World Cup - Final

World Cup Final – Death

July 23, 2014

Okay, so maybe it’s a stretch to combine the end of the World Cup with death, but it seemed good to have three essays in a group about the World Cup, so go with me for a minute or two and I will get there!

My family and I are heading to Michigan next week for our annual pilgrimage to visit my parents, siblings and their children.  It is a trip we have made many times over the past 30 years that my wife and I have lived in Dubuque.  It has consistently been one of the highlights of my children’s lives.  But this year, the trip has a slightly different color to it.

Last January, my father’s mother – my grandmother – passed away.  She was 99 and thanks to the care of her daughter and son-in-law, she had been able to live in her two homes, one in Michigan and one in Florida up to her passing.  As many family members are either still in Michigan or often travel there during the summer, the decision was made to have a memorial service in Michigan in July rather than trying to get everyone down to Florida in January.  Saturday will be my grandmother’s memorial service.  As I told people about our upcoming trip and the fact that it would end with the memorial, people would naturally say, “Oh, I’m sorry about your grandmother.”  To which I would typically reply, “Thanks, but she was 99.  At least no one will be saying, ‘It’s such a shame she died so young.’” 

Of course, I was just trying to diffuse any tension – no one likes to talk about death.  But the truth is death is never right.  As people, we are never comfortable with death and even when our 99 year old grandparents pass, we wish that they could be with us just a little longer.  We want things to stay the same.

At the other end of the spectrum, my daughter, who teaches violin lessons, had one of her young students not show up for a lesson last week.  The family had recently gotten a puppy which was only four months old.  It was discovered that the puppy had an untreatable internal organ condition and they had to put it down.  They had only had the puppy for a couple weeks, not 99 years.  And anyone can tell you that there are lots of dogs that need homes, so they can easily get another.   Anyone can tell me that my grandmother was 99 years old and had lived a great life.  But death is never right.  We want things to stay the same.

But things don’t stay the same.  And when circumstances change, we are faced with the reality that no matter how much we want to be in control or think that we are in control or work to be in control – we are not in control.  The ultimate evidence of this is death.  But we face all kinds of “death” experiences, when our hopes and expectations are changed by circumstances outside our control.

The entire nation of Brazil had a “death” experience in the semi-finals of the recently completed World Cup (I told you I would get back to the Cup!).  The host nation with a glorious soccer history losing in embarrassing fashion to Germany.  Brazil’s worst defeat ever at the worst possible time.  Those who follow this event could almost hear the collective voice of the stunned Brazilians crying, “It’s not supposed to be this way!”  But the scene of weeping children, and not a few adults, in their beloved national team’s jersey was repeated just a few days later except this time the children were wearing Argentine jerseys.  In the World Cup, only one team doesn’t “die.”  Spain and England had their death experience early.  Brazil and Argentina had theirs late.  Only Germany didn’t – this time.

And we have these death experiences in so many ways.  I have a friend whose wife was diagnosed with cancer.   While the battle continues, he has struggles with all kinds of issues related to this situation which he can’t control.  He told me one story of a young relative of his who was trying to comfort him and said to him, “She’s going to be okay.”  These are fairly common words in situations like this.  I think they reveal what our real hopes are.  Translated, I think these word mean, “Everything is going to go back to being the way it was before.”  We so much want things to stay the same. 

My Christian world view is not surprised by this.  We were created to be eternal as was the world.  There was this really nice garden with everything that people needed to be content and satisfied.  Everything was meant to be the same forever.  Death and all its related complications were the consequence of people rebelling against the perfect order that God had created for us to enjoy. 

Some people ridicule this idea by taking it too literally and saying things like, “I would have gotten bored living in a place like that.”  And “People can’t be content in a place with no challenges like that.”  They imagine gardens that they know and the whole idea doesn’t make sense to them.  I understand that but the promise of the garden isn’t about the physical garden.  The promise of the garden is that things never changed.  It wasn’t just about food and drink and peace and being naked without shame – although those are all good things that most people want.  It was about a much deeper need that people have.  A need for things to be in control, predictable - for there to be no death.  We can’t imagine it.  We can only know that we know that death is never right.  We know it isn’t right because even when our 99 year old grandmother’s pass after living relatively healthy lives in their own homes.  We wish things could go back to the way they were before.

I mentioned the promise of the garden because I believe it to be a promise of restoration which God has given to all people.  As I go to my grandmother’s memorial, I will be more thankful than usual for scriptures such as:

“I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25)

“God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life, not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.  This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (2Tim 1:9,10)

Death in little forms and in the ultimate form is a billions times proven reality for all people.  I am grateful to be aware of one who has destroyed death and given me the promise of the restored garden where there will be no more death.  There is no other solution to this problem.

WORLD CUP - IDENTITY AND UNITY

July 8, 2014

As we come to the “sharp end of the World Cup” to quote the engaging Ian Darke of ESPN, I find myself continuing to reflect on what an amazing event the FIFA World Cup is; at least in terms of what it represents.  Certainly those who follow the sport more closely know that there are issues of corruption and manipulation that will take precedence over the actual games once July 13^th and the 2014 World Cup have come and gone.  And those who don’t follow the sport at all will probably not care about either the World Cup itself or the problems with FIFA.  But in the midst of the event itself, a large portion of the world comes together with a single focus in a way that nothing else replicates.

ESPN had a pretty cool commercial leading up to the World Cup.  It portrayed people in various parts of the world preparing to watch a game on television.  It ended with the caption “Every four years, the world has one time zone.”  (You can watch it here:  Every Four Years)  I’ve been telling people that the World Cup is probably the closest thing to one world religion that this broken world will ever see!  Even the Olympics don’t compare especially in terms of interest in countries that have no real Olympic presence.  When the World Cup is played everyone watches.  The world is (almost) one.

Of course, as we reach the semi-finals, the first of which between Brazil and Germany is being played this afternoon my time as I write this, we can see that the World Cup is also like March Madness or the NCAA football BCS.  Lots of teams are in but only a few have a realistic chance of being there at the end.  Costa Rica gave a valiant effort and could easily have been included in this Cup’s semifinals once the penalties began following extra time against the Netherlands.  In 2002, host South Korea and Turkey made it to the semis but the final was still Brazil and Germany.   This year’s final is a guaranteed match up of world soccer power houses regardless of who wins the semifinal games.

But everyone will watch the final, and for many around the world, they will feel that they are a part of something bigger than themselves.  And this is what is interesting to me because I think that the identification with the World Cup reflects a longing in the human soul to be a part of something that matters; to be a part of something bigger.   And this fits with a world view that believes that people are created in the image of God.  Two aspects of who God is (according to the Bible) fairly shout out at me in looking at the world and the World Cup.  The first is Identity and the second is Unity.   In the Christian worldview, Identity and Unity are two things that were lost when people rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden.  Arguably, human history can be seen as a series of attempts on the part of people to find what humanity lost in terms of Identity and Unity. 

I mentioned in my writing about World Cup prayers that I had noticed the tears of Costa Rican supporters following their penalty kick win over Greece in the quarterfinals.   When small countries like Coast Rica or perhaps Uruguay over the past few years are able to excel on the international soccer field, it gives importance to the people of that country who may not necessarily feel important on the international stage in other areas –such as maybe economics or culture.  One can argue that maybe being important in international soccer is not really “important” or shouldn’t be!   Leaving that aside, it is clear that it is important for the fans of the countries who do well in the World Cup and especially the smaller ones. 

As human beings we are constantly looking for affirmations of our identity and this is played out in so many arenas that it would be distracting to list them.  From families to jobs to reputation to geography to race to nationality, people are asking, “Who am I and do I matter?”   It gets answered in many different ways – some of them not particularly positive.  But the quest for identity and “mattering” is universal in the human experience.  We have identity issues and so much so that even athletic success of teams with which we have no direct relationship except that of being from the same country enters into our own sense of identity.   When the country of which I am a citizen has a great run in the World Cup, it is like I am having a great run.  I matter.  My team matters.  I know who I am for a few minutes anyway!

God, on the other hand, does NOT have identity issues.  When asked his name by Moses (Exodus 3:14), God’s response is “I am who I am.”  Jesus is accused of blasphemy by the Pharisees when he uses the same language to describe himself (John 8:58).  God does not have identity issues.  He doesn’t need to describe what he has done, or how much people respect him, or how important he is at his job or even how his team is doing in the World Cup!  His identity is so complete and established that anything God does is the result of his identity not an attempt to prove it.

 

People sometimes say things like, “Hey, this is who I am.  If people don’t like it, it’s their problem.”  But I don’t think they really mean it.  It’s usually said in defiance of what people may or may not think, not as a simple affirmation of personal identity.  But I also think that we all long for a stable identity which is positive and important – significant in the world in which we live, whether we see that world through a local, regional, national or international lens.  Being created in the image of God means that we have been created with a desire to have an identity like God has an identity – to be like God in the sense of knowing who we are and being content with who we are.  To be like God in knowing that we matter – not in the sense that we matter more than other people; just that we matter.  Every four years, we see this played out a bit in the World Cup.  It’s a small picture but it is one that almost every soccer fan on the planet can relate to in a positive way regardless of race, culture, religion and so on.

 

The second aspect of God that I see reflected in the World Cup is Unity.  The desire to be one with others also seems to be a universal quest for human beings.  Some attempt to achieve oneness through imposing their particular version of unity on others – think violent religious extremists past and present.  Others try to work towards unity through tolerance and acceptance – “Can’t we all just get along?”   Both ends of this continuum have difficulties as one wants to destroy difference and the other is prone to ignore genuine difference.  But beyond the problems with the solutions, there is a common desire to be one; to be unified.

Every four years, there is a world unity that goes beyond anything else that is currently available.  We can’t agree on economics.  We can’t agree of religion.  We can’t agree on philosophy.  But we can agree on Futbol!  And we do.  I was fortunate to attend games during the 1994 World Cup held in the US.  Some of the best memories were the scenes outside the stadiums before and after the games we attended.  Colorful fans representing both teams involved were singing and dancing and generally partying together.  The games were played and there were winners and losers and even “tie-ers.”   The atmosphere before and after reflected a sense on the part of the fans that they were all in this together.  Our team may or may not have WON, but in the context of this event, we are ONE. 

It’s hard to know for sure, but some estimates are that up to 3 billion people watched some part of the 2010 World Cup and there is no reason to think it will be less this time around given the continuing advances of technology.  For the Final alone the estimate was that more than 700 million watched.  Again, it is likely to be as many or more this coming Sunday.  People will be unified worldwide over this month whether their particular team is playing or not.  Even in England people will likely be watching the Final!!  (Soccer joke for the fans.)

In Deuteronomy 6:4, Moses is speaking for God and says to the people coming out of exile, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”  In the prayer of Jesus recorded in John 17, Jesus prays this, “My prayer is not for them alone but for all who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.  May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me.  May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (verses 20-23)

God is one and it seems his desire for people is that they would be one – that there would be unity.  And if we are created in the image of God then the longing that we have to be one with what is around us is part of that created image.  It is something that God has placed in each of us.  All that nonsense we went through in junior high?  Turns out it wasn’t really nonsense!  We really do want – even need to be included and a part of the whole.  Something is not right in us when we are not one – when there is not unity. 

Something is not right in our world, too.  Every four years, those who participate in the World Cup phenomenon get a taste of Identity and Unity that we all long for but have so much trouble achieving.  We have trouble in our own personal and family lives.  And we certainly have trouble corporately at the community, national and international level.  The World Cup is great – for four weeks every four years.   But it isn’t enough to cure what ails us.  We need an Identity and Unity that are much deeper and more eternal than a World Cup.  The desire for Identity and Unity seems to be universal whether individuals realize that they are looking for it or not.  But the solution requires conscious knowledge of the One whose Identity and Unity are the only real and lasting fulfillment of the desire each of us has to have significance and connection with the things that really matter.

Enjoy the World Cup and other events like it!  See in those events the universals of humanity.  Those universals are among the things the persuade me that we are indeed created in the image of God!