Professional athletes have been praying on the field since 1977.
Originally posted September 28, 2011, at Lutheran Grilled Cheese. Republished with permission of the author.
On Oct. 9, 1977, running back Herb Lusk took a pitch from quarterback Ron Jaworski. Lusk headed around the left end and ran 70 yards to the end zone for a fourth-quarter touchdown.
Four steps over the goal line the Philadelphia Eagles’ running back dropped to his left knee and bowed his head in prayer. A few seconds later, he stood back up and returned to the sideline.
Herb Lusk was the first NFL player to do something like this and since then it has turned into a staple for many players in the NFL as well as other sports.
Whether it be a pitcher pointing skyward after a save, a hitter offering thanks to a higher power after a home run, or a basketball team joining for a prayer at mid-court after a game, giving God thanks after a play is common among professional players.
Faith was practiced among players and teams long before Lusk knelt in prayer in the Giants stadium. Many players and teams conducted prayer before and after games, but all of that was out of the public eye.
Having faith on the field
Fast forward to 2011 — we are seeing more and more players show the public side of their faith, but has the public lost the ability to have faith in the game itself?
It surprised and shocked me when I turned on the news this past summer and heard that both the owners of the teams and the players could not agree on the financial terms of the game and, therefore, they were locked out.
As someone who does not make a million dollars a year, I was appalled at the actions I witnessed, and I started to lose faith in the NFL.
I realized I was not the only one. I had people ask me about the activity of God in the lockout. Someone asked me, “What do you think God would say about the lockout?” I paused and really thought about the question.
My gut reaction was that God has too many other important things to worry about than a football lockout. Then I thought about it some more.
It’s more than just a game
I started to think about all the little towns all over the United States that have relied on NFL teams coming into their town and boosting revenue during the summer because the teams use their towns for training camp.
I thought about the sports writers, the trainers and all the other people who were left without income because the owners and the players could not reach an agreement.
I realized that perhaps God was sad to see the NFL lockout, not because God really cares if there is football or not, not because God favors one team over another, but because God walks with those who suffer and God cries when someone’s life is completely changed because millionaires were fighting with billionaires.
It does not matter if it is a great suffering or something a little smaller — God cares. When any of us are left out there because of something wrong in our lives, God is there with us and for us.
So as I watch football this year, I will do so knowing what the NFL did this past season. I hope there are some exciting games and charity is shown to help my faith in the players, the owners of the game and the NFL.
Find a link to Joe McGarry’s blog Lutheran Grilled Cheese at Lutheran Blogs.
"God cries" is not Good News. If that's how God shows that God cares, what's the point?
God isn't infinitely vulnerable. God is the same One who killed the firstborn of everyone in Egypt, who drowned Pharoah's army, killed those worshipping a golden calf and destroyed the kingdom of Israel how many times? God is the Judge. How does God judge those guilty of this lockout? Is this lockout judgment against those who watch?
You don't believe God cares for those who suffer? You don't believe God walks with the poor and lonely?
If God is not crying when God sees people hurt or in pain then I ask the question of you -- what's the point?
I think God does care for those who suffer-- enough to come in Person to die so that they may be healed and have new life. That's not crying.
The other part that we want to forget is that God speaks two distinct Words to the world, Law and Gospel. The Law is the system of rewards and punishments that ends up condemning us sinners to death. That's God's justice. Can we see God punishing sinners in the lockout? I suspect we could.
God does also speak to us in the Gospel, in the dying and rising of Jesus. We are joined both into the death and resurrection of Jesus, and that Promise is ours no matter what we do. What is God's Promise for those sinners affected by the lockout? I think it's a lot more than 'I'm crying with you.' Frankly, that's not a very good promise-- it's not going to do anything.
@Peter -- I never compared the resurrection to God's emotions.
Obviously, we have different ideas of who God is. I see from your comments that you see God from the first creation story -- up high "in the clouds" creating the universe.
I see God more as described in the second creation story -- walk with Adam and Eve.
It doesn't make one of us more right or wrong. My point is that when we suffer, God suffers - I don't see God as a heartless judge just like I don't see God as someone who is a bleeding heart with no sense of any kind of judgement.
My point is that God cares - those who have been affected by the lockout in a very negative have the comfort in knowing that God has not forgotten them, and that God's heart is broken by the decisions of those who started this lockout.
"I'm crying with you" is a very good promise, it means that we are not forgotten, that we are not lost, that God has not abandoned us. As someone who has experienced hardship in my life once or twice -- knowing that God was there with me and for me, that God still cared when feeling like the world has left me, that God was crying with me comforted me and helped me through my hardships.
When I am hurt or in pain - when I feel like my world has collapsed around me -- not being sure of where God is, would be hard for me or anyone. I don't know how I could preach a word like that and be okay with it.
Joe,
I don't think you intentionally compared the resurrection to God's emtions, but that's effectively what you did in your post. The good news in your post is that God, generally, cares. Cares enough to cry, that we haven't been forgotten, current events to the contrary. God seemed pretty sad in Genesis 6, too, and then God went ahead and killed all but 8 people on the entire earth. That's not the Good News. The Good News we have as Christians is that God cares enough to come into our world and suffer the ultimate Lockout of all-- crucifixion and death-- overcome it, and give us that same power to overcome sin, death and the devil.
That Good News, though, isn't needed unless we're faced with some bad news. In this case, the lockout. The Biblical keyword for bad news is sin, and the tool we have for finding sin is God's Law. That Law must penetrate to the deepest level, to our rebellion against God, in order to fully expose the evil. Only then, can the Gospel completely heal. Maybe the sin of those affected by the lockout is a lack of trust in God because their livlihoods are at risk. Maybe it's something else. I'm not saying they're worse sinners than anyone else, just that there is one solution to bad things: repentance. Return to the Gospel. All of us sinners need that.
As to how you and I see God, I don't see God high up in the clouds. I can't, no matter how hard I try. God the Father is always hidden from us by masks, and our attempts to unmask God end very badly for us. Even from the 'God who walks with us', we have to hide, because we live under the judgment of 'for on the day you eat of that fruit, you shall surely die'. It is only through God coming to earth and walking with us as Jesus that we can know God. It is in this way, alone and only, that we have any hope of knowing God the Father.