July 25, 2010

A LIVING BIBLE

Scripture – Luke 6:37-38; Matthew 22:34-40

How many of you play golf? I’m not necessarily talking about good golf – just golf. Well, Lorraine and I have become reacquainted with that ancient and honorable sport. We’ve played before…but not for some time. So we decided to take lessons and, when the heat subsides, we will see how much good they have done us. We will also get to put our new clubs to the test, hoping that today’s technology and materials live up to the claims that they will practically turn us into champions with very little effort. I hope we don’t wind up like the man who asked his caddy: Tell me, how do you like my game? The caddy answered: I suppose it’s all right, but I still prefer golf.

Most golfers, even the less than talented ones, love the game. So it was that when one such enthusiastic devotee died and found himself before the Pearly Gates, the first thing he asked St. Peter was whether or not there were golf courses in heaven. When St. Peter replied in the negative, the man sadly turned away to try his luck in hell. Coming to the realm ruled by Satan, he asked him the same question previously articulated. But this time the answer was different: Certainly we have a golf course – a very good one. With that Satan took him a bit of a distance into his domains and there before them spread perhaps the finest links he had ever seen – this was Muirfield and St. Andrew’s and Augusta rolled into one. Wow, exclaimed the man, this is incredible. Please, get me some clubs and balls so that I can try it out. Satan expressed his regrets as he told the man they did not have any clubs or balls. What, shrieked the golfer, no clubs and balls at a course like this? No, sir, replied Satan with a fiendish grin…That’s the hell of it! I wonder if Tiger Woods has felt similarly or equally disappointed in recent tournaments as he experiences the hell of it for entirely different reasons.

I am sure that many of you, even the non-golfers, watched The Masters some weeks ago. It is one of the greatest golf tournaments in the world, but at least partly because it was Tiger Woods’ first appearance on the links since his marital and moral disintegration, this year it almost turned into the “Tiger Woods Show”…certainly so far as the announcers and commentators were concerned. As soon as one golfer hit a drive or made a putt, the cameras switched immediately back to Woods to see what he was doing. There was Tiger missing a putt which would have moved him closer into contention. There was Tiger hooking a drive to demonstrate how his time off had hurt his game. There was Tiger looking focused and somber as he attempted to regain his past glory. And there were the non-stop comments regarding Tiger’s efforts to put his transgressions behind him and concentrate on the job at hand. It just kept going on and on (as it usually does when he’s playing)…but this was even moreso. It was Tiger this and Tiger that…ad nauseam.

At the same time and on a different part of the course, a kind of miracle was taking place. There was another and renowned golfer who just kept smiling. He smiled when he hit a good shot; he smiled when he hit a bad shot. He smiled if he made a fifty foot putt or missed a five foot putt. As he walked from hole to hole, he smiled to acknowledge the welcome of the crowd and sometimes shook hands with a few of the fans. He never cursed a bad stroke or came up with excuses for a miss. All he did was play and smile.

Now, why would Phil Mickelson be smiling? Here was a man who was as competitive as the next guy, and who wanted to win as much as any of the others in the tournament. Here was a man who hit some great shots and some lousy shots…with the lousy shots obviously lessening his chances for success. Additionally, here was a man whose wife had breast cancer and whose mother had breast cancer. Here was a man who, rather than allow them to fight their health battles alone, took time off from the PGA tour – the tour which provided his livelihood – to be with them. Here was a man who returned to the game he loved only when his wife insisted that he do so. Here was a man who was so glad for his wife’s physical improvement as she moved closer to being cured that he rewarded her oncologist by asking him to be his caddy and thereby come as close to the action as possible while walking the incredible fairways of Augusta. Such a move, which could have cost Mickelson a pile of money as he lost the advice of someone who knew the game and the course, was his gift to someone he could never thank enough for all he had done.

During the last round on the final day, Phil’s wife was staying in their hotel room because she was still weak from the chemo treatments she had been receiving. So Phil did not know as he walked up to the eighteenth hole that she would be there to watch him. Phil continued to smile. He smiled to the crowds, he smiled to the TV audience, he smiled to the officials…he smiled, I believe, to God. After his last and winning putt found the cup, he hugged his “physician” caddy and shook hands with others on the green. Then, as he walked toward the scorer’s shack, displaying his best and brightest smile of all, he saw his wife in the midst of the thousands who were cheering for him and it seemed as if they were the only two there. They hugged…and as their tears and smiles mingled, it was obvious that their most important victory had nothing to do with golf.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson…one cannot help but make a few comparisons. Both are great golfers…and Tiger may prove to be the best yet if and when he can pull himself out of the funk he is currently in. Both have endured some difficult times and some traumatic experiences…but most of Tiger’s were of his own making while Phil has graciously and bravely “played the hands which were dealt him”. Both have tried to keep their lives on course, but while the taciturn and self-pitying Woods has not demonstrated a great deal of remorse for the hurt he has caused others, Mickelson has continued to smile through his pain and approach the world with a grateful heart and a positive attitude. Attitude – that’s what we’re talking about here. Attitude – that’s what today’s scripture readings were all about.

The Bible is filled with advice presented in a variety of ways. There are allegories which observe human beings in action while trying to understand and explain what makes us what we are. There are illustrations of how we should and shouldn’t behave if we are serious about living good and productive lives…lives in keeping with what we perceive to be the will and way of the Divine. There are parables which tell stories to prove points regarding things like justice and righteousness, like love and compassion. There are proverbs and commandments which tell us what we should and shouldn’t do. All of them combined offer a composite of what it means to be as fully and completely human as possible…fully and completely human to the extent that we reflect the divinity which is within us through our thoughts and our deeds. The passage from Luke about judging and condemning and forgiving touches on the attitudes that shape us, and the passage from Matthew tells us, once again, how we should treat others…because how we treat others reveals the extent of our commitment to God.

The world is full of folks who just looooove the Bible. Many of them have read it from cover to cover and even memorized long passages. And some of them try to follow its teachings. But all too often the Bible is used as a bludgeon to beat down those with whom we disagree. And just about anything can be biblically supported and authenticated, especially if we pull a few sayings out of context. Ultimately, “the proof is in the pudding” – does the way we live reflect how much we love the Bible and how much we understand the Bible and how much we respect the Bible? Expressed another way…is our real faith demonstrated by our words or by our deeds?

His name is Bill…and he presents a strange appearance, to be sure. His hair is long and wild; he wears a tee shirt with holes in it; his jeans have seen better and cleaner days; he is usually barefoot. This pretty much represents what he has looked like throughout four years of college. But he is a brilliant and profound student…very bright, very deep…who has become attracted to Christianity and who could now be characterized as a seeker and searcher after religious understanding.

Across the street from the college campus is an established and conservative church which, for a variety of reasons, is striving to develop a ministry to students. But the members and leadership are not sure how to go about it. One day, free-spirited Bill decides to attend a worship service there. Well, when he arrives the service has already started, so he starts down the center aisle looking for a seat.

The church is packed. There are no empty seats (must be Easter). And it doesn’t take long for folks to start feeling a bit uncomfortable. However, they are polite and say nothing. Bill gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit until, realizing that there is no room readily available in the pews, and that no one is going to go out of his or her way to make such room, sits down in the middle of the aisle. Now folks are really getting upset – the tension in the air is thick enough to cut with a butter knife.

Even the minister is at a loss regarding what to do…go figure. But he notices that one of the congregation’s most respected members – a man in his eighties who has been around “forever” and served in just about every leadership capacity – is coming from the narthex and approaching Bill. The man is tall, slim, dignified, with silver-gray hair and wearing a three piece suit. He just “oozes” elegance and courtliness. Walking with the aid of a cane, as he gets nearer to Bill his fellow parishioners speculate on what he is going to do.

After all, how can a man of his age and background be expected to understand some college kid who is sitting on the floor in the middle of their sanctuary on Sunday morning? It takes quite a while for him to reach Bill, so for many moments all that can be heard, in the absolute silence of the church, are the sounds of the tapping of the cane and his slightly-shuffling footsteps. People hardly seem to be breathing and the sermon is put on hold until this matter can be resolved.

The man reaches Bill. He drops his cane on the floor. Then, with considerable difficulty, he lowers himself so he can sit next to Bill and they can worship together. He believes that nobody should come to church and be alone. At this point there are very few dry eyes in the “house”.

Now the sermon can begin. After he gains control of himself, the minister says: What I’m about to preach you will never remember. But what you have just seen you will never forget. Be careful how you live. You may be the only “Bible” some people will every read.

My friends…I am going to smile. I am going to smile if the weather is nice or if the weather is bad. I am going to smile…and this will take some effort…at the driver who goes too slow or goes too fast; the driver who honks at me or cuts me off. I am going to smile if all is going well or all is going badly. And when the day is done, I am going to save my biggest smile for the person who makes me and my life as complete as it can be. Then I am going to figuratively look to the heavens and give thanks for being able to smile. You see, I, too, would like to become a living Bible…like the elderly man in the church who sat on the floor with Bill; like Phil Mickelson as he realized what is really important in life and greeted his wife with a hug and a kiss. How about you?

By: Herb Freitag