Super Bowl and Sunday
Of note this week, it was Super Bowl Sunday. A day in the year that distinctly marks American culture. I'm in the fortunate place that I find myself weirdly liberated to show up late and leave early to most of the festivities that my extended family engages in. In fact, my comfort level around family may be growing too much as I sauntered in late, outfitted with house slippers on an otherwise normal outfit, being the last to eat, and quietly took my fill of what was left over on the buffet without the shame of worrying if I were leaving enough behind or not. The game (or what little of it I watched) was most unimpressive. Despite the high level of athleticism on display at these events, there are still winners and losers and this year's Super Bowl is an especially clear demarcation of those two groups for pro football.
Being a seldom participant in broadcast TV what did strike me as the night moved on was the twisted nature of sin presented in our society. I usually have to take the energy to be on extra guard as I navigate the internet, and in bygone days I would have attributed this to the specific freedom of the internet to throw vulgarity at us as it pleases and without the constraints of broadcasting bodies of rules. But in my examination of what was presented before me during the Super Bowl, I found a picture of a culture that is entirely self-focused and produces the kind of damage that comes along with being lovers of selves. Half time performance songs were riddled with lyrics about fidelity breaking booty call relationships, drug addictions, and love that is only experienced through the lens of sex. Commercials that set up happiness as a mainstay and motivator of life itself, or just draw on the vapid nature of pop culture and relies on icons who are without righteousness. If we look at these snapshots of media we develop a picture of a godless country. People who are turned inward in a way that focuses on the outward appearance, and who make no provision for those who are without.
As Christians we are under attack. Daily being bombarded from the outside with a decaying and wicked culture and from within from a decaying and wicked flesh. As I think about my fight with the flesh I am reminded of Paul.
"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." Romans 7:15
Our flesh is a part of us and yet it is not us. We are spirit led and in that spirit fight the flesh that is deep in our psyche. Every day we fight a broken world that pushes back and calls out to the brokenness formed inside of us. Our minds and bodies are a battlefield. What are we to do? Firstly, know that victory can be claimed in Christ as in fact the victory is already won. Our first call is to Christ as we have a direct line and an intercessor in the Holy Spirit who prays with us and prays prayers that we cannot. Secondly, think about the things of God, and test everything you consume to know if it feeds the spirit or feeds the flesh. Make no provisions for the flesh on the battlefield of your mind, but :
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Philippians 4:8
Fill your mind with renewable resources- that is things that contribute to the renewing of your mind. Not least of which is being among like-minded people.
"then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit" Philippians 2: 2-3
And this is my challenge now. God desires the unity of his Church. I, on the other hand, find interacting with people to come with anxiety. I find that loving people is harder than it sounds, and loving my brothers and sisters is supposed to be the easy part. The victory is already won, and this part is supposed to be the water under the bridge. In every aspect, I desire that God strengthen me to be bold for Christ, and part of that is in humility loving my brothers and sisters in Christ. I want to shelter against the world with those who desire Christ to be first in all things. Amidst the bombardment of flesh calling to the flesh, the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church. In a country where I find many people are dissatisfied with the disjointed nature of relationships within the Church's communities the onus is on me, and us, to go forth first in love to our brothers. First meaning not expecting to receive it but giving it out of the freely extended grace that was first given to us. And this makes sense because I cannot expect to receive what I do not give.
Sunday houses the Super Bowl. A uniting force across the country as an instantly recognizable symbol and a cultural staple. Sunday, (for many of us though not all) is also a day when many Saints are meeting under a universal banner that displays and proclaims the exact opposite things that we see in the Super Bowl. Why is it then that I, and seemingly many other people, find it easier to open conversations in church with what happened in that sports game than what is happening in our lives through the power of Christ?
I don't have an answer. I have a lot of excuses, but I do not have an appreciable answer. And this is counted as a shame for me. The solution is to run in this portion of discomfort. I can only see that happening through the power of Christ. My mind doesn't even want to recognize it for the problem it is. My prayer is that the Spirit prays for me in this as I pray and that Christ would grant me the power to overcome and love my brothers and sisters in a way that honors his banner. I too will pray for the unity of the Church and ask that you do the same, for both the Church at large and your specific community. Pray that God would send you in to your brothers and sisters as a like-minded representative of love. And pray for me that I could do the same and fulfill that calling.
-In Christ
