In recent years British church leaders have
been fretting that football has appeared to be supplanting Christianity as the
nation's principal religion. They cite many similarities between the sport and
their faith.
Like Christianity, football has a complex set
of rules and rituals. In common with the organised church, its communities meet
together for regular acts of worship in order to meet the human need for
something greater than can be found in daily living. As with many religions it
can be supported for long periods of time by little more than blind faith.
The sport even has its own places of
worship.......great stadiums where the faithful gather to worship and sing
praise their ‘gods’....Wayne Rooney, Robin Van Persie, Ashley Cole et al.
Our religious leaders should worry not. I
hardly think facile, morally bankrupt Premiership football stars match up to
the triune God who made the universe and created all life!
However our church leaders are correct to be
concerned. It is clear that aspects of life and culture are powerful
distractions from what the catechism teaches is man’s chief end......the
worship of the Living God.
God himself through the first of the Ten
Commandments demands our worship and sole allegiance. It is no accident that
the first commandment given to Moses reads: “I am the LORD your God, who
brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other
gods before me.”
Sadly the first commandment is probably the
one which has been broken either wittingly or unwittingly most often in
history. This happens most frequently when we place ourselves above God, become
in other words, our own ‘gods’, thinking that we know more than the Living God.
The First Commandment demands that we worship
God. It forbids the worship of anything or anyone except the Living God. Yet
while the commandment clearly states there are no exceptions, human beings give
first place in their lives to a multitude of objects and activities every day.
We ‘obsess’ about a better car, a larger
house, our businesses, our hobbies, cultural interests and academic
achievements rather than finding time for God.
When we make ourselves bigger or smarter than the Living God then
further rebellion against God (sin) inevitably follows.
The good news is that despite our rebellion
against God, we are still loved. God still wants a relationship with each
person. To do this he paid the price for our sin through the death of his son
Christ Jesus on the cross of Calvary.
The
Apostle John in his Gospel neatly summed up this great truth when he wrote:
“For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes
in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”.
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