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| Along the Way 6-25-10 |
 What if one had to survive - to use a sports metaphor – a qualifying round before being eligible to receive the love of God? The World Football (oooops, “soccer” to Americans) Cup, taking place for the next month in South Africa, provides the backdrop for these thoughts.In the F.I.F.A. World Cup thirty-two national teams were originally invited to the tournament, nations one does not always think of as sports powers: Slovakia, Slovenia, including Nigeria, Switzerland, Cote D’Ivoire, and even bad boy North Korea. Where are the other nations of the world, you ask? Answer: the soccer world has gone through a couple of years of qualifying rounds to weed out the mediocre teams and allow the top 32 teams in the world to fight it out accompanied by the background buzz (do I dare call it musical?) of that curious South African instrument called the vuvuzela. Sixteen teams still survive as of this post…and those teams going home early include the shocking departure of 2006’s world champion Italy and the mostly welcome loss of the petulant, immature French team. If soccer isn’t your game, we could consider the same question from the standpoint of Wimbledon tennis, where only the top “seeds” have been invited to play, having qualified by virtue of world rankings. The big news of the week is that heretofore unknown American John Isner defeated Frenchman Nicolas Mahut of 70-68 in a marathon 3-day, 11 hour, 5 minute match. Now back to my question…what if we had to qualify for the joy of basking in the love of God? What if there were a whole set of harrowing, precarious qualifications…Bible verses memorized and understood, perfect attendance at worship, a certain level of contributions to the church, a working knowledge of words such as “justification” and “election,” service on the Finance Committee, etc., etc. My guess is that, were such qualifiers necessary, most people wouldn’t even try, knowing that the effort would end in failure. Those who did qualify would out-Pharisee the originally holders of that title. Here’s the good news: There are no qualifying rounds to receive God’s abundant love. Christ gave himself up for us, Paul says, and that’s all that matters. We are included in God’s love because of the faith of Christ and our subsequent trust in Christ. No qualifiers, period. Can you accept this? Sound the vuvuzela! P.S. Our children have had a fabulous time in Bible School this year. I am impressed with our teachers and leaders. We are teaching living faith at Wesley Gardens. An encore for the vuvuzelas, please!! Creede Hinshaw |
