Simon Pedro: The Musical

I haven’t posted for a while, so maybe something light-hearted will follow.

My small group was watching the super bowl with two other small groups last night (yes, we fit three small groups into one apartment), and we had one person really trash talking for the Colts.  We also had someone less vocal defending the Saints.  In the end, we came to the realization that only myself, these two verbal combatants and a few others were invested at all in the amazing game.  When we had to point out the great plays in such an above-average super bowl performance, well, you could tell others had little invested in football.

But when we got back into the car to go home, the Saints man asks for whom I was rooting, and I answered the Saints.  Maybe I was still a little too bitter from Peyton’s last performance against my Bears.  But when team allegiances are irrelevant in big games, I rather choose the underdog.

“Where were you?!”  He asked.  “You’re just like Peter denying Jesus!”

I guess that is a loose analogy, being that I kept out of the trash talk, but I can’t help but chuckle at the thought of our Simon Pedro skit in Mexico about denial and redemption, and our subsequent de-holy-nization of the skit by haphazardly putting crude dance motions to all the actions, creating Simon Pedro: The Musical.

Hoping to redeem last night, I find this situation both true and untrue:  We’re condemned for not being vocal until after the game is over.  True, denying Jesus is a sin, and you really have to question how you are doing faith-wise if this is your favorite pastime, and we don’t much get a chance to affirm a saving faith after our death (or, theologically, in that non-existent second between death and judgment).  But, in a way, it is false in that the victory has already been won, and we already know the outcome.  The game has been over, and we’re not condemned for not being vocal before our own observed personal victories of God.

But both scenarios, true and false, lead to one conclusion:  Speak up.  Not about football; about God.

Boy, oh boy.  I don’t seem good at either lately.

…

So… has anyone else ever had their third and fourth toes fall asleep?