Coach

Good coaches are so important in life. Not just in sports, but in our careers, our hobbies, and all places. I once saw a graph entitled The Progression of Coaching.[1] It went like this:

I do and you watch.

We do together.

You do and I watch.

You do.

That’s good coaching. It starts by watching someone who has mastered the craft or knows their way around. We learn best through apprenticeship. When someone takes time and shows us the ropes. This says two things to us: 1. You are worth spending time with. 2. I believe you can do what I do.

Jesus models this in the Farewell Discourses which we have been in. From chapter 14 to 17 in John’s Gospel, it’s Jesus saying “Goodbye! Goodbye! I am leaving but my Spirit will be with you.” My favorite verse comes in these chapters and we heard it last week. From John 14:12, “These things I can do, you can do; and greater than these for I am going to the Father.”

These things I do… the healing, the water into wine, the blessing, the teaching, the walking on water, raising of the dead, all of it… The God-in-Christ says “You can do this and GREATER!” That! Is outlandish. That is crazy talk! That! Sounds like good news.

Jesus is saying, “You’ve watched me. We did this together. I’ve watched you… now you’ll have to do these things and greater. You’ll have my Spirit and I believe in you.”

And today we hear him say, “I have more to say, but you’re not going to get it through me telling you. You’re going to have to find out by doing and you’ll know I’m there because the Spirit of Truth will reveal these things to you.”

We, church, are going to have to figure things out. Christ has given us the Spirit but we are in the final stage of “You Do” of coaching. We have to make the shift of “the people with the problem” to “the people with the solution.”[2] We cried out on Palm Sunday, “SAVE US!” We wanted a Messiah to come and fix all our problems. But our Messiah shows up and says, “These things I do, you can do…” Jesus didn’t come to save us from all our problems, he came so we might face them and solve them. That is the only way enduring progress is achieved—when the people take responsibility and come up with their own solutions.

Good coaches know this. They know they can’t win the game for the team, the team has to play it. If the coach solves the problem, like if Jesus showed up and took away all suffering, healed everyone, overthrew the Romans, people would have said, “That’s nice, but no thanks.” Or they’d ask, “How are we supposed to make any money if we aren’t profiting off war and sick folks?!” Yet if they come up with their own solutions, if they have agency, the work might take longer, but the results last longer because the team has more ownership.

You will find no better coach than Christ. In various times in our life, when we are confronted with problems, Jesus is not one that will take our problems away every single time. Instead, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, that divine inspiration that will spark something within us and we respond. We change from the people with the problem to the people with the solution and it’s an amazing transformation.

I don’t know if you saw Mark Armstrong’s devotion in last Sunday’s bulletin. He was coaching a young man going through some troubles and the Spirit said to him, “Guide not by the wind but by the stars.” That’s a good coach. That’s some divine inspiration. Set your sights higher! The wind is twisting this way and that, but the stars are constant.

Love your neighbor. That’s constant. Love God with your whole heart, mind, and strength. That’s constant. Hope. That’s a constant. It’s a constant in us, and it’s a constant with God. God said to us, “These things I do, you can do.” That’s hope. That’s a constant. As the Apostle Paul stated, “Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

I have hope that we will figure out our problems together so that we become the people with solutions. Granted not every problem can be solved. Jesus knew this. The religious of his day treated many people as problems. Samaritans, sinners, lepers, tax collectors—the religious labeled them problems. Women, outcasts, the poor, the unclean—the religious labeled them problems.

Jesus knew that people weren’t problems. Even the religious, they weren’t problems meant to be solved. They were people. You don’t solve people. You commune with people. Jesus sat with the righteous and wicked. He told parables to the high and the low. He gathered us in and coached us all.

We see this with the story of Mary and Martha. Martha is busy preparing food for all the disciples and Jesus. But Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet. We often pit the two women against each other. Many preachers say, “Be a Mary, don’t be a Martha.” Jesus doesn’t say this. In fact, there’s more going on here.

Mary is supposed to be in the kitchen. That’s where the society put women, that was their place. But Mary is at Jesus’ feet… and who sits at the feet of the teacher? Disciples. And who is allowed to be a disciple? Men. But not in Jesus’ mind. Jesus says, “Mary has picked the better choice and it won’t be taken from her.”

So while some religious debate if women can preach or lead or preside over the sacraments or teach or coach others up…. We look to our coach who supports women in leadership. Who first appears to women after his resurrection. Who constantly raises them up and tells stories featuring them. Who listens to and heals them.. THESE THINGS I DO… YOU CAN DO!

Last week the Southern Baptists gathered to debate if women should lead. Have they been listening to the same coach we have? They seem to be ignoring the bigger issue of child abuse and safety.

Look. We’ve just had a fantastic VBS with 96 kids and so many volunteers showed up and spent the week at our church, including lots of youth helpers. We are coaching them up so that, one day, they will coach others up in the faith. You did that! You continue to do that by encouraging kids to come, to offer their voices in worship, by providing a safe place for them. Safe to question and explore. A place that they know they will be loved. You allow men and women to do this. You allow all folks who are willing and gifted to step forward and share their gifts. In doing so, you treat people not as problems but as people. People to learn from and teach. People to coach and be coached by. You don’t solve people. You commune with people.

We have that Spirit of Truth. I have been convicted by it. Tested by it. I hold fast to it for it is of God. God’s gift to us in our suffering and in our triumph. May we continue to bring our problems forward… to commune with others… and be transformed into the people with the solution. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Works Cited

[1] I haven’t found the original source, but Ken Zuehlke stated on Sunday that this sounds like the Boy Scout’s EDGE method. EDGE stands for “Explain. Demonstrate. Guide. Enable.”

[2] Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linksy, Leadership on the Line: Staying alive through the dangers of leading. Page 127

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