Sam Owen wants to play tennis like Jesus.
Not that the four canonical gospels reveal much about the Son of Man’s forehand, although there’s probably a Nag Hammadi knock-off somewhere that covers the topic. No, Sam, a former tennis standout and current Episcopal seminarian, wonders whether “Christian competition” is an oxymoron. College tennis coach and devout Christian Comron Yazdergdi likens his racket to Moses’ rod: You throw down a snake, the very embodiment of deadly temptation, and pick it up again only by careful obedience to the voice of God. (Read more at http://www. nytimes.com /2011/ 09/03/us/03beliefs.html.)
These two examples hit the key points of Paul’s admonition to the Philippian believers: “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ . . . striving together for the faith of the gospel.”
Conduct yourselves comes from a Greek verb that gives us words like politics and police – the idea of conforming to the standards of one’s social milieu. This was a flag-waving word to the Philippians, whose city was an official Roman colony, meaning that it’s residents enjoyed all the privileges of native turf even though actually located in the provinces. The worst crime a Philippian could accuse someone of was acting in an un-Roman fashion. (Acts 16.21, 37) Yet Paul boldly insists that as Christians they have a higher citizenship and serve a superior Lord. Every action and attitude that a Roman citizen assumes without thinking about it now faces re-evaluation in light of the cross.
That won’t be easy.
Which is why Paul makes three references to Christian unity and, on the third, defaults to a sports metaphor: He wants these subversive citizens to strive together. The root of that verb begets the English word athlete and could literally be rendered something like “competing as teammates.” The wholesale rejection of surrounding social norms requires either a sociopath’s indifference to other people or the formation of a new community.
Yazgerdi nearly quit tennis after his conversion, not sure that his competitive spirit could be of use to the Holy Spirit. Sam Owen decided to switch his mindset from a contest to a dance, admiring the good play of his opponent as a contribution to the overall beauty of the game. I don’t play tennis so I don’t much care how Jesus would have played. But I do spend money, and speak to people, and wear clothes and vote and drive a car. And I must do three things if I want to call myself a Christian: pay enough attention to uncover the standards by which I automatically do these things, rethink them by the standards of the Sermon on the Mount, and find a colony of the Kingdom where I will have the positive peer-pressure of other ex-pats who claim citizenship in my true home.
Oh, and golf: Jesus wouldn’t have played at all.
Fore!
Doug
Collect
King of Kings, Your Son came to proclaim the in-breaking of a reign that uproots all human systems and upends all earthly statutes. By faith may we defy the standards of this world, and in fear may we fly to the support of Your church, that in us all might now see that coming day when the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of Our Lord and of His Christ, together with the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever, Amen.
Benediction
May you live as rebels to the kingdoms of earth,
As a sign that those kingdoms will crumble.
May you live as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,
As a sign that God’s kingdom has come.
May you live as a colony of the citizens of the Kingdom
To find strength in this clashing of kingdoms.
In the name of the Father,
And of the Son,
And of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
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