Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library / University of Georgia Libraries
Do you know the name Theron Sapp?
Doubtlessly, some of you do. I like to think that many of my readers are knowledgeable when it comes to sports, and particularly the realm of sports that Mr. Sapp inhabits, but there’s a good chance that many of you do not.
Before I further explain who Theron Sapp is, let me ask you this question: Do you know the names Charlie Trippi and Frank Sinkwich? These two men played football for the University of Georgia back in the 1940s, winning the 1942 Rose Bowl and the national championship that season. Sinkwich was a Heisman Trophy winner. Trippi was a Maxwell Award winner and Heisman runner-up (should’ve won) who also went on to fight in World War II before coming back to UGA and leading the Dawgs to an undefeated season in 1946.
Okay, so maybe some of you didn’t know those names, but here’s one I Imagine all of you will know. If not, you’re forbidden from reading the rest of this piece. (Just kidding)
Do you know who Herschel Walker is?
Yeah, now we’re getting somewhere, aren’t we? Herschel Walker is often considered one of the greatest college football players of all time – right behind Jim Brown…apparently. He won the Heisman in 1982. He led the Dawgs to an undefeated national championship season in 1980, racking up more than 1,600 rushing yards as a freshman. The man was a wrecking crew on the football field.
Do you know what Herschel Walker, Frank Sinkwich, Charlie Trippi, and Theron Sapp all have in common? These are the only four men to have their jerseys retired by the University of Georgia football program.
Now that you know what company Theron Sapp keeps, I imagine you’re starting to imagine exactly what his college accolades must have been. Did he lead the Dawgs to an undefeated season? Was he the MVP of a championship season? Was he the greatest wide receiver or lineman in school history?
No.
You see, Theron Sapp is famous for what he did in exactly one game. Just one football game.
In case you need them, here are some pearls for clutching. (Photo by Cornelia Ng on Unsplash.com)
This next sentence might come as a shock to you, so brace yourselves. There was actually a time when Georgia Tech football was good!
It gets worse. From 1949 to 1956, UGA did not beat the Yellow Jackets a single time in a game of football. I wasn’t around then, but, to quote my friend Jeff Dantzler, a UGA legend in his own right, “I didn’t have to be alive during the Great Depression to know it was bad.”
At the start of the 1957 edition of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate, the Dawgs were riding a terrible 8-game losing streak to the Jackets. Sadly, that is still the longest streak in the series for either team. It could have been worse, it could have gotten down to nine games, but Theron Sapp would have his say before the day was done.
It was a scoreless affair in the third quarter when Sapp forced a fumble and gave the ball back to the Dawgs. Then, he scored the only touchdown of the game on the ensuing offensive possession.
See, a fullback who only gained about 600 yards in 1957 and who was only able to start one season in college because of injury did more for UGA football in one game than most players, players who are far better at football than him, were ever able to do. It has been said that Sapp did more for the dignity of UGA than anyone before or since. Winning that game earned him the nickname “The Droughtbreaker.”
Let’s pick out another sports figure who is quite famous – well, infamous – for his exploits. Even if you’re not a fan of UGA sports, you’re likely familiar with the name Pete Rose. Rose has almost the exact opposite legacy of Sapp. Despite amassing more than 4,000 hits in his career, he is not honored by the highest body in his sport because of his mistakes off the field. As you likely know, Rose is banned from the Baseball Hall of Fame for gambling, for betting on baseball games.
For that one indiscretion, one of the greatest hitters ever is not in the Hall of Fame.
The Bible has a chapter that is often referred to as the Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11. We call it that because the writer of Hebrews is listing off countless men and women who are honored because of their faithfulness to God.
Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.
Hebrews 11:1-3 NLT
These people are honored for a faith much deeper than believing that God created the universe, though. They are honored for a little more than believing that God exists. The people named in this passage are receiving honor for a faith far greater than just that.
The first two entrants into Hebrews’ Faith Hall of Fame, sure unanimous, first-ballot types, are Abel and Enoch. We don’t know much about either of these two men, but what we know is very impressive. Abel brought a pleasing sacrifice to God, and he was then murdered by his brother, Cain. Enoch was so faithful that he, well…he didn’t die. Ever.
It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.” For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek Him.
Hebrews 11:5-6 NLT
Like I said. Enoch and Abel are definitely what you would describe as first-ballot Hall Of Famers.
So let’s keep going and see what other sorts of great figures are added to the Hall right alongside them. In Hebrews 11:7-12, we see folks like Noah, Abraham, and Sarah added in.
Okay. So…there are a few issues here. First, Noah is a great man. He built an ark according to God’s instructions and endured ridicule, but after the ark landed and the water dried up, he got drunk and naked in the presence of his family. That’s pretty shameful, but I guess not the worst thing ever.
Then we turn our attention to Abraham and Sarah. Do you know what these two did? God promised that Abraham would father a great nation and that Sarah would be their mother, but she went and pushed her handmaiden onto Abraham and told him to father a nation through her. Forcing your husband to impregnate another woman is bad. For Abraham’s part, he listened! That’s not good, either!
Let’s keep going. Maybe it’ll get better.
So in v. 20, Isaac is honored. Okay. That works. He was a pretty great man.
In v. 21, though, we run into a slight problem. In v. 21, we get the son of Isaac who lied to his parents and his brother, Jacob (of “and Esau” fame). He’s got some issues, doesn’t he? He also literally fought God. Like…physically wrestled the God of the Universe. That’s not good behavior.
Whatever. Hebrews follows Jacob up with Joseph, who was a great man. He fled from temptation, he remained faithful to God when he was in prison in Egypt, he ended up forgiving his brothers for throwing him into a pit and selling him into slavery. Here we have another first-ballot type guy. Great choice.
There’s an honorable mention for Moses’ parents, but then v. 24 mentions Moses himself which, uh, seems problematic. He straight up murdered a man. Hebrews follows that doozy of a pick in v. 29 with “the people of Israel,” who, wow, do you know how many times the Bible explicitly says they disobeyed God in the Old Testament? Like…a lot.
Then v. 31 mentions, and I quote, “Rahab the prostitute.” I’m just going to let her job title speak for itself, okay? Okay.
Finally, v. 32 gives us a real Friday news dump by just tossing out there names like Gideon, Samson, David, and Samuel. There’s a whole litany of problems with these dudes. Gideon constantly questioned and challenged God before doing what he was told. Samson kept picking the wrong woman and denied God’s favor on him in order to make those bad women happy. David had the husband of his paramour murdered after he got the woman pregnant. Samuel’s kids were jerks, and the Bible places a lot of the blame for that squarely on Samuel’s shoulders.
These guys are really screwed up, aren’t they? I mean, they are not good people, it would seem. And yet, they are honored in the Bible’s Hall of Fame.
I mean if we can’t get Dale Murphy into the Hall of Fame, what business does Samson’s murdering, adulterous self have getting in there?
Okay, Samson. I see your hundreds of dead Philistines, but did you ever lead the league in home runs and RBIs in a single season while also producing a 30-30 season? (The Death of Samson, by an unknown artist, on display at the Getty)
There’s more to the story, though. Remember Theron Sapp? He had his jersey retired, receiving one of the highest honors in Georgia football history, for what he did in one game.
Remember Pete Rose? He had all of his accomplishments wiped out by one bad decision.
The world looks at people through Pete Rose-colored glasses. If you screw up, that’s it. You are tainted and soiled and you are no longer deserving of honor. But God doesn’t do that. If He did, do you think a woman who would be known as “Rahab the Prostitute” for the rest of time could receive that kind of honor? Much less, would God let her name be listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ?
We hold ourselves to that Pete Rose standard, too. We look at our sins, we look at our shortcomings, and we think that we are despised by God because of our imperfections. We think that our failures in the past have ruined us.
But despite all of our mistakes, despite all of our sins, God still gives us a chance to be used for His glorious purpose.
All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on Earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11:13-16 NLT
I can’t think of many higher compliments from on-high than to hear “God is not ashamed to be called their God.”
I’ve been mulling over the notion of “authentic faith” lately, and I’ve come to a conclusion: Authentic faith messes up. We are just like these people mentioned here in Hebrews 11. We are capable of great sin. We are capable of doing bad things. But you know how else we are like these people? We are capable of faith that honors God.
The Bible tells us that the people of the Old Testament were honored because they had faith that God’s promises were true and that what He said was trustworthy. Even before Christ came to this world, they believed that God would honor His promises to deliver them from their own sin.
Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty! When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.
Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
Psalms 32:1-5 NLT
This Psalm was written by David, a man who committed murder and adultery and so many worse things. And yet he is praising God for forgiveness. David’s faith saved him.
We are capable of the same faith. God knew we were imperfect people from the very beginning, and He gave us a way to have hope. I’ve heard it said that faith is hope with a promise. I can hope that someone might hand me a big sack of money tomorrow, but nobody has promised me that they will. And even if they did, I’d have to take the source into question.
See, if a crazy-eyed man off the street looks at me and says he’s going to hand me a large bag of money tomorrow, I’ll be pretty suspicious of him. I probably won’t put much stock in what he says. But if Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos or someone like that says that they are going to hand me a lot of money, I’m going to put a little more faith in that promise because, at the very least, I know they have the money to give away.
God is willing to forgive us for the sins in our past. And the ones in our future. That’s a promise.
What you have to decide is whether or not you believe that promise. You have to take a look at the one making that promise, the one giving you that hope, and deciding if you believe it or not. I can’t make that decision for you. All I can do is tell you what I believe.
I believe that the God who forgave David’s murders, Abraham’s adulteries, and all sorts of other misdeeds in the past is the same God who is faithful enough to forgive you of the things you’ve done.
Speaking of shining moments… (Photo by Larry Wynn)
At the end of every NCAA basketball season, when the final buzzer sounds in March Madness, there’s a little highlight video of the tournament broadcast with a strange, rather anticlimactic song playing. For the unininitiated, the name of that weird little song is “One Shining Moment.”
If you’re not familiar, that song is super cheesy. And so is the conclusion I’m setting up here referencing that song, so it works perfectly!
Theron Sapp had his jersey retired from UGA football largely because of his one shining moment. All it takes is “one shining moment” of putting your faith in the God who forgives, the God who saves, and the God who gives you that moment, all in the name of Jesus Christ.