Pay attention, because I’m going to talk about something that you will rarely hear much about from me in the pulpit…. Football! The furor in the news over Bronco’s quarterback Tim Tebow has reached even my sports-deaf ears. In case you haven’t heard, Tebow is an evangelical Christian and an amazing, if inconsistent, football player. He has become famous for bending down on one knee in prayer on the field, and for his talk about his relationship with Jesus Christ. I read this week, though, that his pastor has claimed that Tebow wins games because of God’s favor, because God blesses him with victory, rewarding him for his faith.[1] I also read that many are saying that his record-setting 31.6 yards per pass (for 10 passes!) in last Sunday’s overtime win over the Steelers is a direct divine correlation with John 3:16, the verse that Tebow used to wear inscribed in his black under-eye glare-shield before NFL officials made him take it off. Many Christians are claiming, then, that Tebow’s performance in this week’s game is a result of his prayers and is direct proof that God is revealed in Jesus Christ. (Last night’s game, though, will prove more difficult for them to explain …)
From the few interviews that I have heard with Tim Tebow, I like him. I find that he is sincere and faithful, and his life off of the field seems truly to mirror the Christian faith that he shows when the cameras are rolling. It bothers me, however, to see the claims that his fellow Christians are making about prayer and revelation. I have to agree with author Lillian Daniel who wonders with a chuckle if God, Creator of heaven and earth, is really “sitting up in Heaven on a Barcalounger, with a beer, a bratwurst and a Bronco’s jersey, handing out touchdowns.”[2] I remember rolling my eyes when my son came home years ago from a Quick Recall tournament incensed that the team that his school was playing had prayed aloud over the computer scoring system before the match, asking God to rid it of evil and lead them to victory. There is something about such prayer that rubs me the wrong way, somehow mixing thanksgiving and intercession with evangelism, using conversation with God to prove something about God to the rest of the world.
Today’s lessons seem to speak to these relevant questions concerning prayer and revelation. They seem to show us that God’s in-breaking presence is more than football victories, that faith is more than winning, and that prayer is more than words.
Let’s look first at our Psalm for today. The book of Psalms is our prayer book. More than any other book in the Bible, the Psalms reflect our human voices, our words to God, and not just God’s words to us. They include both individual and communal prayers of praise and thanksgiving, laments, and pleas to God. They include beautiful human words, like those in today’s psalm … and also some very human words that make us shudder at their violence and hatred: May God bash the heads of enemy children upon the rocks. May I bath my feet in the blood of the wicked. And from today’s psalm, in the words that our lectionary purposefully leaves out: “O that you would slay the wicked, O God! … Do I not hate those, O Lord, who hate you?” What would the papers say if Tim Tebow started praying on television for the opposing team to sustain crippling injuries? Even though giving voice to such violence makes us uncomfortable and could indeed have dreadful consequences, the Psalms seem to encourage us to let our human hearts speak freely in our prayers, both in public and in private, to pour out the words that lift us up and the words of which we are ashamed. Tebow could easily borrow today’s psalm in order to thank God for the muscles that help him run, the coaches who have taught him well, or the miracle of birth that brought him healthy into this world. With today’s psalmist, he could praise God’s wonderful works, thanking God that he is “marvelously made.” In addition, if Tebow asks God to teach a lesson to the people who mock him or to the teams who threaten him, he would also be in line with the psalmists’ all too human responses. Indeed, many of the psalms that plead for victory in battle could easily be transposed to the football field. With the psalms as part of our canon, I do not believe that we can fault Tebow on any of his prayers.
It is when we start making claims about the way in which God responds to Tebow’s prayers, that we get in trouble. In our Old Testament lesson, people were thirsty, as we are, for divine revelation. “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” Young Samuel is having trouble knowing when God is calling him, running around frantically looking for the source of the voice that keeps calling his name. It is only when Samuel stops, though, lies down, and listens quietly to God’s call, that he hears what God is saying to him. Just as eager and desperate to hear God’s voice as is Samuel, we run from sign to sign, hearing God’s call in a touchdown, or in a number pattern, or in some other sign of blessing. God speaks to us, however, in the quiet of our hearts, when we stop our running and pointing and waving and bow our heads saying, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”
God has a message for Samuel, all right, just as God has a message for Tim Tebow and for you and me, but it is often not the message that we are waiting or wanting to hear. When Samuel finally settles down enough to hear God’s voice, he is called to do something that he does not want to do: he must speak a harsh and difficult truth to his friend and mentor. Tebow might have heard God’s word just as distinctly in last night’s defeat as in last Sunday’s victory, but I doubt that anyone will be pointing to that on the evening news.
“But we have to testify,” some might argue. “When we hold up a winning Christian for all to see, when we point to a miraculous victory, then we are testifying for Jesus Christ!” Well, before we get too proud of our testimony, we need to take a look at our Gospel lesson for today. The disciple Philip is doing some serious evangelism in the Galilee. He is telling people about Jesus, approaching strangers and convincing doubters. Yet when Nathanael, clearly skeptical of Jesus’ claims, rolls his eyes and scoffs, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth,” Philip does not start listing for him all of the blessings that God has poured out upon him since he has been a disciple. He does not brag about all of the prayers that God has answered in Nazareth or anywhere else. He does not point to any certainty that will convince the skeptic beyond all shadow of a doubt. He simply says, “Come and you will see.” He invites Nathanael to follow Jesus, to see for himself, to watch and listen for God’s voice. Isn’t it often that way? Where explanations fail, an invitation to walk alongside in God’s presence is what opens closed hearts.
And then, when Nathanael finds out that Jesus already knows him, when he seems to have found that sign, that miraculous event, that will prove that Jesus is indeed the Son of God and his prayers for a messiah have been answered, Jesus laughs at him. “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?” Jesus chuckles, shaking his head. “You will see greater things than these.” I can hear Jesus now: “Do you believe, because Tim Tebow made a bunch of touchdowns? Do you believe because somebody knelt down on a football field and then won a game? You will see greater things than these. Very truly I tell you, I will come to you and fill your cold hearts with love, and you will see God. I will rip away the chains that bind you, and in your freedom, you will know me. I will come as the hungry child that you have fed, and I will put my arms around you, and you will know my presence. I will come to you as the poor man that you have clothed, and you will see God. Signs under a fig tree!? Touchdowns?! You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Let us go ahead and pray for whatever we feel drawn to pray. We don’t need to censor or judge our own prayers or the prayers of others. But if we want to hear answers to our prayers, we need to remember to lie down in quiet and listen patiently, for as long as it takes. And we need to remember that conversions are not won by proofs and signs, but by life in the presence of Jesus Christ. A little more quiet listening and faithful living wouldn’t hurt our Christian image in the press, either.
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