at least 10 percent of your income to a church or ministry.
* Refrain from eating certain foods or drinking certain beverages.
* Keep and observe certain days as holy, and make sure not to keep and observe other days that less enlightened souls keep and observe.
* Have all your doctrinal ducks line up, so that you are assured of having pure, unadulterated information and knowledge.

If you were asked to coach a group of Christians the way Vince Lombardi coached his football teams, where would you start? How would you begin your “THIS is a football” lecture to Christians?

I think “THIS is Jesus” is the place to begin. My “THIS is Jesus” discussion includes basic issues like God’s love and our relationship with Him based on and in His grace.

The core of “THIS is Jesus” is all about Jesus coming to live right within the new Christian (Galatians 2:20) in a relationship of union which will last forever. He is there right within you for the good times and the bad – when you do things good or bad. The Christian life becomes a daily transforming life that the risen Lord lives right within those who have trusted in and surrendered to Him.

“THIS is Jesus” includes the significance of the cross of Christ and His resurrection and walking by faith, not by sight. “THIS is Jesus” is all about the absolute centrality of Jesus Christ in our lives.

You can’t play football without a football. You can get dressed up in a football uniform (or a religious uniform). You can do what you’ve been told is the right stuff at the right time in the right place – but if you don’t have a football, then you’re not playing football.

The same principles apply to Christianity. The legendary Christian “coach” named Paul said that without the constant recognition of Jesus living in you, all the religious stuff in the world is “dung” (Philippians 3:8, King James version). Paul knew what religious legalism looked like and smelled like – and he also knew Jesus in him. If you don’t have Jesus living in you, you don’t have anything. And if you are a Christian and DO have Jesus living in you but don’t recognize His union, then all you have is religion.

For my money, one of the best “THIS is Jesus” talks is recorded in Philippians 3:1-11. It’s basic stuff, and it needs to be reviewed regularly.

I don’t mind repeating what I have written in earlier letters, and I hope you don’t mind hearing it again. Better safe than sorry – so here goes.
Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances – knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it – even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting Christians; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.
The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash – along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant – dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by Him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ – God’s righteousness.
I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience His resurrection power, be a partner in His suffering, and go all the way with Him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.
Philippians 3:1-11 (The Message Bible)

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