Yes, its Super Bowl Sunday. Yuch! Gag me with a spoon. I know, I'm a man but I'm sick to death of sports. Sports in this country are highly over-rated and those who play & coach are over paid. That fact alone has ruined sports for me. Here is my humorous but likely effective way to control NFL payroll costs. OK, Mr. Football, I'll pay you the $5, 000, 000 you're asking for on just a few conditions. Every missed tackle is $10, 000 back to me, every dropped catch is $10,000 back to me, every fumble is $10,000 back to me and generally any other mistake you make on the field is $10,000 back to me except when we're within 20 yards of our opponent's goal, then multipy this figure by 2. How do you think these guys would respond? Money, I think, has ruined sports and I know that opinon is not popular even with those who would agree that the financial aspect of professional sports has damaged the game.
But I think he real issue for me and Christian men everywhere is the fact that I can't think of a worse way to spend a Lord's Day afternoon than glued to the idiot box watching these mutants get paid a ton of dough to play a game. It is the Lord's Day after all. I'd rather spend some time focusing on the "unseen" rather than the "seen". I'm not claiming to be the worlds best Sabbatarian and, in fact, I'm still working out what it means to keep the Sabbath Day holy without stepping into legalistic territory which, in my humble experience, many good folks do. I'm certainly not saying all sports are wrong especially on the other 6 days of the week. I am, however, advocating that we as men take another look at how we spend our Sunday's, that is, are we immersed in sports or immersed in thoughts of our Saviour.
From the Westminster Shorter Catechism:
Q. 60. How is the sabbath to be sanctified?
A. The sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful in other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.
Gentlemen, any thoughts?
4 comments:
We did go to a Super Bowl party this year. I have watched about 3 Super Bowls in 20 years. We just disconnected the satellite a month ago. One Sunday afternoon I turned on the TV and did some channel surfing. After going through 120 channels and finding nothing to watch it dawned on me just how little my wife and I really watch TV. I go to the Internet to know what the weather is going to be. Mostly we watched what we rented from Netflix. The only one in the household that really watched the TV was my 10 year old who watched the most stupid cartoon after cartoon I have ever seen.
I confess I have never been much of a Sabbath day observer. I mowed my lawn on occasion or stacked a cord of wood. Sunday's is the only day of the week we actually take a nap. I do recreate which even though was not physical rest I viewed as mental rest.
I think there are some very obvious ways in which we must "keep the Sabbath holy" and for everything else it is a matter of conscience for every believer. It is a very complicated issue when you get down to the nitty-gritty. Its just not a simple and straight forward as many think. For example, if you get sick on the Lord's Day and you want to call your doctor to have him call in a precription for you are you in sin for doing so? The argument could be made that the doctor is "healing" so to speak and that is ok but if he calls in a medication to the pharmacy then that would require the drug store to be open. Is the ok? Some would say not. Some would say it would be ok to purchase the medication but nothing else. The very fact that the drug store is open at all is problematic for some or all Sabbatarians.
I attended a church for a time that had services in a school. These folks were fairly strict Sabbatarians & after services there were over some folks who would let there children play on the playground equipment and some who would not. It was an issue sometimes. Often, too, it seemed to me the Sabbath Observance crossed the line into legalism.
Again, I think we all need to follow our conscience on this issue.
I personally know people who will argue that it don't matter what you do on Sunday it is the wrong day. The true Sabbath Day is Saturday. Some jobs require someone to work such as police, hospitals etc. Believe it or not I live in a town where the local grocery store is closed on Sunday. That is so rare these days.
I would argue that Saturday is not the Sabbath. That died with the Old Covenant and the correct day to observe the Sabbath is Sunday. This is not the place for a full explication on the subject but I find that often this idea is an excuse not to observe the Sabbath.
My .02.
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