The Religion of the NFL

 Believe it or not, this is not a piece that will vilify the NFL.  I don't have time to stand in that line of "enemies of the NFL," which is a religion of its own.  Plus, that line is long enough and, admittedly, I kind of like football and am a die hard Bronco fan.  

The National Football League reached a low in 2016-2017 in viewership of only 14.9 million per game, down 10% from the previous year due to many issues, mainly on the political front.  The next off-season the Supreme Court opened the door for the expansion of gambling on sporting events.  Viewership had risen every year from then until the 2021-2022 season.  Though less have watched over the past two years, gambling has more than doubled over the past two years!  One way or another, the NFL has a pull, a draw, an addicting nature to it, it seems.

People are looking for something to follow, to run to, to fall back on in the midst of a world that is growing increasingly tiring and hateful.  Religion, simply put, is man's way of making sense of things, or of getting to God, if your one to believe that God makes sense of things.  In my case, a biblically-accurate Christianity is how I "get to God."  By God's grace in sending Jesus into the world to die for the world's sins, He has opened the door for all who repent of the their sins and believe by faith in the person and work of Jesus to have eternal life.  In other words, it wasn't my effort that saved me, it was God's actions towards me.

What is your way of making sense of things?  Maybe you dive into your job, or a hobby, or your family.  Maybe your stuck in an unhealthy cycle of drug, alcohol, porn, or gambling addiction?  Maybe it's your relationship with God that is bringing you perspective?  Everybody has something they default to, or numerous things that compete for their attention.  The NFL is an easy way to fill that void, to be sure, yet it still falls short.  Even if you increase your interest in the NFL by betting or doing fantasy football or building a friend group around your team, it still will always fall short of making sense of things.  As I've argued earlier, football holds some great life lessons in it, both for fans and players.  Also, it's a blast to follow the story-lines and the unpredictable nature of almost any game (hey, my Broncos almost pulled off an upset and scored four touchdowns in one game, so anything is possible).  Yet, the NFL, nor anything else that briefly distracts us from the world, will ever truly help us.

Each person needs something that will fulfill their expectations of creating lasting purpose, giving real peace, and producing joy beyond your circumstances.  A religion CAN NOT do this because religion will always be centered on OUR EFFORTS.  Yes, there are certain Christian efforts that unintentionally make it all about us.  Yet, the essence of Christianity is not a religion, but a lifestyle of following Jesus and making Him our aim, our focus, our Lord.  Whatever you default to . . . how's that working for you?  

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."  Romans 8:28 nails it!  His purpose for us is our best purpose ever.  Go ahead and dive into whatever healthy job or hobby you have.  Go ahead and get the help you need to get away from the unhealthy coping mechanisms you have.  But do it all while telling God, often, that He's your focus, your favorite, your Lord. 

Why football is the best sports analogy to life

There's nothing quite like watching a team that's working together, choreographing their movements play after play after play, performing as one.  It's why college basketball is more enjoyable than pro basketball, because the pros have become more and more about a group of individuals doing their own thing.  It's why pro football is better than college football, because the game of football can ONLY be perfected as a team, as interdependent players counting on each other to do their part for longer periods of time.  It's the only one of the major sports worldwide where half the team has absolutely no say in how half the game goes.

A person's legacy, in professional sports, is partly dependent on how many championships that team wins.  Football, then, seems completely unfair, because the best player at any given position can only influence half of the game.  Therefore, for as much as I abhor lists of greatest players ever, so many players are left off the list or are put farther down the list because they were on losing teams or never won it all.

Maybe "winning it all" in the sports world isn't all it's cracked up to be.  Maybe the one thing that drives each person to compete and strap on the cleats season-after-losing-season isn't a championship.  It doesn't sell tickets or create a loyal fan base, but maybe the best part about being a team is simply coming together as a team!

So, why is football the greatest sport ever?  Because the best way for all the pieces to work together is for each piece to be so good and focused at what they do, that they're not concerned about how another player is doing their job.  Plus, they realize that their best can always be better so they have grace for other parts that fail but are trying to get better.  One example is the whole dynamic of winning.  The left guard on the offense has some very specific jobs to do, but only on about 50% of the snaps.  Though a motivation may be winning, his immediate motivation is doing his job and knowing enough about the other 10 players' jobs that he jives perfectly with them.  He can leave the immediate motivation of winning to the head coach and the general manager.  They and they alone see the big picture and make decisions to move the right pieces in the right place in order to beat the next opponent.  And, when you turn it around, the head coach and general manager shouldn't have to spend any time concerned about whether the left guard is pulling on this play or not, but can look for other things on each play and each game to move forward.

Whatever other team you are involved with, use football as a great picture of teamwork.  Who's the "boss"?  Who's the one who sets the temperature and determines direction?  Find out all you can about their motivation, their goals, their M.O.  Now, make sure you know your role.  What's your immediate motivation?  Even it equates to bringing water out to the team at timeouts, do that role the best you can and find out how you can improve it.  Almost all GM's, team trainers, and offensive coordinators started at a position where they were faithful and good at what they did.

Finally, as the church, the simple transition into "Leaving it all on the field" is that we need to be all about our leader, the head of the church, Jesus Christ!  I'm not going to give it all I've got "on the field" just so that I can pull at the right time and block the right guy with the right kind of block. I'm going to do that play after play because I believe in what "the boss" is doing and that their way is the best way.  Jesus knows what He's doing, so get to know Him, His playbook, and His heart.

 

Death and Taxes

 Let's Talk about Death!

April 15 is known in America as “Tax Day.”  This year, it is also Good Friday, the day that Jesus’ death in our place took place about 2000 years ago.  So, let’s talk death and taxes!  Yea!

 

Though the topic of death is addressed in pretty much every funeral service in every culture and religion in the world, it really isn’t something that is necessarily discussed when sitting around at the social time after the funeral or at the cafe the next day.  It just doesn't seem relevant, or we’re too busy with life to think about or talk about death.

 

So, for something that effects all of us and for something that is so final, when is an appropriate time to talk about death?  Well, the same can be said about taxes.  We really only want to talk about taxes (outside of complaining and venting) when we have to.  Plus, we only want to talk about it with somebody that knows what they’re doing, can answer questions about it, and can even get us out of a predicament that we find ourselves in.

 

This is where I will seek to answer this question by posing and answering a few different questions.  Why do many people that were raised going to church still think that their hope for life after death lies in how good they are?  Why does it seem like many American churches spend more time telling you how to succeed in this life without making clear that you can know of your success in eternal life? How do the many mainline church get away with leaving its people in the lurch when it comes to life after death?  I would argue that it is more insensitive and disrespectful to keep millions and millions of people guessing regarding their eternal destiny than it is to address death with somebody that’s recently lost a loved one.  Now, I’m not advocating a non-compassionate approach around a grieving family, but my point is that the Bible makes it clear how a person can KNOW about life after death . . . yet the Roman Catholic church (along with others) uses its OWN authority instead of (not alongside) the authority of the Bible, which they claim to follow.

 

Here's what we know:

 

Jesus says . . .

·      I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

·      I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, (John 11:25)

·      Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)

·      Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. (John 6:47)

·      Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

 

Elsewhere in the New Testament, it says this about Jesus:

·      For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

·      God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. (Romans 3:25)

·      If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. (1 John 4:15)

·      This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

·      He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)

 

Would you go to a tax expert or to someone who claims to know the tax expert for your taxes?  You want to hear some accurate information from the source, right?  Let’s stick to the source, Jesus!  And, yes, those words in the Bible CAN be confidently followed as HIS words.  No other book has gone through the critique and ridicule, yet still survived and thrived and changed lives for millenia!

 

 

 

A HUGE hurdle to believing Jesus.

Though I love sports, I am definitely not "all in" with any particular team.  On the one hand, I'll definitely take any opportunity to watch or support my favorite teams like the Broncos, the Twins, the Timberwolves, or my hometown Dutchmen.  Yet, what have they promised me in return?  That they'll make sure my time and money spent is worth the entertainment dollar?  Yea!?  What good, in the long run, does that do?  I guess it's better than choosing entertainment options that are blatantly harmful to me in some way.  So what, or WHO, is worth being "all in" for?

Short answer:  Jesus.

There aren't many people who would say they don't believe Jesus existed or that He was a bad guy.  Now-a-days, it seems like a pretty safe conversation to talk about who Jesus was and how it's important to do life the way Jesus said it should be done.  Yet, fewer and fewer people are choosing to change anything in their life around being a follower of Jesus.  There's some sort of bias against or fear concerning the whole idea of "following Jesus".  How many people really know what it means to follow Jesus?  How many people have really tried it?

Not many. Why is that?

One main reason is that the church (at least in much of America) doesn't really ask a whole lot from people who want to be a part of their church.  As a pastor, I know what that's like because, if I were really honest, it is much easier to prepare sermons and keep a Sunday morning service going than it is to call people (literally and figuratively) to surrender their lives to Jesus.  No matter whose fault it is, we've allowed ourselves to think that just "being" a Christian, rather than an atheist or a Buddhist or a Muslim, or an agnostic or undecided, is good enough.

Fans of sports teams, I mean TRUE fans that have the gear, watch all the games, and know all the players, hate it when the fan-base increases dramatically when the team does really well.  Where were all these people earlier, right?  I should be court-side, rink-side, at the 50-yard line for free simply based on how big of a fan I am, right?  We should be way more concerned about a Christian who only owns that title on Sundays, or when they're with other Christians, or when it doesn't interfere with their life.  After all, Jesus never called people to simply cheer for Him or be "on His side."  Jesus always pursued worship of Him and lives that completely surrendered to what He commanded.  

When there's a hurdle to jump over in your occupation, your family, your personal life, you do all you can to get the right help you need.  Don't want to jump into Christianity?  Don't know how to jump into Christianity?  Take it up with the namesake of Christianity, Jesus Christ as He describes Christianity in Matthew 10:34-39.  It's a little different than the "just get along and love everybody" vibe that people connect with Jesus, though it dovetails nicely with it.  

The biggest hurdle to following Jesus?  Denying yourself.

A Rural White Guy Dares to Address Racism in America

I may be the least qualified of anybody to speak frankly about racial unity in this country.  I am a white male, almost 50, living in rural Minnesota.  I have one good friend and only a handful of "official friends" on Facebook who are African American.  Oh yea, and I wasn't even born in this country, though I've lived here over 90% of my life.

Why, then even dare to speak about it?  Two reasons: There is an answer to the tension that needs to be spoken of often, lived out courageously, and applied to people on both (or all) sides of the issue.  Also, I figure I cannot do anything about the color of my skin or the history of my country, but I do have a choice as to how I treat people of all skin colors and I may even have a say in the future of how my people in my country treat each other.

As a pastor and a student of The Bible, I must start every single conversation about every single conflict with our one basic problem - sin.  As has been said numerous times over the years "racism is not a skin issue, it is a sin issue."  My love for every single human being is not rooted in the fact that I'm Christian, or have a great family, or just have that personality type.  Rather it is rooted in the love that has been shown me by others, especially by Jesus Christ, God Himself, when He died on the cross in my place.  He did this NOT because I was so worth it, but because He loves me, period.  I love, period, because He first loved me.

Oh, and, by the way, I need someone to die for my sins just as much as you and anybody else needs it.   I don't care how many bad things you've done (though I know you've done bad things), I don't care what kind of bad things you've done (though I know that you deserve hell, just like I do), I don't care the color of your skin (though I know that African-Americans in our country have been dealt an awful hand).  I care that each person, where they're at, can overcome and deal with racism through Jesus Christ.

Bold prediction:  racism will get worse before it gets better in this country.  I know this because we are allowing seeds of selfishness, materialism, self-sufficiency, and sexual haphazardness find fertile ground in our culture of "no judgment, relativistic, inclusivism."  The only way to deal with racism is through the study of and submission to Jesus Christ himself, the most TRULY loving and inclusive person to ever walk the face of this earth.  Let's learn how He has compassion for the hurting and how the hurting must-need submit to Him.

Until we love the way Jesus loves and accept the love with which He loves us, we cannot truly love and accept people while calling them and ourselves to lives of purity and selflessness.