Getting Up for the Game

Special Post by Anonymous

Among the several great and entertaining Super Bowl commercials was one really neat spot by Budweiser (please don’t mistake this for product placement; I really don’t like beer): the sponsors organized a capacity crowd to show up at a local recreational-league hockey game, decked out in the teams’ colours, and to cheer their hearts out for the players. The beginning of the segment showed the players going about their game in the usual obscurity, while the organizers cranked up the event just outside the arena’s doors. In addition to the wildly enthusiastic “fans”, the organizers brought in play-by-play announcers, a mascot, t-shirt cannons, and an explosion of confetti when the winning goal was scored. The players’ looks of absolute confusion gradually turned to joy in the professional-sports atmosphere in which they found themselves, and they couldn’t help but dig a lot deeper and crank up the intensity to win this game. This wasn’t just their typical pick-up game anymore; it was prime time!

Our little suburban church community often feels a lot like the rec league: we gather together to worship, we enjoy each other’s company, and we then head back off to our homes and lives. The hymns lead into the prayers, the sermon is given, we commune, we share announcements, and that’s that. There are no miraculous acts of healing or powerful movements of the Holy Spirit (at least that we detect). We aren’t under threat from armed terrorists or government militia. We aren’t televised, webcast, or even recorded. In the great Body of Christ, All Saints is probably somewhere in the appendix. In the wider scale of the Church on earth, then, does it really matter what we do and say?

It really does.

We have our own “flash mob” cheering us on: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1) We can’t hear the roar of the crowd, but it’s there every time we make a stand for Christ and proclaim His Name. Conversely, there is an Other Side who is pushed back on their heels when we profess our faith and pour our hearts into our worship.

Who else is sitting in the stands, shouting encouragement? Jesus said to His apostles: “For where two or three gather in My Name, there am I with them” (Matthew 18:20).

In response, as per the passage from Hebrews, our response is to walk the walk, or more appropriately, run the run with purpose and perseverance. The race is real and so is the finish line. Be in it to win it. The apostle Paul wrote the same thing to the church in Corinth: “Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.” (1 Cor 9:24-26)

Going through the motions doesn’t cut it. Mailing it in is not an option. Our responsibility and our joy is to worship and serve with all of our being, because we are part of something so much bigger and more important than we can see from our pews. Let’s give the fans what they want to see. Go, team, go!