A Football Life

As the 2013 football season comes to a close, there are some of us who are quite pleased with the results.  Bronco fans, like me, are bubbling with excitement at the prospect and real possibility of having a Super Bowl Champion team.  There are others who are not as giddy as their teams, having wallowed in mediocrity, have failed to make the playoffs.  In the end, there will be only one champion team leaving the fan-bases for 31 other teams feeling disappointed and even, despondent.

Now you may ask, “Who cares?”  “What does this have anything to do with Biblical teaching?”

Unfortunately, it seems that our current religious attitudes and practices are more akin to cheering for a football team than living the Christian lifestyle Jesus taught.  The prevalence of thought seems focused more on being proven right in our beliefs and forcing those beliefs on the multitude of “others” who happen to hold a different belief.  It is as though we are cheering for our team to win and if you aren’t on our team then you need to lose – at all cost.

As I mentioned in my opening blog, the meristic approach to studying this phenomena is to recognize that to be in balance with God’s plan and teaching we need to look towards extreme behaviors and see what balancing accord is missing to cause such extremism.  In our Christian churches, it seems more time is being spent defending each of our own belief systems then actually doing the kingdom work Christ called us to do.

We not only have an attitude that it is Us versus the World when trying to defend our Christianity, but we also have multitudes of differing “teams” within Christianity that do additional damage in splitting us apart.  Yes, we have denominations and non-denominations that create walls and barriers of thought, purpose and deed.  Any attempt to draw two neighboring churches to work together on a project is met with extreme separatist attitudes.  We even have multiple factions within a single church that have difficulty working together.

The single-most cause of these divisions is self-righteousness.  “I believe what I believe and I will defend that belief with fervor.”  Is there any more rationale to this behavior than in the selection process for choosing our favorite football team?  Is there any hope in overcoming these differences or are we all simply waiting for the Super Bowl of the Apocalypse to finally determine who is on the right team.  If this should occur, do you think you’ll be on the right team, riding in floats waving to the crowd with confetti filling the air?  What is the purpose of the Bible and our faith – to be proven right in the end?

When the Gospel message is boiled down into one verse, “God so loved the world…  (John 3:16) and salvation is the only message being preached, then sitting around for the end of the world to see who is right is really all that is left to do.

However, the rest of the Gospel message that provides the balance God created is a bit more complex and requires a completely, non-competitive, win-at-all-cost approach.  It requires the setting of the self aside and serving others.  It calls for loving your enemy and reaching out to those different than you.  Can you imagine a flood of Chicago Bears fans walking across the field and hugging the Green Bay Packer fans, holding their flags for them and wearing their cheese-hats?

God’s message from the beginning of time is a message of love and inclusion.  Yes, salvation is a huge part because he does not want to be separated from those he loves, however, building the kingdom of heaven with the changed lives we receive and by the acceptance of all peoples, no matter if they are Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, or non-denominational.  In fact, we are called to accept the outcast, the poor, and the downtrodden.  We are called to love and embrace everyone, including Muslims, Buddhists, terrorists, homosexuals, and even bald guys like me.

If you want to be on the winning side and participate in the postgame festivities, then Christ calls you to humbly follow him in the business of building the kingdom of heaven here on earth.