Let me say a few words at the beginning of this post to establish context.  First, to know me at all is to know that I am passionate about the significance of Sunday as the Lord’s Day.  I believe that God gave us this day by design as a good and sufficient test of who we really are in relationship to Him.  I believe that the Lord’s Day includes the entire day and that the worship of God is to begin and to end the day with the public worship of God leading into and followed by the private worship of God.  I am a Puritan in this regard.  I believe that the onus of responsibility for not observing the Lord’s Day in this way falls on those who don’t do it this way who must somehow justify choices and actions biblically.  I am so strongly attached to the Lord’s Day as a reliable test of faithfulness that I do not want elders and deacons who are not devoted to the active involvement in worship and study on the Lord’s Day.  So that is first.  Second, I love sports of all kinds.  I am an avid football and golf fan.  Love me some basketball and would love to understand soccer and hockey.  Baseball, well; much too slow for me and too boring.  But I will watch it in a pinch.  So, I am not aganist sports.  I love to see athletes showing their gifts in the sports in which they are trained.  Third, I believe that everything that happens must be understood from the perspective of the active expression of the presence or absence of the glory of God.  I am alwasy asking about every event and activity both inside and outside the church, “how does this event honor God and advance the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ?’  Some secular events do that more than some so-called sacred events.  So with these three contexts established let me talk about two things that have been on my mind recently.

First, the ironman competition in Augusta.  I read with interest the long list of names posted in the paper on Monday.  No, I did not read every name but it was a long list and I read about all the positive things that were said about it but nobody answered my question, “why did it have to be on the Lord’s Day?  Why couldn’t it have been held on Saturday?”  I think I know the answer to that question because Saturday is a day of worship across the South and nobody would try to take people from the sacred spaces from Columbia to Clemson or from Athens to Atlanta.  So that left only Sunday.  But who protested?  Who raised issues about it being on Sunday?  I didn’t hear any and Ididn’t raise any.  Why?  Because we have been lulled to sleep by a culture that is captured by the allure of the athletic.  The worship of the human body on the Lord’s Day seems a bit pagan to me but nobody seems to mind any more.  It is just the way things are.  But it bothered me.  Still does. 

Second, EBA and Burke County Football.  I am so proud of these young men and there untarnished records but I have two huge concerns.  Who among them is telling them that this is just a game and at the end of the day it is not an issue of ultimate importance?  Who among the coaching staffs is communicating that love for Jesus and His church is far more important than a game?  Who among them is saying to the student-athletes on Wednesday afternoon, “what we are doing here pales in importance in relationship to your being in church tonight; so we are going to cut practice short on Wednesday so that you can learn what is really important.”  We would consider a coach like that a fool; Jesus would call him wise.  Many professing Christian men would be the first at the coach’s door to complain, “how do you think we are going to win if you keep cutting practice short on Wednesday night?”  It bothers me when we just give Wednesday night to the world and say nothing.  We even play football games now on Wednesday and nobody says a word.  Not one single word.  We justify it, “well, at least it is not Sunday.”  But that is coming sooner than we know.  And what will we say then?  The same thing we are saying now, absolutely nothing.  Why?  Because our Christianity is so cultural that we would rather conform to the crowd than to risk the boos from others if we stand against them.

I would feel better about the whole thing if I knew that those who teach our athletes in all of our schools were unequivocal in communicating that what happnes on Friday night is a wonderful game but has no ultimate significance.  Fun to play and fun to win but at the end of the day it has no real significance in the matter of things eternal.  Oh, the day will come sooner than we think when many will show up at church on Sunday morning and dash out as soon as possible to make it in time for the Sunday afternoon sports event at the local school.  It is bad now. Pray that this day described above does not come.

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