Today’s Scripture
Reading (October 15, 2013): 2 Chronicles 15
It has been
a little hard to watch the New York Giants play football this fall. I am not a
Giants fan, but there always has been something about Eli Manning that I have
to admit that I like – there is some sort of magic in the way that he plays the
game that is simply fun to watch, no matter which team you cheer for on a
regular basis. But this year it has been different. The Giants have started the
season with six straight losses and Eli has thrown a league leading fifteen
interceptions – definitely not a stat in which you want to be the league
leader.
And so the
haters have also come out. All those guys that have been waiting for this
moment to chime in and say that Eli has always been an over rated quarterback.
We recognize them for what they are – haters. But we also recognize that there
might be a kernel of truth in what the haters are saying. One of the messages
of the haters is that it was never Eli, it was always the team. And there they
are actually right. In football it is always the team. One thing that I wish
the haters would give Eli credit for is that he always seems willing to take
the blame. But even in this horrible start to a season, it is not just Eli that
is the problem. It is the team. It is painful to watch receivers drop passes or
tip the ball into the waiting arms of a defender. It hurts to watch the defense
struggle with trying figure out to rush in a passing situation. Success or
failure is about more than just Eli Manning. The team as a whole is missing on
the fundamental elements of the game.
Judah needed
a time of reform. Unlike in Israel, there really does not seem to be a great
period of apostasy in the story of the nation as of yet. But they have fallen
away from the fundamentals. So Asa calls a meeting of the city of Jerusalem and
announces a time of recommitment to the fundamentals. He recognized the truth
that if Judah and Jerusalem were going to accomplish great things, it would
only be because they had covenanted to do right things together. This was not
just about Asa, it was about the heart and soul of the entire community. Asa
knew that they needed to be of one mind in all of what they were about to do.
I recognize
that this pushes against the teachings of our individualistic society, but this
is a truth of life. History and team sports both stand as a testimony to a fact
that we have sometimes forgotten. We do not do life alone, and anything great
that we are able to accomplish is because of the community that comes around us
and agrees with us. In our prayers, it is the power of the communal amen, which
simply means, “God, your people stand in agreement with you.” Nothing great
happens because we as individuals are special. Everything is really about
community.
I am not
saying that Asa (and Eli Manning) are unimportant. That just is not true. Asa
was and Eli is very special. But part of the challenge is and always will be to
pull the community together in order to accomplish what is great. Great just
does not happen any other way.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 16
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