Actually, I don’t really.
What I want to talk about today is specifically the reaction to the
Richard Sherman that plays football. At
my house we watched The Interview right after the game. I said, “I bet the league has a talk with him
about representing The Shield” (as they call it), and I read a ton of responses
worse than that on social media – up to and including kicking him out of
football. As another quick aside, I have
no intention in this devotional of condoning his actions. But I want to just point out a few quick
somethings…then challenge us a Christians to ask ourselves honest questions. And that being said, let’s get started down
this twisty road. First of all, we’re
all upset at Richard Sherman and wanting Peyton Manning to throw 6,000 yards
against him specifically in a few weeks.
Why? Because he called himself
the best corner and called another guy mediocre. Jury, your verdict please. “GUILTY!”
Really, jury? But all you know of
him is a 25-second rant on television.
“We said he was guilty!” But he
was raised in Compton, California and graduated high school with Straight A’s
(including Advanced Placement classes). “still
Guilty!” But he’s a Stanford
graduate. “So what?! Guilty!” But he has a charity that helps raise money
so that under-privileged kids can have school supplies and clothing. And he volunteered to help the Special
Olympics all the way back in high school.
And when charities came to Stanford and asked for volunteers, his
teammates remember him as always the first guy to raise his hand to help. “We said he was guilty!” But is that a little wavering I hear in your
voice?
As Christians, we’re called to forgive. That includes everyone. Not just church friends. Not just ourselves. But everyone…regardless of what they’ve done. I used to be the guy that pounded my chest
and proudly announced to anyone that could hear me when talking about the
electric chair that “I’d be the guy that pulled the switch” with no
reservations. Now, I’m not so sure. I used to be the guy that would hear stories
of death row conversions and think “yeah, of course they believe in Jesus
NOW! They’re about to meet him!” But I don’t say things like that
anymore. I mean, you hear some stories,
and you think “how could God ever forgive that guy?” Like this one story I read…it’s something
that happened long before I was born.
This guy killed some other dude.
Then he buried the body in a hidden grave. He thought he’d gotten away with it, until he
found out that folks around him knew about somehow. SO…he ran. Ran and hid and never did a single
day in jail for it. In fact, while on
the run for that murder…he was still getting into fights. But then he had himself his own little “death
row conversion” of sorts. Well, forgive
me. I’m paraphrasing, and I’m not
telling it exactly right. If you want
the full story exactly as it happened, it’s Exodus 2:11-22. You know, when Moses killed the taskmaster,
then buried his body in the sand. Then
started telling the two Hebrews to quit fighting, and they asked him, “or what,
you’ll kill us, too?” So then he fled,
and then got into a fight at a well protecting the daughters of the priest of
Midian. And then? Oh, only God Himself came to Moses in the
burning bush. And God Himself told Moses
what His plans were to use Moses to deliver Israel from slavery.
And what is Moses?
He’s a hero. We tell our kids
about how great a man Moses was!
Murderer. We tell our kids how
great God was to Moses. Murderer. We tell our kids about Moses going up the
mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. Murderer. We tell our kids that only one man, Moses,
saw God on Mount Sinai and that his face glowed with radiance after looking
directly upon God’s glory. Murderer. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to keep throwing that
one mistake out there. But why not? We do it for simple things like guys playing
football. Richard Sherman didn’t
curse. He didn’t make any rude
gestures. He didn’t even pull a Mike
Tyson from 2000 and proclaim “I want your heart! I want to eat your
children!” He just called another guy
mediocre…albeit in an extremely inappropriate setting and a completely
unprofessional manner. And I suppose
that’s where we’ve come as a society. As
a collection of Christians, too, I suppose.
Because a great deal of the vengeful “I hope for bad things on him”
reactions were from good, Christian people.
All of those people that help others, and give to their churches, and
pray for sick friends and family, and volunteer for local charity work wanted
Instant Karma to get Richard Sherman. (and we all shine on…sorry, I couldn’t help
it) Meanwhile, all the other good things
he may have done before then don’t seem to matter. We don’t want forgiveness for something brash
and insensitive. We want Peyton Manning
to light him up. We want Demaryus Thomas
or Eric Decker to knock him out in a couple of weeks.
Did anybody pray for him?
Did anybody pray that he let go of that anger? Did anybody care that, off the field, he’s a
prime example of giving back? Did
anybody act like a Christian about it all?
Or did we all pull out the pitchforks and torches and go chasing him
down the street like in the old monster movies.
That’s what I did. I said that
the league would likely talk to him, and, while already rooting for Peyton, I
hoped that much harder that Denver wins the game (by 300 points) in a couple of
weeks. Then as the next few days came
and went, I heard the rest of Richard Sherman’s story. Then I reflected on some of the stupid…and I
mean absolutely, unequivocally STUPID things that I’ve said in my late teens
and early twenties. Well, late twenties,
and all through my thirties. Well, and I guess my forties, now that I’m forty. And I reflected on how I hope that those are
not the things that I’m judged on today.
When we hear the name “Moses”, our immediate word association is not
“Murderer”. When I hear electric chair,
I no longer say “I want to pull the switch”.
When I hear of stories like Jeffery Dahmer, I don’t think that sarcastic
“yeah, I bet he did” type thoughts anymore.
Like the prodigal son coming home, the Father rejoiced. When we hear of death row conversions, do we
rejoice? Are we the “other brother” when
think of seeing murderers in Heaven?
That’s where the rubber meets the road on Christian forgiveness.
We want justice!
We want fairness! But only for
other people. OUR sins aren’t as bad as
those other people’s sins. But through
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God no longer chooses to remember our sins…or
theirs. He doesn’t look at Moses and
think “murderer”. He sees the man to
lead Israel to freedom. He doesn’t see
Saul as the man that killed Christians.
He sees Paul, the man that will sow the seeds for a thousand churches
through a handful of epistles. God
doesn’t see us as the one mistake that we won’t let go of, so why is it that
that’s how we choose to see others?
Forgiveness is forgiveness. Jonah
sat on a hill beside Nineveh and wished he had died instead of seeing Nineveh
forgiven. The lessons of Jonah and of
the prodigal son aren’t just for the Ninevites and the son that left home. We always spin them that way…repentance,
forgiveness, and “come back home” lessons all seem to stem from those. But I believe that the real lessons are from
Jonah and the older brother.
Forgiveness. Letting go. Don’t be bitter that they didn’t get their
comeuppance. Rejoice that they found
forgiveness from God. And
remember…always remember…and I mean that if you don’t ever listen to another
whisper, listen for the whisper that tells you that Jesus plainly told us in
Matthew 6:15, that if you don’t forgive others, the Father will not forgive
you. Others. God didn’t specify which others…just forgive
others.
~Dwayne
http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment