I’ve started to wonder about the power of sport. I’m South African and when our rugby team won the Rugby World Cup in 1995 on home soil, just a year after the dawn of our 1st democracy, we were suddenly all united. Much of the past was temporarily forgotten; we were drugged by the euphoria of our team’s success. We repeated that again in 2007, and the same happened and although we won outside of our country, it was only slightly diluted. A number of years later, in 2010, we hosted the Football World Cup, and although we knew our team wouldn’t be much of a bother to the better teams in our group, we celebrated the possibility of the improbable, as well as again being sucked into the month-long euphoria. It was something special, and I wish we could have more moments like those. They offer a glimpse of what life would look like if we could move past political, racial and even religious differences and just be countrymen. It’s this little window into what life could be like if we somehow just moved forward, somehow just realised that we have common goals and purposes and a desire to see things work and everyone flourish and prosper. I’m not naive to our past of course, but hear what I’m saying.
I’ve felt so many similar emotions around the World Cup in Brazil this year. We’re watching teams from nations that are experiencing unrest and challenges back home, and are now running onto the field to be watched by billions around the world, who for 90 minutes, put political bias, and other hardened personal opinions aside, for the love of the game.
This made me think of Psalm 133:1
How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
Why can’t we as Believers in Jesus also feel like this all the time? Putting aside the things that make us different and move forward together. There’s a dying world out there that needs to know about Jesus, and the Cross and the Resurrection and these things top winning a World Cup trophy, or world champion bragging rights. Can’t we just allow the truth of the freedom we have in Jesus, to drive us to unity, to share the Gospel with one voice and one heart? Isn’t the power of the beauty of the Cross so much more than that of the Beautiful Game? Food for thought indeed!