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From The First Baptist Church in America pulpit
“Triumphant Defeats that Rival Victories” (I Cor. 1:26-31)
September 16, 2007

Dr. Dan Ivins, preaching

Americans need to learn how to lose. Isn’t that why Iraq is such a dilemma? We know how we got into it. But we can’t seem to get out. So brave young men and women die daily, so we won’t be seen as soft, or worse, as losers. ‘Cause everybody loves to win. Zippadee-doo-dah! Everything’s goin’ your way, when you win. But nothing stays won. Winning ... is one of those what-have-you-done-for-me-lately? enterprises.

Life is full of never-ending tests and contests. So that even the best eventually lose. Three time Super Bowl winner Patriots coach, Belichick got caught cheating and fined half a million to ensure winning. Some losses matter much more than others -- like losing a ball game or losing somebody you love. But to live is to lose. It may be a hurricane blowing your condo away, or a friend moving to another state. The unemployed can tell us something about losing. An aging congregation is all to familiar with loss: of health, dreams, life. Which means ... there’s never gonna be enough resources to do what needs to be done. And churches are left to do a lot with a little.

Famous Alabama football coach Bear Bryant used to say: “If you prepare yourself, do your best, and never quit, you’ll be a winner.” But you won’t always win! There is no magic formula for a dynasty. Even the notorious Bryant went thru a mean losing streak in the ‘80's. And the Crimson Tide faithful were yelling heresies “It’s time for somebody else!” I can’t think of any vocation more difficult than a football coach, other than maybe a president or a preacher! That’s why when we sing the doxology, I “praise God for the preachers here below, not the creatures!” The creatures are gonna have to look after themselves!” I’m doxologizing the preachers, because we lose a lot more than we win in this life. So how does this square with a competitive society, which places a premium on winning, success, power, and status?

I grew up in post world war II America, where winning the war brought great national pride. Even in church, the refrain was about winning souls. The phrase fit nicely into the ‘50's culture. So in 1954, the theme for the SBC was: A million more in ‘54. And they got ‘em too!

It’s only natural to buy into the Deuteronomic theology, that God has more use for winners than losers. OK. But then I ran into our text: “God chose what is foolish to shame the wise; what is weak to shame the strong, God chose the bottom of the barrel in the world...So that no one can boast...”

Winning! Be the best, better than the rest, prettier than most. All the trophies and fame and money that goes with winning, props up our favorite American rationalization: “You can have God and mammon.” Being the strongest, prestigious, wealthiest, most influential ... that’s what gets things done in this world. How can the poor, or weak, losers accomplish anything? It’s about winning, man; blow the other guy away! It’s not surprising that in a conquering culture, the favorite tactic for revivalism is called a “crusade.” Accompanied by conquering gospel songs like: “Onward Christian Soldiers.” “Victory in Jesus.” Just win. And look at how much we lose even though we have vast military power. State of the art weapons. Billions spent to ensure our security. I’d love just once to see it put into health care, education, and infrastructure and watch the generals over at the Pentagon have a cookie sale! We have power ... that doesn’t deliver, because we can’t use it. That’s why terrorists have the upper hand, the age-old tactic of guerilla warfare, that can strike at any moment from anywhere.

I saw a cartoon a few years ago with two defense contractors at the Pentagon that read: “Peace is hell!” Because with peace, there’s nothing to contest. No winning, no losing. Losing to a lot of folks is like going through hell. But when you’re going through hell, all you can do is keep on going! We need to learn how to lose because we lose so much.

Another reason we need to learn how to lose, is because like sinning, we’re gonna be doing it the rest of our lives! We brought nothing into this world, and that’s exactly what we’ll take out of it. So who’s talking about a theology of loss these days, to balance our cultural-bound doctrine? If you hang around church, you oughta hear about losing. But with dignity and grace. Because losing hurts, the least people can do when somebody loses anything, is care about it. Church is one of the few places that still does that. Which is one of the reasons I’m still in it.

Some folks lose a beloved pet and others say, “Ho hum, it’s just a dog.” But wait a minute, to the companion of that beloved pet, losing it is like losing a soul-mate! Sadly, too many churches care about the obvious ones. So there is “acceptable pain,” and “unacceptable pain.” If you have serious surgery, show off stitches, wear a cast, walk on crutches, you get lots of sympathy. But somebody gets a divorce, you know their heart’s broken but you can’t see it ... and watch folks look the other way. We better be looking after all losses, and not overlook the unacceptable ones.

One of the saddest examples is King David’s remorse over losing his son Absalom in a battle David won, “Good tidings for my king!” The Lord has delivered you from all those who rose up against you.” David’s only concern was “Is it well with my boy Absalom? The runner wisely didn’t say yes or no, just: “May the enemies of my Lord the king, be like that young man!” And David knew: “O Absalom my son! Would that I had lost instead of you--O Absalom my son, my son!”

Israel’s finest flower, won a lot of battles, against Goliath, King Saul, the Philistines. He didn’t do too good with Bathsheba! But he made Israel feel good about themselves; a successful nation of winners. But this one David wished he’d lost! “The victory that day was turned into mourning because the king was grieving the loss of his son.” The pain of grief and separation is the risk we take when we dare to love. There’s no other pain like the loss of love. After that, you look at life through different colored eyes. You’re probably wiser for it, and maybe bitter, but surely humbler. And that can do us all some good.

Simon Peter boasted before Jesus, “I’ll go with you to prison, and even death. But I’ll never deny you! Not me.” But once he bumped up against the harsh reality of a servant-maid beside the courtyard fire, he cursed and swore: “I tell you, I never had a relationship with that man!” And Peter’s loyalty to Jesus is flushed down the drain. Along with the braggadocio of prison and death. When Jesus was “taken where he didn’t wanta go” and their eyes met at the cock crow, well ... that was Peter’s diploma! The day the big fisherman learned how to lose. Only then was he capable of “feeding Jesus’ sheep.”

Losing your health is like dying by degrees. You’re still alive, but parts of you are gone, never to return again. So, kids with dead pets, a King burying his son, Peter’s excruciating disappointment in himself...all of us better be developing a theology of loss, for we’re going to be facing it the rest of our lives.

Jesus was the biggest loser of all time, in the eyes of the world. But in the eyes of the church, by losing his life he teaches us an important less: about victorious defeats. He lost right out of the starting gate, when King Herod crucified all of his fellow 2-year old boy-babies in Jerusalem. And Rachel’s wailing...

His friends said “Ah he’s just another loser,” the first time he preached in his hometown because he said God loves foreigners. Siding with those who are different can get you killed in Nazareth! But when he struck out in the synagogue, he just when over to Capernaum, where he was effective. Jesus would be a loser in this country today too, because the cross is a colossal failure. Its why the Jews are still waiting for a messiah.

He wouldn’t get many votes running for political office. He never went to Hollywood, held no steady job, or local address, had friends in low places. He worked with a few rather than work the crowds. Didn’t know the first thing about marketing or advertising. Cared less for his image, appearances, reputation. He chose to be poor when he could’ve been rich. He was truthful rather than tactful when he couldn’t be both. He felt at home with the title of servant not master. And when his closest followers deserted him in his life’s greatest crisis, only the women were left around the foot of the cross. But women seem to know how to lose better than men.

If ours is a theology of getting and having and winning, we’re sunk! But if we can develop a theology of loss, of knowing when and how to let go, and move on, losing with grace, then we understand the Book of Job: “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

My own theology of loss began to develop considerably the first time I didn’t do well as pastor, partly for standing with those who are left out. Stuck in a church situation out on the West Coast, where I neither fit nor belonged. But when church is lousy, you’ve got two choices. You can either stay and try to make it better, or you can back out holding your nose and your head high and go someplace else. But it shakes your foundations when you inexplicably fail as a pastor; especially when its been good everywhere else. The biggest hurt is feeling like God let me down, and led me to somewhere I shouldn’t have been.

Like Peter I swore too! I swore I’d never take another full-time church. If this is the best church can do, I’d show him! Interims are OK, ‘cause you’re not there long enough to get into too much trouble, but not full-time. Then it hit me one fine day, when I was attempting the impossible: to try to make sense out of that awful experience. If I hadn’t failed on the West Coast, I’d never have come here to the East Coast, to this wonderful place where I definitely fit.

You gotta go thru the desert to get to the Promised Land! When you get to the point that you can see good in evil; victory out of humiliation; life out of death, you’re onto one of those “triumphant defeats that rival victories,” which, more often than not, are how God gets us to where we need to be. How inconvenient, a Messiah on a cross! But its the center of our faith. And that’s why there’s hope for us!

Closing Prayer: Thanks be to God, we serve a Savior who knows his way out of the grave, able to redeem all our losses, who confounds us by using the weak to shame the strong. My prayer for all of us losers today is: Let us thank God for all he has given to us. Let us thank God for all he has taken from us. Let us thank God for all he has left with us. For then maybe when the time comes for us--we’ll know how to lose. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer: 9/16/07

We live in a ruthless world O God. That has no regard for weakness or humility. A world that looks out for #1, and resists giving anything away; a world that sees self-sacrifice as foolishness; a tactic that’ll never work. So it rarely gets tried. Into this kind of world came your Christ, who looks upon all of us with compassion, inviting us to examine our lives before a loving God.

Forgive us for enjoying our faith rather than applying it. For spending our means on vanity, things that “moth and rust corrupts.” May this worship turn our hearts from the false values of a materialistic society. The way of love seems so vulnerable and naive in this world out there. The cross of Christ, “a stumbling block,” instead of a tool of redemption.

We like our advantages. We even think we deserve them. But justice is getting what we deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. And grace is getting better than we deserve. So the cross continues to be foolishness to the majority, because it’s about grace. “But to those being redeemed, it is the power of God to salvation.” May our church ever strive to extend that kind of power of the magnificent defeat of the cross, that rivals any victory, to all in need of it.

We praise Thee for the many ways you encourage us when our flame burns low – for helpful hands that reach us when the load is more than we can bear; for insights that come to mind when two ways open, and we must decide. Where others drift, fill us with purpose;

Where others ignore, help us to believe;

Where others despair, grant us hope...Through Christ our Lord, Amen.