Why Is the Super Bowl Super?

Recently I read a blog in which the author commented on the place of sports and entertainment generally in our society and the Super Bowl in particular. The day of rest is dominated by watching others sweat it out on sports fields and in arenas. Most sports seasons extend across multiple calendar seasons. When you have the baseball world series in Toronto, you run the risk of having snow interrupt the games! So much for the boys of summer.

Participants in professional sports and entertainment receive some of the highest salaries in society. Combined with what they make through commercial endorsements, few if any in the business world come close to their annual incomes. They produce entertainment.

We pay well for entertainment. The previously mentioned blog noted that a thirty-second commercial slot during this year’s Super Bowl will cost the advertiser four and one half million dollars. They are counting on you watching the Super Bowl and being persuaded to buy their product. They are counting on you wanting to be entertained.

We pay well for entertainment. Why? Why do advertisers find the Super Bowl so lucrative as to lead them to spend four and one half million dollars on thirty seconds of viewing time? Does the Super Bowl represent the epitome of our willingness to exist on vicarious experiences and an escape from our daily routine?

The gridiron represents combat in which there will be clear winners and losers. Nobody likes a game that goes into overtime and then ends in a tie. We want winners and we want losers. We want to know someone is more talented, better trained, and more determined to win than someone else. Upsets may be exciting, but if they happen too often, we wonder who set the standard of rating.

It’s hard to believe we see the Super Bowl as just a game. Seats sell for thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars. The viewing audience is numbered in the tens of millions on every continent of the globe. Special steps are taken to allow as many of our military personnel around the world as possible to have a chance to view the event.

The writer of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes faced the situation in his own life of trying to find something worthwhile that would give life meaning. Pleasures beyond mere life maintenance and entertainment were two of the areas he explored. The result was disappointing.

Ecc 2:1  I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity.

Ecc 2:2  I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?"

For that Old Testament writer, pleasure without production had no appeal. He saw no use in it. In that same chapter he describes how many ways he tried to discovery meaning in please, and failed every time. In looking for something of lasting value, he came up empty when he turned to pleasure without purpose.

He finds more hope in another area. He writes of his discovery…

Ecc 3:12  I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;

Ecc 3:13  also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil--this is God's gift to man.

The writer of Ecclesiastes never condemns pleasure. It is a gift of God. It is in how we seek the pleasure that meaninglessness sinks into our lives. Rather his focus is upon work that benefits others in a productive way. Enjoy the basic necessities of life and find pleasure in the work of your hands. These are to be the priorities.

Do some of us benefit from that vicarious excitement on the big screen? I’m sure some of us think we do. Should your life be dominated by entertainment in which you can never join? Probably not. The Super Bowl is only super to those who have not yet discovered how entertaining their own lives can be if fully explored in a productive way.

Dealing with Those Troubled People

People are trouble. People are troubling. People are troubled. If you are like me, each of these statements elicits a different emotional response.

A series of books on my shelf have titles like these: Surviving Difficult Church Members, Getting Along with People Who Don’t Get Along, Coping with Difficult People, Well-Intentioned Dragons. These have been around for years. Books with similar titles on the same subject have multiplied exponentially. How do we come to see people not as problems but as individuals who have problems?

Jesus saw the crowds as individuals with challenges they could not face alone. They needed help. Their major problem was their inherent weakness and inability to deal with all that life was dumping on them. His response was one of compassion.

Mat 9:35-36 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Every individual was made in the image of God and thus had an innate value that could not be changed by circumstances or personal decisions. Every individual was loved by God and had the potential for a loving relationship with him. When that did not occur, the Lord was grieved and the individual was the loser.

Jesus put up with all kinds of people. For some he had compassion. He healed them or he confronted them. In conversation with the troubled he told them they had a problem which they had to face and make a decision. He couldn’t make it for them. In all these cases Jesus still loved the individual and was willing to show that love.

In other cases, however, Jesus loved the individual, but he did not hesitate to show his anger for their attitudes. He was angry at Pharisees and synagogue leaders who thought remembering Sabbath laws was more important than showing compassion. He was angry with his disciples who placed convenience and order above showing compassion to children. He was angry at temple rulers who placed making money above keeping the House of God a House of Prayer.

In the eyes of Jesus these people were not a problem. They had a problem. They had sold out to the life patterns and priorities of the world. In doing so they were destroying the opportunity for God’s love to be revealed in the world through them.

Jesus told a parable we have come to know as the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10). As the story unfolds, we see that every individual in the story has a problem/concern. The thieves are motivated by greed. The victim is motivated by his circumstances. The priest and Levite are motivated by self-righteousness. The Samaritan is motivated by mercy and compassion for the victim.

As Jesus concludes the story, he asks his questioner for his insight.

Luk 10:36-37 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."

As individuals we will always face people who make life inconvenient for us. They will impose on us. They will ask for our time, our attention, and lots of other things. They will irritate us. They will demand our approval of and our conformity to their ideas.

Jesus told his followers to be willing to show compassion. Troubled people are as sheep without a shepherd trying to make it through life under their own power and in their own wisdom, doomed to failure. They don’t know which way to turn because they have no guide to point them in the right direction. We must be willing to show compassion and mercy. What they may deserve is neither of any consequence nor our primary concern. That is why Jesus rightfully bears the title, Prince of Peace.

The Quandary of Peace

Irene is a beautiful name. It is derived from the Greek word “eirene” which means “peace”. We have just come out of the season in which we Christians celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace. Sorrowfully we have entered a new year in which we find little peace being trumpeted in the headlines, within nations, or between nations.

Like all the far wiser people who have lived among us, I have no generally accepted solution for the plight mankind faces. Following the biblical story, we have known rage, jealousy, conflict, and senseless murder from the second and third generations of our ancestors. Even that was born from the rebellion of the first humans who refused to accept the obedience commanded by their Creator. (Genesis 2-4)

As a follower of Jesus Christ and a believer that man bears a fallen nature, I do not see a world at peace before the return of the Prince of Peace. Man cannot create an era of peace by his own power. He cannot create a Christian century no matter what century. His own power craves more power over nature and over his fellow creatures. Such an addiction will allow for no peace. There can only be control and domination.

Is there no hope whatsoever then for experiencing that divine trait of peace? Yes, there is hope, but it is not a hope offered by the world. It is only offered by the Prince of Peace.

Joh 14:27  "Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.

The uniqueness of the peace Jesus offers is best seen in its origin, a transformation by his forgiveness, grace, and love; and its central location, within the hearts of individuals. Jesus comes to individuals and makes an offer of a personal relationship. He forces nothing. He rejects fear as a method and relies solely on love and the promise of grace.

He does this though he knows the world will have no patience for those who come to him in this fashion. The world will use its own methods to reclaim what it has lost.

Mat 5:10-12  "Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers. Be happy and glad, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. This is how the prophets who lived before you were persecuted.

Mat 5:43-45  "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your friends, hate your enemies.' But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil.

Jesus is under no illusion that his ways will be acceptable to the world. His kind of peace forces people to make decisions if they are to follow his standards and seek his goals, both of which are contrary to the aims of a world ruled by greed and a lust for power. His sword takes the form of an unbending obedience to God’s path of love.

Mat 10:34-36 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the world. No, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. I came to set sons against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law; your worst enemies will be the members of your own family.

The Apostle Paul’s solution is to accept this as the course of events which will follow anyone who is determined to serve the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, instead of the evil powers of this earthly realm.

Rom 14:19 So then, we must always aim at those things that bring peace and that help strengthen one another.

Got Faith?

Every believer needs to check out the power center of life as we begin this new year. What will keep you going when things get a little rough, or disappointment sets in, or you hit that proverbial brick wall? Will you be depending upon human resources you can control or divine assistance which you can neither control of even understand?

When I decided to become a Christian minister after my freshman year in college, my father was both proud and pleased. He also told me I needed to consider what kind of college major I would have since I would need something “practical” to fall back on. He was a great believer in the old saying, “Put your faith in God, my boy, but keep your powder dry.”

You might call this practical faith. You can say you depend upon God for all you need, but just in case he doesn’t come through, you have Plan B upon which you can fall back. It is a faith that sounds good, but is focused as much upon human strength and ingenuity as it is upon the providence of God.

What worked for you last year? Did God fail you in the plans you made? Did you ask him what he thought of your plans before you initiated them? Did you always have your eye on Plan B just in case God didn’t do what you expected?

Faith has power when it is seen as a tool of God rather than our way to manipulate God into doing what we want. Our faith is a measure of our relationship with God. He has little regard for our Plan B’s. He wants to know how much faith we place in him even when we cannot see him in action.

Pro 3:3  Never let go of loyalty and faithfulness. Tie them around your neck; write them on your heart.

Pro 3:4  If you do this, both God and people will be pleased with you.

Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know.

Pro 3:6  Remember the LORD in everything you do, and he will show you the right way.

Faith is critical to living the Christ-centered life. The writer of these words from Proverbs urged his readers to make these qualities of loyalty (love, lovingkindness) and faithfulness such an integral part of our lives they would shape our way of thinking and be apparent to anyone who met us.

Verses four and five are the most familiar as they speak of trust (faith) in God and being willing to turn everything over to him. The preceding two verses should become just as familiar as they show the foundation for a trusting relationship. God is a part of our lives.

When Jesus taught the importance and power of faith, he used an illustration that revealed not how much faith was needed, but how powerful faith could be even in its smallest form.

Luk 17:5  The apostles said to the Lord, "Make our faith greater."

Luk 17:6  The Lord answered, "If you had faith as big as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Pull yourself up by the roots and plant yourself in the sea!' and it would obey you.

In future days the faith of the apostles would be revealed. After a mission trip they would report they had performed cures and cast out demons. After the ascension of Jesus back to the glory of heaven, the apostles would experience an expansion of that power as they practiced their faith in Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

On a wall in our home there is a plaque with the saying, “Faith makes things possible, not easy.” Living through whatever 2015 may bring will be possible with faith. Some may always try to have a Plan B. Faith says that is not necessary. In fact it can hinder what God has in mind for you. As an individual, as a church, discover what even a little faith can do.