Super Bowl Sunday

“they rushed with one accord…” ~ Acts 19:29 

“The meek shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5

  These two verses seem fitting for the midweek before Super Bowl Sunday. One speaks to the other as a weak offensive line inherits the earth when a strong offensive line rushes with one accord. Two teams of gladiators will meet before a colosseum filled with millions of spectators as every pursuit of the flesh will be on display and for sale. America’s unofficial holiday will bring family and friends together to eat, laugh, and play around television screens and all without any underlying religious connotations. It’s the perfect secular holiday!

On Sunday, Christians will attend worship services in the morning and most will leave after an hour or so, greeting pew neighbors and saluting the pastor as they go out the door. Some will attend Sunday school classes with friends, and a few will continue their Christian conversation at brunch or dinner. Online worshipers will follow similar patterns in their remote locations. Many of the same people will spend the afternoon preparing for the big broadcast. Later, they will spend several hours being bombarded with expensive, carefully crafted entertainment and marketing. They will give themselves over to dozens of influences that will shape buying plans and cultural assertions.

My shrewd readers already know where I’m going because we just arrived. However, just in case anyone missed it, I will dive a little deeper. Again, most Christians who regularly attend church services will habitually spend about an hour gathering with acquaintances to sing, listen to prayers, listen to preaching, and receive sacraments. Typical church congregations and their leaders will not experience carefully crafted, expensive marketing pitches and, therefore, will depart with minimal motivation to change habits and cultural ideologies. If they do not go home to partake of the Super Bowl secular holiday traditions, they will probably fall under similar ubiquitous media influences for several hours.

Let’s consider the messages to be heard on Sunday afternoon and evening. You will witness nationalism, puritanism, inequity, greed, and avarice. Images that normalize immorality or at least present an inaccurate perception of American culture will incessantly flash across your big, flat screen TV. Stimulating ideas will stir your subconscious mind, urging you to indulge the flesh. Young, physically fit men and women will compete for your praise and adoration and spectators will celebrate violence that ranges from subtle forms of brutal combat to suggestive images of women. The sporting event and its various components are eerily similar to those found in ancient Greece and Rome. The marketing and entertainment will praise youth and vitality while ignoring stability and wisdom. A few highly charged messages will manipulate your emotions so that you feel exactly what the advertiser wants you to. A half-time show will scream at a very specific audience, which should say much about who the NFL is trying to influence and why. After the game, conversations will attempt to unpack sports, culture, and entertainment messages for days and weeks to come.

It may seem that I am ranting and railing against something and maybe even complaining about shallow Christians here. I can assure you it is not my intention. I only hope to assist you in growing a biblical Christian worldview. Shallow, habitual Christians return to churches week after week, and they help to pay the bills. They are not devoid of the Spirit and they do not leave empty of influence. But many, many Christians do not attend to their sanctification, and that is a real shame. Sanctified Christian Believers consider the cost of discipleship daily. They welcome the Spirit’s influence and consistently invest more time and energy into the Body of Christ and His Kingdom. They do not cruelly reject pagans and their pleasures, but view them through a different lens. With open eyes and minds, sanctified Christian Believers observe, ask questions, and engage others. When expensive empty pursuits leave the flesh wanting, the Believer leads by example and offers grace. Their marketing campaign is subtle and takes longer than 30, 60, or 90 seconds to complete. Jesus said, “'For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ and ‘the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:35-36; 40) 

Enjoy the food, family, friends, football, commercials, and entertainment this Sunday and then use the knowledge you gain to be a witness like the Apostle Paul in the meeting of the Areopagus. He said, “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands.…” (Acts 17:22-24)