It’s a big weekend of sport.
The Super Rugby semi-finals are here, the Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup begins, and the FIFA World Cup has kicked off. The last of those is the biggest World Cup ever, with billions of people expected to follow the tournament from all around the world.
Sport has a remarkable way of bringing people together at a time when so much seems to push us apart. In just a few hours, it can capture the full kaleidoscope of human emotion: joy, sorrow, hope, frustration, anticipation, relief, and celebration.
In many ways, sport is a wonderful gift from God. It gives us a way to enjoy his world, delight in the abilities of people made in his image, and share moments of joy and connection with others.
So how can we enjoy these sporting spectacles in a way that honours God?
Like all good gifts, our favourite team, the beauty of the game, and the experience of supporting it are gifts that should point us to the Giver. They are not meant to be worshipped themselves.
Sport is a gift to enjoy, not a god to obey.
So here are three ways to enjoy sport well.
1. Receive sport as a gift, but don’t let it rule your heart
Sport is a gift. It has been created, played, watched, and enjoyed by people made in God’s image. The beauty of skill, teamwork, courage, competition, endurance, entertainment, and shared joy are all good things in God’s world.
So we should receive sport with thankfulness. Cheer loudly. Celebrate the try, the goal, the wicket, the comeback, the underdog story. Enjoy the gift, and thank God for the people you get to share it with.
But like all good gifts, sport becomes dangerous when it begins to rule us.
That can happen when our mood is controlled by the result of a match, or even by the anticipation of it. We become anxious, angry, elated, or crushed in ways that spill over into our relationships with others.
A helpful question to ask might be: would I be more excited about my team winning on Saturday, or someone becoming a follower of Jesus at church on Sunday?
That question is not meant to make us feel guilty for enjoying sport. It is meant to help us see what has captured our hearts.
2. Keep sport in proportion, but don’t let it reorder your life
Sport makes a rubbish god. It cannot bear the weight of our hope. It will let us down again and again.
Of the forty-eight teams at the FIFA World Cup, forty-seven will finish disappointed. Every season ends in frustration for most fans. Every great player eventually declines. Every great sporting moment fades.
If we see sport for what it is, a wonderful gift, but no more, we will be able to lose graciously, miss a match, and keep things in perspective.
But sport may be becoming too big in our lives when it starts to reorder our priorities.
It is often said that you can see what someone truly worships by looking at their calendar and their bank statement. When it becomes unthinkable to miss a game, but easy to neglect the ordinary gifts of grace God gives us (gathering with his people, prayer, generosity, reading his word) then something may be out of proportion.
Enjoyment has become something more dangerous when it starts to take the place of following Jesus and serving others.
Sport will always let us down if we ask it to do what only Christ can do.
3. Cheer loudly, but speak like someone who belongs to Jesus
A fan who follows Jesus should sound different.
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for us is the way we use our words when we watch sport.
It is easy to forget that the players, fans of the rival team, and even the referee are made in the image of God. James warns us about the contradiction of praising God while cursing people who have been made in his likeness:
“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.”
(James 3:9–10)
It is easy to think nothing of crude chants, booing opponents, piling criticism onto players, abusing officials, or joining the outrage online, and then turning up the next day to sing songs of praise to God.
That should feel incongruous to us.
Whether we are online, in the stands, or sitting with friends watching the game, we need to remember who we belong to. As those who have been given a new identity in Christ, we are called to speak “only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29, NIV).
That does not mean we need to disengage. It does not mean we should feel guilty about enjoying sport.
Cheer loudly. Celebrate the gift. Enjoy the game.
But remember: we are followers of Jesus first, and fans of our team a very distant second.
Grace and peace,
Andrew