Football theology

I'm not sure if that's really the correct title of this post, but it's all I've got at this point.

I've often said that there's a lot of theology in football, there also happens to be a lot of liturgy. 

When I made this statement to a colleague of mine recently, she didn't get it at first.  "Football has theology?  Tell me more."

I gave her a plausible, but made-up, scenario that went something like this:  Team A is trailing by 9 points with 1:40 on the clock; they need two scores to win.  The quarterback drives the team down the field and tosses a TD pass and the crowd goes crazy.  They cheer like nobody's business.  The PAT is good, so now the team is only down by two.  The team runs an onside kick and happens to recover.  They only need to go 30 yards to get within field goal range for a possible win.  The quarterback begins driving the team downfield.  On one of those plays, however, he's under a heavy rush and attempts to throw the ball away rather than get sacked.  His pass hangs in the air and is intercepted by the defense.  The quarterback, who had been the hero of the game up to this point, now becomes the scapegoat for the team and exits the field to a cascade of boos.

In the 1:40 that was left in the game, we have just witnessed Holy Week.  Jesus rides into town among the cheers of many; but in the end, he's under a heavy rush of Pharisees and Romans, and ends up leaving the scene as the scapegoat, defeated, to a cascade of boos.

That's football theology.

Unfortunately, football and the church mirror each other in other ways as well.  There are places where the church has become the reason for being.  There are places where the institution becomes more important than the actual ministry or worship of its members.  And when that happens, people involved in the institution try to save it all costs.  This is both dangerous and sinful, because it focuses on our desires over the needs of others.

There are places where the institution of football becomes the reason for being.  There are places where the institution becomes more important than the lessons of the game or the game itself.  And when that happens, people involved in the institution try to save it all costs.  This is both dangerous and sinful, because it puts the desires of those behind the game over the needs of those touched by the game.

Penn State is one such institution.  The institution, the brand name associated with the game, became the reason for being.  The institution became more important than the lessons of the game or the game itself.  The people in the football program, and at Penn State in general, thought it was more important to protect the institution, the brand name, than to help those others hurt by the game.  They thought it was more important to protect Jerry Sandusky and the football program than to care for the needs of those others who were touched inappropriately (pun intended) by the program.

In this case, the similarity between church and football is Not A Good Thing.

I hope we can look at the PSU incident alongside any other unfortunate church incident and say, "Never again.  Never again will we put the needs of the Other above the desires of the institution."