Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 5, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
TSD
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
The Lord replied,
“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
Bret Bielema has been a successful college football coach for twenty-five years, at the University of Illinois for the last five. On Fridays before a Saturday game, Bret and his quarterbacks, along with the quarterback coach Art Sitkowski, talk about end-of-game scenarios and make plans for when the game is close. These discussions have helped result in a record of 11-4 in one-score games since 2023, when the current quarterback Luke Altmeyer, transferred from Ole Miss to join the Fighting Illini.
The plans matter. The quarterback matters even more, and a philosophy that lies beneath matters most. Bielema’s acronym for this philosophy is TSD, “be tough, smart, and dependable,” especially in the fourth quarter. Last week the Illini won another close game against the University of Southern California with a last second field goal, set up by a successful drive of runs and passes led by Altmeyer (who leads the nation in “career game-winning drives in the final minute/overtime with five”).
Sports Illustrated has this to say about the Illini quarterback.
He isn’t an explosive athlete, but he is crafty on his feet, buying time and picking up yards with his scrambling. So much of Altmyer’s game is built on nuance – unseen preparation, decision-making, timing, level-headedness and clutch confidence – that his physical gifts are sometimes overlooked.
Give Altmyer – the MacGyver of college quarterbacks – a paper clip, a wad of chewing gum and five seconds to defuse, er, throw a bomb, and he’ll find a way to get it done. He’ll be one of the best quarterbacks in the conference this season.
I’d call that, in three words: being tough, smart and dependable.
It’s remarkable to me that words can change my response to a crisis, when those words are written on my heart. And this is not just about football (although football matters).
Beloved:
I remind you, to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord.
Mobs are driven by words too, of course. The crucifixion of Jesus headlines countless examples of mob violence that mark the bloody history of mankind. But words don’t just make war, they also inspire us to stand for peace.
Being tough, smart and dependable in the face of King Darius’ hungry lions, or in the flames of Nebuchadnezzar’s hottest furnace required confidence in the Word of God. Those three famous Jewish boys, and Daniel too, knew God’s promises of deliverance and decided to stand. We know God can save us. But …“EVEN IF HE DOES NOT.” Those boys were being Tough, Smart and Dependable.
I tend to believe anything I read (to a point) – which might get me in trouble sometimes, but I’d rather be Pollyanna than a cynic believing nothing. And although I’ve heard an awfully lot of sermons, I still get fired up on Sunday mornings when our Pastor Matt Cassidy speaks. His words, which he delivers at times as a stand-up comic, a scholar, or a motivational speaker, send me off to the Bible to read more, and into the world with something to say.
Bear your share of hardship for the gospel
with the strength that comes from God.
Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me,
in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit
that dwells within us.
In The Unseen Realm Michael Heiser speaks of words as both natural and supernatural. He points out how John started his gospel with the immortal “words” about the Word.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John’s words introduce Jesus to us as the “Word” who was with God in the beginning. And as he ends his book, he acknowledges that the stories he has shared are only a few. There are so many more.
If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
I am sure that in all of these stories too, Jesus’ message calls his disciples and all of us to follow him in being tough, smart and dependable in the faith.
Especially in the fourth quarter.
(Habakkuk 1-2, Psalm 95, 2 Timothy 1, 1 Peter 1, Luke 17)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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