Well, today is not Super Bowl Sunday, but any time the Broncos make it to the AFC Championship game, it might as well be.  It doesn't seem all that long ago that there was a joke going around about hell freezing over if the Broncos won the Super Bowl.  Well, we won it twice in a row a few years back and I believe it's still fairly hot down there.  Maybe Denver will be able to bask in the glory of being a winner once again this year.  But even if it doesn't, the possibility of being a winner surely gets the blood going when it comes to football and our favorite team is in contention.  Everyone loves a winner.  Few people love a loser.

          Suffering from terminal cancer at age 47, former North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano told a story about himself as a 23-year-old coach of a small college team.  "Why is winning so important to you?" the players asked Valvano.  "Because the final score defines you," he said, "You lose and you're a loser.  You win and you're a winner."  "No," the players insisted.  "Participation is what matters.  Trying your best, regardless of whether you win or lose -- that's what defines you."  Valvano said it took 24 more years of living, and now waking up three or four times a night with his T-shirt soaked with sweat and his teeth rattling from chemotherapy and the terror of seeing himself die.  It took all that for him to say it:  "Those kids were right.  It's effort, not result.  It's trying, not just winning.  He said, "I'd have been a lot better human being if I'd known this back then."

          The Super Bowl may be important to some, but Christians celebrate something far greater.  Sunday is the day of resurrection, the day Christ defeated death and proved He was God.  Today is great because God is still in charge and still forgives people.  Most Christians have formal worship on Sunday, because that's also the day God the Holy Spirit started the Christian church.  No matter what the day, we worship God - Sunday or Saturday!

          Choosing which day is not as important as taking regular time to worship, and doing something to strengthen our relationship with God.  Worship and Holy Communion are great things, far greater than football, though maybe not quite as exciting.

          We've all heard it said a lot over the years, "You don't have to go to church to worship."  Some folks even say they worship God better in the mountains or even on a golf course.  Now I love golf, and I've played it a lot, but I cannot recall the last time I recited the Lord's Prayer or confessed my sins before the first tee.  On the other hand, I have sinned a bit out there keeping score, or saying something bad when I muffed a shot.  And I have prayed, but usually just to make a good shot, or at least not to embarrass myself in front of others.  But I am not worshipping on a golf course!  I am thinking about my back-swing, my follow-through and keeping my head down.  I have never sung a hymn of praise to Jesus on the fairway, and the only offering I ever gave there was called "green fees."  And you can be sure they didn't use any of it for missions!

          What about the Sabbath Commandment?  Why don't Christians today worship on Saturday?  In Exodus 20, God said, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do your work, but the seventh is a sabbath day to the Lord.  In it you shall not do any work, for the Lord has blessed the Sabbath day."  The Sabbath law was clear.  It was made to be followed.  Yet even Jesus, God's only Son, said, "Which of you who having a donkey or an ox fall into a pit will not work to rescue it on the Sabbath?  For the Sabbath rule was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)

          Rules are rules, we say.  But if they harm people, they can and should be broken.  And if the rule itself is worshipped, that's always wrong.  Rules are to help people, not hurt them.

          In Jesus' day, following the Sabbath rule had become a religion of its own, so the early Christians chose another day for worship.  They chose Sunday, the first day, the day Christ arose from the dead.  And it was also the day the Holy Spirit jump-started the Christian Church, on Pentecost. Sunday seemed best for formal worship of God.

          One day Jesus was teaching, and our text says, "The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law."  When Jesus spoke, people listened.  He spoke with authority that came from heaven, not from earth.  It was not based on human ability, but on God's power.  Teachers of the day often pushed endless rules or details.  Jesus amazed them with His authority, a quiet power that kept them spellbound, and so they listened to His every word.

          That day became memorable for everybody there.  The Bible says, "Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 'What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are--the Holy One of God!'  'Be quiet!' said Jesus sternly.  'Come out of him!'  The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek."

          Wouldn't it be a shocker if that happened today?  I'm not sure I'd want that to happen here.  But Jesus knew what to do with it - He cast the evil spirit out.  It was a frightful thing, but Jesus turned it into a wonderful thing.  He turned a loser into a winner.  Jesus does that - He heals people.  When it comes to the Lord, there are no losers, only winners.  The Son of God was among them, with His power and authority, and with six words Jesus disarmed the powers of evil.  "Be quiet - Come out of Him!"  Six incredible words and Jesus helped that man win defeat Satan.  The power of Jesus makes us all winners.

          What would it take for you today to become a winner?  What kind of power and authority would it take to amaze you?  I doubt any of us are possessed by a demon, though some fans may act like it during the game.  I doubt any of us today will stand up and scream in church, though some may do that in a football game if there's a fumble or interception.  People scream at games and we call them fans.  Do the same in church and they'd be called fan-atics!

          Life has its winners and life has its losers.  Today can become a winner for us if we let go of being in control and let God be God.  The people of Jesus' day were slaves to rules, Roman laws, yes, but mostly slavery to foolish rules, rules that kept them trapped in little boxes, separated from each other.  You couldn't walk more than a half mile on the Sabbath.  You couldn't prepare a meal or wash your face on the Sabbath.  You weren't even supposed to help your dying mother on the Sabbath - she had to wait a day till you could help her.

          Some man-made rules should be broken, especially when they are against God's will.  In Acts 5:29 Peter says, "We must obey God rather than men."  God's rules come first, and whenever human laws or rules or traditions go against God's Word, we must obey God rather than people.  That's a good rule to follow!

          The amazing thing here is that when Jesus healed the fellow, He broke the Sabbath rule!  The strict interpreters of the Law said He could not even help someone in pain.  Yet His love moved Him to break a rule, not God's rule, but a useless human tradition.  Jesus healed a man in need, and the text says, "The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, 'What is this?  A new teaching--and with authority!  He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.'  News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee."

          Jesus made a loser into a winner that day, and He does the same for us every day.  It all began on Good Friday, when He died for our sins, and was buried.  Jesus looked like the greatest loser of all times on that first "black sabbath" as He lay dead in the grave.  But the following day, Sunday, all rules were broken when He rose again.  Newton's first law of gravity is, "What does up must come down."  God's first law of resurrection is, "What goes down must come up!"  On the greatest Sunday in human history, Christ broke sin's shackles and set us free.  And now we're free to trust Him and follow Him and serve Him.  Praise God!

          Jesus told us in John chapter 8, "If you continue in My Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  The truth is that we're not losers, we're winners.  You and I may feel like losers, but we're not.  When Christ forgives you, you're the winner.  When He loves you, you're a winner.  When He holds you close in God's kingdom, you've won the big one - the Super Bowl, World Series, Triple Crown, Indy 500, Stanley Cup - you name it.  In Christ, we're all winners.

          St. Paul once wrote, "In all these things we are more than winners [conquerors] through him who loved us." (Romans 8:37)   Believe on Jesus, my friends.  Trust Him for everything, for your life today, and for your life to come, and you will be a true winner.  Sin might make us feel like a loser, but in Jesus, we are more than winners.  God bless us as we trust Him and serve Him, here at Epiphany, and among all His people of the world.  Amen!

Copyright © 2006 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.