On this Souper Bowl Sunday I’m not going to even pretend I know a single thing about the teams who will be fighting it out.  Thanks to attending a lot of Fayetteville High School and a few college games, I do know a little bit more about the rudiments of the game called football than I did when I arrived from Great Britain.

I'm still the worst person to sit next to on the bleachers because every now and then something will happen and people will cheer or make some other verbal gesture, and I'm left asking, "Was that a good thing or a bad thing?."  Sometimes I'm thinking, "Yeah, that's it, go, excellent!" and it turns out to be a foul.  But hey, I'm learning.

Souper Bowl Sunday is a day when youth groups across America raise money for a charitable cause that they wish to support by asking their congregations to drop a dollar in a soup bowl as they leave church.  The money raised will go to support ‘Helping Hands’.  Back in Fayetteville they established a fund to help those who were passing through get a room for a night.  Let me tell you a story about how that helped at least one person.

It all started one evening back in the summer of 1998 when I arrived home from a meeting and was greeted by Yvonne telling me I needed to get over to the church, because there was a man there who needed to see me.  Apparently he had wandered in sometime before or during a T.O.P.S meeting, and he said he needed to see the pastor and would wait till he arrived.
 
Arrive I did and found him sitting in the sanctuary.  He was wearing denims, quite dark-skinned, almost Spanish in appearance, sitting on the back pew reading a small bible. After reading a few verses he would close the book, kiss the bible, then bow his head in prayer before returning to another reading.  After some brief introductions he made his request, "I want to sleep here tonight." 

"Well," I said (realizing that I had some money from the Souper Bowl Fund for just such a purpose), "Let me see if we can get you a room somewhere."

"No pastor," he explained, pointing at the church around him, "I want to sleep here, in this special place."  I said something about it being more comfortable in places where there were beds, but again he spoke up.  "Pastor, I'm sure you know your bible.  Does the Word not say, 'In my Father’s house’?  I don't want to go elsewhere.  I want to be here, in my Father's house."

"Hmmm," I thought, this could be a tricky one.  The man obviously hadn't had a shower for a while, nor I suspected had a decent meal.  It would be a liability to leave him unattended in the church overnight, because I knew nothing about this man at all apart from his own recommendations.  He could be on the run or be an arsonist or an axe murderer.  I didn't know him from Adam.  Or he could be totally genuine.

We spoke some more.  He explained how God had commissioned him as a church worker and that he was traveling the country taking the Good News with him.  He considered himself a bishop appointed to build up the body of the church.  He would stay with whoever would welcome him and teach them the things of God.

Bishop or no bishop, I really didn't want him camping out in the sanctuary.  So after some persuasion he agreed that a night in the Comfort Inn wouldn't be so bad after all.  The poor fellow didn't have two cents to call his own, so that's where the fund came in handy.  He could also get himself a good meal.

When we got up to the Comfort Inn he had to register for a room, and he needed some identification.  "Name?" the lady asked.  "Jesus" he replied.  Unfazed, the lady said, "I need to see some I.D."  So he pulled out a Michigan driving license and sure enough, there was his name, 'Jesus', followed by a Mediterranean sounding second name.

We found him a room, and then I stayed to talk with him a while about a whole range of topics.  From what he told me he was from a Jewish background but had converted to Christianity.  He'd spent some time traveling in Israel.  He had particular views about a whole host of things, varying from the role of the church, Middle East politics, and the end of the world.

By the way he spoke and by some of his actions – rocking to and fro as he talked, sometimes being a little incoherent – it was apparent that this was a man who had his share of problems.  I don't mean that in any condescending way.  He was polite, gentle, reasonable, and intelligent; yet at the same time he was someone who needed help.

Driving home I reflected on the situation.  Jesus had come to stay at Fayetteville church, a place he called 'His Father's house', but the pastor had thrown him out because, in a reversal of the Bethlehem story, there was room at the Inn, the Comfort Inn!  Because of the money in the Souper Bowl fund, not only did he get a bed for the night but also a good meal inside him as well.

There are always people in our own community and beyond who have material needs.  Changes in Social Security laws and a whole host of other things means that there are those who need food from food pantries, help with bills, help with clothing for themselves and their family, and numerous other things.  The amount of requests for help seems to be increasing rather than decreasing. 

I’m grateful for those who seek to offer support through initiatives such as Souper Bowl Sundays. I can't help but think of these words from Matthew's gospel (Chapter 25:37-40):

Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?  And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?”   And the King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”

Likewise the prophet Micah chastises a people who thought that religion was a matter of going to church, looking after themselves, and earning God's mercy through giving God things.  'That's not it' he warns them, 'That's not what God wants'.

"Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil?  He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6: 7-8)

Later today two teams will be battling it out on the football field.  One of them will go home knowing they are the winners, that they are the champions.  They deservedly will have their moment of glory.