Fantasy Football Update, Week 13

And the streak continues!  You don't know how bad I want to put a video up of Will Ferrell in Old School right now; probably not the most appropriate thing....

Anyhoo!  Going into tonight's MNF matchup between the Texans and the Jaguars, I have a 113-95 advantage over my opponent, and Kevin Walter going tonight.  All of his players are done for the week, which means I will now be on a 9 game winning streak, and in sole possession of first place, after starting the season 1-3.

I have to admit, I was worried this week.  Now because my opponent has been in first place pretty much all season, but because he had a couple guys with huge games on Thanksgiving.  At the end of the games on Thursday, I was down 64-20 because he had huge games from Romo, Fitzgerald and Bironas.  My 20 points came from a big day for the Tennessee defense, and who was really surprised by that outcome against the Lions?

The primary source of my concern, however, came in the form of the Colts-Browns game.  Now, the Browns have one of the worst secondaries in the league, so I thought that Peyton and Marvin were a lock to play this week.  I also thought that Winslow would fare pretty well against a banged up Colts secondary... and I was TOTALLY wrong.  This was an ugly game.  Not a single offensive touchdown was scored.  Winslow sprained his ankle at the beginning of the second half, and Manning threw consecutive interceptions at the close of the first half and the opening of the second half.  I am glad that they didn't charge him with a fumble when he lost the ball on a goal line sneak.  I'm still not sure what that rule was all about, but it didn't cost me (or the Colts) so I'm not complaining.  In the three players that I had going in that game, they came away with a combined, COMBINED, 6 points.  Manning's 125 yards and 2 INT's were good for half of that total.

Meanwhile, I decided to sit Aaron Rogers, who threw for nearly 300 yards and 3 TD's and scored a total of 26 points.  Do you see why I was worried?

Of course, then again, I was not as worried as I could be because my RB's are absolute studs.  Jones ran for 138 yards (and had an additional 21 receiving) to go with his 2 TD's against the Broncos for a solid 27 points, and he was the lower of the two for the day.  My other RB - DeAngelo Williams, who only ran for 72 yards (14 receiving yards as well), but scored 4 TD's (all 1 yard runs) for a total of 32 points.  

I was also a little more at ease with Berrian's 99 yard TD catch in the evening game (even though it followed a goal line stand in which my Bears couldn't punch it in on four tries from the 1 yard line).  That play alone was 15 more points, and Berrian ended with 122 yards receiving on the night.  Longwell also had a good night, scoring 10 points from the K position.

One more week and it's off to the fantasy football playoffs.  Typically I have Manning as my QB, and by the end of the season, the Colts are so far ahead in the division that they don't play him all that much.  This year could be different with the Colts in the hunt for a Wild Card spot.  We'll see how that affects things going forward.  Of course, if Rogers is healthy and has a great matchup, he'll probably be the one starting.  We will definitely see.

Oh, and I almost picked up Mark Clayton from Baltimore last week.  What did he do?  164 yards receiving, 1 TD... oh, and a 32 yard TD pass as well.  I think he's going to be on my roster before the day is done.

For What Do We Prepare

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, November 30, 2008.  The verse for this week's message is Mark 13:24-37.

Today’s passage is certainly an interesting way to begin Advent.  Advent is a time when we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but it is much more than simply celebrating his birthday.  Advent is a time when we are filled with expectation and anticipation at the coming of Christ, and it’s not the same anticipation that many had in the first century.  If you’ll remember from last week, the first century Jews were expecting a military and political leader that would restore the fortunes of Israel.  The long awaited Messiah did come, so we are not waiting on the coming Messiah.  Jesus did live on this earth and showed us what a redeemed life looks like; a life that is fully engrossed in the will of God.  Jesus still lives, and it is his second coming that we are eagerly awaiting – a time when all of creation is restored and we will live eternally in the presence of the Triune God.  Today’s passage is a reminder of this.  It is a reminder that we are still living in a time of tension.  It’s the tension that God’s kingdom has already come in Jesus Christ, but that we are awaiting its full consummation upon Christ’s return.

The section in which we find today’s Scripture is in the midst of a conversation between Jesus and the disciples.  Jesus has been teaching in the Temple all day long, and when they come out, the disciples are quite impressed with the architecture of the area.  They say to Jesus in 13:1, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings.”  They are amazed at the structures which surround them.  But Jesus takes the opportunity to take their comment and tell them something spiritually significant.  Now, isn’t that just like Jesus?  We come to him with something that we find amazing, and he flips it on its head and gives us a totally different perspective; a broader perspective; an eternal perspective.

The discussion turns to what the last days are going to be like, and introduces one of the most studied and confusing conversations that Jesus ever had with his disciples.  The reason that I say this conversation is one of the most confusing is because there are so many different perspectives on what it is that Jesus is talking about here.  There is so much noise surrounding this Scripture, that we don’t really have a clue what Jesus is talking about here, but that doesn’t stop us from interpreting it anyway!

I am not going to stand here today and tell you that I have it all figured out.  I will say right now that I don’t have a clue if Jesus is talking literally or figuratively in this passage.  I don’t know if the Left Behind series hit the target dead on or was so far off base that it’s laughable.  And while we’re being honest, let’s go ahead and admit that they don’t really know either.  That’s the thing about the future.  It hasn’t happened yet, and unless there is some sort of time traveling device that will allow us to see the future, we can never predict with 100% certainty what will happen in the future.  But there is something inside us that always wants to know what will happen.  For some reason, we think we can face the future better if we know exactly how everything is going to go down.  But even some of the simplest predictions go unfulfilled, and sometimes the most bold predictions end up making us look silly.

I came across some of this century’s biggest mistaken predictions while working on something else a while ago, and I think it is appropriate to share them in this context in order to give us some perspective.

1.      In 1912, one of the most well-known failed predictions took place.  An official of the White Star Line declared the Titanic to be unsinkable.  Early in the morning of April 15^th, the Titanic sunk, killing nearly 1,500 people.

2.      In 1939, the New York Times said the problem with TV was that people had to glue their eyes to a screen, and that the average American wouldn’t have time for it.  Today, the average American watches around 22 hours of television each week.

3.      And finally, “Whatever happens, the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught napping.”  Frank Knox, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, December 4, 1941.  As you probably know, three days later the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor killing 2,333 and wounding 1,139.

 The future is never 100% certain.  So, if we can’t use this passage to decifer what exactly is going to happen when Jesus returns, why do we look at it?  What can we learn from this passage?

Well, conveniently enough, the passage is broken down into three segments, all of which have something very important to say to us.  The first segment is found in 13:24-27.  One thing we learn from this segment is that the second coming of Jesus will be accompanied by strange occurences in nature, but what does that mean?  I’m sure many of us have seen strange weather before, but Jesus hasn’t come back, so there has to be something else that this segment is pointing to.  I think what this part of the passage is pointing to is Jesus’ authority over all things.  All of creation is awaiting his return, not just Christians.  All of creation is radically affected by the second coming.  In Isaiah 65, the prophet tells us that the Lord will make a new heavens and a new earth, and that the people will rejoice because it is a time of peace and intense joy.  2 Peter 3 refers to this time as one in which righteousness shall reign.  Creation as it was supposed to be, will be once again.

The second segment is found in 13:28-31.  Jesus tells the disciples to learn a lesson from the fig tree.  When its branches sprout leaves, you know that summer is near.  In the same way, if we are paying attention, we will also be ready for the second coming of Christ.  I can’t say specifically what it is that we need to be watching for, but I am confident that if we continue to carve out that time in our daily routines to listen, we will understand, in God’s time, what those signs are, and we will be prepared for the Jesus’ return.  

I don’t know how much I need to emphasize this point, but the simple truth is that we don’t know exactly when Jesus will return.  We can interpret the signs that are given many different ways, but ultimately, it comes down to the fact that God doesn’t tell us to figure out when it is going to happen.  What He does say is that we need to be prepared for it when it does happen.  And that is the other major point that we can pull out of this part of the text. 

Jesus closes this segment with the assurance that the earth will pass away, but his words will not.  Jesus’ words will stand the test of time while all else around it does not.  It is not a question of if Jesus will return; it is a matter of when it will happen.  This passage doesn’t incite speculation insofar as the actuality of these events is concerned, just how and when they will come about.  Jesus’ return is certain, and that is the most important thing to remember.  And what’s the next most important thing to remember?  It’s in the last segment, 13:32-37.

In these few verses, we are told, in this order, that the hour is unknown, to be on guard, to keep awake, that the time is unknown, to stay awake, that we don’t know when this will happen, and, again, to stay awake.  Do you sense the urgency in this part of the passage?  The uncertainty of the timing and the call to stay awake dominate these few verses.  Now, I have a feeling that if Jesus tells us to keep/stay awake three times in the span of five verses, then maybe we should take those words to heart.  Maybe he is trying to get across a significant point, and that point is that we constantly need to live in a state of preparation for his coming. 

We can’t go through life just accepting things as they are and living half aware of what is going on around us.  I have lived like that, I have a feeling that so many of you have as well.  It’s the type of life in which you wake up every morning and just go through the routine.  Nothing is special, nothing stands out – we cannot live like that.

Jesus doesn’t call us to enter into a relationship with him so that we can simply live life as we always have.  Jesus’ call to us is so that we can live a new life; a redeemed life; a life of abundance.  And when I say “abundance” I don’t mean that accepting Christ will automatically make you wealthy and you will never have to worry about anything ever again.  A life of abundance is a life that is lived to the fullest.  It is a life in which we expect Jesus’ return and live in such a way that shares the gospel with all around us.

We are people of Advent.  We are people who need live each day knowing that Jesus just might come back before the day is done, and knowing this, we prepare ourselves for his coming.  We celebrate Advent because Jesus has come.  We celebrate Advent because Jesus is here.  We celebrate Advent because Jesus will come again.

Nation's Leading Scorer Held Scoreless...

I came across this story on Yahoo! earlier this morning and found it very interesting. Stephen Curry, a player at Davidson and one of the stars of last year's March Madness, is the leading scorer in the nation - having games of 30, 39 and 44 points already this season. However, in Davidson's game against Loyola (Md.), he was held scoreless. That's right, Loyola (Md.) held the nation's leading scorer to 0 points. A guy who scored 44 points against Big 12's Oklahoma scored 0 points against Loyola (Md.). How did it happen?

They double-teamed him. On every possession. On every second of every possession. It didn't take Curry long to figure it out, and he decided to test their commitment to this strategy. He would run into the corner of the court and stand there, with 2 guys guarding him. That's right! He stood around for the majority of the game with 2 guys guarding him away from the action. Do the math now. Basketball is a 5 on 5 game. Loyola (Md.) was committing two players to one of Davidson's players. That made it a 4 on 3 game. Davidson won 78-48.

Now I understand that you don't want one guy to beat you, but really? Why in the world would you handicap yourself in a game that you are most likely going to lose in the first place? Davidson is ranked #24 in this early part of the season, and Loyola (Md.) has to include the state abbreviation in its name so that people will actually know where it is located.

Loyola (Md.)'s coach was quoted as saying, "I am a history major. [Are they] going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30?" Funny, I thought the point was to win a game, not to make history by employing the dumbest defensive tactic in the history of basketball. Now, I'm not just including college and professional basketball. I'm including the defensive strategies that I employed when playing basketball in the driveway. Some of those strategies include, but aren't limited to - "pants-ing" the opposition, allowing them to miss their shots and getting the rebound, waving my arms in a side-to-side motion, yelling at the ball while it's in the air, and many others.

What is ironic is that I don't think that history is going to remember that they held the nation's leading scorer to 0 points, as the coach assumes. I think they're going to remember one of the dumbest coaching moves of all time, which cost a team with little chance to win the game to be embarrassed. This should be a "Real Men of Genius" commerical - Mr. I Know I'm Going to Lose Anyway Guy...

What I also find great about this story is that Curry just let them. He goes off to the corner and lets him teammates play the game. He doesn't care about keeping up his reputation as the nation's leading scorer. He wants to win the game. The team is more important than the individual. Now, if only that attitude can infiltrate other individuals in the basketball leagues of America, I might be able to watch the NBA again.

What the.... Hell?

I don't have a lot of time to put up much of a post right now, but I feel like I need to write a little something and possibly go a little deeper after I've had some more time to reflect on it.

I was at a Bible study this morning and the conversation turned towards our understanding of heaven and hell. Let me just say to begin with that I understand, on a very basic level, that hell is total separation from God, all the while knowing that He does indeed exist. It is living eternally with the knowledge of an amazing, unbelievable God and also knowing that you will never be in relationship with him. One of the people in the group gave me a book to read. It's a book that I've seen on the shelves at the bookstore time and time again. Though I've been mildly interested in it, I never really wanted to pull the trigger to buy it.

The book is 23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese. Mr. Wiese is a realtor in California who had an incredible experience in which he spent 23 minutes in hell. His story is incredible, and quite frankly, has challenged some of my thoughts on hell. I still maintain that hell is a total separation from God and it is being aware of that separation, but I have never reflected too deeply on the physical aspects of hell. This book has, at the very least, caused me to consider some of what Scripture has to say on a more literal level.

I won't go into much more detail than that right now. I really need to spend some time thinking and praying about what I've read. But if you have a chance, pick it up. It's an easy read. I started it around 5:30pm or 6:00pm tonight and finished it before 10:00pm, and that was with eating dinner during that timeframe. Let me know what you think.

Editing Issues

So, as you can see below, I've been posting my sermons each week, but for some reason, the editing is always messed up.  All I do is cut and paste from my manuscript, and I get text that is all sorts of different sizes and colors.  I try to go in an manually change it to what it is supposed to be with no luck.  I'm out of ideas.  Suggestions?

Fantasy Football Update, Week 12

And the streak continues, 8 games and counting.  This week's win was huge.  I went into last night's matchup with a 94-52 lead, so I wasn't particularly worried about losing.  My opponent had Lance Moore, a WR on the Saints, going last night, and I have yet to see a WR score 43 points in a game.  Of course, then I tuned in to see a 51-20something lead for the Saints.  Moore ended up with 115 yards and 2 TD's on the night, but that still wasn't enough.

I had a couple of bench players that outscored the starters, but nothing major.  Rogers, inspite of throwing 3 INT's last night, managed to outscore Manning due to the 30 yards rushing and the rushing TD to go with a 2 pt conversion.  All in all, I think Manning still had a better game, so I'm not going to worry about it.

I can't say the same about my opponent, who started a couple of Broncos in favor of a couple of Patriots.  Cassel sitting on the bench cost him 27 points, and Gostowski would've given him another 7.  If he had played those two, I would be lamenting my choices right now after a 14 point loss.  But as it was, I'm still sitting in a tie for first place, and next week's matchup is huge.  I'm playing against the one I'm tied with for first.

With the victory this week, we now have a first place showdown next week between the two teams that have already clinched playoff spots.  Big game.

Remembering to Say Thanks

I pulled double duty this week.  The following was preached Sunday night, November 23, 2008 at the Van Buren Ministerial Association Thanksgiving Community Service hosted by Veedersburg UMC.  The text for this message is Luke 17:11-19.

Tonight’s Scripture takes place as Jesus is working his way towards Jerusalem.  This narrative takes up the majority of Luke’s gospel.  It is a section that begins in 9:51 which says, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up he set his face to go to Jerusalem,” and it ends with the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem in 19:28, which we celebrate as Psalm Sunday.  What I find interesting about this is that Jesus is constantly moving towards his ultimate destination, but there is no break in the action, so to speak.  During the whole journey, Jesus is ministering to others.  There are literally hundreds of miracles, healings and times of teaching during this journey, but what is very interesting, is that there is only one instance when somebody comes to Jesus and gives thanks.  But before we look at that a little deeper, let’s see how the text gets us to that point.

In verse 12, we are told that Jesus is met by ten lepers as he was entering a village.  It is noted that the lepers stood at a distance, which was necessary out of observance of the Torah.  Leprosy at this time was understood as any type of skin condition, not strictly leprosy as it is dianosed today.  According to Leviticus 13, anyone who had a skin disease must make it well known that they did have this disease and they were to be totally separate from the rest of the camp, dwelling alone on the outside.  Now this really wasn’t to ostracize them from the community, but to ensure that the disease did not spread all over the community. 

We must be intentional about doing this as well.  We need to make sure that the sin of others does not infect us.  I’m not saying that we should totally cut ourselves off from those who we would consider “sinners,” but we do have to be intentional about not allowing the sin to infect us.  For some, that may well mean avoiding sin altogether.  It is not the best idea for a recovering alcoholic to start a ministry reaching out to people in bars.  There is important ministry that needs to be done in the bars around America, but we have to be careful not to place a stumbling block in someone else’s path.  If your church wants to do a bar outreach ministry, that’s great!  But don’t put a recovering alcoholic in the midst of his/her greatest weakness.  We have to know our limits and we have to set boundaries, but we also have to make sure that we are reaching out to those who need Jesus’ healing touch more than anyone else.

Jesus tells the ten lepers to go show themselves to the priests.  This also is based on the commands in Leviticus.  It was the priest alone who could officially declare a leper clean and allow him to enter back into the community.  But notice that it is not until they are obedient to Jesus’ command to go to the priest that they are healed.  Officially, the priest was the one who restored them to the community, but realistically, it was Jesus who truly healed them and restored them to full relationship.  In the same way, Jesus is the one who heals us and restores us to full relationship.  Again, we are lepers of a different sort.  We are lepers plagued with sin, and it is only through Jesus’ healing that we can be declared clean and enter into full relationship with the Father.

The Greek word that is translated as “to give thanks” is eucharisto.  Now, that is a word that probably sounds vaguely familiar.  Often we will refer to communion, or the Lord’s Supper, as the Eucharist based on this Greek word.  It is used four times in the gospel of Luke.  Two of those times are recorded in Luke 22 – first, when Jesus takes the cup, and second, when he takes the bread.  Another time that it appears is in Luke 18, when Jesus is telling a parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18.  It is actually the Pharisee who uses the word, but does so in a less than flattering way.  He thanks God that he is not like other people who are sinners.  Okay, just to summarize quickly, this word appears 4 times in Luke’s gospel, and three of those times, it is found on the lips of Jesus.  There is only one instance in Luke in which someone besides Jesus gives thanks, and it is here, in tonight’s Scripture reading.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I often forget to thank God for all the things in my life.  I have gotten better in the last few years, and I try to be intentional about thanking God in my prayers, but it is a growing process.  As a whole, how often do we really take time out of our days to reflect on what the Lord has done for us?  I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that more often than not, we forget to thank God for the things in our lives that he has given us.  Usually, we stop to think about what we are thankful for when we are around the dinner table at Thanksgiving and the conversation has died down some… and the football game is not on in the background. 

I’m not saying this to make anybody feel guilty, I’m just saying that is a simple fact of life more often than we would like to admit.  But on the other hand, it is a common problem in the human condition.  Think about it for a minute, Luke is 24 chapters long, and for 10 of those chapters, Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem performing all sorts of miracles – feeding thousands of people, healing diseases, raising people from the dead, but only once does somebody come back to Jesus and give thanks.  And I don’t think it is because people were ungrateful for what Jesus did, I think that all too often, we simply forget to say thank you.  But did you notice who it was that did come back to give thanks?  The Samaritan – the one who would have been most despised; and the one that the reader might expect to be the least likely to give thanks, especially in such a manner as he does here in Luke 17.  You see, there’s something else that is fairly significant about the use of the Greek word eucharisto.

In nearly every single instance that I looked at in the New Testament, whenever eucharisto is used, it is used specifically to give thanks to God.  Now, you can’t tell me that isn’t significant when it comes to the fact that a Samaritan (who also has different worship practices than Jews, as we can see from Jesus’ discussion with a Samaritan woman in John 4) is using a particular word that throughout the New Testament is reserved for God’s handiwork.  This Samaritan, one who was seen to be so far off base when it came to Jewish practices, recognized that there was something different about Jesus; something so different that he recognized Jesus for who he was – God incarnate, deity in the flesh, the very example of who the Lord is.  He comes back with gratitude when he sees the handiwork of God and gives thanks.  How’s that for an example for us to follow today?  How often do we see the handiwork of God and pause just long enough to give thanks and praise?

I want to encourage you this week not just to set aside some time to give God thanks for the things in your life, but do make it a daily practice.  Each day, spend just two minutes listing the things for which you are thankful.  I guarantee you that in the light of what God has done in your life, the difficult times will seem less so.  I’m not saying that everything will be easier because you take two minutes to thank God every day.  However, if we begin the day with an attitude of thankgiving, we are better equipped to handle the difficult things that are thrown our way each day.  Let’s use this Thanksgiving as a catalyst for a new daily routine in which we remember to say “Thanks.”