Jason's Blog

“The Christians that I know have to be among the unhappiest of people in the world!”

Think about the prune-faced, Puritan stereotype– severe, unloving, killjoys.  And if you call to mind a Fundamentalist of the twentieth century, the picture is a preacher pounding a pulpit, dripping with sweat, shouting out fierce words to the faithful.  Or worse — someone using a megaphone on a street corner.

How did we become so serious? Does this hardened spirit reflect Jesus? I think not.

Whatever else we might say about Jesus, he is completely at peace and full of joy. Jesus our risen Lord is not sullen or bitter about life. John Piper’s explains this idea beautifully in Desiring God (Multnomah, 2nd Edition, 1996):

Can you imagine what it would be like if the God who ruled the world were not happy? What if God were given to grumbling and pouting and depression like some Jack-and-the-beanstalk giant in the sky? What if God were frustrated and despondent and gloomy and dismal and discontented and dejected? Could we with David say, “Oh God, thou art my God, I seek thee; my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is” (Psalm 63:1)?

I don’t think so. We would all relate to God like little children who have a frustrated, gloomy, dismal, and discontented father. They can’t enjoy him. They can only try not to bother him, and maybe try to work for him to earn some little favor (John Piper, 34).

Years ago when I was studying the gospels, I noticed that Jesus majored in defying the stereotypes of the religious establishment.  Instead of settling for quiet dinner conversation with spiritual leaders, Jesus parties with people like Levi.  Instead of fasting, he took up feasting.

I think that if Jesus came in the flesh to dwell among us today, he would continue the same practice.  His laughter would surprise, his attendance at parties would shock; his closest friends and greatest followers would be drawn from the edges of society.

WWJD?  (What Would Jesus Do?) Whatever he did, it would be filled with the joy of the Lord.  And if his track record is any indication of his choices, Jesus would be sociable and in the middle of a party.

So as you celebrate and spend time others this weekend (be it at a party or not), remember the one who was not too serious.  Remember Jesus.

Since the Super Bowl is this week (as well as national signing day), I thought it might be good to reflect a little on football as religion.  Is it just a game or is it more? Since I live in the shadow of Kyle Field, the economics of college ball are easy to see.  It is extraordinary how much money is tied up in athletics.  But its more than just that.

Mark Galli, senior managing editor at Christianity today, wrote a piece over at Books & Culture that really hits on the impact of sports on the daily lives of Christians:

Christians have embraced sports with no little enthusiasm. Christian parents enroll their children—boys and girls alike now—in youth leagues and enthusiastically follow them in traveling teams, even if that takes them away on weekends, and thus from Sunday morning worship in their home church. Churches have sports ministries and banquets featuring Christian superstars who wax eloquent about how God helped them who helped themselves (with discipline, teamwork, and so forth). And, in large parts of the country, high school sports is seamlessly woven into religious life.

I think about how close hits home to me.

• Upwards Soccer is around the corner (we skipped the basketball season).
• TAMU Women’s & Men’s Basketball games are held on Sundays (at noon) or Wednesday evenings.
• In the Fall, we love the home football game weekends and the attendance patterns that it brings– especially when we’re winning.
• Many, many of our church leaders are season ticket holders– some in multiple sports.

And then there’s the runners.  Houston, Austin, and San Antonio all have runs (1/2 and full marathons). The Armadillo Dash is around the corner.  One of our Christian Schools has a Fun Run.  Many think nothing of training on Sunday mornings.  They might even believe that they are closer to God in their Nikes than in a pew.

Parenting (as Galli’s quote above suggests) is now shaped athletics.  We have the  city leagues, private leagues, traveling teams, and strength and conditioning camps in the Summer.

Is this all aerobics and entertainment?  When would football (or any other sport) become a religion or idolatry?  Would we even know when we crossed that line?

When does following of sports teams (and I do have my favorites) begin to affect how I talk and my overall mood?

A number of books are on the market that discuss football (and other sports) as America’s new religion.  A number of these  draw on a definition of religion from Clifford Geertz- a cultural anthropologist.  To quote from the Galli article again:

[Geertz suggests that] religion acts to “establish powerful, persuasive, and long lasting moods and motivations” by “formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing those conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the morals and motivations seems uniquely realistic.”

I am not sure that this definition for religion is sufficient? In reality, religion and spirituality are about connecting with the divine.

However more importantly, perhaps you need to look at what sports is doing to you.  Does it create a sense of order in your life?  Is it shaping your morals, motivations, and mood?

If sports has this kind of play in your life, if it is affecting how you make choices, and your attitude — whether you think it is a religion or not isn’t the real concern.  I would say that your sport is too important.  Cut back.  Live without it.  Let it go.

I can’t tell you how important it is to cultivate your spiritual side.  God is not far away from us, but you will need to seek him.  If athletics, or games, or tickets, or winning seasons are more important to you than seeking the person of God, you have a problem.

Ultimately, sports and exercise cannot give you the resources for deepening your life for the long haul.  The apostle Paul put it well “physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8).

I hope you can enjoy the games (and recruiting) and everything that goes with them, but pursue godliness

Do you remember the story of the Essenes?  They were a Jewish group in Jesus day that decided to withdraw from Jerusalem and the life of Judaism.  Their decision was driven by quest for purity in religious practice.  They felt that everyone in society was living less than what God desired, and so they formed the community of Qumran.  They had a restrictive set of entrance requirements, and if anyone failed to live up to the standards, they were asked to leave.

Reconstruction of the Qumran settlement UCLA Virtual Qumran Visualization Project

Since their Jewish neighbors had made so many compromises to the Romans, they felt the need to withdraw from society in protest.  Only by living apart from the world could they stand for truth.  They fully expected that God would honor them for being faithful  They would  care about truth even if the entire world adopted Greek and Roman lifestyle

No Jewish group in Jesus day had a greater fortress mentality than the Essenes, but they were a people of paradox.  Note this observation by Luke Timothy Johnson:

The most paradoxical example of Hellenistic influence in Palestinian Judaism is perhaps the Qumran community.  No Jewish group was more deeply dedicated to the Hebrew text of scripture and to the use of classical Hebrew in its modes of scriptural interpretation and in its composition of new sectarian literature.

To confirm this fact, simply look at the cave findings that we have for Qumran.  Their documents and Scriptures (also known as the Dead Sea Scrolls) show us a people who loved the Book, loved their Hebrew, and invented creative ways of marking themselves from the world around them.  Johnson continues:

Nor was any Jewish group more emphatic in its rejection not only of the despised Gentiles, but also of any Jews who associated in the slightest manner with Gentiles.  No Jewish sect could, on the surface, appear more straightforwardly anti-Hellenistic.  Yet, Qumran’s system of probation and excommunication, and its way of life organized around an absolute community of possessions, appear to owe more to Greek utopian models than to any precedent found in Torah.

– Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity (Yale University Press, 2009): 30.

Let that sink in.  The Essenes were an anti-Hellenistic movement.  They hated the compromise of everyone around them.  They wanted to stand out, but their entire fortress mentality was under-girded by the culture they were bent on rejecting.  They unwittingly used the very culture that they hated as the basis for their fortress mentality.

Here’s the point — Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear.

We can live our lives complaining against the vices of American society, and yet drink deeply from American society.  It easy to point a finger at THEM– whoever THEM happens to represent.  We protest:  “See how they dress, see how they talk, see how they choose to live!  How worldly they are!”

We see others so clearly, yet see ourselves so poorly.  A better question might be:  How do I really look?  How have I embraced the American dream?  Does God have something to say about my life?

We might need a healthy dose of humility.  None of us can stand apart from the culture in which we live.   It is the air that we breathe.

Black and white. That is how the world use to be. It was easy to choose sides. But today’s world calls for deepening shades of gray. One piece of worldly wisdom is – “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” In politics, we recognize that candidates aren’t ruled by character and conviction; everything is about image and votes. What does all of this mean for the H-word: Hypocrisy?  The answer might surprise you.

Sadly most people have given up on being consistent or expecting consistency in others.  We expect politicians and leaders of all types to fail us.  We are a jaded lot – dripping with venom and cynicism.  We expect people to say one thing and do another.  It’s the norm.

This was driven home to me recently as I was reading UnChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons.  They point out that while most 16-39 year olds hate hypocrisy, they expect it now.  They anticipate that people will play the game:

“Whether it’s enhancing their MySpace identity with that ‘perfect’ photo, playing mind games with their friends, shifting the way people think about them to gain an advantage, telling white lies to cover themselves, or boosting their credentials on a resume, young people have become adept at shaping their own version of reality” (UnChristian, 2007): 43.

What does this mean for you and me?  Two thoughts:

1.  Have you found yourself being inauthentic?  Are you worried about projecting a “perfect” image?  If so, keep in mind that the world already knows that you aren’t perfect.  They aren’t impressed by a pretty picture.  The would prefer if you 1) either admitted your imperfection or 2) stop trying so hard to be something that your not.

2.  God isn’t impressed by hypocrisy.  He sees everything.  There is nowhere that we can go and be hidden from his sight.  He sees us at the office on Tuesday and on Sunday and on Friday night.  He knows who your friends are, He knows when you cheat, He knows when you take that extra long look at the opposite sex,  He knows. . .

God has spent millennia around people who have tried to hide their mistakes and who have inflated their own egos and accomplishments.  Don’t play games with Him.  Confess. . .

He still loves you and wants the real you.