food for thought: worship & the superbowl

February 5, 2012
Replace "March Madness" with "Superbowl"...

As I write this, March Madness is going on.  It's the greatest sporting event. (I say that because it's also the last athletic venue in which David can still beat Goliath. There's not really another venue like it where a college you've never heard of that has, say, eight hundred people in it can upset superstar powers in the basketball world.) But here's the thing about fallen men and women who love March Madness.  All over the country, fans are nervous. I'm not joking. They're nervous in their guts, they want their teams to win so badly. They watch games and yell at their televisions: "No! Yes!" Kids are crying in fear, wives are running for more nachos -- it's chaos. It's madness.  With victory comes elation and surfing a thousand websites to read the same article over and over and over again, and with defeat comes destitution of spirit and days of mourning and moping, angrily arguing on a blog about who really deserved it or an official's botched call.
Every bit of those affections, every bit of that emotion, and every bit of that passion was given to us by God for God. It was not given for basketball.
Where is the nervousness in our guts when we're coming into an assembly of those pursuing God? Where is the elation over the resurrection? Where is the desolation over our sins? Where is it? Well, it's on basketball. It's on football. It's on romance. It's on tweeting and blogging. (The Explicit Gospel, chp 2)

How funny that I was just thinking about the craziness, the madness, the absolute highs and lows of emotions that went into the Superbowl this past weekend... 

We do all of these things and others like them, pouring ourselves automatically and quite naturally into what is decaying. We want to worship something. Worship is an innate response. We are wired for it by God himself.
But something has gone wrong with the wiring.  (The Explicit Gospel, chp 1)

Yes, worship is such an innate response; we do it so easily with just about everything around us. We easily put celebrities in the spotlight.  Sports play such a ridiculously large role in our lives -- financially, emotionally, and of course, time wise. Fashion and trends can consume our thoughts and energy (and money).  We're prone to worship -- particularly things, events, people, etc. other than God -- the only One worthy of any and all of our worship. 

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator -- who is forever praised. Amen. (Romans 1:25)
For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:36)

Let's stop merely singing or reading or praying that, but start living that.