BibleSponge

What have we come to? Or maybe a better question, how did we get here? I’m talking about prioritizing secular events over church time. What? Who does that? Take a look around and I’m sure you’ll see a church here and there manipulating their worship schedule to accommodate the NFL-masses. Whether it is a concern about the numbers coming through the door or the tithe offering for the evening, it is clearly questionable when briefly lined up against scripture (let alone its shortfall of authenticity if one spent hours trying to validate it in the Word.)

I have hesitated to write about this, as grace is not one of my fortes in life. And by Eph. 4:15, I must speak “truth in love.” Now I’m sure there will be several to accuse me of playing “Holy Ghost, Jr.” or passing judgment, however, as you will see, it doesn’t take many references in Scripture to see just how far of a cry this is from anything Biblical.

First, let’s look at the definition of the “Unsportsmanlike Conduct” penalty, as defined by the sacred NFL that we are seemingly bowing to…

UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT - Any act contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship.

Now that we’ve heard from the world, let’s hear from the Word. We can start with 1 John 2:15…

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” – 1 John 2:15, NASB

To those churches opening this Pandora’s Box, I have a question. What would we think of a parent who rescheduled a child’s life-saving surgery to because the series premiere of “Law & Order: SVU” was slated for the same time? We would say, “Absurd!” Yet this is no different than moving our time with God (our healer, our life source, our redeemer) around a game of 22 men moving a piece of dead pig around a field. Just as that child may not make it without the surgery when scheduled due to a window of time, could the same be said of a person’s soul who may miss a regularly scheduled service?

My point is how much love would you have to have of something to even chance the aforementioned possibility? Or a better question, how much more love would you have to have of something of the world to do that? Or even a better question, how dare we set this precedence in front of those following. We have just declared “Open Season” on ourselves to the critics of the church.

If that isn’t enough, let me go even further and question this decision considering its implications on the body of Christ. By going down this path, we have established a secular event (often filled with breast-baring, washed up music stars and other degenerate halftime acts only interrupted by beer commercials) has as much, if not more importance that our worship time with God. So much, in fact that we will make our worship of Him convenient so we can let our families enjoy all the above mentioned slutty-Super Sunday festivities.

Let’s alter this penalty just a moment, and see if we can speak to the football-over-worship minded churches and make some sense…

UNCHRISTIANLIKE CONDUCT - Any act contrary to the generally understood principles of worship.

I wonder how close our hearts are to God, as we honor Him with our lips (Matthew 15:8), but our minds are already at the pre-game, waiting for kickoff?

In reality, the penalty may be much worse than 15 yards, it is that we are being conformed (Romans 12:2). God help us!