23-aug-09

Calvinball The Rev. Joseph Winston August 23, 2009

Sermon Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1 It is very fun to watch children playing. With energy and emotion, they take the field, ready to go out and have some fun. Many of these games the children play have well know rules. “Hide and Seek,” “Red Rover,” and “Dodge Ball” certainly fit this description. In “Hide and Seek,” the goal of the game is to remain hidden from “It.” This person counts to a fixed number (say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) while everyone else runs off and hides. When the counting is over, “It” yells out “Ready or not, here I come.” The activity ends either when “It” finds everyone or gives up. To play “Red Rover,” the children divide into two different groups. Each side forms a line by holding hands. Then one team shouts out to the other, “Red rover, 1

Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3.

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red rover, can Johnny come over!” After hearing the call, the child named in the chant tries to break through the chain. If they succeed, then they get to take any player back to their side. If not, then they join the opposition. The game continues until one team has captured every player. Even a wild game like “Dodge Ball” has its own set of guidelines. The players divide into two separate groups and each side gets a handful of balls. The objective is to throw the balls at the other side and hit an opponent. If a ball happens to touch you, you then leave the game. The winners are the ones who eliminate all the players on the other side. Then there are all those games that lack this type of structure. You might remember some of them as they are the favorites of young children everywhere: pulling out every pot and pan from the cabinets and stacking them up as high as their little arms will let them, plugging every drain in the bathroom sink and turning on the water full blast just to see what happens, and finally is the one that has made many a plumber rich, seeing what can be flushed down a toilet. The cartoonist Bill Watterson captured the essence of these types of games in his classic comic strip named, Calvin and Hobbes. The characters stared playing a game named Calvinball during the fifth year of syndication.2 In this somewhat made up sport, anything goes except for one hard and fast rule: No one can ever play Calvinball the same way twice. The lack of organization causes rapid shifts in the game. In one strip where 2

Anonymous, Calvin and Hobbes, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_ and_Hobbes, August 2009).

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they are playing Calvinball, Hobbes the tiger yells out, “The center snaps the ball to the quarterback!” Calvin immediately replies, “No he doesn’t!” With that the game of Calvinball is off to a running start. Strategies also change at the drop of a hat. Three frames later in the same comic, Calvin is running toward his goal and gloating, “Wheeee! He is at the 30 . . . The 20 . . . The 10! Nobody can catch him!” To which Hobbes calmly replies, “Nobody wants to! You’re running toward your own goal!” Winners become losers in the sport just as quickly. Hobbes soon learns the following ingenious rule change from Calvin, “But the fact is really I’m a double agent! I’m on your team after all, which means you’ll loose points if I cross your goal! Ha Ha!” On and on this goes until one player outfoxes the other. There is a point to all this play that children enjoy so much. Otherwise, the adults of this world would not allow it. Instead, they would force all children everywhere to work the entire day. But they do not. We all know that sweaty shirts and skinned elbows, broken bones and broken hearts teach us important lessons about life. Teams remind us that we all need to pull together as one. Sports tell us that we need to know what side you are on. On the day he will die, Joshua reminds the Israelites the valuable lessons that games teach us. He calls all of Israel to Shechem and in the section that our lesson leaves out, he recounts one last time the mighty deeds God has done for them (Joshua 24:29; 24:2b-13). Then when we pick up the Old Testament lesson again, Joshua asks them, “Are you going play on the same team?” Of course, he asks this important question much more eloquently than that, he says to the assembly, Now therefore revere the L ORD, and serve him in sincerity and in 3

faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the L ORD. Now if you are unwilling to serve the L ORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the L ORD (Joshua 24:14-15). As one, the people empowered by the L ORD’s work in their live, respond to the challenge Joshua lays before them. They say, “We are on God’s team.” The words they use actually follow Joshua’s lead, Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the L ORD to serve other gods; for it is the L ORD our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the L ORD drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the L ORD, for he is our God” (Joshua 24:16-18). There are a few more verses in this closing chapter of the book that we did not read and they are important to our understanding of the lesson. Just to make sure that all the people know the exact details on the life they must lead, Joshua once again spells out what they can and cannot do (Joshua 24:1920). In other words, Joshua gives the Israelites the unchanging rules that they are 4

expected to play by. The people all answer that they will follow the L ORD (Joshua 24:20). Next, Joshua tells the people that they must continue to remind each other of the promises that they made and the people agree (Joshua 24:21-22). Clearly they all play on the same team. Joshua now does his part in this bargain by telling the Israelites a third time that they must only follow the L ORD (Joshua 24:23). For the last time in Joshua’s sight, the people say that the L ORD is the only God they will serve (Joshua 24:24). To record this important occasion forever, Joshua does two things (Joshua 24:25-26). He writes down everything that happened. We have that record today in the book named after him, Joshua. He also sets up a permanent stone marker to tell every generation of Jews what is required of them. Even if you do not know the rest of the story about the twelve tribes, I am sure that you can accurately predict what happens next to the Israelites based on our own actions. They, like us, continually forget whose we are. When that happens, we break our promises to God and to each other. If this were all that we did it would be bad enough. No longer are we content to constrain our destructive behavior to ignoring the vows we made to God in front of the entire assembly. Now we want to change the way we understand the Bible. One very popular variation of this type of Calvinball played in the church is known as the democratic process. If you happen to not like what the Bible has to say on a subject, just gather some people who feel just like you. Take a vote. If you win, then it has been decided for all time. If you do not, do not worry. That decision is not binding on you. Try again and again and again until you get what 5

you want. From personal experience, adults realize exactly what happens when children take part in games like this. Arguments are bound to ensue. What rule was in play when that happened? Who is really ahead this time? Is the game over yet? Even children can figure out these obvious troubles when they play games like Calvinball. They have seen the fights between the players. They have personally felt cheated out of victories. They have noticed that no one wants to play with them. All of these different reasons seen by both the parents and the children add up to one indisputable fact. Participating in games with constantly changing rules means that no one really knows what game they are actually playing. Is it soccer or swimming? It is football or freeze tag? Is it “duck, duck, goose” or “double dutch”? For the past thirty years or so, many of the people who we have entrusted with the important work of studying the faith given to us by the Holy Spirit have grown tried off doing everything the same old way. On the one hand, who can blame them? It is no fun doing everything just like your parents and their parents before them. Certainly, this way of approaching the Scripture leaves very little room for innovation. On the other hand, the same list of issues that we saw with games like Calvinball can also be applied right here. Constantly changing the way we read the Bible easily confuses people. Modifying the rules used to explain the Scripture produces new meanings that might be not what the Bible intended. Disagreements will now 6

occur because there are two different interpretations where there was only one before. Consistently, Jesus sternly warns us against tripping up even the youngest believer (Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2). It is easy to understand Christ’s concern over this specific point of the faith given to us. It is a matter of life and death. If we point someone down the wrong path, then they move away from the One that gives them life. They will surely die. People’s lives are at stake. This game of Calvinball currently being played in the ELCA must stop. The Good News for you today and for everyday of your life is simply this. Jesus Christ does not play any games with you. His Word is unchanging and sure. We confess with Peter, “You have the words of eternal life (John 6:68).” How can we do this? Just like Peter, we have heard the Word. Day after day, week after week, year after year, Christian men and women have instructed you in the way of life. God sent teachers to you that opened the Word of God for you. God provided pastors that proclaimed God’s saving work to you. We too have seen the signs that Christ has performed in our lives. He is here with us. We know that. He has brought light to our darkness. He has healed the sick among us. He has put food on our table. Today, we gather around His Table. This is only possible because we trust Jesus. There we will once again follow Christ’s simple commands, one that leaves no room for interpretation. “Take and eat. Take and drink.” We will do exactly that because we take Jesus at His Word, “The one who eats this bread will live forever 7

(John 6:58b).” Children’s games can be divided into two different groups. One set of pastimes has rules that children know by heart. The other type of games lack well defined rules. They allow the participants to change at any time whatever they want. The games that some people play with the Word of God should never drive us away from His Church. Since the time of Christ, the Holy Spirit has been working in the Church, with people like you and me, to keep our understanding of the faith true. Pray that we remain steadfast in His Word and receive the gift of eternal life. “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”3

References Anonymous, Calvin and Hobbes, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Calvin_and_Hobbes, August 2009), Last checked on August 21, 2009.

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Philippians 4:7.

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