Here are the 2011 NFC South team schedule wallpapers. Atlanta, Carolina, New Orleans and Tampa Bay.

Here are the team schedule wallpapers for the AFC North teams, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Baltimore.

Here are the 2011 AFC East team schedule wallpapers. Patriots, Dolphins, Jets and Bills.

The 2011 NFC East team schedule wallpapers… Dallas, Philadelphia, New York, Washington.
      

2011 team schedule wallpapers for the Colts, Jaguars, Titans and Texans.

2011 Schedule Wallpapers for the Bears, Lions, Packers and Vikings!

Today I’m releasing the NFC West schedule wallpapers.

I’ve been doing these NFL team schedule wallpapers for a long time and posting them to flickr, and in the past couple of years they’ve become so popular I just do one for each team. So now that football is back on, here come the wallpapers.

AFC West

Check back often, I’ll post each set here as they are completed.

I was privileged to be able to preach my last Sunday at Allentown Presbyterian Church. Here’s the sermon audio/text.

Audio:

Everything Happens for a Reason?

Text:

One afternoon when we were in Maine this past week I stopped into one of the quirky stores in Farmington. There was a display of refrigerator magnets with quotes on them in the middle of the store and one caught my eye. The magnet said this:

“Everything happens for a reason.”
-An American Proverb

Everything happens for a reason?

What does that quote mean? I hear that quote a lot, but I wonder what people mean when they say it.

Do they mean that there is a logical explanation for everything?

Or do they mean that our world is being carefully orchestrated by someone?

If so, who is this puppet master? Is he good? Is he even a he?

I’ve heard people say “everything happens for a reason” after a sad breakup, or a lost job… but what about when a shooter starts killing people in Norway? I haven’t heard anyone say “Hey, everything happens for a reason” about that one.

Nobody looks back on the Holocaust and says “everything happens for a reason.”

No. It seems to me that people living comfortable lives in comfortable places tend to say things like “everything happens for a reason,” to explain how good their lives are. The phrase “everything happens for a reason” does not take into account the reality of evil and sin in our world.

There is a line in our scripture this morning that is a close cousin to “everything happens for a reason.”

In verse 28 Paul says, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” There is an important difference between what Paul is saying and what the magnet in Maine told me.

Paul was writing to a people living in turmoil. This letter was written just a couple of decades after Christ’s resurrection. It was a time when Judaism and the Jesus movement were still very much intertwined. Followers of Jesus were still meeting in synagogues with Jews who didn’t believe in Jesus. There were fights all the time. The Roman emperor had all the Jews and Jewish Christian kicked out of Rome because of all their fighting. The Christians left behind in Rome were almost all Gentile or Non-Jewish Christians. Years later when the Jewish Christians returned to the city of Rome, they found that their congregations had changed dramatically.

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Imagine with me what this might look like today in our community. What if all the youth group kids with saggy pants started coming to worship on Sunday mornings? We might be proud of ourselves at first, for being such a welcoming congregation, but we’d be sure to tell them to pull up their pants. But then, imagine that Taxes in New Jersey got even HIGHER one year and most of us found places to live in that southern New Jersey colony they call Florida. But then in 30 years climate change has ruined Florida and taxes are lower in New Jersey so we all come back to APC… but now, instead of a few kids with Saggy Pants, the whole place is full of people with saggy pants, even the pastor has saggy pants. And in the meantime most of our family has stopped believing in God. That’s kind of the culture shock these Jewish Christians walk back into when they return to Rome.

And Paul says to them, “Hey, God works in all things for the Good of those who love him.”

You’re frustrated that your church culture is changing, but God isn’t freaking out, God knows how to take all our mistakes and transform them into something good.

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As Frodo Baggins and the rest of the Fellowship of the Ring descended into the mines of Moria on their way to destroy the Ring of Power they were being followed.

They were being followed by the same creature which had given the evil Sauron clues to their location. Frodo’s uncle Bilbo Baggins had a chance to kill the creature, Gollum, decades earlier. In a moment of frustration Frodo tells Gandalf “Bilbo should have killed Gollum when he had the chance!” Gandalf, in his wisdom tells Frodo that the creature Gollum may have a part to play before the end. At the climax of the third book, Frodo has taken the Ring to the place where it must be destroyed but is so tempted by its power that he cannot let go of it. Gollum, who has been following Frodo again, comes out of nowhere and snatches the Ring, only to fall, with it, into the fire.

Somehow even Gollum’s greed and deception are transformed into something that save Frodo… and the world.

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In the book of Genesis we find the story of Joseph, a young boy who is despised by his older brothers. One day his older brothers fake his death, and sell him into slavery.

When he’s a slave and in prison he meets one of Pharaoh’s cup-bearers and interprets a dream for him. Later when that cup-bearer is reinstated, Pharaoh has a dream which needed to be interpreted. The cup-bearer recommends Joseph. His interpretation – about the impending famine – is so well received that he becomes the highest ranking official in Egypt below Pharaoh. He is put in charge of the project to help Egypt survive the famine.

Later his family is saved from starvation by his leadership.

Somehow even the things Joseph’s brothers did to him, which were meant as evil, were transformed into something that saved Israel’s future.

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When we were in Maine this past week we had a moment like this. There’s a rotation throughout the week that everyone is on a worksite for 4 days and goes on a big hike up a mountain 1 day. It’s a strenuous hike, so some people just aren’t going to physically be able to do it. But I hadn’t sat down with the other leaders to come up with a highly detailed policy about who could and could not opt-out of the hike.

Some people didn’t want to go, they wanted to work on the site all 5 days. I said yes. Other people wanted to work all 5 days but talked to someone else, they said no. It was miscommunication. And through our miscommunication a young girl who didn’t want to go on the hike was told she didn’t have a choice, she had to go. And she was not happy about it. She stomped up that mountain in a bad mood, and when she got to the top she sat off by herself all alone, steaming that we made her go on the hike.

Time passed.

And on the top of that mountain the Spirit of God began to talk to her, and she gave her life to Jesus.

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When Paul wrote to the Romans most of the Jews had rejected Christ as the Messiah. BUT Paul would say that because Israel is lost and wandering is not a sign that God is done with them.

A remnant of believing Israel is the root and the trunk of the New Israel, which is made up of Jewish and Gentile branches. Paul tells the Jewish Christians living in Rome that even Israel’s rejection of Christ has brought a new opportunity for the gospel to be preached to the Gentiles. Paul hopes for a day when the Gentile Christians inspire the Jews to worship Jesus as the Messiah.

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God will not lose.

God will not lose.

Israel rejects Jesus? Okay, I’ll use that as an opportunity to bring in the Gentiles and then one day they’ll bring Israel back to me.

Gollum has an evil obsession with the ring? Okay, that will come in handy when our Hero falters and can’t finish his mission.

Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery? Sure, I’ll just use that to get him the right job interview, so he can save all their lives.

This youth director is going to mismanage who does and doesn’t go on the hike? Sounds good to me, I have a divine meeting planned with this young girl.

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God has a destiny for you. But this isn’t some incredibly specific roadmap for what kind of career you will have and who you will marry and what town you will live in.

God’s destiny for you is Jesus.

That you would cling to Jesus when you mess it all up.

That you would walk with Jesus day to day.

That you would build your life on Jesus.

And ultimately that you would become more and more like Jesus with each passing day.

Even in our suffering and the trials of life, there is an opportunity to become more Christlike.

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Our scripture this morning ends on a triumphant note.

We may face trouble and pain in this life, but there is nothing that can separate you from the love of Jesus.

No trouble that attacks you in this life is a sign that God has abandoned you, for he loved you so much that he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.

Jesus does not condemn you, but quite the opposite, he is praying for you and turning all things in this life (good and bad) into opportunities to become more like him.

So while not everything may happen for a reason, we can be confident that God will not lose.

Because God will take all things and use them in his redemption story.

Amen.

I recently wrote an article for Immerse Journal, a journal of faith, life and youth ministry, in their Culture column. My article, titled “A New Way to Tune In,” attempts to reflect on two predictable ways that youth workers engage with pop culture and a possible third way that could be more helpful. I specifically engage with The Book of Eli and Lady Gaga’s hit Born This Way.

You can check it out at the Immerse Website, or go directly to a preview of the current issue here.