The Gatorade Gospel
Luke 8:1-15
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Rev. Lou Nyiri
January 27, 2008

Their advertising campaign uses such slogans as…
“It’s in Peyton Manning…is it in you?”
“If you want to win…you’ve got to replace what you lose.”
“If you don’t need it…it’s not in it.”
“When it’s all on you…is it in you?”

Their history reads this way…

• Early in the summer of 1965, an assistant coach from the University of Florida sat down with a team of university physicians and asked why so many of his players were being affected by heat and heat related illnesses.
• The researchers — Dr. Robert Cade, Dr. Dana Shires, Dr. H. James Free and Dr. Alejandro de Quesada — soon discovered two key factors were causing the Gator players to ‘wilt’: the fluids and electrolytes they lost through sweat were not being replaced, and the large amounts of carbohydrates their bodies used for energy were not being replenished.
• The researchers went into the lab, and scientifically formulated a precisely balanced carbohydrate-electrolyte drink that adequately replaced the key components lost by Gator players through sweating and exercise.

They called their concoction ‘Gatorade’.

• Soon after the Gators began winning… outlasting heavily favored opponents in the withering heat and finishing at 7–4. It was their first winning season in over ten years.
• The team’s success progressed with the Gators finishing the 1967 season 9–2 and winning the Orange Bowl for the first time ever in school history. Gatorade news spread outside of Florida, with other college’s football programs ordering batches of this new found elixir…believing that playing without Gatorade on your sidelines was like playing with just ten men on the field.
• In 1969 (not just the year I was born, but also the year), the Kansas City Chiefs used Gatorade during training camp and were so impressed they kept it on their sidelines throughout the entire season…a season which ended with a stunning victory over the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.
• In following years more NFL teams put Gatorade on their sidelines, and in 1983, it became the official sports drink of the NFL—a title it holds to this day.
• Today, Gatorade is the official sports drink of men’s and women’s intercollegiate sports in more than 70 Division I colleges.
• It is also the official sports drink of the NBA, AVP (the Association of Volleyball Professionals), and PGA, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, and numerous other elite and professional organizations and teams.
• In 2001, after determining professional race car drivers were not staying adequately hydrated throughout their races, Gatorade and Gatorade Sports Science Institute in conjunction with auto racing organizations developed a hydration tool that could withstand 130-degree temperatures and keep drivers hydrated safely throughout the course of a race. The result of research and development was GIDS, the Gatorade In-Car Drinking System, which is now considered an essential piece of racing equipment.
• Gatorade and GSSI continue searching for innovative ways to help athletes improve performance by aiding proper hydration and nutrition. The Gatorade Company and the GSSI strive to advance their collective mission of enabling athletes to always perform at their peak.

The Word is what Jesus brought to us in his teachings and in his life.
John’s gospel tells us, “In the beginning was the Word.  The Word was with God and the Word was God.  The Word became flesh and lived among us.”  (John 1:1, 14)
Jesus the Christ is the living, breathing example of what it means to live a life in total communion with God.

God’s Word is the foundation of our faith.
It is the place we encounter God and something which can change even the hardest of soils into the richest of gardens.
God’s Word, the author of the New Testament book Hebrews tells us, “is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword…able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  (Hebrews 4:12-16)
As faithful people we must continually cultivate the soil of our lives by renewing it with the life giving power of God’s word.

To be ordained in the PC(USA) as a Minister of Word and Sacrament, a person must pass four ordination exams.  One exam is the Bible Content Exam and a candidate must get a minimum of 70 out of 100 to pass this Bible trivia test.  The exam is given once a year in the Spring.  My Greek professor told our class on the first day, “unless you were raised in the deep South by a Biblically literate family who read the Bible every day for 15 minutes before every meal and went to midweek prayer group, then you had a slim to none chance of passing this exam.”  He then encouraged us to go to the library and make photo copies of the last 10 years worth of exams and study for those.

You know how you can tell which students are down to their last exam?  They are the ones huddled in the library with stacks of old exams around them quizzing one another from old exams.  Yours truly was one of those students.  There I was, sitting in the student center going over old exams with my fellow students.  We were asking questions and saying things like, “Oh, I know that one.  It was on 1987’s exam…the answer is ‘A - Habbakuk.’”  We’re going at this for over an hour when my friend Patrick stops us dead in our tracks by asking the rhetorical question, “Don’t you think it’s funny that we’re sitting here studying about the Bible using old Bible content exams.  How many of us are going to go into the pulpit after graduation and tell our congregations, ‘This morning, I’ll be preaching from the Bible Content Exam – 1989, question 52…’  Shouldn’t there be a voice crying out in this wilderness – ‘READ THE BOOK!’”

The first step in the cultivation of our faith needs to be listening to that voice that reminds us, “when in doubt…read the book.”
Even “when we’re not in doubt…read the book.”
We would do well to pick up our Bibles daily and read God’s word for our lives.
We need to get lost in the Word.  We need to find where it cuts into our lives.
The truth of Scripture is NOT solely for us to sweep the Bible category on Jeopardy.
Scripture’s ultimate purpose is to shape our lives AND instruct us for salvation – eternity spent in the presence of our loving & faithful God.

Scripture also what we call “inspired” by God.
Literally it is “expired” or “God breathed.”
It’s like the life-giving breath of a first responder on the scene who gives Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation to an unconscious and non-breathing person.
When we read the Book we encounter the living, breathing word of God that can breathe new life into old, weary bones.

In the Bible we learn about this great God of ours who chose to reveal Himself in the living Word – Jesus the Christ.
Scripture helps show us that God’s Kingdom is not so much a realm as it is a relationship.
For that reason, the primary purpose of taking “time-out” to read and reflect upon God’s word is to nurture our relationship with God through Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit.
As we study God’s word and wrestle with it in our lives, we begin to participate in what the 17th century French monk, brother Lawrence called “The Practice of the presence of God.”

This “Practice of the Presence of God” involves our growing awareness that God is intimately present with us.  God works in, around and through us, if you will.
Establishing a sense of God’s presence continually with us begins in our reading of God’s word and continues in our conversations with God.
“We ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity,” Brother Lawrence wrote, “speaking to him frankly and plainly, and imploring his assistance in our affairs, just as they happen.”
Shortly before his death, Lawrence wrote, “Our business is to know God.  The more one knows God, the more one desires to know [God]…the deeper and more extensive our knowledge, the greater will be our love.”

As we commune daily with God through our reading of the Word and our interaction with the Word both in our personal relationship with the Word made flesh – Jesus the Christ and our conversation with God daily, we will find our lives beginning to change.
We will find ourselves being nourished in such a way that we will have in us what we need to go the distance.

The other thing to keep in mind is we don’t do this begrudgingly out of obligation or duty…we do it out of gratitude and as a discipline.  Out of a sense of wanting to be the best person we can be…so that we can be the person God knows we can be.
We can’t just wake up one morning and declare we are going to compete in a sport we’ve never trained for then go out and compete in that sport hoping we will do well and escape injury free.  AND we cannot just wake up and go into the day hoping we will do God’s will if we’ve not taken time to sit with God and wrestle with God about what His will might be for our lives.
IV.
The Gatorade Sports Science Institute has found that for some athletes severe dehydration can occur within the first 30 minutes of exercise.
They suggest drinking 17-20 oz. of [an electrolyte replenishing fluid] one or more hours before an exercise, training, or competitive session, and another 7-10 oz. immediately before initiating activity.
For they have discovered that athletes who hydrate [properly] ensure that they are replacing the vital electrolytes and fluids lost during exercise, while refueling their muscles for their next training or competitive session.

Gatorade has taught us the best time to hydrate is before we exercise.
Like Gatorade to a dehydrated athlete…so faith can be to one who needs help to keep going.
As people of faith our spiritual hydration plan begins daily with an encounter and conversation with God’s word so that we are ready for life’s spiritual challenges.

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