Putting on the Uniform
Dave Faust
There’s beautiful simplicity in the apostle Paul’s assertion, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27).
There’s nothing for us to brag about here except the work of God. Our identity comes from Christ. We are God’s children. These blessings come by grace through faith, not by human achievement. When we are baptized into Christ, he becomes our “clothing.” We put on his uniform. Wherever we go, we wear his game jersey—his team colors.
Remembering Your Roots
Anthony Munoz is known for wearing the uniform of the University of Southern California Trojans in college and the Cincinnati Bengals in the NFL. The first time I met Anthony, I shook his hand and thought, “Man, this guy is huge!”
It’s not surprising that his strength, agility, and work ethic equipped him for a successful career as a left tackle in the NFL. (Football observers commonly classify him as one of the best offensive linemen who ever played the game.) What many do find surprising, however, are his relaxed, friendly smile and his seeming lack of egotism. For someone who has played in two Super Bowls and received widespread recognition for his accomplishments on the field, humility might be elusive, but it seems to flow naturally from this gentle giant.
When Munoz was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, his son Michael (who was 17 at the time) introduced him by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to a great football player, a great friend, a great father and a great husband. He is a man who stands tall among men because he is a man who walks with God.”
When I asked how he keeps his head, Anthony told me, “I never forget where I came from—where I was before Christ, and what Christ took me through in my upbringing. I feel a tremendous appreciation for people who poured into my life. I never take for granted the people who coached and mentored me. The folks at Parks & Recreation gave me a ball glove, or I never could have played baseball. The game of football could easily have been taken away from me because of injury, so I don’t take that for granted either.”
He asked, “Ever hear the phrase, ‘a self-made man’? How can you be self-made when all these people made you who you are?”
Working With Your Teammates
Another part of Anthony’s story has to do with the way he learned to play alongside people from different backgrounds.
“My teammates came from Texas, Iowa, California, Pennsylvania, and other places,” he recalled. “I played next to a guy for eight years who was a hog farmer in Iowa, and another guy from East Philly. Whatever our cultural or socio-economic background, we could work together for the same goal.”
The same is true in the church, for the apostle Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). For Christians, our main identifying characteristic is not our race, social standing, gender, or anything else. We find our identity in Christ. He is our uniform.
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This column first appeared in The Lookout on Feb 5, 2017.
Put-Downs
A joke about a bad marriage will almost always get a laugh. Comedian George Burns quipped, "I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury." Rodney Dangerfield joked, "My wife and I were happy for 20 years. Then we met."
Putting the Coin in the Koinonia
Fellowship has lost a lot of its first-century clout. To us it means a dinner in the church basement; in the early church, it meant a shared life. To us it's a soft fuzzy word, but to the ancient believers it had hard edges. First-century fellowship was a gift of God—a relationship the believers shared because they were common recipients of God's grace—but it also required intentional effort. They made a deliberate choice to "devote themselves" to fellowship, along with the apostles' teaching, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42).