The Game

November 1, 2023

It’s football season. Fans are fired up, ready to don silly gear, spend big bucks for tickets, and sit in the worst possible weather to cheer on their team. Tempers will flare, fans will be either jubilant or deflated, depending on the ever-changing fortunes of their team. Everything else in life takes a back seat to “the Game.” The true fan identifies with his team; the wins become a win for the fan, a loss is a personal defeat. The contest is everything, win or lose. 

It’s a sad commentary on Christian faith that it’s the rare person who gets as excited about Jesus as a football fan gets about his team. This time of year, when I come to church for any function, the before and after conversation usually revolves around football. Stats are quoted from memory, rolling off the tongue far more easily than sacred Scripture. We’ll sing the songs, pray the prayers, listen to the sermon, but when it’s all over, it’s back to where it’s really at: “the Game.” 

I suspect a big part of the problem isn’t the fault of the fan; it’s the fault of the Church. We treat our faith as an afterthought, the icing on an otherwise rather bland cake. When we gather on Sunday mornings, it’s not to participate in a cosmic clash between team Jesus and team Satan. There is no drama, nothing to indicate that gathering together is anything more than casual conversation around the Christian version of a bar. It’s often pretty humdrum; nothing to get worked up over.

When was the last time we cheered when team Jesus made a touchdown as a new believer took the long pass to dive across the goal line? When did we have a collective groan when a player got injured at the line of scrimmage, or when there was an interception as our opponent snatched the Truth from the outstretched arms of a potential receiver? When did we last take seriously the outcome of this game of life, weeping because we didn’t make it to the playoffs?

The problem lies, as I said, not with the NFL, but with us. Our game isn’t seen as compelling as theirs, and until it is, our people will skip worship to sit in the stands when they should be skipping the game to engage in the eternal life and death contest that plays out before us every Sunday morning. May God have mercy on us and grant us eyes to see life as he sees it.