The Journey 205
Tuesday, July 24
Read: Genesis 37
   Sanctions on Penn State University: This was the beaming headlines yesterday which created a huge reactions from football lovers all over the country. What has caught the attention of people is that some of the sanction that the National Collegiate Athletic Association [ NCCA] is unprecedented.  These sanction comes after  a jury convicted Sandusky in June, on charges of child abuse that happened in the university. Yesterday NNCCA announced the list of sanctions against Penn State University. The first sanction is that Penn will have to pay a fine of 60 million dollars. Secondly the Penn state football team has been banned from participating in Bowl games for the next four years, thus loosing a total of more than 40 scholarships in these four years period. But what is considered as most painful is that  NCCA has vacated all the wins from the year 1998– 2011. With this move the name of the legendary coach late Joe Paterno, who was considered as the most winning coach, has been relegated.  A day before the sanctions came, the 900 pounds statue of Joe Paterno was removed from its place outside the football stadium in the college. CNN news carried a discussion where experts of the game discussed whether these sanctions were excessive and in one way spelling doom for football in Penn State.  All of the experts agreed that the decisions of NCCA will have a very devastating impact on the game, and they believe that it will take almost two decades for Penn state football to recover. Is this the death knell for Penn State football?. Only time will tell. Thus with these sanctions a generation is going to pay the price of the crime committed by an individual who did not think neither about his position, nor his role stooping down and thus causing harm not only for the game of football, for generations but for humanity as a whole. What does these news of sanction speak to us as a community of faith? What are some of the timeless truths that these incidents teach us in our journey of faith?
We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living”. The portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Genesis 37. Here we find the familiar story of Joseph and his brothers. Here is family who has lot of divisions in the family. The brothers are totally against Joseph and they plot to harm Joseph. Finally after lot of scheming instead of killing him, they sell Joseph who is then taken to Egypt. The wicked brothers then also convince their father Jacob, that Joseph is dead thus causing Jacob to declare that “ I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning”[ Gen 37:35]. We know later the bitter experiences that Joseph goes through in Egypt, from the Potiphar’s home, to the jail and finally to the palace. Here is Joseph paying the price of the sins that his brother committed. But then our God is one who in charge of our life and history. He redeems the life of Joseph and finally the brothers who harmed Joseph has to kneel in his presence. In this world all the punishments and sanctions meted out are not redemptive and hence generations have to pay the price for decades. As a community of faith these incidents teach us that we need to live our life, with a concern and also a commitment to the next generations and be very conscious and careful about the actions and deeds that we take today. Let us ask the Lord that we don't do anything that will cause irreparable harm to next generation in their nurturing of faith. Our God is one who redeems us, but that does not give us the right to take our life passively on the contrary let us work with our God so that all action and deeds in our life empowers and redeems others. People are debating whether sanctions of NCCA will spell death for football in Penn.  Let us praise God that we are a witness of His redemption and may this redemption also be present in decades to come at Penn.