I should begin by saying that I am not really very knowledgeable about football.  I enjoy watching it…and given my distaste for violence, I don’t even know why.  Except that in the game of football there are many metaphors for life. The very act of seeking to move forward toward a goal while formidable opposition is lined up against you seems to me to say something about life…individually and corporately.  And watching players literally sacrifice their bodies to move the whole team forward, inches and feet at a time, is inspiring.  Each of our favorite American sports has its own charm and mystique, but the idea that this whole cadre of people is moving strategically together and against an opponent toward a common goal is inspiring.

In the football world, we’ve finished up the college season and our hometown team finished well.  Now we’re moving into the play off season with the professional National Football League teams.  Our hometown teams haven’t fared so well…The Browns may be turning around, but not in time this year.  The Bengals sort of reminded me of the Cubs in August…they looked promising but fell apart at the end.  I’m a Steelers fan and they just couldn’t put together consistent wins.  I lived in Chicago, so I can be a Bears fan, but they didn’t make it either.  So it looks like I can now just enjoy watching the games, with no serious investment in who wins or loses.

But I do have a serious investment in whether or not you and I are progressing in our Christian life.  And I do have a serious passion for whether or not this congregation is moving toward goals that will make us faithful to the call that has been placed upon us by our baptism.  And so, for the next several weeks, we will look at how we can learn from the very basics of football about how to make progress in the Christian life.

The apostle Paul was fond of describing the Christian life using athletic metaphors.  While he shared the ancient Greeks’ fondness for foot races and often employed the metaphor of running the race, he might have used football had he known about it.  The point of the metaphor is that progress in the Christian life requires perseverance, and direction, and will be slowed from time to time by obstacles.

In our current culture, we are inclined to soften the imagery of the Christian life and describe it more as a journey of discovery.  I do think that there are gifts to be received from nurturing our souls into discovery and in understanding our life as a journey.  But our life is not meant to be a random or meandering journey.  There is a goal to the Christian life.

It is a goal that we inherit in our baptism and it requires concentration on the goal and commitment to moving forward for us to approach that goal.

No goal that is worth achieving is ever achieved without challenge.  It is the challenge, though, that makes it interesting, and that gives us a real sense of joy when we accomplish the goal.  What fun would it be to walk out on the field with no defense to read, and just walk the ball into the end zone unopposed?  It wouldn’t be fun.  And it wouldn’t be anything like life.

Humorist Arnold H. Glasow once said, “In life, as in football, you won't go far unless you know where the goalposts are.“  And your best chance of scoring in football is if the goalposts are in front of you.  If your team is lined up looking toward the goalposts, you’re in possession of the ball, and you are clear about which direction you are moving.

Of course, football plays do not always work as planned.  Defense is not to be taken lightly…but in general, you want to be going forwards, with the goal in front you.

Paul says it this way, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”  Paul sees the goal clearly in front of him.

Everybody knows the difference between forwards and backwards, and everybody knows that the future is ahead and the past is behind.  Keeping the goal in front of you is about facing into the future and letting the past be the past.

In life, keeping the goal in front of you is about facing toward the future and understanding that the past is behind you.  Think about it…in football, it would be poor strategy at best for the team with ball to decide they liked it better on their own 20 when they’re on the opponents 40.  No team turns around and goes backwards voluntarily.  They might lose yardage…but the goal stays in front.

In football, if you are going to score, you usually are playing offense.  And the offense always has the goal in front of them.  To go toward the goal, you have to keep it in front of you.

Paul’s text and our metaphor of football invite us to explore two issues today.  1) What is the goal?  How do we recognize it and claim it as worthy of our pursuit?  and 2) what must we keep behind us in order to keep the goal in front of us?

What is the Goal?

The goal is pretty clear in football.  It is to cross the plane of a line with the ball for which your team is awarded six points.  In life, there are sometimes competing goals, and we may have trouble figuring out which one to go toward. We end up pulled in too many directions, and are dissatisfied with our progress on all of them.  Having a specific goal and understanding what it looks like, where it is, and what we gain by achieving it gives purpose to our lives.

Keeping the goal in front of you is what gives you a purposeful life.  Our goal is given to us by our baptism.  Baptism puts us on the team, so to speak.  In baptism we are received into the community of Christian believers which makes us part of something bigger than ourselves and gives us shared goals with others.  In baptism, we are given this blessing “The Holy Spirit work within you that you may become a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.”

The goal is faithfulness to Christ.  Paul describes the nature of this goal as “the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

I wonder what would happen to our lives, to our communities, to our happiness and joy and satisfaction if we could wake up each day and with all sincerity – each and every one of us – dedicate ourselves throughout the day, in all of our tasks, responsibilities and relationships to coming to greater knowledge of Christ; to pursuing the call of God through Christ to love God ourselves and others with all our hearts, souls, strengths and minds.

Keeping this goal in front of us is not as easy as it sounds.  Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, said that “Football is like life.  It requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.”

If I were to paraphrase that for our purposes, I would say it this way:  “The Christian life is like football.  It requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.”

Our authority is Christ.  The apostle Paul provides a model for perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice and dedication.

Nobody signs up for self-denial, hard work, sacrifice and dedication unless the goal is compelling.  Paul clearly found the goal compelling.  He called it the surpassing value.  The goal of knowing Christ Jesus superceded every other goal in Paul’s life.

His decision to keep the goal in front of him meant leaving a great deal behind.

What must we leave behind us in order to keep the goal in front of us?

Paul sets an example for us of what must be left behind.  We must keep behind us our sense that our own efforts alone can move us toward the goal.  Paul left behind a lifetime of following the rules in order to try to prove his own goodness.  All his good work he claimed as loss when compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ.  He regarded his own achievements as rubbish in order that he might claim the righteousness that comes by faith.

If the goal before Paul is new life…which he describes in terms of resurrection…the pathway to that goal is through sharing Christ’s suffering.

Anyone who tells you that embracing the Christian life will not cost you something is not telling you the truth.

Just as football players sacrifice themselves to the pursuit of the goal, so will those who pursue a genuine Christian life be called upon to sacrifice.

Is the sacrifice worth it?  Each one of us has to answer that question for ourselves.

If we decide to embrace the call, and keep the goal in front of us, we will need to put some turf behind us.  We may be called to leave behind old resentments, fears, disappointments, failures and wounds.

We should not underestimate the sacrifice it is to leave such things behind.  We nurse those resentments and disappointments and failures and wounds because they are ours…and they give us a reason to compare ourselves to others, to see ourselves as better than others, to give us a sense of our worth.  We might have to leave behind us some of our own personal achievements…our collections of awards and trophies and honors and recognition that we have falsely believed gave us worth.  They give us recognition…but our worth comes from God.

If we keep the goal in front of us, we have the potential of leaving behind everything that has hurt us, everything that has wounded us, everything that has robbed us of a sense of security.  We have the potential to arrive in the end zone…where we are embraced by God’s love.

This is the assurance that becomes the goal on which we keep our eye:  God loves you.  God claims you.  God has a goal of justice and peace and shalom and holiness in the world, and God wants that justice and peace and holiness and shalom for you…and wants you on the team that’s bringing it to the world.

You can be on the bench.  You can be in the stands.  You can be on the field with the goal behind you.  Or you can be on the field with the goal in front of you.

Either way… the sign of the goal, the goalpost, stands.  It is God’s love.  It is always there.

The question is …where are you in relationship to that goalpost?