How to Make God’s Olympic Team Spiritual Olympics Sermon Series #1 August 8, 2004 This Friday is the beginning of the Summer Olympics. Because NBC paid 872 kajillion dollars for the broadcast rights, they and their sister networks will be bringing you something like 1200 hours of coverage. This morning is the beginning of the Spiritual Olympics sermon series. It will involve slightly less coverage—between 1 and 2 hours of sermons—but the price will be right—free. Friday evening will be the Opening Ceremonies, when all the athletes walk into the stadium with the flags of their respective countries. It can be a stirring display, perhaps especially so because as you watch those athletes walk into the stadium, you know how they got there. You know how it was that they gained this right to walk into the stadium as “an Olympian.” It wasn’t about how much money they had or who they knew. They didn’t buy or schmooze their way onto the Olympic team. They earned it. There is a purity to the format of the Olympic Trials which determine the Olympic team. Take the swimming trials, for example. When the gun goes off for that 400-meter freestyle, everyone knows the scenario. Finish in the top 2, and you have earned your spot in the Olympics—a spot that no one can take away from you. It’s yours and you deserve it. You have earned the right to be called “an Olympian.” That sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it—being on the Olympic team, that is? The pomp, the circumstance, the prestige of being able to have the word “Olympian” attached to your name for the rest of your life? Is there a one of us here today who wouldn’t like to be an Olympian? So why don’t you become an Olympian? There are at least a couple reasons, aren’t there? One is that becoming an Olympian isn’t easy. None of the athletes you see walking into the stadium on Friday night just decided back in, say, April that they’d like to be on the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team or the U.S. Olympic swimming team. No, they trained and trained and trained for hours and hours and hours—and they did this for years on end. They pursued their goal with a focus that was laser-like and a commitment that was complete. One of the reasons that you aren’t an Olympian is because you just don’t have the sort of desire and commitment necessary to be an Olympian. Oh, sometimes, on occasion, we might have the desire to do whatever it takes. But all too often we don’t have the desire and we would choose instead to lie down on the couch, remote control in one hand, a family pack of Ding Dongs in the other, and lose ourselves in the Bugs Bunny marathon on the Cartoon Network. Even if we did have the desire and focus necessary an Olympian needs, most of us are missing another thing that an Olympian needs—natural ability. I read recently about a swimmer—I believe it was Ian Thorpe from Australia—who was described as being as close as humanity has come to creating an amphibian. In addition to having the perfect build for a swimmer, he has a huge wingspan, large feet that serve as awesome propellers, and a lung capacity that is almost unheard of. If Ian Thorpe had the perfect build for a bowling ball, a tiny little wingspan, dainty feet, and the lung capacity of a chain smoker, all the desire in the world wouldn’t make a difference. So also with us— even if we did have the desire, we do not have the natural ability necessary to become an Olympian. Both things have to be there—the ability and the desire. If you have no ability, the cold hard fact is that all the desire in the world wouldn’t make a difference. And if you have the ability but something less than burning desire, you will fall short. Depending on how much natural ability you have, you might be able to get pretty close even with a lack of desire and commitment. But in the end you will fall short. Face it—you’re not and you won’t ever be on the U.S. Olympic team. You simply don’t “have it in you.” There is, of course, a team even more important than the Olympic team. As awesome as it would be to walk into the Olympic stadium in Athens wearing the red, white and blue that proves we are a member of the United States Olympic team, there is an even more prestigious team out there—God’s team. What does it take to be on God’s Olympic team? What’s it take to be able to walk around under the flag of God’s people? Well, as with the U.S. Olympic Team, you have to earn it. And to do that you will need to have the same two things it takes to make the U.S. Olympic Team—desire and ability--the desire and the ability to live up to the standards that God has set. Paul makes it clear that meeting the standards, following the rules that God has set is critical to our making God’s Olympic Team. He writes, “If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules. (2 Timothy 2:5) Now everyone knows that God has given some rules for living—commands about not cheating on your spouse, commands about not taking your neighbor’s stuff, commands about telling the truth, and so on. But what standard of obedience to those rules has God set? Some people would like to think that God operates like the Olympic trials for archery. And in some ways they’re right—for God has certainly given us a target for which to aim—a bullseye to hit. And that bullseye is perfection. But of course everyone knows that while a Olympic hopeful may hit the bullseye once, twice, maybe even five times in a row, they won’t hit the bullseye every…single…time. That’s why there are points given for coming close to the bullseye. And finally, hitting the bullseye every single time isn’t that important. Just hitting it more often and/or coming closer than everyone else is what’s important. As long as you come closer to perfection than everyone else, you’re in. But that’s not how God operates when choosing people for his Olympic team. Maybe you feel that while you don’t hit the bullseye every time and while some times you don’t even come close to the target, much less the bullseye—maybe you feel that you’re still doing better than those around you, and that due to your high finish God will put you on his team. But every time you miss the mark—even by a little—God calls that “sin.” (That’s really what the Greek word translated sin means—“missing the mark.”) And when you do that, God considers you to be the worst spiritual archer ever. He says, “Whoever keeps the whole law [scores bullseye after bullseye] and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). You see, you’re not in competition with others—you’re in competition with God’s standards. And the standard he has set for being on his team are standards of absolute perfection. If you perform perfectly during the Olympic trial called life, you’re on God’s team. If not…well, you don’t need to make any travel plans for heaven, because you won’t be on the team entering that stadium. So do you have the desire and the ability? Oh, sometimes we might have the desire, but all too often we lie down in laziness, snacking on the junk food of gossip and lies with a marathon of double entendres and in-your-face immorality on the screen in front of us. And that sort of on-again, off-again commitment isn’t going to earn us a spot on God’s team any more than it will earn us a spot on the Olympic team. But what about the ability to meet God’s standards of perfection? Do we at least have that? We don’t. Born with sinful minds, we are actually unable to submit to, to truly keep God’s law. (Romans 8:7) We simply don’t “have it in us.” And so what hope can we really have? Just as with making the Olympic team, making God’s team is about how you perform—and we haven’t performed well enough. Making God’s team isn’t about who you know or how much money you have—just like with making the Olympic team. Unless your name is Ian Thorpe. You might remember that I mentioned him before. He’s the swimmer from Australia who has been described as being just about the perfect swimmer. He has both the necessary desire and the necessary ability. But the Olympic Trials are an unforgiving thing, and just one slip-up cost him his spot on the Australian Olympic team. In a heat of the 400-meter freestyle—an event in which he held the world record, his best event, he false-started and was disqualified. As a result, a man named Craig Stevens won the last spot on the Australian Olympic Team. In fact, we would have to admit that he had earned a spot on the Olympic team. There were no complaints from Ian Thorpe, for he knew that the process and the outcome was entirely fair. He had been given the opportunity to earn a spot on the Olympic team, and he—he and no one else—had failed to do so. But while there were no complaints, there was certainly devastating heartbreak that came from knowing he had missed the opportunity of a lifetime. But then—according to the individuals involved and according to news reports— entirely on his own, Craig Stevens gave up his place on the Olympic team so that Ian Thorpe could have it. Thorpe didn’t deserve it, he had not earned it, and he had absolutely no claim to it, but he was given it, received it by the grace of Craig Stevens. Craig Stevens deserved it, had earned it, and had a sure claim to it, but he willingly relinquished it. I guess sometimes making the Olympic team is about who you know. The same is true of making God’s team. It’s all about knowing Jesus. Jesus, you see, already had a place on God’s team, already had a place in heaven, already was in heaven, in fact. But he gave up his spot in order to come down to earth as true man. He lived here for 33 years under the same rules, regulations, and commandments as we had—as the writer of Hebrews says, Jesus was “tempted in every way, just as we are”-- and yet he lived up to the standard of perfection that God had set—as the writer of Hebrews says, “was without sins.” (Hebrews 4:15). Therefore he earned a place on God’s team—the one going to heaven. And then—according to the individuals involved and according to news reports found in the Bible—entirely on his own, he willingly gave up his place in heaven so that we could have it. He gave us his perfection so that we might become God’s Olympians. We didn’t deserve it, we didn’t earn it, and we had absolutely no claim to it, but we were given it, received it by the grace of God. Jesus deserved it, had earned it, and had a sure claim to it, but he willingly relinquished it. Just as what Craig Stevens did in giving up the spot he had earned is pretty amazing, what Jesus did in giving up the spot he had earned is pretty amazing. But there are some essential differences between the two. Craig Stevens gave up his place for Ian Thorpe because Thorpe is an outstanding swimmer who just caught one bad break, just made one slip-up. That’s hardly the case with us—that Jesus gave himself up for people who had just caught one bad break. No, we hadn’t caught the bad break, we had created it—and not just one, but thousands of them. And yet he gave himself up for us. Also, Craig Stevens did not exactly give up his membership on the Olympic team. He didn’t give up a trip to Athens. By giving up his spot, he didn’t consign himself to the misery of sitting at home watching the Opening Ceremonies on TV. No, he had still qualified in the 1500-meter freestyle and the 4 X 200 meter freestyle. Jesus, on the other hand, received a trip to hell. And then keep this in mind. Craig Stevens gave up his spot for someone who was his friend, who had been a friend to him for years. Ian Thorpe had undoubtedly done little favors for Craig Stevens for years, so when Stevens had the chance to do a big favor for Thorpe, his past with Thorpe gave him good reason to do so. We, on the other hand, had hardly been good friends of Jesus. In fact, the Bible says that we were “God’s enemies” (Romans 5:10). What Craig Stevens did in giving up his spot for Ian Thorpe is not the equivalent of what Jesus did in giving up his spot for you. If the Steelers were to give up their spot in the playoffs so their enemies the Browns could go, we’d be getting closer to it. But what Jesus did was way more than that. Maybe as close as we can come to describing it would be if after Saddam Hussein is found guilty, President Bush would give up his life so Saddam could go free. That begins to describe what Jesus did for us in giving us a spot on God’s Olympic team. Yes, what Jesus did for us is pretty amazing—and thought ought to make us ecstatic. Imagine how Ian Thorpe felt—from the depths of despair to unbelievable joy due to an act of Craig Stevens’ grace. Now consider that you’d have to multiply that by about 1000 to reach the depths of our despair, and you can see why our joy is about 1000 times as great. This morning there will be a procession out of church. It will probably be a bit less orderly than the one you’ll see on Friday night. But it will be a procession of people who are on God’s team. As you look at each one of them, know how they got there— Jesus earned it for them and gave it to them. And then may your heart burst with joy and excitement, because you also are one of God’s Olympians, because Jesus has earned and given you a spot on the team. Amen.