A BUMPER STICKER: JESUS AND THE COWBOYS

It was really two bumper stickers, side by side. One assured the reader that it was Jesus that made the difference, presumably in the life of the driver of the car. It was a dubious testimony, I thought, for those who see the sticker will not likely have opportunity to witness any change in the life of the driver, except in the way he behaves in traffic. And we all know that great changes could be wrought on our streets and highways, especially in Texas! Even so, I identified with what the sticker had to say, for Jesus does make all the difference in the world in one’s life, if he is allowed to. It is the sticker that reads Honk if you love Jesus! that turns me off. To me that is cheap vaudeville, however well intended. Really, I don’t think we have to put our Lord on bumper stickers, however appropriate the words may seem. It is enough when his love and glory flow from our hearts!

Alongside the sticker advertising Jesus was one honoring the Cowboys—the Dallas Cowboys, of course, who else? Jesus and the Cowboys! The driver was letting all of us know what he stood for, or what he loved, or what got a lot of his time and money. Since Jesus was to the left of the Cowboys, we may presume that Jesus comes first, with the Cowboys a close second. Maybe!

It has been of interest to me to observe how churches handle “Super Bowl Sunday” or any Sunday during football season, especially in Cowboy country. Some churches become very pragmatic for about 20 Sundays out of the year. A Presbyterian church in Dallas has a special “Cowboy Service,” which meets early enough to get everyone to the game on time. Other churches, including some Churches of Christ, have been known to adjust their evening service to fit the Cowboy schedule, with some even daring to forget about church on Sunday night when Dallas is playing a big game. The more “faithful” ones defy the schedule and have service at the very hour Dallas is playing Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, or San Francisco.

The loyal Cowboy fans who place their Jesus bumper stickers to the left of the Cowboy sticker are dutifully in church, those at least with guiltier consciences, having arrived at church at the very last minute and having seen the first quarter or so on TV and having heard a few minutes more of it on the way to church on the car radio. They can hardly wait for the last Amen to find out how the big game turned out. It is really no way to treat good Christians. I have thought of how delightfully surprised they would be if when they got to church they were treated to a giant screen presentation on what was on their minds and hearts. Surely that is what Jesus would do if he were running the show.

One preacher who has to cope with Cowboy competition for almost half the Sunday nights of the year has come up with an admirable device. He records the games on his TV set, then invites the congregation to his home afterwards to see the playback. How is that for putting Jesus first and the Cowboys second!

There are of course the plain old sinful folk who “forsake the assembly” on Sunday night and do what they really want to do. Such ones will have to answer to St. Peter or to the angel Gabriel or somebody, maybe even the elders, for their conduct, and that includes the elders that also stay home to watch the Cowboys on TV.

On last “Super Bowl Sunday” I was a guest at First Christian Church in Johnson City, Tn., having spent the previous week teaching at Emmanuel School of Religion. I was scheduled as the guest speaker for that evening, at the same hour as the Super Bowl. The minister announced that morning that I was to be the speaker for the evening service and that he wanted all of them there to hear me. Referring to the big game, which is admittedly tough competition, he reminded them that every play of any consequence would be repeated again and again for days to come, so they should consider being at church. I appreciated the honest, matter-of-fact way he handled it.

That evening we had a fine turnout and I made a special effort to make it worth each one’s while, speaking as I did on, You’re Not OK and I’m Not OK, but That’s OK!, which was my synopsis of the book of Romans. That night, Super Bowl night, I received a super compliment. “I am a football coach,” one brother said to me, “and I confess that it was hard for me to leave that game to come to church, but you really made it worth my while, and I’m glad I came.” Once back home in Texas I passed that along to Ouida as the superest compliment I ever received! But she wanted to know if she was included in those that are not OK, and I assured her that she was not, that of all the human race she is the one exception.

So one way to handle the Cowboy competition is to do them one better by having programs that pull people away from their TV sets, which is of course easier said than done. I am reminded of a Church of Christ in Houston that has Sunday Night Alive every weekend. If it is alive enough-that ought to be the answer.

I am sort of having fun, for the problem really goes deeper than I am making it, does it not? It may be a matter of divided loyalties or of serving God and mammon, or something like that. If our minds really matter then it matters what they dwell upon. It is a question of whether we have really moved inside such truths as: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). Those “with minds set on earthly things” (Philip. 3:19) concerned the apostle and were seen as apart from those whose citizenship is in heaven.

I suppose a Christian can well have interest in skiing, skindiving, bridge, jogging, the movies, golf, TV, and yes, the Cowboys, or some of these things. But one better take heed when such things become life itself. “For me to live is “__________ .” The real Christian, like Paul, is unequivocal as to how the blank is to be filled in. If Jesus is at the center of our lives and if he rules in our hearts as Lord, then all other concerns are brought into captivity for him. I am persuaded that when this truth becomes a reality in our lives that we simply will not have much interest or much time for a lot of things that now consume us.

I have no quarrel with a brother who puts a Cowboy sticker on his bumper if he has Jesus in his heart. ‘Tis better, much better, for Jesus to be in his heart than on his bumper. And it really isn’t important where the Cowboys are. Tell it in Texas! Proclaim it in Dallas!—the Editor