In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He Who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him,  who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified He also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God Who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, Who died – more than that, Who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:26-39)

 

 

     I remember September 28, 1972. I had just started Grade 4 earlier in the month, and less than a month into school we got a special treat: all the children and teachers of Knob Hill Junior Public School in Scarborough were let out of class and gathered in the gymnasium that afternoon – to watch a hockey game. It was the “Summit Series” - the Canada-Russia series – the first time Canadian NHL'ers had played the Soviet National Team. Game 8 was special and most Canadians who were around at the time will remember “the goal” - the winning goal of the Series scored by Paul Henderson with 34 seconds left in the final game. I remember being in the gym and jumping up and down with literally millions of Canadians from coast to coast as we celebrated that marvelous victory. The funny thing was it wasn't supposed to happen like that. Fewer people remember September 2, 1972 – Game 1 of the Series. I don't even remember if I watched it. The whole series was supposed to be a non-event, because Canada was supposed to win 8 straight games – and win them easily. Game 1 was a curiosity at most; a chance to watch these Russian hockey players with funny names who were so wimpy that they wore helmets get blasted. It didn't work out that way. I came across this account of Game 1 and the thinking leading up to Game 1:

 

It was supposed to be a cake walk for Canada. The Soviet amateurs would be crushed by Canada's top professionals. Oh, we'll show them just how good Canadian hockey really is. Sure, they could beat our amateur teams that were made up of mill workers and car salesmen, but this was going to be different. Everything was going according to the script when Canada scored on the first scoring chance of the game just 30 seconds into the action. Phil Esposito ... potted a Frank Mahovlich rebound past a flopping Russian goalie named Vladislav Tretiak. By the 6:32 mark Canada upped the score to 2-0 when Paul Henderson wired a hard, but seemingly harmless shot to Tretiak's far side. Tretiak looked awkward as he feebly attempted to knock down the puck. The predicted rout was on. The party was on. “When I got on the ice,” remembered Rod Gilbert ... “it was already 2-0. Before I played my first shift it was 2-0, so I'm sitting on the bench saying, 'Let me on. Let me score my goals.' I figured it was going to be ... 17-0, and I wanted to score a few goals.”

 

     It didn't work out that way. Canada didn't win Game 1 17-0. In fact, the Russians won 7-3, and after the game, Harry Sinden – who coached the Canadian team, said “the Russians gave us a lesson that myself, all our players and I guess the whole country won't forget for a long time. We beat ourselves because we didn't take them seriously. I hope we learned a lesson.”

 

     Sometimes the most important lessons you learn come from losing – and maybe the most important lesson you learn is that only you can beat yourself. It was once said that “there's no shame in being knocked down; the only shame is when you don't get back up.” That's Paul's point, too. This passage from Romans is perhaps my favourite passage of Scripture. Usually, I focus on the wonderful words at the end of the passage that promise us that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” But Paul's whole argument here really revolves around a series of leading questions he asks that ultimately lead up to the conclusions that there's nothing “out there” that can possibly beat us down: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God Who justifies.Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, Who died – more than that, Who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” These questions lead up to one conclusions: the only thing that can knock us down and hold us down is ourselves – if we allow that to happen. And there are several ways in which we can beat ourselves.

 

     One way we can beat ourselves is to think too highly of ourselves. That's what happened to Team Canada as the 1972 Summit Series opened. The pages of Scripture are full of warnings about the dangers that arise when we think too highly of ourselves. Proverbs 16:18 tells us that “pride goes before destruction” and Proverbs 29:23 tells us that “a man's pride brings him low.” The Book of Proverbs is a source of biblical wisdom that we too often ignore. Jesus clearly learned the principles outlined in those two proverbs that I just mentioned, because a significant chunk of His teaching had to do with the problem of pride. Think of the banquet scene, in which He tells His followers to always take the worst seats at the banquet, because then they can only be invited to better seats, whereas if they walk in and take the best seats, they'll be invited to move to more humble surroundings. Think of the story of the two men praying: the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee's prayer was a prideful prayer of thanksgiving to God that he wasn't made like the tax collector, but Jesus made the point that God approved of the humble prayer of the tax collector, who confessed his sins and asked for God's mercy. Those who think too highly of themselves beat themselves, because they have nowhere to go but down. This can be a problem for Christians because we can easily start to think that our faith makes us better than others, without realizing that if we properly understand Jesus' teachings we'll think of ourselves not as better than others but as servants of others. Pride blurs our understanding of how Jesus wants us to live in relationship with others.

 

     Another way we can beat ourselves is the opposite – it's too think too little of ourselves. Thinking too little of ourselves shows itself in two ways. The first is what we might call false humility.   We usually use false humility when we're trying to get out of something that we know we're being called to do. “I don't know enough”; “I'm not good enough”; “I don't have enough.” These are excuses we use to avoid playing our part in God's plan. We're not alone in doing that. There are a lot of biblical examples. Moses said “I can't speak well enough.” Jeremiah said “I'm only a child.” These were excuses from people who knew better and who finally had to give their excuses up and play their part, trusting God to work through them. But there is something even more insidious than false humility, and that's when the pride of the church refuses to extend God's grace to others and instead tells them that they aren't good enough to be cared for by God or loved by God, and that happens all too often. The Pharisee did it to the tax collector - “thank you God that I'm not like him – because he's not good enough.” The religious leaders did it to the tax collectors and prostitutes and lepers - “Why does Jesus hang out with them? They're not worthy.” And the church tells people that in various ways all the time. You're not good enough; you have to change; God doesn't love you. We forget that Jesus called us to look at the plank in our own eyes and not to worry about the speck in our neighbour's eye. We forget that while God surely wants changes in all of our lives (for who among us would be prideful enough to claim perfection?) but that God loves us already even without transformation, because to love us is simply in God's nature – “God is love.” If we help in any way to create even one person who thinks that God doesn't love them or even one person who can't love themselves because of what they've been told by the church then we're as guilty as the religious leaders of Jesus' day of being contemptuous of the very people God loves; the very people Christ came for. 

 

     We're called to make disciples – to encourage people to follow Christ; to invite people into relationship with a God Who loves them and to leave to God whatever work of transformation might be needed in anyone's life, because each of us has enough transformation of our own that's needed. We're called to welcome into the fellowship of the church (the community of God's people) all who want to be here, whatever their circumstances. But we can't really do any of that unless we first are disciples. In his letter James once asked what would happen if a poor man came into the church and then was followed by a rich man – both strangers to the church. Who would be more sincerely welcomed, wondered James. And if we admit that the rich man with the nice clothes would get a warmer welcome than the poor man with ratty clothes then we've acknowledged a problem, and we're not being faithful disciples. 

 

     We are so often our own worst enemies because we pump ourselves up or we hold ourselves down or we keep others down. We are our own worst enemies because we so often fail to do what we're called upon to do – which is to respond to and to offer the love and the grace of God to all of God's beloved children and to be the servants of God's people wherever and whoever they may be. This is our calling. This is our privilege. Thanks be to God!