Back in January of 2015, I wrote an essay called Beautiful Game, Beautiful Kingdom. It explored the idea that soccer could give us insights about the kingdom of God.
As I’ve been intensely watching the World Cup the last month, the ideas in the essay came to mind a number of times.
Have you had the experience where you go back to read something you’ve written some years ago, and it hasn’t aged well. That’s happened to me many times. Well, it’s hard to say this without sounding immodest, but I did go back to read it, and to my surprise, I think the core ideas have actually aged quite well. (The only caveat – I need to figure out how to get my ideas across more concisely!)
So I’m wriitng this post in part to invite you to read it if you haven’t done so already. Here’s one section that gives you a taste of the main idea:
Soccer is often called the beautiful game. Its beauty comes in part from its simplicity. Its beauty also comes from how a well-knit group of players can move and create like a single organism that elegantly improvises within the general structure of a formation. But much of the beauty comes from how artistry and creativity have grown out of the boundaries and limits the game imposes on its players in terms of how they control the ball. It is a supremely enjoyable and always surprising thing to see powerful athletes using fine and careful movements with their feet, knees, thighs, and other parts of their body to move and control and even caress the ball…
God’s kingdom operates in a similar way. We are called to operate on love and selflessness, which run counter to the world’s drive for power and self-promotion. God’s kingdom is about freedom within limits. God’s kingdom is a state of being where we submit to God’s will and recognize that there are things we could do that we shouldn’t do because they would harm others and God’s world.
Living a Christian life is about God’s will being done even when we are sorely wanting our will to be done.
This translates into lives that are beautiful in ways counter to the mainstream. Christians at their best seek to serve others. They bear crosses and the burdens of others. They have integrity. They seek out challenges and work to mend brokenness in the world. They care for orphans and widows and the poor. They give generously and find ways to make ends meet while doing so. They try to create spiritual communities among diverse people. They submit to each other voluntarily. They take time for others and for God. They pursue peace.They love their enemies. They speak up for what is right even when that threatens their safety.
As I’ve watched this World Cup, which in the eyes of many has been one of the best ever, I’ve watched an interesting tension play out. There are teams that have been extremely defensive and conservative in their approach. Their first priority has been packing lots of players in their defensive zone. Their main strategy has been to keeping the other team from scoring while waiting for the other team to make a mistake on which they can capitalize.
There have been teams on the other side of the spectrum (like Peru and Morocco) that have been committed to playing attacking, flowing, creative soccer. They have been some of the most enjoyable to watch. And there have been many teams somewhere in between on that spectrum.
I’ve been trying to understand why I and some other observers find it so hard to watch conservative, defensive teams that put little effort into scoring, much less offensive creativity.
I think I now know the reason. Part of the global appeal of soccer is its potential to be the most beautiful and artful of sports. This sport, at its best, has a spirit that is part art. But when teams ignore that potential and seek only a practical outcome for their country, the spirit of the game is cynically lost. The higher the ideals of an enterprise the more that cunning, selfish, small-minded behaviors within it seem to taint and mar that enterprise.
Yet, soccer is still a sport. Teams are there to win. So it’s understandable that teams and players would balance skills and attacking flair with a desire to maximize the odds that they will win.
How teams, coaches, and even countries manage the tension between the spirit of the game and the rewards there are to taking practical steps that will increase one’s odds of victory is part of the appeal and vulnerablity of the game.
There are parallels, I believe, between this and the our everyday lives in the kingdom of God.
For starters, too often the Church and local churches are like defensive-minded teams that don’t get the beauty and life-changing energy and perspective of what Jesus and the kingdom of God are all about. The focus becomes defending fundamental doctrines and creeds and avoiding sin rather than living beautiful, challenging lives together that go against the grain of human-shaped culture and society that are counter to God’s values. Churches can give short shrift to cultivating dynamic, proactive, imaginative, kingdom-oriented lives of love and impact in their members. And this extends to how they treat God’s earth. Churches should be leaders in creating cultures where members creatively and beautifully figure out how to meet human needs while also prospering God’s earth.
Second, I humbly realize that I struggle with the ideals of the beautiful kingdom myself. I want to see myself in my Christian life as constantly looking for ways to show love to others, to pray, to read the Bible and related books, and to have God on my mind and heart at all times. In short, I want to be more Christ-like. And Jesus was not passive and defensive.
But instead, and all too often, I become overly practical and self-focused. I want to reserve a great deal of time for myself rather than giving it to people and causes who would benefit from them. I sometimes think too carefully about whether our budget can handle a particular donation or buying the food that best epitomizes a Christian care for God’s earth. I pay attention to what people would think of me if I spoke more clearly about my faith.
I need to ask myself this question – if I dislike soccer teams that place way too much priority on conservative, opportunistic, practical tactics, why do I find myself living out my life in the kingdom of God in the same way?
How about you?
