Events like those unfolding at Penn State are always useful content for Sunday sermons and rarely will an opinionated pastor miss the opportunity to voice his or her opinion from the pulpit. I am confident that Penn State will be referenced a great deal this weekend even among those few congregations who could care less about football. Unfortunately, church leaders know it is important that we remind ourselves and our congregations that the world does not change a whole lot as result of these types of events and undoubtedly the disasters that are unfolding before us will no doubt happen again.

I have a great deal many friends who went to Penn State and many who have eagerly run to Paterno's and the schools defense. They have questioned the Board's decision, insisted that Joe was a scapegoat, a victim himself, etc. My response is that Joe Paterno just so happens to have the highest profile among those in this case and with that stature comes some consequences . The school is a human institution, crafted by man and not above or beyond error. This is not the first time a human being or institution has been put up on pedestal and we have been crafting idols out of man and his institutions for centuries. Again and again we have watched men and women fall from grace only to come to grips with the fact that they were just like the rest of us. If we hadn't put these things up so high, their fall wouldn't be so painful.

Someone said to me that Joe was bigger than football, a generous giver, and a symbol for the community. Unfortunately, Joe is not bigger than his sin and the sin of those around him. Even at his best he still represents a sin nature common among all of us. We feel awful because a man has let us down, because we wrap our identities around this man and this school, because we put our faith in 60 years of service, an institution of higher learning, etc. This sort of faith will always let us down. I believe it is important that pastors see these events as opportunities to remind all of us who we are, and more importantly, who we are not.

I told a friend of mine that the events this week felt like those on September 11th or during Katrina. Events like this remind us just how fallible, evil, and destructive we can be. They reminds us how insensitive, oblivious, and naive we often are. Our security, our identities, our confidence cannot be in possessions, in man, or in institutions. We must find all these things in Christ, in the Gospel, in the One who willingly accepted the consequence for all our sins. He did so for those of us who can change very little on our own and in doing so He changed everything.

@thegenerouslife

jason.lewis@logosyork.org