The Rev. Steve Manskar, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Grand Rapids, offers “another set of beatitudes for Super Bowl Sunday.”
STEVEN W. MANSKAR
Trinity United Methodist Church, Grand Rapids
We’ve heard Jesus’ beatitudes from his sermon on the mount. Here’s another set of beatitudes for Super Bowl Sunday:
Blessed are the rich in contract, for theirs is the kingdom of endorsements.
Blessed are those who talk trash, for they will prove their manhood.
Blessed are the cocky ones, for they will score touchdowns and dance goofy dances.
Blessed are the unmerciful, for they will not receive mercy at the bottom of the pile anyway.
Blessed are the vulgar in speech, for they will see their vulgar words in tomorrow’s headlines.
Blessed are those who persecute and terrorize quarterbacks for the sake of the fans,
for theirs is the kingdom of, again, endorsements.
Jesus will be at the Super Bowl in Miami tonight. I’m sure of that. If we were to look for him, where do you suppose we would find him? Where would we look? Would we find him in the locker room among the players with their $5000 suits and million-dollar contracts? I’m sure many will be saying prayers in Jesus’ name; in the hope that God will take their side in the big game. But, I don’t think Jesus is going to spend much time in either locker room tonight.
Maybe we could find Jesus in the owner’s boxes. Surely their wealth and power are signs of blessing from God. Or Jesus may be found in one of the other luxury boxes reserved for the wealthy, the powerful, and the famous. After all, they are the ones who are really blessed with success and fortune. They are the winners. Jesus must be with them.
Maybe Jesus will be with the people in the stadium. The people who paid thousands of dollars for the privilege of sitting in that stadium to watch the Forty-niners and Chiefs play for the most coveted trophy in professional football.
Where are we most likely to find Jesus at the Super Bowl? Using the beatitudes as a guide, Jesus is likely to hang around with, I think we will find Jesus among the people who sweep the floors of the stadium concourses and restrooms, the cooks, servers, and vendors selling refreshments to the well-heeled crowd. In Miami, many of those people are probably immigrants from the Caribbean Islands and Central America. Some may even be undocumented immigrants.
They are working for minimum wage. Many probably have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. They are the people among whom we will find Jesus at the Super Bowl tonight. He will be with them because they are the vulnerable, voiceless and poor people of this country.
They are the ones the world calls “losers” and Jesus calls “Blessed.”
This is not to say that Jesus doesn’t care about or love the players, owners, and fans.
He cares very much about them. But it is the poor, the grieving, the humble, and the vulnerable ones, the “losers” he calls blessed. It is among them that the rest of us will find Jesus
Wealth, success and security tend to come between us and God. They deceive us into believing that we are self-made and self-sufficient.
That is one reason Jesus began his sermon on the Mount with the beatitudes. In them, Jesus gives us a picture of what the kingdom of God looks like. The beatitudes describe people who reflect God to the world. Jesus is also telling us the values of his kingdom are very different from the values of this world. In a world that blesses wealth, selfishness, and self-indulgence, Jesus comes and audaciously proclaims blessed are the poor, the mourning, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted.
Jesus tells us there is another way. We don’t have to be limited by the world’s values and fascination with wealth and power.
He gives us a picture of the way things are and the way things will ultimately be. He is not telling us we need to become poor, or grieving, or even meek. Jesus tells us what God and God’s kingdom are like.
Jesus wants us to orient ourselves, as individuals and as a community, toward the reign of God. As we allow God to realign ourselves away from the values and wisdom of the world and toward the values of the kingdom, we reflect Christ and his kingdom to the world.
This means we reflect God’s justice when we align ourselves with the poor. We reflect God’s compassion when we comfort those who grieve and suffer. We are aligned with God when we resist violence and seek to make peace in the world. And the cause of God is made more visible when we take the side of those who are persecuted because of their pursuit of righteousness and justice.
In the beatitudes, Jesus is telling us “Christian faith is a way of living based on the firm and sure hope that meekness is the way of God, that righteousness and peace will finally prevail, and that God’s future will be a time of mercy and not cruelty.” (The New Interpreter’s Bible) He is telling us that when we align ourselves with the ones he calls “Blessed,” we align ourselves with God and God’s dream for the world. Jesus invites us to join him and those who are the “blessed.”
~ reprinted with permission of the Rev. Steven W. Manskar, Senior Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Last Updated on October 23, 2023