The Best Offense Is A Good Defense
Sermon
PROPHETS, PIONEERS AND POSSIBILITIES
Sermons for Pentecost [Last Third]
Reading the title you may jump to the conclusion that I do not know football. To be sure, the saying usually goes: “The best defense is a good offense.”
But consider the plight of Joe Paterno when he became head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions in 1967. He realized that he did not have a squad of outstanding athletes, particularly defensive players. To Paterno, defense was the key to winning football games. What was he to do? In his own words: “I had to find a way of playing great defense without great defensive athletes.”
Therefore, he spent the summer before the season began diagramming hundreds of defensive plans until he hit upon the idea of adding an extra defensive lineman to stop the opponent’s option play in which the quarterback pitches the ball to a halfback or fakes and keeps the ball and runs himself. By adding an extra man to the defensive line, however, this meant that he had only three men in the backfield to guard against the pass. Hence, he devised a zone system whereby the three men would shift to whichever side of the field the ball was thrown.
Paterno went on to win more than 200 victories, including two national championships, in his years as head coach at Penn State. He not only proved his theories about the value of a great defense, but also demonstrated that he was teachable and was flexible, a man willing to correct an unsatisfactory situation when he confronted one.1
Zephaniah, the prophet, had a problem, too. The people to whom he spoke in the city of Jerusalem did not see the need to correct anything. Such an attitude would lead to their downfall. Listen to the prophet’s cry on behalf of his beloved city:
“She listens to no voice, she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord, she does not draw near to her God (3:2).”
That his people could act in this manner was beyond the comprehension of the prophet. After all God had done for them, how could they be so indifferent?
God had given them the law of the covenant grounded in divine mercy to lead them in their personal and social conduct. But this holy law had been violated not only by the people but by their leaders -- officials, judges, priests and even prophets.
Further, God had disclosed providential care in the laws of nature. Each morning and each evening follow with consistency showing that there is order and purpose behind the universe.
Still further, God had intervened on behalf of Judah in her relationship with other seemingly invincible nations. Had the people forgotten the judgment that had come upon other nations, a judgment that would undubitably come upon them if they persisted in their oppressive and uncaring ways?
Zephaniah heard a gracious God sigh: “Surely she will fear me, she will accept correction,” but such was not to be; the prophet sadly observed: “But all the more they were eager to make their deeds corrupt (3:7).”
There is not much that can be done now. The covenant people will have to wait for a later day when the Lord will begin again. In that day people will truly call upon the name of the Lord.
How is it with us today? Are we willing to be corrected by God’s Spirit as we listen to the Scriptures? Are we teachable? Are we willing to accept self-discipline?
In our new congregation we soon learned that not everyone was able to “hack it.” Some people would be curious about our new enterprise of faith. They caught something of the spiritual adventure involved, but after a short time it soon became evident that much of the new church development was not glamorous but rather was a mix of hard work, self-discipline and continuing sacrifice. Not everyone who first showed interest was able to accept these conditions, and they eventually dropped out.
What does happen when we are willing to let God correct and teach us? What are some of the dominant features of disciplined people?
Disciplined People Are Liberated
First of all, disciplined people are liberated.
“Where is Nolan Ryan?” the reporters asked. He had just pitched a no-hit game (Monday, June 11, 1990). At 43 he was the oldest major league pitcher to throw a no-hitter. Besides being the all-time strike out pitcher in major league baseball, it was nothing new for him to pitch a no-hitter, this one was the sixth of his career.
Now the game was over. The reporters flooded the Texas Rangers’ clubhouse to interview the hero of the hour. They found him in the middle of the clubhouse riding his stationary bicycle. He explained to them: “You don’t deviate from your routine.”
People, like Nolan Ryan, who take discipline seriously, do not have the sense of being enslaved but rather they have the sense of being liberated. The underlying purpose of discipline is to set us free.
Water that is undisciplined, free to wander wherever it wishes, ends in a swamp. Water that is disciplined, hedged in on each side by strong banks, becomes a mighty river that flows toward a certain destination. Likewise, our lives without structure become swampy and ineffective.
Richard Foster helps us to visualize what positive discipline is by drawing a picture of a narrow ledge with a sheer drop-off on either side. The chasm on the right side is a way of life marked by human striving after righteousness, the teaching of moralism. The chasm on the left side is a way characterized by the absence of human striving, the teaching of antinomianism, that is there is no law. On the ledge itself is the path of discipline that leads to transformation, healing and freedom. To this vivid picture Forest adds the caveat: “We must always remember that the path does not produce the change; it only puts us in the place where the change can occur. This is the way of disciplined grace.”2
While affirming discipline as liberation we might add a footnote of our own, namely that genuinely disciplined people also have a sense of humor and are willing to give and take.
Winston Churchill once received an invitation to attend the opening performance of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion. Shaw wired him: “Am reserving two tickets for you for my premiere. Come and bring a friend -- if you have one.” Churchill wired back: “Impossible to be present for the first performance. Will attend the second -- if there is one.”
Disciplined people follow a path with persistence but they also have their moments of lighthearted detachment from life that can be liberating, too.
Disciplined People Are Flexible
Second, disciplined people are flexible.
Leo Buscaglia readily concedes that his college students become frustrated with him when he changes his mind. “When my students raise their hands, and say, ‘That isn’t what you said Tuesday.’ I say, ‘I know. I’ve grown since Tuesday. Do you expect me to be last Tuesday’s Leo today?’ ”3
Disciplined people may have strong convictions and be willing to express them, but they also have the capacity to modify these convictions if they receive new truth.
Many of us have had to grapple with rigid thinking. Probably for many of us the practice goes back to childhood. Once we had made up our mind on something we did not like to change it. In fact, we might have feared changing it. New evidence that threatened to undermine our cherished ideas was unsettling. Far better for us to remain in our original thought patterns than to venture forth into the uncertain and often painful task of revising our ideas. We often reason that at least we can manage our small and restricted world.
On the other hand, disciplined people realize that learning is a lifetime occupation. We are never through learning something new. We undoubtedly would prefer if everything stayed the same, but we soon come to fathom that change is a constant in life. The world around us changes, and we must not be afraid to incorporate into our own world and life view changes that will enrich our own adventure of faith.
In our day when the Christian life often is depicted in soft, sentimental and simplistic terms it is refreshing to reread John Bunyan’s remarkable allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress. In his imaginative story Christian meets friends, such as Faithful and Hopeful, but he also encounters Worldly Wiseman, Hypocrisy and Giant Despair. Christian is never certain what might be around the next corner -- Vanity Fair or the Slough of Despond. He must be adaptable and resilient. In the end, despite all adversities, God’s Spirit enables him to overcome and enter the Celestial City.
A short time ago I heard Bernie Siegel give a lecture to about 500 people. Dr. Siegel is the New Haven, Connecticut, surgeon who has helped many people afflicted with cancer with his emphasis upon faith, love and hope. During the course of the lecture he told the story of a teenager named Susan who moved to a new house, and her mother insisted that she do volunteer work during the summer. She went to the local nursing home where she was asked to read to a Mr. Johnson. She went to his room and introduced herself. She asked him how he was. His reply was “I’m all right so far.”
She wondered what he meant by that expression. He proceeded to tell her a story. “I’m like the man who falls out of a window at the top of a 30-story building. Each floor he goes by, people lean out and say, ‘How are you?’ And the man replies, ‘I’m all right so far.’ ”
Siegel tells his cancer patients and others he works with that the attitude of saying “I’m all right so far” can get you through a lot of things. Such an attitude is an open rather than a closed view of life that is bound to have a salutary effect not only on our physical health but on our whole being.
Disciplined people are flexible.
Disciplined People Are Creative
Finally, disciplined people are creative.
In 1890 a Canadian named James Naismith was faced with a career decision as he neared the completion of his senior year as a Presbyterian theological student in Montreal. Was he to seek a pastorate upon graduation or was he to follow what he was coming to suspect was the prompting of God’s Spirit to seek a Christian calling in the field of athletics?
Shocking not a few of his professors, Naismith resolved his dilemma by choosing the latter course. He enrolled in a recently-opened Y.M.C.A. training school in Springfield, Massachusetts, now called Springfield College. The school combined an emphasis upon both spiritual and physical development. Naismith was a superior athlete in soccer, lacrosse and other team sports. Soon after going to the school as a student who had already completed seven years of higher education, he was appointed to the faculty of this pioneer institution in teaching physical education.
One day Luther Glick, the president of the college, gave Naismith an unwanted assignment. Naismith was charged with teaching a winter term class of rebellious students who hated the endless calisthenics associated with the class. Glick hinted that the young instructor might create a new game that the students could play during the long New England winter.
Naismith was a disciplined person, and he went about his task in systematic fashion. First, he tried to adapt children’s games for adult use but the students only mocked his efforts. Next, he experimented with outdoor adult sports and sought to apply them to an indoor setting but these efforts proved to be unsatisfactory, too. Finally, he decided, if possible, to invent an entirely new game. He had in mind a game less violent than the ones he was accustomed to playing, one that would require team spirit and new skills. He drew up a simple set of 13 rules which he posted on the bulletin board. Then, to the astonishment of his students, he proceeded to nail two peach baskets at either end of the Springfield gym. He had his players, nine on either side, dressed in long, gray trousers and short-sleeved jerseys, line up to play the first basketball game ever in December, 1891.4
Disciplined people have been led to make creative contributions not only in the realm of sports but in all aspects of life. They may not know at first just where God is leading them, but their discipline keeps them plodding along until the inventive movement comes.
Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury in a recent book on writing has a great deal to say about the value of discipline for the creative person. He observes that behind the remarkable artistic achievements of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were thousands and thousands of unknown sketches. He calls our attention to the surgeon who before he operates on a human being in a critical condition has dissected and redissected thousands of tissues and organs preparing himself for the crucial moment. Bradbury sums up his point in these words: “eventually quantity will make for quality.”5
The quantity of those endless sketches and dissections is what makes for the quality of the masterpieces of portraits and landscapes and the precise skill of the surgeon under fire.
Our nation was founded by disciplined people. The pilgrims were a people whose lives were captive to the Scriptures. In 1620 when they left England they did not sail directly to the new world. Instead, they went to Holland to say goodbye to colleagues who had fled there in an earlier day of persecution. John Robinson, their pastor, preached a sermon to them before they set sail in the Mayflower for America. Among other things he said: “The Lord hath more light yet to break forth out of his Holy Word.”
It is not surprising therefore that people who received such a charge would be open to creative possibilities with regard to church and state on the other side of the Atlantic. They firmly believed God’s providence had led them to their own errand in the wilderness. We are profoundly indebted to these disciplined and creative men and women in their own day.
God would like to liberate us, too. God would like us to be flexible and open individuals. God would like us to become the creative people we were designed to be.
Are we willing to be corrected? Are we willing to be disciplined for the glory of God?
But consider the plight of Joe Paterno when he became head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions in 1967. He realized that he did not have a squad of outstanding athletes, particularly defensive players. To Paterno, defense was the key to winning football games. What was he to do? In his own words: “I had to find a way of playing great defense without great defensive athletes.”
Therefore, he spent the summer before the season began diagramming hundreds of defensive plans until he hit upon the idea of adding an extra defensive lineman to stop the opponent’s option play in which the quarterback pitches the ball to a halfback or fakes and keeps the ball and runs himself. By adding an extra man to the defensive line, however, this meant that he had only three men in the backfield to guard against the pass. Hence, he devised a zone system whereby the three men would shift to whichever side of the field the ball was thrown.
Paterno went on to win more than 200 victories, including two national championships, in his years as head coach at Penn State. He not only proved his theories about the value of a great defense, but also demonstrated that he was teachable and was flexible, a man willing to correct an unsatisfactory situation when he confronted one.1
Zephaniah, the prophet, had a problem, too. The people to whom he spoke in the city of Jerusalem did not see the need to correct anything. Such an attitude would lead to their downfall. Listen to the prophet’s cry on behalf of his beloved city:
“She listens to no voice, she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord, she does not draw near to her God (3:2).”
That his people could act in this manner was beyond the comprehension of the prophet. After all God had done for them, how could they be so indifferent?
God had given them the law of the covenant grounded in divine mercy to lead them in their personal and social conduct. But this holy law had been violated not only by the people but by their leaders -- officials, judges, priests and even prophets.
Further, God had disclosed providential care in the laws of nature. Each morning and each evening follow with consistency showing that there is order and purpose behind the universe.
Still further, God had intervened on behalf of Judah in her relationship with other seemingly invincible nations. Had the people forgotten the judgment that had come upon other nations, a judgment that would undubitably come upon them if they persisted in their oppressive and uncaring ways?
Zephaniah heard a gracious God sigh: “Surely she will fear me, she will accept correction,” but such was not to be; the prophet sadly observed: “But all the more they were eager to make their deeds corrupt (3:7).”
There is not much that can be done now. The covenant people will have to wait for a later day when the Lord will begin again. In that day people will truly call upon the name of the Lord.
How is it with us today? Are we willing to be corrected by God’s Spirit as we listen to the Scriptures? Are we teachable? Are we willing to accept self-discipline?
In our new congregation we soon learned that not everyone was able to “hack it.” Some people would be curious about our new enterprise of faith. They caught something of the spiritual adventure involved, but after a short time it soon became evident that much of the new church development was not glamorous but rather was a mix of hard work, self-discipline and continuing sacrifice. Not everyone who first showed interest was able to accept these conditions, and they eventually dropped out.
What does happen when we are willing to let God correct and teach us? What are some of the dominant features of disciplined people?
Disciplined People Are Liberated
First of all, disciplined people are liberated.
“Where is Nolan Ryan?” the reporters asked. He had just pitched a no-hit game (Monday, June 11, 1990). At 43 he was the oldest major league pitcher to throw a no-hitter. Besides being the all-time strike out pitcher in major league baseball, it was nothing new for him to pitch a no-hitter, this one was the sixth of his career.
Now the game was over. The reporters flooded the Texas Rangers’ clubhouse to interview the hero of the hour. They found him in the middle of the clubhouse riding his stationary bicycle. He explained to them: “You don’t deviate from your routine.”
People, like Nolan Ryan, who take discipline seriously, do not have the sense of being enslaved but rather they have the sense of being liberated. The underlying purpose of discipline is to set us free.
Water that is undisciplined, free to wander wherever it wishes, ends in a swamp. Water that is disciplined, hedged in on each side by strong banks, becomes a mighty river that flows toward a certain destination. Likewise, our lives without structure become swampy and ineffective.
Richard Foster helps us to visualize what positive discipline is by drawing a picture of a narrow ledge with a sheer drop-off on either side. The chasm on the right side is a way of life marked by human striving after righteousness, the teaching of moralism. The chasm on the left side is a way characterized by the absence of human striving, the teaching of antinomianism, that is there is no law. On the ledge itself is the path of discipline that leads to transformation, healing and freedom. To this vivid picture Forest adds the caveat: “We must always remember that the path does not produce the change; it only puts us in the place where the change can occur. This is the way of disciplined grace.”2
While affirming discipline as liberation we might add a footnote of our own, namely that genuinely disciplined people also have a sense of humor and are willing to give and take.
Winston Churchill once received an invitation to attend the opening performance of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion. Shaw wired him: “Am reserving two tickets for you for my premiere. Come and bring a friend -- if you have one.” Churchill wired back: “Impossible to be present for the first performance. Will attend the second -- if there is one.”
Disciplined people follow a path with persistence but they also have their moments of lighthearted detachment from life that can be liberating, too.
Disciplined People Are Flexible
Second, disciplined people are flexible.
Leo Buscaglia readily concedes that his college students become frustrated with him when he changes his mind. “When my students raise their hands, and say, ‘That isn’t what you said Tuesday.’ I say, ‘I know. I’ve grown since Tuesday. Do you expect me to be last Tuesday’s Leo today?’ ”3
Disciplined people may have strong convictions and be willing to express them, but they also have the capacity to modify these convictions if they receive new truth.
Many of us have had to grapple with rigid thinking. Probably for many of us the practice goes back to childhood. Once we had made up our mind on something we did not like to change it. In fact, we might have feared changing it. New evidence that threatened to undermine our cherished ideas was unsettling. Far better for us to remain in our original thought patterns than to venture forth into the uncertain and often painful task of revising our ideas. We often reason that at least we can manage our small and restricted world.
On the other hand, disciplined people realize that learning is a lifetime occupation. We are never through learning something new. We undoubtedly would prefer if everything stayed the same, but we soon come to fathom that change is a constant in life. The world around us changes, and we must not be afraid to incorporate into our own world and life view changes that will enrich our own adventure of faith.
In our day when the Christian life often is depicted in soft, sentimental and simplistic terms it is refreshing to reread John Bunyan’s remarkable allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress. In his imaginative story Christian meets friends, such as Faithful and Hopeful, but he also encounters Worldly Wiseman, Hypocrisy and Giant Despair. Christian is never certain what might be around the next corner -- Vanity Fair or the Slough of Despond. He must be adaptable and resilient. In the end, despite all adversities, God’s Spirit enables him to overcome and enter the Celestial City.
A short time ago I heard Bernie Siegel give a lecture to about 500 people. Dr. Siegel is the New Haven, Connecticut, surgeon who has helped many people afflicted with cancer with his emphasis upon faith, love and hope. During the course of the lecture he told the story of a teenager named Susan who moved to a new house, and her mother insisted that she do volunteer work during the summer. She went to the local nursing home where she was asked to read to a Mr. Johnson. She went to his room and introduced herself. She asked him how he was. His reply was “I’m all right so far.”
She wondered what he meant by that expression. He proceeded to tell her a story. “I’m like the man who falls out of a window at the top of a 30-story building. Each floor he goes by, people lean out and say, ‘How are you?’ And the man replies, ‘I’m all right so far.’ ”
Siegel tells his cancer patients and others he works with that the attitude of saying “I’m all right so far” can get you through a lot of things. Such an attitude is an open rather than a closed view of life that is bound to have a salutary effect not only on our physical health but on our whole being.
Disciplined people are flexible.
Disciplined People Are Creative
Finally, disciplined people are creative.
In 1890 a Canadian named James Naismith was faced with a career decision as he neared the completion of his senior year as a Presbyterian theological student in Montreal. Was he to seek a pastorate upon graduation or was he to follow what he was coming to suspect was the prompting of God’s Spirit to seek a Christian calling in the field of athletics?
Shocking not a few of his professors, Naismith resolved his dilemma by choosing the latter course. He enrolled in a recently-opened Y.M.C.A. training school in Springfield, Massachusetts, now called Springfield College. The school combined an emphasis upon both spiritual and physical development. Naismith was a superior athlete in soccer, lacrosse and other team sports. Soon after going to the school as a student who had already completed seven years of higher education, he was appointed to the faculty of this pioneer institution in teaching physical education.
One day Luther Glick, the president of the college, gave Naismith an unwanted assignment. Naismith was charged with teaching a winter term class of rebellious students who hated the endless calisthenics associated with the class. Glick hinted that the young instructor might create a new game that the students could play during the long New England winter.
Naismith was a disciplined person, and he went about his task in systematic fashion. First, he tried to adapt children’s games for adult use but the students only mocked his efforts. Next, he experimented with outdoor adult sports and sought to apply them to an indoor setting but these efforts proved to be unsatisfactory, too. Finally, he decided, if possible, to invent an entirely new game. He had in mind a game less violent than the ones he was accustomed to playing, one that would require team spirit and new skills. He drew up a simple set of 13 rules which he posted on the bulletin board. Then, to the astonishment of his students, he proceeded to nail two peach baskets at either end of the Springfield gym. He had his players, nine on either side, dressed in long, gray trousers and short-sleeved jerseys, line up to play the first basketball game ever in December, 1891.4
Disciplined people have been led to make creative contributions not only in the realm of sports but in all aspects of life. They may not know at first just where God is leading them, but their discipline keeps them plodding along until the inventive movement comes.
Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury in a recent book on writing has a great deal to say about the value of discipline for the creative person. He observes that behind the remarkable artistic achievements of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were thousands and thousands of unknown sketches. He calls our attention to the surgeon who before he operates on a human being in a critical condition has dissected and redissected thousands of tissues and organs preparing himself for the crucial moment. Bradbury sums up his point in these words: “eventually quantity will make for quality.”5
The quantity of those endless sketches and dissections is what makes for the quality of the masterpieces of portraits and landscapes and the precise skill of the surgeon under fire.
Our nation was founded by disciplined people. The pilgrims were a people whose lives were captive to the Scriptures. In 1620 when they left England they did not sail directly to the new world. Instead, they went to Holland to say goodbye to colleagues who had fled there in an earlier day of persecution. John Robinson, their pastor, preached a sermon to them before they set sail in the Mayflower for America. Among other things he said: “The Lord hath more light yet to break forth out of his Holy Word.”
It is not surprising therefore that people who received such a charge would be open to creative possibilities with regard to church and state on the other side of the Atlantic. They firmly believed God’s providence had led them to their own errand in the wilderness. We are profoundly indebted to these disciplined and creative men and women in their own day.
God would like to liberate us, too. God would like us to be flexible and open individuals. God would like us to become the creative people we were designed to be.
Are we willing to be corrected? Are we willing to be disciplined for the glory of God?
