This week I was at my mom’s house, and I finally got to watch the movie 12 Mighty Orphans. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s the story of the rise of the football team at Fort Worth’s Masonic Home in the 1930s. Y’all know I love Fort Worth. And I love history.
It’s a great movie, based on an even better book. You should definitely check it out.
So when the movie starts, Rusty Russell and his family show up at the school, and he’s to be the new teacher and football coach. They’d never had a football team, and none of the boys had ever even played the sport. I think one guy had maybe touched a football before.
So, Coach Russell invites the boys to help him start the team, and he ends up with twelve players. Hence the name of the movie: 12 Mighty Orphans.
At the very first practice, coach starts with positions and blocking and tackling.
He starts with the basics.
In the verses just before today’s Gospel passage, Jesus has been up on a mountain praying all night. He’s been gathering followers, and now he starts to form his team.
When the sun comes up, he calls together twelve of his followers and makes them apostles – or sent ones. Then he comes down and starts to teach.
This is just an aside, but I think the order of what he did was important.
He started up on the mountain in prayer, gathered his friends on the way down the mountainside, and engages in his mission at the bottom of the hill.
I think, too often, we tend to do things the other way around. If we have a problem or a task, we try to go it alone and solve it ourselves. If that fails, we might call on a few friends. And when all else fails, we put our hands together and pray.
But Jesus starts in prayer, gathers his friends, and then gets to work.
That sounds a bit like a Scout setting out on an Eagle project, doesn’t it? A Scout doesn’t go full steam ahead and then ask folks to get on board. A Scout plans, gathers his team, and then gets to work.
And this work that Jesus is doing…he’s starting at the beginning. Like a good coach building a new team from scratch, he starts with the basics.
He talked to his new team and gave them clear orders as to how his vision of God’s work would go forward.
We find blessing in seeking God, being hungry for God, and loving the people God loves.
When we seek God, we feel the pain and sorrow God feels for people who are hurting.
We stand up to injustice. We affirm that every human being is worthy of love in God’s sight.
We affirm that we are worthy of love.
Here Jesus is stating how things will be in the Kingdom of God, and how things should be now.
I think it’s important to note that when Jesus is doing this coaching, verse 20 tells us he looks up at his disciples.
The work here for “look” also means to lift up, to raise up, to give courage.
A big part of the story in 12 Mighty Orphans is the dignity and worth and courage that Coach Russell gave to these boys, who had nothing. He looked at them, and saw them.
And with that, these boys were finally able to see what was really inside them. And when life got hard for these boys, they knew that Coach Russell was looking out for them. When the games got hard, they knew they were looking out for each other.
If you’re a parent, or if you’re in a relationship of any kind, you probably know how important eye contact is. You know how important it is to look into someone’s eyes. And we all know how it feels for someone to look us in the eye, and to know that someone truly sees us.
Here in our Gospel passage…here in our lives…Jesus looks us in the eye. Jesus sees us.
Jesus sees you.
Jesus sees you when you are poor and when you are rich.
Jesus sees you when you are hungry and when you are well-filled.
Jesus sees you when you are weeping and when you are laughing.
Jesus sees you when you are excluded and when you are brought in.
Jesus sees you. Even on the days when it is hard to look in the mirror…Jesus sees you.
There isn’t anything you can do to change that.
Nothing you do can make God love you less, and God won’t ever give up on you.
God is with us. God is for us. God loves us.
God sees us.
Amen