It’s How You Play the Game – Reverend Anne Rosebrock
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Picture O’Hare International Airport on a Friday afternoon: many of the flights had been
delayed; people were extremely irritated; there were few places to sit.
I was walking in a group
of strangers – four of them. We had picked up the same stride and were going the same
direction at about the same pace. We just happened to be walking through the airport
together. I could hear, coming from behind us, someone who was running. He was moving
through the airport, and as he came around us, he bumped one of the people in-line with me.
We must have looked like dominoes, because when he was bumped, then he bumped the
person next to him. None of us fell over, but all of us were looking to get our footing. We all
stopped, delighted we had not fallen. The man running just kept on going. We paused for a
moment and watched as that man raced through the terminal.
He had on a backpack, and a boarding pass in his backpack fell out onto the floor. The man
next to me yelled, “Sir! Sir! Wait! You dropped your boarding pass!” The man kept running. I had
at least two hours to wait, so I knew what I ought to do. People were beginning to walk over the
boarding pass, not noticing it, so I went and picked it up and started running (which I don’t do a
lot of anymore). As it was bound to happen, this man was running to the last gate in the
concourse. Yes, we ran and ran and ran. When I finally caught up with him, he was just about
to step onto the jet way. I said, “Sir! Sir! Wait! I have your boarding pass!” I did not expect him to
be eternally grateful, but I expected a little “Thank you”… right?
So he comes up, takes the boarding pass, and says, “Well, this would have been important if I
didn’t have a duplicate.” He turned around and walked down the jet way. I thought to myself,
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It’s How You Play the Game – Reverend Anne Rosebrock
Sunday, August 31, 2014
“I never want to play Monopoly with him! I don’t want to sit on an airplane next to him! I don’t
want to eat dinner with him! That man needs to work on his people skills.”
We all know someone like that. We encounter them here-and-there. They’re irritating. They’re
people we like to avoid. They’re not the people we’d like to sit next to playing a board game.
They’re too competitive or rude; they’re arrogant or judgmental. You fill in the blank. You know
what it is that irritates you. You know what you don’t like about them. The question this morning
is: “Who feels that way about you (or me)?” Let us pray…
We want to follow You, God, and yet there are those moments when we do not offer a gracious
spirit to you or to others. So, in this morning, may this communion table of grace remind us who
we are as we ask forgiveness; and, inspire us to whom we may become by your holy grace. In
the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Mr. Monopoly is right: it’s easier to lose to someone who’s diplomatic, gracious, careful; who’s
considerate. It’s easier to sit next to that person at a board game or in life. It’s easier to lose to
someone who is living out the love of God. It smacks of that old adage – “It’s not whether you
win or lose; it’s how you play the game.”
There’s an interesting book entitled, It’s How You Play the Game. It’s about important moments
that have shaped the lives of sports persons, political people, and famous people. Each person
has a chapter. One of the chapters is based on the words of football player John Lynch. Lynch
played in the NFL as a safety; he played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Denver
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It’s How You Play the Game – Reverend Anne Rosebrock
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Broncos. He was in the Pro Bowl nine times in his career and he was on a winning Super Bowl
team in 2003. In the book he talks not so much about those great moments, but about a terrible
defeat and how that became a defining moment in his life.
It was 2005 and the Broncos had just one team to beat before going to the Super Bowl. They
had to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. Lynch said they felt confident as they began the game, but
then he says: “We lost, and I am just not a good loser as hard as I try. This game might have
been my last chance at the Super Bowl. My family was outside waiting for me, along with a few
thousand fans, hoping for an autograph. I wanted to just grab my friends and family and duck
out the back door. I decided to do just that when halfway through the back tunnel, while
holding my son’s hand, I stopped and said to myself, ‘What kind of example is this for my son?’ I
did an about-face and headed straight for the Steelers’ locker room. It was hard watching the
champagne flow and the celebration in full-swing, but I worked the room shaking hands. I felt
good about that, but even better that my son saw it. I can tell my son how important it is to be a
gracious loser, but this was a way to show him. Train hard, play to win; but if you lose, do it with
class.”
If you lose, do it with class. If you win or lose, have a gracious spirit. Be somebody who others
are attracted to, for that is how we witness to Jesus Christ. We all have a game plan for life. We
all have hopes and dreams. They change as we age. Some of those dreams come to life,
some of them don’t; some of our plans are realized, some of them never happen. We are
called to have a gracious spirit in the winning and the losing. No matter what we attempt and
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It’s How You Play the Game – Reverend Anne Rosebrock
Sunday, August 31, 2014
no matter how well it goes, we offer the love of Christ in the living of our days. We all want to be
winners; we all want to be appreciated. We want to be respected. We want to get our due,
but sometimes it doesn’t happen.
Sometimes we feel we’re being cheated. Sometimes we feel we’re not getting the recognition
that we have earned, and it’s often in those times when we are not gracious in our response. It
is in those times when we ponder the goal before us and no longer care about the means to
attain it.
We want to be people who attract others because of our spirit. That’s why being spiritual, but
not religious, can be dangerous: if we’re strictly spiritual, then we’ll be on our own out in the
world choosing the spiritual path. It’s in community we hold each other accountable. It’s in
community we study and explore and examine who we are becoming as the Disciples of Christ.
It’s in community that we are challenged. If we’re out there on our own, then we’ll choose
what’s comfortable. We’ll justify who we are. But in community, we’re called to be more than
we are in the moment as we become ever more in the likeness of Jesus Christ. Just being on our
own, we’ll settle for far too less than what God envisions for us.
We all know there are days when we step on our values. There are times we do what we should
not do and other times we do not do what we should. There are times we speak in anger or
judgment. There are times we are dismissive of others. There are times we behave in ways that
we know are less than what God expects. Coming to the table of grace is an about-face for all
of us. It’s turning around in the tunnel and living out our best values. It’s being gracious. It’s
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It’s How You Play the Game – Reverend Anne Rosebrock
Sunday, August 31, 2014
coming to the table and receiving forgiveness for our shortcomings and being empowered to
walk in a new direction with Christ.
“Do not grieve God; do not break God’s heart. His Holy Spirit living and moving in you is the
most intimate part of your life. God is making you fit for grace. God is empowering you as a
Disciple of Christ. Don’t take that gift for granted.” Ephesians 4:30-32 The Message
These words call us to our deepest and truest self. These words call us to the table of grace with
a spirit of honesty and humility. As we come before God, we confess where we have fallen short
and embrace the grace to become more than we are in this very moment. We receive the
forgiveness that Christ has already offered us so that the slate is wiped clean and we walk from
here as people who will be gracious in winning and gracious in losing.
John Lynch, that football player, retired from football; but he said that moment in the tunnel
when he was holding the hand of his seven-year-old son – that moment when he did an aboutface and went back to congratulate the opposing team – shaped him for his future.
We can be devoted Disciples in our thoughts and in our words, but it’s our actions that truly
shape us.
Where do you need to make an about-face? Where do you need to explore that sense of
being a more gracious spirit in relationship with others?
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It’s How You Play the Game – Reverend Anne Rosebrock
Sunday, August 31, 2014
I’ve been thinking about that in my own life as well. We can become all-too-secure in how
often we win, how good we are, and how much we love God; but along the way, it is humility
that makes us gracious in winning and in losing. It is humility and a gracious spirit that is a
magnet for others, that living invitation for others to know the power of God’s love in our lives.
Let us pray…
We are still becoming, God. We have not reached our goal as your devoted Disciples, but
restore us on the path, we pray. Bring us into communion with humility and honesty. In this
moment, help us to claim those areas in our lives where we need to make an about-face. This
morning we turn back to you, O God; we turn to the Cross and your feast of grace. We confess
what you already know about us and pray that you will indeed shape our thoughts, our words,
and our behavior through your ever-loving and ever-gracious Spirit. We pray all of this in the
name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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