Elise and I have a new favorite show on Netflix. Friday Night Lights. Now this is certainly not a Christian show. A little background for the uninitiated. The series is premised on a high school in the fictitious west Texas town of Dillon. Football is THE religion in Dillon. The local team has a storied history of winning Texas state championships. High School football is played typically on Friday nights, hence the title of the show.
The cast is made up of the coach, Eric Taylor, his wife, Tami, and their 15 year old daughter, Julie. There is also an assortment of high school boys and girls. Some on the team, some cheerleaders and others just regular old students. While the football sequences are very well done, and enjoyable for me, a sports fan, there is also the required intricate web of relationship issues weaving their way through the story lines. And, of course, those relationships involve who is dating who and who is or is not being faithful to their significant others. Drinking and drug addiction are themes to many episodes. There are multiple decisions being made on scholastic and athletic goals, along with career choices made by Eric and Tami. In the background is the presence of the local church in Dillon, attended by most of the main characters, regardless of their current state of sanctity.
And this is the allure of the show for me. The obvious pull of good vs evil in the script in each episode. You can see decisions being contemplated and the factors going into each decision…or the factors being ignored as emotions override common sense in many cases. You can see each character coming to the proverbial fork in the road as they consider their choices. Coach Taylor, in one stretch had to decide whether to take a college coaching job after leading Dillon High to the state championship in his first year. He takes the job while commuting between home and the college every few weeks. You see his family begin to crumble and the team, which he had built with his personal concern for each player, turns on each other under the reins of a tyrannical head coach. Each decision, leads down a predicted path and the viewer sees the effect played out for the better or worse.
Today is Holy Saturday…the Easter Vigil where we open services in the dark, reading God’s word from the Old Testament and the Epistles. The Gospel reading is accompanied by lights coming on in the sanctuary representing the risen Lord. The series of reading (9 in total) include some consistent ones from year to year. The story of Creation, the dividing of the Red Sea, and the intended sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. And then there are other readings that convey the message of salvation, Of the successes and the failings of God’s people…His Chosen People…as they struggle with commitment to the covenant God made with them at Sinai.
As a people, the Israelites fall away from God in worshiping idols, bowing to false Gods, turning their backs on His commandments and statutes. Then returning to Him, only to fall away again. God lays out the choices for them and sends the prophets, such as Isaiah, Baruch and Ezekiel, to help guide them down the right road. As with the characters in Friday Night Lights, we can see the choices laid before them and the poor decisions made that leads them away from God and down the wrong road. Isaiah assures them in chapter 54 that their God will never abandon them. And in chapter 55 he tells them to seek the Lord and forsake the scoundrel. Baruch pleads with the Israelites to stay close to Wisdom for it is pleasing to God. And Ezekiel in chapter 36 admonishes the Israelites for defiling the land but God will call them back and cleanse them.
And with the lights raised, SATURDAY Night Lights in this case, we hear from St. Paul as he tells the Romans that we have been baptized with Christ and therefore will rise with Christ to new life. We must be dead to sin and instead live for God through Jesus.
But the culmination of this evening is the Gospel from Matthew. It is the story of Mary Magdalene going to the cave Sunday morning and finding the stone rolled back and an angel telling her that Jesus has risen and waiting for His disciples in Galilee!! He is waiting for US to turn to Him and accept this resurrection He offers us. Like the cast of characters in Dillon we have choices every day of our lives. And those choices can take us closer to the Father or they can lead us away. We can allow our emotions to guide our decisions or allow God’s word, springing forth from the pages of Scripture, to guide us in the correct direction. And when we fall, Jesus’ death and resurrection call us back to seek God’s mercy.
All of us, including the residents of Dillon, can take heed from a most unlikely source. From the lyrics of Led Zepplin’s Stairway to Heaven:
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
And there’s still time to change the road you’re on
Happy Easter to ACM readers and writers. Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed!
