Good morning, I'm
the Rev Steve Page from St Patrick's Anglican Church, and you're
listening to the Daily Devotional moment, sponsored by the Hudson Bay
Ministerial.
This month, I'm
drawing our images of Christian faith and spirituality from Sports.
Last time, we
heard about Mario Lemieux returning from injury during the 1992
playoffs.
Today, let's go
back a little farther, to the 1975 Stanley Cup finals. The teams that
year were the Philadelphia Flyers and the Buffalo Sabres. I know,
there's no way those team could meet in the finals in the current
system, but they did meet in 1975.
Game 3 that year
was at Memorial Stadium in Buffalo. But that late-May day in 1975 was
a hot and humid one in the city, and the rink did not have air
conditioning. So as the game progressed, the ice got slower. Puddles
began to appear in places on the ice. By the third period, the ice
was hidden under a thick, waist-deep layer of fog.
Fans in the stands
couldn't tell what was going on, they could only see a bunch of
players from the tummy up. The refs, down on the ice, had trouble
seeing the play, too. In fact, nearly a dozen times they stopped play
to allow rink operators to try and circulate the air and increase
visibility. The players even took to skating laps during the breaks,
trying to stir up the air and fog.
After three
periods in this very unusual Cup game, the score was tied at 4. That
meant overtime, and even more skating in the fog. Nearly to the end
of the overtime, Sabres star Gilbert Perreault dumped the puck into
the Flyers' zone and went for a line change. The puck took a funny
bounce off the boards and came out right to Rene Robert of the
Sabres. He fired a shot toward the net.
Poor Bernie
Parent. He was in net for the Flyers, and in the fog he could barely
see the players, never mind the puck. He's probably still looking for
it. Well, the puck wound up in the net, for the winning goal.
While Gilbert
Perreault got the assist, the fog should have also had one. The
Flyers' goalie never had a chance, because the thick mist, fog and
haze obscured the puck.
Do you feel like
Bernie Parent when it comes to the Christian faith or the Bible?Do
you feel lost in a fog and unable to make head nor tails of what goes
on in a church service? When to sit, when to stand, now everyone is
singing something by heart, where are we?
Or maybe the very
foreign-sounding names of the Bible throw you off. From
Nebuchadnezzar to the Moabites, the strange Biblical people and
places can be off-putting. Or the language of the Bible, which can be
very poetic and beautiful, may remind you more of studying
Shakespeare in high school, and fail to sink in and touch your life.
If that's the case
for you, I have good news. There are things you can do to cut through
the fog. Some might take a little work, like the players skating
around and around to stir up the humid fog. If a church service seems
baffling and confusing, it will become less so just by repetition. I
remember that when I first started attending an Anglican church,
about a decade ago, I did not feel comfortable for a few months,
until I could figure out what page we were on, until I could learn
the sung bits that everyone has memorized so you never get the words
for. Asking a friend helps, but it takes some work.
Other fog-clearing
steps you could take are easier. If you feel like the Bible is lost
in a fog, getting a different translation might help. We
English-speakers are blessed to have dozens of translations to choose
from. Some, like the Good News Bible, The Message, or the
Contemporary English Version might open your eyes in new ways to the
surprising things the Bible has to say.
Best of all, pray
that God will help you out, too. I think of Ephesians 1 verse 17,
where Paul prays “I keep asking that God ... may give you the
Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”
That's why I want yo help clear your fog, so that you may grow closer
to God and stronger in your faith.
For St Patrick's
Church, I'm Steve Page.
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