With a Football World Cup behind us, another Rugby World Cup upon us and a Cricket World Cup ahead of us, what ought the followers of Jesus think about sport and it's place in the Christian life?
Our world is currently wracked by many horrors. There is the ongoing war in Ukraine, the expanding conflict in the Middle East, the seemingly endless other hostilities around the globe that don't seem to make it onto our news. That is to say nothing of the issues of poverty, injustice and looming environmental catastrophes.
Is sport a frivolous distraction and waste from what is really important?
God's word tells us that there is a time for fun and pleasure, just as there is a time for work and sadness. In the Book of Ecclesiastes we read there is "a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance" (Eccl. 3:4).
The world that God has made is beautiful and good. Even in its fallen and death ridden state, what God has made is wonderful and in all of creation it is humanity that has the capacity to best display its glory. As the Book of Proverbs says, "The glory of young men is their strength" (Prov 20:29).
But like all that the Lord has made, we have the remarkable ability to turn a 'good thing' into a 'god-thing'. We can easily finding ourselves more caught up in the creation rather than the creator himself. When it comes to rugby, they say it is not just our national sport but our national religion. Which is really just a nice way of saying it is, for many of us, an idol we worship instead of the living God.
We would do well to heed the advice of Ecclesiastes:
However many years anyone may live,
let them enjoy them all.
But let them remember the days of darkness,
for there will be many.
Everything to come is meaningless.
You who are young, be happy while you are young,
and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart
and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things
God will bring you into judgment.
We can enjoy the rugby as a good (but flawed) part of the creation. But we experience it mindful that lasting meaning and purpose and joy can only be found in God himself.
Grace & peace,
Andrew