Football, Randomness, Preparation, and Church

It is said that football is a game of inches. Look back on nearly any game and if you could
control two feet of the motion of the football, sometimes two inches, and you would control not
only games, but legacies.
Moments in sports get remembered and made sacred in ways that almost feel divinely fated.
They are not divinely fated. However, in life like in football, you never know what will or what
will not make a difference.
As we head to another Superbowl, Serious Patriots fans know that
If…Adam Vinatieri’s foot was moved two inches one way or another on any of his famous kicks;
Or…Brady’s arm was two inches further forward in the tuck rule game against Oakland;
Or…Belichick decided to punt on the famous the 4 th and 2 call against Indianapolis,
Or…In 2000 Tom Brady had been picked by any one of the 198 teams that passed him over,
Or…Drew Bledsoe had not gotten injured in that Jet game,
Or…in 2007 the ball David Tyree caught on his helmet in the Giants game slide off,
Or…In 2011 cornerback Asante Samuel had squeezed his hands a little quicker and intercepted
that ball, and football history changes.
And with those small changes a bit of our regions sense of self changes.
Sorry if that was a lesson available to only serious Patriot fans. However, the broader point
is available to everyone.
In life like in a football game, you never really know what will or what will not make a
difference. Football teaches us that there are moments in our lives that just immensely matter.
The wrong or right answer at a job interview, which of a woman’s eggs is the one that gets
fertilized, the flinch or not during a sneeze when you’re driving your car, or running into
someone at TJ-Max who you end up marrying.
We UU’s know this too. In our little religion that has ironically chosen not to take a position on
anything supernatural we can’t clearly see, have adopted the position that the future is open,
unwritten.. The old fashioned way we phrase it is “that revelation is not sealed.”

We, who shutter to say anything definitive about God or the heavens, or even the lack there of,
believe that our fates are not fixed. In a religion that has proven itself not only reluctant but
unwilling to say anything that would confine the view of any member, boldly state that it is
obvious that there is no book that can or has forecast the future. It is rare for a religion to adopt
such a position. And this means a lot.
It means of course that we as a church or movement could either blossom or fail. Both are
possible. That any of us or our programs could change the face of this town we live in, or not.
That we could fall apart and disband or catch fire and find ourselves with full pews.
Interestingly, reason also tells us that most likely our church, and our families, and our very lives
will have futures that are more likely determined by the level of attention, care and concern that
we give them.
Are not the present Patriots not an example of this.
By saying that revelation is not sealed we are saying that more than any religion ever before
that…our fate is in our hands, Nationally, locally, and within our very own church community.
Let’s embrace that.