John 4:1-38 - The Hockey Dressing Room
We'll get into the great story of the Samaritan Woman in a second, but first a thought on the church and getting real with God. If you are like me, a lot of sermons have gone in one ear and out the other. You could say the same thing about hockey coaches’ lessons.
In my hockey career (as nasty, brutish, and short as it was) I loved a fast-paced practice. Those are the practices where the team goes immediately from one drill to the next. When I played for Barry MacKenzie in Notre Dame (SJHL, 1988-89) it was like that. “Bear” could somehow squish two practices into one. Exhausting, but fun. That’s one of the reasons he won national championships (he won one the year before I got to ND).
Okay, I know, pot calling the kettle black - I’ll get on with the point. What does it take to get a lesson to stick? Perspective. Wisdom maybe. Brevity. Experience. Trial and error. Preparation. Creativity. Intentionality. Lots of things. I was thinking last Sunday about the similarities between the hockey dressing room (where I spent many hours as a player and then as a coach) and church gatherings.
The hockey dressing room (my favorite memories of hockey are from the dressing room - I can still smell them!) is where you gather in anticipation of the game. You get your own spot - sometimes crammed into each other so much so that your bags and stuff overlap. Occasionally you'd get a fancy rink where you'd have your own stall.
You prepare your sticks, stretch, and get your equipment on for the game. But it’s much more than that. At its best (there are good teams and bad) you fellowship. It’s where guys share their issues about their love life, family issues, dreams, and just joking around. Doing life. It’s where we mentally prepare - a safe place before our every move is watched and recorded for better or worse. Most players go through routines - good ones, but many also do silly superstitious things (all goalies do for sure).
The dressing room is where we visualize and prepare ourselves for anything that can come our way (bad refs, tough crowds, big hits, penalties, etc.). It’s where you kid each other and even the Prima Donnas get ribbed. There is also a lot of transparency in the dressing room. I remember one dressing room in Medicine Hat (we were their arch-enemies - the Saskatoon Blades). There was no door on the bathroom and it was right inside the dressing room - so the whole team could see you doing your business. That's a little too transparent!
When you are coming off of wins and are full of pride it is in the dressing room where the coach may knock you down a step or two and remind you not to think of yourselves more highly than you ought. And when you’ve gone through a terrible stretch of losses it's where you remind each other that in just minutes you’ve gotta go out and play - and turn the ship around. It’s in the dressing room where the cut lips get stitched and where the trainer examines missing teeth. It's where you see guys in agony over a broken ankle. And where you prepare to fight - hockey's a manly game - no one likes a coward. And after the game, it’s where you come down after the high of the battle - laugh, joke, and come back to reality.
There are a lot of connections to the walk of the Christian and the game of hockey (I suspect any sport, really). I know the analogy can be taken too far and I know all too well how sport can become an idol. We serve a loving God who loves to teach us; He loves the gathering of His men and women. He loves to prepare us for what’s ahead. That’s what we see in the Gospels - the Apostles spending time with Jesus. Jesus never missed an opportunity to teach. And in all of His lessons, there is a cascading effect. Jesus teaches. And the person taught then teaches. Others watching learn the lesson as well and then generation after generation the lessons reverberate.
Not only are we taught by the Word of God, but also by the Spirit of God. God cares so much about the living water He gives us. He wants His team well prepared, well-taught, and ready to play. We come together into the dressing room of life (church) to be reminded of the lessons of our Lord God and to prepare for the trials, battles, and opportunities ahead of us (life).
You get the picture. God loves hockey. Just kidding. But seriously, there are decent parallels we can draw between sport and ministry. Hockey is a great equalizer. So is the church. On the ice, no one cares how much money your dad makes or where you are from. In the Christian walk, we all serve an impartial Judge (1 Peter 1:17). God does not show favorites (Romans 2:11). God cares little about how much we know, but He cares a lot about our faith in action and what we do (James 1:27). Hockey, like all sports, is the ground of the comeback, the second chance, and the realm of perseverance and humility.
The best players are often the most humble. There’s a reason for that. They know how fragile success is and the need to keep working. When I was a teenager I got to play in Russia, Estonia, and Finland one summer. We learned a lesson from those mid-'80s Russians - you are never too good for the basics. Practice the basics every day. That too is a Christian lesson.
The Bible, written through ordinary people to be read and understood by ordinary blokes like us, speaks to us of the will of God. When we were kids we prayed “Thy will be done” every day before school began. Back in the ‘70s and into the early ‘80s Canadian kids had to start the day with the Lord’s Prayer and ‘O Canada’. The geniuses in the Supreme Court in their wisdom decided such things were illegal. How tragic.
As an act of righteous rebellion, I suggest this to my fellow Canadians. Pray in all circumstances. When you roll out of bed in the morning, consider making it a habit to go straight to your knees and pray the Lord’s Prayer. May we not just say ‘Thy will be done’ in the morning, but may we do God’s will all day long.
So can we get on with the Well Woman and talk about God’s will? Great question. Yes. Make sure this Christmas Season to ask God what His will is. Also, listen as He speaks to us through His word. Jesus said “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work” (John 4:34). And Jesus said, “And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day” (John 6:39-40).
Not all hockey players will make it. Some will be lost. Some will go their own way to darkness and doom (Matthew 27:1-5, Judas’ tragic end). Pray that God will use us for the great joy of planting and harvesting for Him - helping people understand and see Jesus and believe in Him. Some of the craziest hockey players we played with will get great rewards in Heaven - I'm sure of it.
There is a lot to glean from the meeting between Jesus and the Woman from Sychar. Some are easy, like the thought that some things pass through us. Coffee. Water. Lasagna. But the concept of living water is different. Living water, what on earth is that? If you believe in Jesus you know living water so much so that with confidence the Spirit of Christ will testify with our own spirits that we are God’s children (Romans 8:23)
Living water is God at work in His Children. God is lifted up (on the Cross), we believe in Him, and He makes us spiritually new. That’s the order of operations and such faith in Christ is available to all people. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). I’m not a follower of man-made systems. I don’t recommend Christians jumping into theological boxes. Trust Scripture alone. I love a paradigm as much as anyone but there is great danger in being wed to a philosophical system and worshiping it rather than Christ.
We see in the story of the woman at the well a level of awareness even before she hears the Word of God. We are made in the image of God. We have God-given faculties for a reason. The Woman brings all of her argumentative abilities and knowledge to the table. She’s open and desperately needs the truth. And the Truth indeed she finds.
A big lie a lot of us tell ourselves is that God doesn’t love us. We think we’ve failed too many times. Proven losers. Divorced. Unemployed. Etc. We think God would never forgive us. We’re too far gone. We are not the in crowd. We live too remote - God wouldn’t come up to our area - fly over country. Here’s the truth hockey players: God loves you. He hears you. No matter your location tribe or team. No matter the disaster you’ve made in your life. Call on Him. Jesus yearns to sit with us and to teach us. He has all the time in the world. But tell Him the truth for He knows all we’ve done - all our shameful deeds. And He died on the Cross to pay for our sins.
Jesus found the Woman at the Well, despite her stubbornness, her sin, her ostracized life, and her anger. He knew everything about her past husbands and her present predicament. Yet He loved her. Interestingly the Samaritan woman had not only heard that the Messiah was coming - the one who is called Christ - but she believed it (4:25). Wow. Who had more faith, this woman or the priests of the Sanhedrin? She seemed even to know more than Nicodemus! This woman got real with Jesus - like a doorless bathroom in a hockey dressing room - all on the table. She believed that despite her sin and her disastrous life maybe, just maybe the Christ would come and would explain everything to the people of Sychar - but much more importantly for her, the Christ would come and speak to her (4:25). God loves us that much. Every one of us!
Jesus not only showed up, but He offered her a new life. Jesus looked the woman in the eyes and told her plainly, “I AM the Messiah” (4:26). Jesus saw the woman’s hurt, her shame, and her sin. And He knew her hope. She had just a kernel of understanding and truth. Jesus used that small faith and used it to bring many more people eternal life. When we are born again we don’t keep it to ourselves. We share His love.
God sees and knows our every thought, motive, and intention. And He sees our deeds - good and bad. Jesus sees our sins. He calls out our self-deception - just as He did with the Woman at the Well, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband - for you have had five husbands, and you are not ever married to the man you are living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!” (4:17-18). Don’t try to lie to God. Instead, let’s get real with Him and with each other. May God show us the deep fellowship of His church in unity this Christmas season. May He bring us together into the dressing room of our faith and then send us out to represent Him well.
Dear Jesus, help us to see people the way You do. May we share with all the truth of how much You love us this Christmas season. Amen.
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