Texts: Isaiah 6: 1-8 Luke 5:1-11

Ann Ferrell Lewis First Presbyterian Church February 4, 2007

Abundant Livin!!

More than once the Super Bowl phenomena has been referred to in religious terms. The title of an article that appeared in yesterday's Seattle Times referred to it as "the holiest day of the season." Joseph Price, a religion professor at Whittier College in California points out what makes the Super Bowl akin to a religious experience in American Culture. "Fans become pilgrims, seeking spiritual healing. The game functions as a pilgrimage center, rituals abound."l Religion has pervaded football terms, you have a "Hail Mary pass," "T ouchdown Jesus," the "Immaculate Reception." And today the anticipated 90 million Americans who gather around their television altars to watch the big game will rival the number of Americans in worship this morning. With the enormous amount of money spent on promotions and advertising, with the game tin1e extravaganzas featuring celebrities like Prince, the Super Bowl is all about excess and abundance. To someone like myself, who is not particularly a sports enthusiast, the hype surrounding the Super Bowl seems extreme. And all for what? One team will ascend the throne to claim the crown of victory, and the other will spend the rest of the year wishing they could relive some of those moments so that they could have another chance to catch that pass, or run that play. And after every last instant replay, and the final analysis of each commercial, the nation will return to work tomorrow, some with hoarse voices, some energized, some depressed, some partied out, but they will all go back to face the reality that win or lose, life remains unchanged.

At risk of offending those of you, who like my husband and sons, are likely to spend this afternoon glued to the TV, I offer my opinion that the excess of the Super Bowl is symptomatic of what drives much of our culture and our economy: competition, consumerism, and conquest. It is intriguing to me that in spite of the technological advances of the last 30 years, we are working more hours, we're deeper in debt, and under more stress. We work more hours to buy more things that promise to entertain us in the leisure hours that continue to shrink. Can it be that we are all dreaming the impossible dream of thinking that happiness will be achieved when we are

1 Greg Bishop, "It's the holiest day of the season," The Seattle Times, Saturday, Feb. 3,2007, DI and D6.

able to move into a castle sized home filled with the latest gadgets that promise to make our lives easier and keep us entertained? Why is it that today the average home is nearly twice the size of homes in 1949, but that people aren't any happier? Did you know that the average citizen of an industrial nation consumes 300 shopping bags of natural resources a week? But our elevated rate of consumption seems to have no correlation to our happiness. In fact the number of people surveyed by the National Opinion Research Center who described their life as "very happy" has declined from 35% to 30% in the last 50 years. 2

It seems that for all of the abundance of things that fill our lives, we live in an age in which happiness is in short supply. Our age of abundance is an age of scarcity. Weare fishing for food that feeds our souls, and we are coming up empty handed. The words of Jesus in our gospel story tell us that we will not find sustenance in the shallow waters, but if we 'go to the deeper waters - there we will fmd an abundance of food.

Interestingly, some of the key figures in this year's Super Bowl game proclaim this truth. You probably are aware that both Tony Dungy, the head coach for the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith, the head coach for the Chicago Bears are faithful Christians who count one another as close friends. Today each will have a microphone to bear witness to our shared faith in Christ, to illustrate the virtues of humility, mutual respect, and friendship. Human interest stories are sure to be aired that demonstrate how each coach and many of their players have arisen above personal loss and grief by their understanding of the hope that comes from Jesus Christ. For Dungy, it was the loss of his son, James, who took his own life in 2005. Dungy responded to this great loss, with an even deeper commitment to be a faithful disciple. And he says that by continuing to believe and trust in God in the face of such deep loss and disappointment "Makes that final destination that much sweeter." Both coaches have made it clear that the order of priorities in their lives are faith first, family second, and occupation third. One time in a job interview Dungy was asked, "If you get this job, is it going to be the most important thing in your life? Are you going to treat my team as the very most important thing?" Dungy replied, "No, I'm not." He didn't get the job. Dungy says, "For your faith to be more important than your job, for your family to be more important than that job ... we all know

2 Scan Shcchanhttp, "Sustainable Consumption: A New Dream for Americans of Today and Tomorrow." SATYA, Oct., 1997, accessed Feb. 3, 2007 at www.satyamag.com/oct97/dream.html

that's the way it should be, but we're afraid to say that sometimes. Lovie's not afraid to say it and I'm not afraid to say it ( either).,,3

This is why I just might watch the Super Bowl today ... because these are the kind of heroes we need - men who are Christian leaders, who have demonstrated the courage that it takes to follow Jesus. I'll be interested in seeing how they each use this opportunity to give witness to their faith.

When Peter, James, and John, and their fishermen friends hauled in that great catch of fish, they were overwhelmed by the abundance when hours earlier they had been bemoaning the scarcity of fish. And Jesus used that moment to clarify the call of his disciples. "From now on you will be catching people," he says.

In our own congregation, our session has been exploring how we can grow into becoming the kind of congregation that helps people clarify their call to ministry. We've been asking how can we raise up in our midst men and women who are aware of their gifts and enthusiastic about serving as leaders? And we recognize that if we are the kind of church that is cultivating Christian leaders, we would also be the kind of church that is not afraid to venture into the deep waters of faith, to explore the depths of scripture, to dive into worship, to sail outward in mission, and to cast the nets wide and deep to draw others closer to Christ. One of the ways we sense God leading us to do that is through the formation of intentional small groups, which will offer an opportunity to fish the deep waters of faith, and in doing so discover a way to live more abundantly. We encourage you to begin this Lent, by signing up for a small group. We also encourage you to respond to the call of Jesus - to become fishers of men and women, of children and teens, of the wide-eyed and weary, of the hurt and the hungry. You know there's a lot of good fishing right in your own neighborhood. And who knows how the simple words, "Come and see" might lead another to discover the abundant life we have in Jesus Christ.

When Jesus went fishing that day, it was at the end of a long day, when the crowds pressed upon him. They were hungry for his words, hungry to be in his presence. He fed their spirits, then he went fishing - and although the story doesn't say what the disciples did with two boat loads full

3 Mike Garafola, "Buyoed by shared faith." The Seattle Times, Saturday, February 03, 2007, B3.