Preaching and the Packers

 

Mel Lawrenz served as senior pastor of The Elmbrook Church in Brookfield for ten years, succeeding well-known pastor Stuart Briscoe. Lawrenz now serves as minister at large with The Elmbrook Church and leads The Brook Network which is an exchange of leadership ideas sponsored by that church.

This week, after the Packers won the NFC Championship (you did hear about that, didn’t you?), Lawrenz wrote a column on The Brook Network titled “Preaching and the Packers.” He told how he would sometimes break into a series of sermons to bring a special message because of something extraordinary happening in his community or the world. He did so in 1997 on the Sunday the Packers played in their first of two Super Bowls in the 1990’s and preached a sermon he titled “How To Have a Super Life.”

He based his sermon on a section of Hebrews 12:22-34 – “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

I thought this basic summary of that sermon is worth considering as we prepare for this year’s Super Bowl, because having a “super life” with Christ far surpasses even the Packers playing in – and hopefully winning – the Super Bowl.

1. Belong to “the city of the living God.” There are Packer fans everywhere, but that does not compare with enjoying life as part of the children of God around the world.

2. Join with the “thousands of angels in joyful assembly.” A stadium full of cheering fans is exciting, but that does not compare with thousands of angels cheering for joy as they witness God’s great act of salvation; they cheer just by seeing us respond to God in faith.

3. Experience “the church of the firstborn whose names written in heaven.” Championships go down in the record books, but when we belong to Christ our names are recorded in the Book of Life for eternity.

4. Join with “the spirits of righteous men made perfect.” We admire people who strive for excellence, like talented athletes or anybody in any calling; but in Christ we are joined with the spirits of believers of past generations, heros of faith whose only claim to fame is that they knew enough to throw themselves on the mercy of God and were thus “made perfect.”

5. Get to know “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.” Star quarterbacks are wonderful to watch; but the certainty that we have to live a super life is that we have come to the head of all creation, Jesus. On the cross he looked like he was utterly defeated, but in that act of sacrifice he became the mediator of a new relationship between us and the living God.

Remember that in real life there are no scoreboards; you don’t know how many minutes remain in the game; and you don’t know when “the game” is up for you. In real life–in God’s world–sometimes what looks like defeat is victory and sometimes real losers look like they’ve won the game. The Super Bowl is great fun – especially when the Packers win it. But what is greater yet is to live a super life because of Christ. That’s something to cheer about.