Mark 7:1-8 “Football and the Gospel (the role of culture, tradition, and faith).  2/7/10

            One of the greatest gifts the PCUSA in South Carolina has given our generation is “Souperbowl of Caring Offering.”   This was an offering started in Spring Valley Presbyterian Church in Columbia by Brad Smith who is now senior pastor at Eastminster Presbyterian in Columbia.  It started with just 17 churches, mostly PCUSA and Lake Murray was one of them.  As 90% of you know, this offering has no overhead, it goes 100% to the local foodbank.  When it began we raised just a couple of thousand.  Last year $1.75 million was raised, and $62 million has been raised by local food banks primarily by church youth standing at the door with buckets for cans or dollars.  Now why do I say this is the greatest gift?  I could talk about Thornwell Home or Presbyterian College as great gifts, but this is a national gift that is transforming the way we think about culture.   Super bowl Sunday is not just about football, it is about caring for the hungry.   This is a small but important example of how church can change and interact with culture. 
            There are those who have always cast an eye toward any kind of play as evil.  Tertullian in the third century said that athletic events were incompatible with the Christian faith.  He thought that going to the theater, sports, and the circus were like making a sacrifice to a pagan god. There have been Christians who have, I believe, misinterpreted the scriptures to say that even marriage is wrong for clergy.  There have been those who have said that eating food or enjoying life is wrong- and they have retreated to convents, monasteries, or even to the desert.   There is always a tendency to be afraid of the world, and to try to resist the world by retreating from it completely.   The Amish have this kind of mentality as believers.  I remember those who said that Rock and Roll was of the devil when I was a kid.  On the way to the coast on highway 521 is a church called, “The Christian Fortress.”  It embodies this idea- we are to be a fortress against the ways of the world.   While the scriptures say to not be conformed to the world, they also do not say to stay in your own world.   Jesus ate and drank with sinners.  He found time to go to a wedding when he certainly had other things he could have done.  Genesis tells us that God created the world good, and said it was “very good.”  We cannot retreat from the world any more than a fish can survive out of water- even if that water is polluted.

            On the other hand, there are those who go through life unthinking, saying that everything is good and nothing is evil.   I read today that 88% of Americans believe they are going to heaven- but only 67% believe there is a heaven!  We’re all good it’s all good.  To these folk, something is good simply because we want to do it.  They are not asking the question if something is healthy, or loving, much less does it please and honor God.  They rebel against anything or anyone who says something is wrong.  They love the world, and are seeking to be “normal” like everyone else, and conform to the world, thinking that if they do they will be better off- and so will the church.  They become chameleons- changing color with the world in order to fit in and camouflage themselves.  The problem is when normal is abnormal- like when Stalin said that Christians are insane for believing in an invisible God and should be arrested and their leaders put in Serbian concentration camps.   Normal and conforming to the Soviet world- with its gulags, or the North Korean world-that starves its people, or the Al Quaida world which would bomb innocents, is a way to be peaceful, but it is making peace with what is evil.  There are good games and bad games.  There are fair referees and unfair.  There are dirty plays and clean and beautiful plays.  It is important to make a distinction between what is good and what is fair.  Christ has set us free from the law to enjoy life and not be boxed in with rules saying life is all bad, but we abuse our freedom if we say life is all good and there are no bad calls, bad plays, bad games, bad things.  Most in our culture have bought into this way of looking at games.  The problem is that we cam become so addicted to entertainment and games that we begin to trivialize life.  Addicted gamblers who can’t stop playing cards can lose their bearing and their family.  Some today are really addicted to TV, or video-gaming, or to the internet.  T.S. Elliot said of American culture- “a decent godless people leave as their monument a mile of asphalt and a thousand lost golf balls.”  Life is more than entertainment.  There is a balance and even a purpose in both work and play and rest.  We are called to find that purpose and to keep that balance- and that really is the reformed or Presbyterian way. 
            In the middle of those who retreat from all of life, and those who jump into all of life are those who seek to distinguish good from evil and transform life.  Play and entertainment can be opportunities to glorify God.  So the Olympic runner said, “When I run I feel God’s pleasure.”  So the Christian player who points up to God when they do something good.  So the Souperbowl of Caring Offering that takes this event that everyone knows about and turns it into an opportunity to help the hungry.  We are set free to enjoy life and have fun as long as what we do does not go against love for neighbor or love for God.  Luther said, “Love God and do what you will.”  Calvin spoke a whole lot about not giving into the rules of his day which said that clergy shouldn’t be married or that people shouldn’t read the Bible because only the “experts” or scholars should read it and interpret it.  Calvin, far from being the kill joy he is portrayed, set people free to hear God’s word, and to live life.  He encouraged people to not retreat from life (like the Amish or Mennonites or the monks or nuns) but to be salt and light in the world and make the world a better place.  The Superbowl like all of life can be an event for good or for evil.  It regularly has one of the largest audiences.  The medium is not evil, nor is it always good.  The middle way is to use discernment and balance in taking part in life and fun.  Maybe it is no coincidence that the New Orleans Saints are playing Sunday.  It is, after all, okay for saints to play.
                 

Ecclesiastes 3:4- There is a time to laugh and a time to weep;  a time to mourn and a time to dance.

Mark 7:1-8

 1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?"  6 He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: " 'These people honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.' You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions."