The Downside Of Soccer As A Religion

Two more games. Then the curtains fall for World Cup 2014.

Once more, however I find myself reflecting on bigger themes as I watch these sometimes riveting games.

I don't think I'm breaking any fresh news as I note that Brazil got decimated yesterday. 7-1. Wow.

It's not nice to wish for someone's downfall, but frankly I was hoping for it all along. Never happier than to see a long-overdue thrashing. Watching their pathetic flopping (Neymar even flipping) with Columbia and other teams was a puke-inspiring event. Wasn't the tone properly set by that PK-winning flop in their very first game against Croatia?

But now that Brazil has gotten their come-uppance, one I don't doubt will be doubly sealed on Saturday against Netherlands...

I confess that I now feel sad for them.

Not that they didn't need this moment. I just hope they move on quickly. But. But. To what? Move on to what?

Well one avenue of thought would be an improvement in their soccer program. I heard a talking head suggest that during the aftermath.

But I'm thinking bigger than that. I've got a better idea.

I hope Brazil ditches their graven image. Their sick, sick idol.

Yes, soccer is a very sick and twisted religion in Brazil. Does anyone need to see their national anguish to realize how very much they have placed into this game? The soul of the very nation is in anguish.

Jesus had something to say about that.

Matthew 6:20-21
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

It's not hard to see where Brazil stores a hell of a lot of their treasure. They're a second-rate nation, economically speaking. But in soccer they have always fancied themselves a first-rate nation. Shoot, they thought they were God's gift to soccer.

At some point I think the devil had a hand in the matter, however, because God's not into spotted white idols that bounce.

So trouble was bound to come back to roost. Yesterday it did.

I'm reminded of a passage from the Old Testament where some pathetic soul gets his collection of stone idols stolen. Here's his lament, given to the very men who stole his rock collection.

Judges 18:24
He replied, “You took the gods I made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you ask, ‘What’s the matter with you?’”

Or was that what Brazil said to Germany after yesterday's game? Perhaps I'm mixing up my sources.

No, I don't think soccer balls make for good idols.

But the USA does well to note: neither does a stellar GDP.

My treasure is in heaven, with God. It's really, really safe there.

I'll enjoy soccer. But it's just a game.

Someone needs to tell that to the folks in Brazil.

The One Benefit From Knowing The Final Score

In just a week the World Cup will be over. Around that point, I might stop thinking about parallels between soccer and life.

For about 4 years. Then World Cup 2018 begins and all bets are off.

But that's a week from now, and my mind was at work today.

Yesterday I unfortunately discovered the final score on the Germany vs. France game before I had the chance to watch it.

Bummer.

I watched the game anyway, and it was well played by both sides. That said, the drama was (for me) missing. I knew who would win.

There was an upside too, though, and it got me thinking.

When you know you're going to win, there's nothing to worry about.

Duh. A tautology. That insight won't win me any prizes.

But it nevertheless reminded me of just how very often in life I worry pointlessly. It's rather pathetic, when you think about it.

The Soccer Game

A corner kick. Normally a nail-biter. I could get worried...

But I know the final score. I remain calm.

A yellow card and a free kick against my team. I could get upset...

But I know the final score. I remain calm.

Opponent blatantly flops. Referee falls for it. I could get upset...

But I know the final score. I remain calm.

Life

Something goes wrong in my day-to-day routine.

I know the final score, but I still get stressed and upset!

Someone wrongs me. Gets away with it.

I know the final score, but I still get stressed and upset!

On and on we could go. But it makes no sense. I shouldn't be worried.

But I am.

How stupid is that? But we all do it a lot.

Worst part? Jesus knew we would. That's why he repeats himself.

Matthew 6:25-34 (heavily abridged)
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry...
Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes...
So do not worry...
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow..

We know how it all ends. Isn't it time we stopped worrying?

We should worry much less and risk much more. We're going to win.

What Jesus And Tim Howard Have In Common

I heard this one from a friend...

Q: What's the difference between Tim Howard and Jesus?
A: Jesus had 11 guys he could trust…

I loved it, but felt there was another approach that could be taken.

Try this one on for size...

Q: What do Jesus and Tim Howard have in common?
A: Both worked with a team, but it ended up a solo project.

Alternative answers wait like low-hanging fruit... Such as...

A2: They were both good at saving.
A3: ...but both had to die before it was over.

And for this soccer fan, there's always the hope that resurrection will figure in the future for USA at the World Cup.

Of course, anyone who knows me knows I hate it when sports becomes a religion. So this is all very tongue-in-cheek.

But it proves I do have a sports bone in my body, after all.


[For extra credit... and this will only make sense to Monty Python fans.]

Q: What does the 2014 World Cup US Soccer team have in common with Monty Python's King Arthur?

A: Both enlisted the aid of a wizard named Tim while seeking to obtain a precious cup.

Ba-da-dum.

I made that one up all by myself!

James Bond Was Right: The World Is Not Enough

[Alternative title: Soccer and End-Times Eschatology...]

So I finished my prior blog with a question.

When God reviews our lives, which parts would he call highlights?

More on that in a bit. First, an opening rhetorical question. Is God holding back the final day pointlessly? (Said another way, does God like boring, scoreless soccer games that lack highlight-worthy plays?)

No. God has stayed his hand because there are things yet to be done.

What needs to be done? How long will God wait? The following scripture passage hints at answers to both questions.

2 Peter 3:3-10 (abridged)
Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come... They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that ... the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends... The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare....

Many Christians, whether they know this particular scripture passage or not, are in agreement with two key ideas that can be found in it.

1) God is waiting because he wants more souls in heaven.
2) When Jesus returns, the whole universe will be doused with fire.

What's dangerous about these two thoughts is that they are both true.

Few things are more dangerous than an incomplete truth.

What do I mean? I mean that there is a third idea that gently glides in on the heels, seemingly implied by ideas #1 and #2.

3) God doesn't care about anything in the universe besides souls.

This third idea makes the Christian objective between now and judgement day quite clear. Focus like a laser on saving souls.

And that's exactly what Christians often do (if indeed they do anything publicly with their Christian faith at all). Many Christians treat this planet like it's a rapidly sinking ship — one from which we must hurriedly rescue dying souls.

The problem is, idea #3 is not true.

When we only value human souls, we miss the scope of God's plan.

So... What is the scope of God's plans? For starters, it's big. Really big.

Colossians 1:15-20 (abridged)
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible... all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven...

What I take away from this passage is that when Christians fail to live in line with the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20), we not only miss the mark, but in fact miss it by orders of magnitude.

Let's be clear about this: in this universe there are many things. And only a few of them are human souls. If Paul had wanted to be more specific and restrictive, he could have chosen other words.

But he did not! To the contrary, Paul makes it clear that Jesus is in the business of redeeming stuff that's not even on this planet.

Meaning? It's not simply "all about souls". It just simply isn't.

God is in the business, rather, of redeeming all of creation.

But Christians often treat the Earth like it's temporary and disposable.

Bad enough that we Christians frequently fail to demonstrate our allegiance to a God who wants to reconcile all people to himself.

Worse still, we even more frequently fail to demonstrate our allegiance to a God who wants to reconcile the universe to himself.

As I write this, a part of me squirms. God can create entirely new universes at whim. In that sense, this universe is rather disposable. And surely people are the pinnacle of creation. God's finest work.

But we must always remember how the Bible begins:

Genesis 1:31
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

No less important! We must also remember how the Bible ends:

Revelation 21:31
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God...

A new earth? Then the old one is disposable! Not so fast. The new earth is situated squarely in the midst of the old one. That's why in Revelation 22 we see a reference to a tree situated next to a river of life which flows down the middle of the new Holy City.

Revelation 22:2b
"And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."

Think for a moment. If God were planning to start entirely from scratch, there would be nothing to heal, right? But that's not the case.

It's a fact that God prefers to redeem things. Not destroy them.

So let us align the words of Peter next to those of Paul and John. God loves his universe and has a long-term plan for it. Yes, Judgement fire will indeed come. But it will refine all things. Not obliterate them.

[This blog is already overlong, but this tangent beckons... John the Baptist fell into the same error we risk here. He completely misunderstood the nature of the coming fire. He knew the Messiah would come and baptize "with fire" — and clearly thought it would be a consuming fire of judgement. Jesus, the Messiah, carefully turned that ship around, gently correcting his cousin's error.

And when the fire finally came? Tongues of flame hovered the heads of his believers. The fire of the Holy Spirit came not to consume, but to bless. We do well to guard our own assumptions about how God will use fire in the future.]

Concluding Thoughts

A moment of Christian honesty. Close your eyes. Listen to these words. "We need to save the animals and protect our land and air!"

Now imagine where you are. Who said these words?

Are you at church? Did you just hear a pastor's voice? Or are you hearing the words of some movie star at a Greenpeace rally?

For me, the latter scenario is easier to imagine. That's very sad.

I'm now ready to take a swing at that original question.

When God reviews our lives, which parts would he call highlights?

I don't precisely know. But I can say this much with confidence.

1) God cares a great deal about how I treat other people.
2) God cares a great deal about how I treat animals.
3) God cares a great deal about how I treat his planet.

Suggest #1 in an American church and you're safe.
Go on to suggest #2 and you might get a few sideways glances.
Throw in #3 with references to climate change and oil consumption?

In America, that could mark the start of a good church brawl.

I found this comment in someone else's blog. It's a good closing word.

Martin Luther is reputed to have said, “If I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would plant a tree.” The saying does not appear in his collected works, but it’s the sort of thing Luther could have said, maybe even should have said. It’s very similar to a Jewish saying, “If you have a sapling in your hand and they tell you that the Messiah has arrived, first plant the sapling and then go out to greet him.”

Trees figure prominently in Eden. And in the Holy City yet to come.

Could my planting a tree now be counted among God's highlights?

Quite possibly. God clearly likes them a lot.

Boring Soccer Games And Boring Lives

So I finished my prior blog with a note to self: As in soccer, so in life. Don't waste the game watching the clock. Play the game while you have time.

Good soccer games are not boring. Brazil vs. Chile was riveting.

Bad soccer games can be excruciatingly boring, and never more so than when it seems neither team wants and/or knows how to score.

Having watched Greece vs. Costa Rica last night, I speak from experience. The first half was so stultifyingly boring, I only watched the highlights of the 2nd half.

(Thankfully, this was an option. I wasn't watching the game live.)

But wow, folks... Even the 2nd half highlights were boring.

More fun than watching the game was reading the reviews of the game. Here are some choice comments I found:

...Drama seemed highly unlikely at the end of an excruciatingly dull first-half when the crowd in Recife, which was far from capacity, made their feelings known by whistling and jeering the teams into the break.

...Sometimes, the movement of a soccer ball can be hypnotizing. The worst time this can affect someone is when they are playing in a World Cup match, and trying to prevent said ball from entering their net, slowly.

Enough said on soccer. What about our lives?

Let's not give God lives that are so boring that he'd be tempted to skip whole years at a time. Nobody makes movies about couch potatoes.

I had just deleted those prior words. They seemed overly obvious.

And overly harsh.

Nobody makes movies about couch potatoes.

I had just deleted the words, and then my wife walked into the room and proceeded to inform me that someone we know is ailing.

This woman married young. Never got a job. Reached 400+ lbs on a diet of maybe 5-10 hours of TV a day. That was her life for 60+ years.

And now her clock is running down. Fast.

Does she belongs to Jesus? Yes. Is she nice? Nes. But if I reviewed her life, I'd fast-forward through decades of self-imposed sofa time.

How terribly sad. And I feel harsh putting these words down.

But we do ourselves a disservice if we don't take a plain look at our own lives and the lives of those around us with eyes wide open.

God has given us the gift of life. And a mission.

Are we going to give him a highlights film?

Most of this blog seems a repeat of the prior one. But I have a motto.

Never say with one blog on boredom what you can stretch into two.

In my next reflection, I'll get to what I had intended to write here.

Thoughts in response to this question....

When God reviews our lives, which parts would he call highlights?

To be continued...

What FIFA Referees Have In Common With God

Certainly not omniscience! (This will come as no surprise to anyone who saw the Nigeria v Bosnia game.)

No, not omniscience. Nor a perfect sense of justice.

But I won't keep you in suspense. The answer to the riddle is this: they both have final say on when the game is over, and the moment they choose to end it is shrouded in secrecy.

A silly riddle? Sure... but I didn't come up with it on purpose. It's the byproduct of another realization that's been rattling around in my head over the past week or two.

The reality is that I sometimes feel (in life) a bit like a soccer player trying to figure out how to play out the minutes.

Anybody who has watched recent World Cup games knows what I'm talking about. Take the USA v Ghana game. The Americans were fortunate enough to score in the first 30 seconds.

But the game lasts 90 minutes. So what do you do now?

Well, here's a bad idea. Try to "play out the minutes" with an insipid passing game. Watch the clock wind down.

Problem is, when you're not playing to win, you're usually playing to lose. And your opponent is likely still playing to win.

As it worked out, Ghana tied up the game at 82 minutes. Oops. The Americans were fortunate enough to score again and win, but rest assured the Americans got a bit more frantic once the score was tied.

And who can forget Portugal pulling a tie against the sleeping Americans in the last 15 seconds of the game? Double Oops.

Enough on soccer. What about life?

Well, truth be told, sometimes I feel like I'm not playing to win.

What exactly do I mean?

When you're playing to win, time is your friend. More time means more opportunities for you to score.

When you're playing the clock, time is your enemy. More time means more opportunities for you to be scored upon.

Sometimes I feel like I've lost my motivation in life to actively accomplish things — and I'm just trying to not give in to sin while I wait for God to wind my clock down.

That's not what God had in mind for me. Not the attitude God wants me to have. It's a very dangerous place to be, spiritually speaking.

So I should have higher aspirations than sin-avoidance? Yes. The Apostle Paul has already described it well. And he used a sporting analogy to boot!

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

In short, St. Paul exhorts all of us to become like Christ.

So... What does that look like? A hint. Here's what it doesn't look like.

Wherever Christ went, people didn't say, "Wow, here comes the sinless man! Look at how he never does anything wrong!!"

No! Jesus was indeed sinless, but that wasn't his calling card.

What did people say about Jesus? Try these on for size.

John 7:46
The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

John 6:68
Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life."

Luke 11:14
Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed.

Luke 9:42
Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.

Luke 7:16
They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

So the hallmark of "Jesus in town" is not absence. It's presence.

It's action. Someone doing good. Someone speaking words of life.

When Jesus is around, people say, “God has come to help his people.”

I cannot resist a silly analogy. Jesus scored an early game-winner. But 2,000 years later the clock is still running.

The referee says the game is still on. How do we play out the minutes?

Are we playing for a 1-0 victory? Well, we might be, but God is clearly not. If a 1-0 victory were sufficient, God would have blown the whistle a long, long time ago. God is looking for action.

FIFA and St. Paul together remind me to keep my eye on the prize.

Not the clock.

To Be Continued...