Right after we arrived at Sewanee for seminary, they dedicated the brand-new Chapel of the Apostles. It had a beautiful cross at the front. Our New Testament professor, Chris Bryan, bought a beautiful, hand-carved wooden likeness of Jesus, imported from Italy. I happened to be working in the mailroom when it arrived and they opened it to make sure he was ok. It was very lifelike and a little disturbing to see in that pine box. 

Professor Bryan wanted a crucifix for Lent. It immediately caused swirling debate.  The Anglo-Catholics love a crucifix. The Protestant side of the Church prefers an open cross or Christus Rex as we have. They were furiously arguing in the halls. The Dean wrote a big essay on the history of the crucifix in the Anglican tradition. But that didn’t settle it.  It was like we were re-living the Reformation on the spot!

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Some years ago, I was at one of my kids’ soccer games. Another parent approached me with a very serious and emotionally charged question. 

This man’s mother had died in another state.  His sister was handling the arrangements and had shocked him by saying that their mom would be cremated.  He hadn’t expected this since their father had been bodily buried, but he wanted to know if this was ok – ok in the sense that would his mother’s place in the Resurrection and her eternal life be affected. This is the kind of question people ask priests at soccer games; mom, eternity, no pressure.

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There are a lot of evaluations in today’s readings, of Jesse’s sons, of the man born blind and of Jesus himself. We do a lot of evaluating, and we need to recognize our limitations.

The NFL draft is coming up in a few weeks and a key part of the preparation is the what they call the “NFL Combine.” They invited 319 players to spend four days getting measured for height, weight, wingspan, and so forth. They were tested physically for speed, strength and athletic ability and skills. They were tested for intelligence and psychologically and they were interviewed.

That is just a piece of the evaluation process. These are multi-million-dollar contracts in an ultra-competitive league. Scouts watch hours of video, attend live games, do background checks, interview their college coaches, many have further workouts. It’s exhaustive and done by professionals; people who eat, sleep and breathe football.

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