Scriptures: I Samuel 3:1-10, 11, 20; Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18; John 1:43-51
I admit that I am not a big fan of football. And I am sure I am in the minority of people who would rather read a book or take a nap than watch a football game.
Having said that, I want to talk to you today about Tim Tebow. He is the 24-year-old quarterback of the Denver Broncos, the underdog team who battled and lost 45 to 10 to the Patriots in a playoff game last night.
And how some people just don’t get it.
Some Christians are embarrassed by his public display of faith. Sports writers, radio and TV talk show hosts, and comedians make fun of his repeated confessions of Christ as His Lord and Savior and constant acknowledgment of God. They have even coined a term—“Tebowing”—to describe the way he kneels, bows his head, and gives God thanks after every touchdown and victory.
But really there’s nothing funny or embarrassing about a young man who is so pumped about his faith that he can’t stop talking about it and trying to live it out.
That’s pretty cool, actually. During a time when there are so many famous people doing things I would rather our children and teens wouldn’t hear about, here’s a guy whose Christian faith is laid out for the world to see every time he pulls on his helmet and steps onto the football field.
Tim has become one of the most loved and sought after men in the game. An ESPN Sports poll says Tebow was voted America's new favorite athlete. He has been the subject of numerous TV interviews and articles, including this week’s story in Time Magazine, Tebow’s Testimony. Even his critics predict his influence for Christianity will be greater than that of the Rev. Billy Graham’s.
Before last night’s kickoff, Tim spent time talking with a 20-year-old who suffered a traumatic brain injury during a preseason football game in 2008. Tim met Zack McLeod through his foundation's Wish 15 program, which grants special requests for young people with serious medical issues. Minutes before the start of last Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tim chatted with 16-year-old Bailey Knaub, a girl who has had 73 surgeries. Jacob Rainey, a young football player who had lost his leg, was the recipient of Tebow's pre- and post-game attention in Buffalo on Christmas Eve.
Tim says it isn’t distracting to talk with these young people he calls “courageous.” Giving hugs and offering encouraging words to someone in need, he says, “puts everything into perspective” before an important game.
He doesn’t hesitate to share his faith story, which begins with his birth. Doctors advised his mother to seek an abortion when she was pregnant with Tim and tests revealed something was wrong. She refused. Tim’s parents, former Baptist missionaries to the Philippines, are pro-life. Tim was safely delivered, despite a barely attached placenta. Doctors called it a miracle.
Tim was, of course, raised in the church. He was homeschooled and had to memorize Scripture if he wanted to watch TV. He gave his life to Christ when he was 6. His talent for football became evident by the time he was a teen. He was so hotly recruited in high school that he was the subject of an ESPN documentary called The Chosen One.
Despite his passion and commitment to football as a student at the University of Florida, Tim still found time for ministry. While he led the team to a national championship, he also led Bible studies and preached in prisons, schools and hospitals.
Tebow’s story came to mind this week as I studied our scripture readings. Psalm 139 is a favorite of pro-life activists. The psalm reminds me of Tim’s miraculous birth and his mother’s refusal to get an abortion. The psalmist speaks of how intimately Our Creator knows us and thinks wondrous thoughts about us we cannot understand. “For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made... My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret…Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.”
In John’s gospel, Philip without hesitation responds to the Lord’s call to discipleship. And he can’t wait to find Nathanael and tell him about Jesus. Philip then leads Nathanael to meet Christ. He says, “Come and see.” Tebow, too, is an enthusiastic disciple and invites others into relationship with Christ, something we are all called to do.
In I Samuel, though the young boy receives a much more intense religious upbringing than Tebow experienced, it is the same idea of being nurtured in an environment of faith from a very early age. Samuel’s mother, Hannah, honors her promise to God and gives Samuel, when he is still a baby, to the Lord for Eli the priest to raise in the temple.
Samuel, like Philip, allows God to use him and spread His word to the people. Samuel receives a special gift; he is able to hear God’s voice and see His visions. As a prophet, Samuel exhibits a kind of radical honesty that people cannot ignore. He shares God’s message no matter how unpleasant or unpopular.
And God blesses him for his faithfulness. I Samuel 4 says, “As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground… All Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.”
After our Bible lessons today, I hope you will be inspired to read more about Samuel, who served as a judge and lawmaker for God’s people and anointed Israel’s first king. May you savor the radical honesty and faithfulness of Samuel as a young boy who heard God’s voice and obeyed.
And may you be inspired by Philip’s enthusiastic response to Christ’s call to discipleship and his excitement to introduce someone else to Jesus.
And although the Bible is our only reliable authority for faith and life and Christ is the only perfect model for us, I hope some of Tim Tebow’s passionate Christian witness has made an impression on you. He has made an impression on me.
I appreciate Tim’s courage to share his beliefs, no matter what the cost to his career and despite criticism and ridicule. I am impressed with his attitude of gratefulness—giving thanks to God for every good thing in his life. And I admire his willingness, in spite of his busy schedule and the pressures he must be feeling before and after a game, to give of himself and
care for strangers like young Zack, Bailey Knaub, and Jacob Rainey.
I am sure Tim’s faith wasn’t shaken by last night’s game—when the Patriots stomped his team. Nor would his faith be shaken by any loss on the football field. He said as much some time ago when asked why he takes time before every game to try and help someone who is suffering or dying.
“The game doesn't really matter,” Tim said. “I mean, I'll give 100 percent of my heart to win it, but in the end, the thing I most want to do is not win championships or make a lot of money, it's to invest in people's lives, to make a difference.”
Let us take with us today, then, the message to be bolder with our witness and more faithful to God’s call. Let us be more grateful for what the Lord has done.
Let us be more willing to give of ourselves and invest in people’s lives so we, too, can make a difference.
Let us listen for God’s voice and be ready to respond like Samuel, “Here I am!”
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