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 13th 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!
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