Raggant Standard

May 2021

Letter From the U.H.

Receivers Play Offense 

I like football.  It’s fun to watch and to play.  On the offensive side of things, the people who have opportunity to touch the football play what are called “skill positions.”  These include the quarterback, running backs, and receivers.  The defense works to disrupt the plans of the offense and prevent them from going down the field and scoring.  

For sake of the current illustration, I want to focus on the receivers.  They are at the mercy of the quarterback to pass them the ball, or they are reduced to blockers or decoys.  But if the quarterback does throw them the ball, their job is to actually catch the ball and then run furiously for the end zone, eluding the defense as best they can along the way. 

If feasting were a football game, we’d be those receivers...and receivers play offense.  Their job of receiving a football is part of an offensive attack on the defense in the other uniforms.  Our receiving blessings is an assault on the wicked ideologies and spiritual forces that surround us.  We don’t generate the blessings any more than a  football player throws a pass to himself.  And the real magic happens once we catch it and run. 

Every year, in anticipation of our Fundraising Feast, I am glad to work through the mental exercise of coming up with new reasons why feasting is so important to our culture here at Evangel Classical School.  This year is no different.

This year, there are two particular reasons that come to the surface.

1. We are still here.

2. We don’t know where we’ll be tomorrow.  

If you’re a Christian long enough, you’ll run into an interesting phenomenon, namely this: God sometimes removes the means that you need to do His will.   Why would He do this? I believe it’s to foster dependence.  

You’ve seen it before.  A generous man goes bankrupt.  A loving mother loses her child.  A doting grandfather loses his mobility and energy.  A Christian school outgrows its space to operate. When God closes the door, where does the faithful Christian turn?  Like wide receivers, we turn to Him with open hands, because in all likelihood, a new blessing is on its way. 

Although we have not been evicted by Reclamation Church, and although we are committed to getting creative and to keeping our doors open next year at Reclamation Church, the sort of growth we’ve been experiencing is not sustainable in our current location.  The fact that we are open even now is only attributable to the grace of God.  All over the country schools have been operated online this year, but God has allowed us to continue our work of enculturation in person.  I’m not sure why He has allowed this, but I’m sure grateful.  

God provides; we receive.  It is an act of faith to celebrate the provision of God before His provision is visible.  I want that sort of faith.  And so I will not be waiting until we have all the answers to give Him thanks.  

This means we do not need to wait for circumstances to get good for us to praise God.  We trust Him, and operate in the faith that He is good, and He wills good for His people, whether or not we understand it.  And if you think about it for a moment, that’s some kind of statement.  

Beyond all this, feasting is fun.  It’s sweet and rich to gather with God’s people and receive His good gifts (like friends, song, food, wine, steak and chocolate) as an act of assault on the powers of darkness and the thankless spirit of the age. 

Really.  What are they going to do when we eat each bite of steak and drink each sip of wine and enjoy the mirth of our table mates like all is gift? What are they going to do when God sits in the heavens and delights in His people’s grateful enjoyment His gifts to us? Even the kids get in on the action when they cheerfully bring delicious morsels to the table as God’s vehicles of blessing.    

God has blessed us in tremendous ways this year at ECS, and we receive those blessings with gratefulness. I look forward to doing so with you at our Feast on May 14. 

Risus est bellum
Mr. Sarr