Letter from America

Each year 60,000 people cram into a stadium on a Sunday to watch the Super Bowl.

This year the Rolling Stones provided half time entertainment. Around the nation far more gather around the TV. There are ‘Super Bowl Parties’, events where friends gather to chomp on snacks and watch the game. Advertising for the commercial slots in between breaks in the game are at a premium. Companies pour millions of dollars into their few seconds of fame.

Sport is sometimes said to provide an alternative to tribal war. Yet, I wonder whether in reality, at least for some, sport is not actually more like a replacement for worship.

The buzz of a touch-down, or try or goal; does that not feel familiar? The camaraderie of a team; where is that corporate communal experience also meant to take place? The sense of purpose that comes from a competition; the feeling of achievement and appreciation that is given by the father-like coach; the team idols that we worship: all this reflects desires intended to be fulfilled in another sphere.

Heavenly worship

It is interesting to read such descriptions of heavenly worship as found in Revelation 5 and wonder whether they have more in common, purely at an emotional level, with the experience of our Sunday morning services or that of a massed sports crowd cheering a winning goal. Revelation 5.11-12: ‘Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. . . In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the lamb, who was slain.”’ I don’t know about you, but I can almost hear the emotion of ‘GOOOAAAL’ in that.

Boring?

Which brings the reverse question: are we to be more critical of sports events for being exciting or worship events for being boring? Of course there are things that need to happen in church beyond entertainment. There are announcements, there is administration, there is work, etc. What’s more, the ‘event’ of corporate worship itself is to be Word-centred, and thereby have a strong teaching component. Yet if we are to be critical of Super Bowl Sunday for drawing not just fans but worshippers, we need also be careful to ensure that church itself is excellent as far as it pertains us to influence a church’s direction and according to the parameters of the biblical model. I think it was Lloyd-Jones who used to say that the cardinal sin of preaching was to be boring. You’re talking about God! At least leave people excited about him!

Easier said than done, no doubt; but in this land of the mega-event, of entertainment on the large scale, there are also the hordes who stream to Billy Graham crusades, the masses who pack out the mega-churches, and the millions who lay claim to the name of Jesus. A sociologist, of course, would add yet another question to the mix at this point (a ‘reverse-reverse’ question?). Do some of these Christian movements take their social shape from the cultural entertainment complex, and do they do that to such an extent that the core values of the Christian faith are undermined by the resulting cocktail?

At any rate, I’m looking forward to that Sunday to come when we get to celebrate that final touch down of God’s salvation plan, the worthiness of the Lamb who was slain. Perhaps even this Sunday we’ll get a glimpse of that.

Bowled over

Heavenly worship

Boring?

Josh Moody, Connecticut

Main Articles

Other articles