I’ve been thinking about a series of posts called “Learning Worship from the Idolators” for quite some time now. But today I couldn’t delay it any longer because this just landed in my inbox:
Our Brady, who art in Foxborough, hallowed be thy arm.
Thy bowl will come, it will be won, in Indy as it is in New England.
Give us these two weeks, our daily practices, and give us many touchdown passes, but do not let the Giants pass against us.
Lead us not into frustration, but deliver us to the valley of the sun.
For thine is the MVP, the best of the AFC, and the glory of the Patriots, now and forever, AMEN
(For those who don’t follow American football, the Superbowl – the championship game – is coming this weekend. The Patriots, led by Tom Brady, will destroy play the Giants.)
I am simultaneously encouraged by the latent biblical literacy implied by this chain email and horrified at the blasphemy.
Why Analyze Idolators?
Frankly, they worship better than we do.
When was the last time you saw a church as devoted as Pittsburg Steelers fans? Or as invested as a “helicopter parent”? To put it quite bluntly, Christians suck at lifestyles of worship. Sure, we have pretty songs and ”relevant” worship services. But our lives don’t reflect a passion for our God like idolators reflect their idols.
Our lives don’t reflect a passion for our God
like idolators reflect their idols.
What this post isn’t: I am not going to start condemning idolatry of sports. It’s obviously sinful and it’s covered well all over the internet.
What this post is: Humans worship… something. If it isn’t God it’s something else. That means that everyone everywhere can teach us something about how to worship. I want to explore what the Church can learn about worship from the habits of unapologetic idolaters.
So what can we learn from sports idolaters?
“Fan” means Fanatic
Fan means Fanatic
The Idolatry
You know this person.
Everyone he meets knows about his love for The Team.
He isn’t just a fan. He is a fanatic.
He can make any conversation - regardless of its content or context - relate to The Team. He can make any interaction become a praise to The Player. The conversations he starts are about The Game.
What We Can Ask Ourselves
Do people even know I’m a Christian?
What do I continually “relate back to”?
Am I looking for ways to insert/connect the gospel into conversation?
Do I connect the events of my life back to God, His will and His glory?
We want to look like them
Let me look like my hero.
The Idolatry
We wear their jerseys.
We buy the products they endorse.
We watch television shows breaking down every angle of their play.
We want to know the details of their personal lives.
What We Can Ask Ourselves
Looking like Jesus is called sanctification. It’s not about physical appearance – it’s about hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
Do I want to look like God more and more?
Do I spend my resources on things which glorify Him?
Do I dig into God’s “playbook” as much as I do the New England Patriots’ play calls?
We stake our hope on them
Broken Dreams
The Idolatry
Major sporting events have an impact on a region’s stock exchange habits. (Seriously, my father researched this for his Ph.D dissertation.)
Riots break out in cities that lose the big game.
We throw parades for championship winning teams.
The President of the United States invites the champions to the White House.
What We Can Ask Ourselves
What in my life has the ability to affect the way I make financial decisions?
What makes me sad? Excited? Is the gospel on that list? Is evangelism on that list?
At the end of a bad day, what do I comfort myself with saying, “At least I have ______.”
We pass it to our children
A Heritage for Future Generations
The Idolatry
We teach our children those things we hold most sacred. If we value ourselves, we neglect them. If we value grades, we tutor them. If we value sports, we indoctrinate them.
What We Can Ask Ourselves
What am I teaching my children? The children in my community? My church?
How can we Over-react?
It’s easy to condemn sports altogether. I’d caution against it.
We can use sports for entertainment, healthy competition, exercise and evangelism. The key is to remember that God gave us sports for our good and God is the real blessing – not sports.
_____________
Further Reading:
An Evangelism Strategy for Postmoderns
How to Evangelize Someone who Doesn’t Believe in Sin
How to give a Eulogy for a Christian
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I think we have to be cautious, however. In the Old Testament, God continually warned Israel not to worship Him in the manner the pagans worshipped their idols and adopting their worship customs. True worship of God is more a matter of receiving what He is giving to us than of what we are doing for Him. Likewise, it is not the measure of our sincerity or enthusiasm or emotion that He seeks, but faith and trust.
Peggy,
That’s a great point. I don’t want to mirror their practice but recognize the basic traits of human worship that they express better than we do in the Church. That’s why the questions I posed didn’t have anything to do with their practice but with identifying where our worship might be deficient.
In Christ,
Dave
I think I’m with Peggy on this one. If we want to know what God-pleasing, biblical worship looks like, it is best to look to Scripture rather than to a generic dictionary definition of “worship” that is made to apply to all belief systems alike (i.e., “rabidly showing something or someone how awesome you think it/they are”). The Baal worshipers were enthusiastic to the point of making Elijah look probably pretty uninterested or “cold and dead” by comparison; we don’t see him commending them for their impressive, heartfelt display. No question that our worship of God falters in many ways, but I don’t think idolatry is the place to look for emulation. They (and many Christians) actually “do worship” wrongly because the focus is on themselves and their own sacrificing to their gods (as Peggy also noted).
Kelly,
Thanks for your reply. Let me clear some things up that must not have been clear in the post (since both you and Peggy seem not to have understood my intention): I do not want us to emulate idolaters, nor do I commend them for the intensity of their worship.
However, I do think that observing their worship can help us identify areas of our own worship where we have forgotten to focus.
Once we have identified these issues we can then find biblical solutions.
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