From the November 2009 issue of Faith Matters, the newsletter of Redeemer Lutheran Church.
There is a legend that Knute Rockne was scheduled to face the football team of USC, the University of Southern California, knowing that USC was a far superior team, wondering if he could defeat them, came up with an idea.
He scoured the city of South Bend, Indiana for the biggest men he could find. He assembled about one hundred men, each about six foot five and weighing around three hundred pounds or more, he put them all in Notre Dame uniforms. With shoulder pads and helmets they looked even bigger.
Then, when it was time for the game to begin, he sent the men out of the locker room first. As the USC team watched, they just kept coming, and coming until these hundred men was all the USC men saw. The USC coach kept telling his team, “They can only field eleven men at a time.”
None of the men ever played one minute of the game. But USC had become so intimidated at the sight of them that they were unable to function, and Notre Dame won the game.
When I think about the challenges facing our neighborhood and community, I sometimes feel like Knute Rockne must have felt when he looked at the USC team. It is easy to look as issues such as poverty, crime, unaccompanied children and closing schools and simply feel intimidated. God has blessed our congregation and neighborhood with a team that includes Redeemer Center for Life, neighborhood residents, mission partners, college, seminary, neighborhood association and others. With all the support God is blessing our congregation to have, it is not we, but crime, poverty and indifference that should be intimidated.
People of God, it is time for us to achieve victory. It is time for us to celebrate the good news and celebration of our diverse community, lively worship and praise, soul food dinner, Block Club, Busy Fingers, after-school program, Living Room, free flu shots, hip-hop outreach , hundred year anniversary, housing, and many others.
It is time for us to claim the identity God has blessed us with and share God’s church. Scripture states that it is not right to light a lamp and hide it under a bushel, but to set it on the hill for the whole world to see. This is not to say that Redeemer is better than any other congregation, but it is our responsibility that we share with others the witness of God’s faithfulness in and around Redeemer.
