January 12, 2024

Winners, Losers, and the Image and Likeness of God

When our children were young, after we moved from South Bend, Indiana to Chicago, autumn would bring our thoughts back to Notre Dame and football. We were fairly avid Irish fans. If Notre Dame suffered a loss (unfortunately often back then) I would tell our children, “We don’t need to go to church tomorrow. Notre Dame lost; there must be no God.”

Then Sunday morning would come and I would wake them up and say, “The sun is up and it’s a new day, God is obviously alive and well. Time to get ready for church.” Of course, this was a way to put such events and their outcomes in eternal perspective. Truth be told, it was as much for myself as for them.

I obviously write this after Washington had a disappointing national championship game. It disappoints those who root for them, because sport gives us an opportunity for catharsis, to imagine a player or team an extension of us, and to experience their success and failure in ways that are safe and not essential to our lives. It may hurt when “we” lose, but life goes on with little long-term effect.

However, we in our culture esteem winning as a value that is essential to our human nature in much of life. We value “success” and being “better than average”—which means you are better than others—as givens in our culture. It shapes our view of education, economics, vocations, even church. 

Comparison, if not competition, is a common theme in our lives. We seem to assume that we are at our most human when we are competing, and hopefully winning. This value, however, is far from how the scriptures depict our human nature as a reflection of God’s nature. Our communities best reflect God’s nature when we are collaborative and cooperative, even surrendering our authority to serve others. God is triune, and the three persons are interdependent, working in concert with one another. We reflect this when we denounce hierarchy (Matthew 20:16; John 13:1-14), when we use our gifts to work with and for one another (1 Corinthians12:12-31), and when we do not categorize people “winners and losers” (James 2:1-13).

This is countercultural. This is hard. It doesn’t come naturally to us. It requires us to take seriously our growing in conformity to Christ as disciples over time. If you find yourself falling short of these expectations, or even your own, take a breath; relax. Remember that we are saved by grace. And trust that the sun will come up each new day, because God is alive and well and loves us. And God’s Spirit works on our spirits incrementally to become more and more like Christ. This is a journey with comrades, not a race or competition to be best.

Might this help define our vision and our values for the coming year as we begin a new season of ministry at First Covenant Church.

With faith and love for and with you all,

~ Pastor Todd