“Heaven goes by favor. If it were by merit, you would stay out and your dog would join.” – Mark Twain

Just after Thanksgiving, a professional football player dropped an easy pass in the end zone in overtime that would have given his hapless team the win. The other team marched down the field and won the game.

After the game, the receiver tweeted (apparently in multiple tweets), “I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!! AND THIS IS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! I’LL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO…”

One newspaper reported on it this way:

“It wasn’t his own hands or the Pittsburgh secondary Sunday that foiled Buffalo Bills wide receiver Steve Johnson from hauling in what should have been the game-winning TD catch in the end zone. It was God.”

The ESPN ticker translated that for us, Stevie was “blaming God”. Many other bloggers and talking heads concurred.

I don’t know much about Steve, though he did graduate from University of Kentucky. I do know that he also said later on game day “I am humbled”.

And his head coach, Chan Gailey, said

“I hurt for him. But in this business, there’s two types of people-the humble and the humbled-and if you are not in the first group, you’ll be in the second group at some point in time.”

I’m not so much interested in what Steve or Chan said, as I am in who came to God’s defense and how they defended Him. The very idea that God had anything to do with a dropped pass seemed repulsive to most everyone.

It was the receiver, nothing more nothing less. God can’t be blamed for such blatant mistakes.

I’m not surprised, of course. This is simply a manifestation of the “god” most people claim to believe in, one who not only can’t be blamed for my faults but also who doesn’t impose himself on us either.

But the reaction to a public statement implying that God is involved in the daily affairs of men providentially prompted me to further reflect on Christians and the church.

Some branches of the church celebrate Epiphany on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the wise men.

A mention of King Herod, and the claims of a newborn king, can’t be avoided as a backdrop to this part of the story.

Sadly, though, Christians and non-Christians alike seem to prefer an earlier moment in the story when the baby Jesus is “away”, “away in a manger”.

In the words of a physician and former missionary, Harry Kraus Jr., how many of us have “Domesticated Jesus” [DJ]?

In his book by that title, he points out that the first animals to be domesticated were cattle, to provide milk.

He goes on to explain that to domesticate Jesus is to tame Him so that He might serve me.

I must confess that I do have on my iPod Johnny Cash singing “Your own, personal Jesus”. It’s not the only song on my iPod about Jesus, and others speak of His greater glory. So I trust that this song is not enough to lead me to come home to my wife and say, “Honey, I shrunk the Savior”.

Or as Kraus would say, which selection will I make today from the divine vending machine.

When I was first putting these thoughts together, in connection with a sermon on “Mighty God” in Isaiah 9 and for a devotional at the Stated Clerk’s meeting,
I noticed a footer on an email I received quoting Mark Twain as having said “Heaven goes by favor. If it were by merit, you would stay out and your dog would join.”

Which lead me to the first obvious question: just who should be taming whom?

Kraus says “I can hear your protests and believe me, they are my own. Jesus Christ cannot be domesticated.”

Which leads to more questions. Have I been domesticating Jesus? Am I willing to consider the possibility that I have been? And am I willing to be domesticated by One whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light? By one through whom I can do everything expected of me with the power He provides?

Go to prpbooks.com and search for Domesticated Jesus. Look at the table of contents, and read a sample chapter.

Or as it says on the back cover and at the end of the Introduction, “Pull up a chair, fellow traveler. Let’s sit together to reason about a horrible thing that I’ve done. I’ve domesticated the Lord of the universe.”

David Dively is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He serves at Senior Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, Stated Clerk of the Presbytery of the Ohio Valley and as Dean of the PCA Stated Clerks.