Study 15 - 2007: June 18th - 24th 2007

Did God desert Aaron ths week?

It was great to see Aaron Baddeley this week have a strong US Open. Leading into the last round, he had a 2 stoke lead. Unfortunately for Aaron the occasion got the better of him and he shot an 80 to finish tied for 13th. Should you praise God when you shoot an 80 to the same extent when you shoot a 70?

It amuses me how many times people think that I and people like Aaron have some advantage in golf just because I am a minister or Aaron is a Christian. A 2 shot penalty has been invoked on me for outside interference playing golf. When my ball hits the tree and ends up back on the fairway, I get complaints that God is on my side. Of course it is all said in jest, but we do have the tendency to think that God is always on the side of the winner, when it comes to sport.

I think about all those times I have missed short putts, when the ball hits the tree and goes behind it, had bad rounds of golf and I still think that God is with me.
It is a mistake in my opinion to praise God when you win and not to praise God when you lose. We are to give thanks to God in all circumstances, even when things go different to the way we would like. God is on about helping us becoming winners at life, which often involves us not always getting what we would like. If this were the case, life would descend into selfishness and greed. This was one of the reasons when we produced the On Course Golfers Bible; we included golfers of all levels and how God had made himself known to them through the bible.

In our reading this week, some of the people in Jerusalem were trying to decide if Jesus was the Messiah. The Messiah is a person the Jewish people were waiting to come; someone anointed by God to bring in a new era of God’s rule, peace, forgiveness, prosperity and deliverance from their enemies who at the time were the Romans. This hope was very strong in their life and Jesus indeed is that Messiah for all who are Christians. We accept Jesus as our Lord and because of his death and resurrection believe that eternal life has been secured for all who believe in and follow Jesus.

However, like when we tend to think that because you are a Christian, you will be a winner in golf, most of the people thought that the Messiah would do more miracles than Jesus did (see verse 31) and that the Messiah would come in a more spectacular way than Jesus did (see verse 27). For these reasons Jesus did not fit their opinion of what the Messiah would be like, and some did not believe in him.

What we find in the promises of the Messiah from the Old Testament is some pictures, ideas and language that are not fully developed. They provide a guide, but when Jesus did come, he had a different perspective on the things that were important and a different time frame.

We all have our ideas of what we think living with God should be like and how God should help us in life. For some; a bad score at golf, defeat, disappointment, injustice, sickness and death move them away from God because these experiences don’t match their expectations.

For me though, when I have a bad round of golf or when things go wrong in life, I appreciate God more fully, because I know that nothing in life or death can separate me from his love, and on this, our life rests.

A US Open title, or a great round of golf is valuable to the world and to us, but for God it is not what we have that is as important as what we give, and that is within the reach of us all.

Like the Jews we all have an opinion of what an ideal Messiah and saviour would be like, but when we put our aside our ideas, we can more fully appreciate how unique and special Jesus is. Jesus becomes a winner and a Messiah and Saviour by being a servant, giving his life for others. This kind of sacrifice was a stumbling block to the Jews at the time.

We all love to be winners at golf and life, but golf is a sport where there is only one winner, to the one who plays the best.

Prayer Loving God, our greatest treasure in life is to have a relationship with you. Help us not to lose sight of what is important to you. Amen.