Old Dog III
The Reason for Fellowship
Bob Neumann
Everywhere you go tomorrow in America you will find some churches advertise that next Sunday they will be having a special ”Super Bowl” event. In some cases it will be a big to do. In some it is just a chance for fellowship among the ”brothers”. The sisters do it all the time in their sovereign authority as ”women”. Woman to woman ministry has been around since Noah’s wife and daughters-in-law got on the ark. To them it might have been the ancient version of a bass boat, something about big boys and big toys….
Till it rained.
Women gather to celebrate weddings, and childbirth throughout the year. Have bible studies and teas. Women can assemble as complete strangers, and in minutes have the pictures out and be in a unity the male critter cannot imagine, yet accepts as reality. Interestingly enough the idea of a ”shower” can bridge the void between church and world without a qualm or a second thought. The reason is women see ”community” from a different perspective than men.
On the other hand men can not take the worldly ”rights of passage” and churchify them comfortably. I have yet to be invited to a ”Christian bachelor’s party”. I guess they actually have occurred, but you got me beat for what they would do… all the images are so worldly it boggles the imagination.
Now I have heard of ”male bonding”, but it is, in my humble opinion, psycho babel. As hard as we try to blend together as we are told by those who speak of oneness and unity, it has not worked well. Promise Keepers tried to activate men to come together in JESUS, in spite of the fact men will naturally shy away from unknown faces. Even JESUS is not enough reason for men to lay down their swords and act nice to each other. It is a horrible shame.
In the depths of human experience there are only two areas where men can forget their differences. In this I am talking big differences…religion, race, language…. and it has not had a real long history in the world view…. And it only takes place in America, and fairly recently at that. The first is war, the second is sports. Both require team attitude over individual attitude and it stems from the aspect of competition. In war it is physical survival…in sports it is the survival of one’s self esteem. Call it ”pride”, ”honor”, ”glory”. They all stand out from the issues of survival and victory.
So when men gather to watch an event it is the vicarious association of the spectator to the participant. The participants are aware of the crowd and ”perform”. Yet even then they are equally aware of their teammates expectation for ”performance and precision”. Our national sports have come to mirror all that is both good and bad in America, and the church. The ideals of teamwork, sportsmanship, discipline to reach a goal, stamina, and integrity all can be seen in this community of professional sports. Then again the sins of America when played out by these “HEROES” as played out on the world stage are disheartening and magnified by the size of the “HERO” before his fall.
There are some good men in all the professional sports America is addicted to, but certainly not enough. Not enough to outweigh the failures. But America is addicted just as ancient Rome was. Many have paralleled the fall of Rome with modern America, so I will not belabor a point well made.
Now there are churches and pastors saying let’s get the guys together so we can meet each other and become friends. Build a little as we learn that we are not enemies, in JESUS NAME. But then there are the churches and pastors that are going to make this “an evangelical outreach to win the lost for CHRIST”. Notice the difference? Why make it an EVENT? Do we have to justify this, as some big religious endeavor made to sound spiritual? Somewhere deep behind this bull dung is a guy, or two, or a couple of thousand that just don’t know the REAL JESUS. If there was anyone less religiously vapor locked then JESUS was we’ll never know. JESUS was ”one of the guys”. HE probably got so many invites that those HE could not/ would not hang out with were the ones who whispered about the kinds of people HE had no problem hanging with. If only we had HIS utter lack of concern of what people thought or said about HIM.
You want to use the SUPER BOWL to get “Christian men” to sit in the same vicinity for 30 minutes before feeling they need to leave. Find on that SUNDAY we may actually find some men willing to stay to the end, even if it ain’t a sermon. That would be a mighty victory in the heavenlies. Please just don’t try to make it what it is not, a hyper religious exercise. And I can safely bet there is some bozo out there trying to dream up a ”kick-off benediction” and an excuse to pick up a ”love offering” at half time.
Yes it is good for brothers to dwell together in unity…. But in America today ”unity” is a ”dirty word”. Religion is telling us that all the time. So if unity is not possible, let’s think ”community”. To endorse the concept of men being together without agenda or pretense to just hang out. In time the ideas of team and comradeship will grow. America needs both in the days ahead.
I could talk about the issue of professional sports as an aspect of the entertainment addiction in America today. Throw in the drunkenness and gambling that are often associated with sports fans and the increasing violence in America. But they are just symptoms of the disease, and not the source. The disease killing America is lawlessness. The absence of GOD in the lives of individuals.
It is not new, but it has become pervasive.
The Prophet Malachi wrote of such a time…. Malachi 3:13-18
13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?
15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.
17 And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. (KJV)
Verse 16 does not tell us what they said that got GOD “juiced” and said this IS GOOD!!!.
All we know is HIS PEOPLE…that’s right….HE CLAIMS AS HIS THOSE WHO
“FEARED” HIM….and HE ORDERED the fact recorded for all eternity that HIS KIDS TALKED OFTEN TOGETHER. One Sunday a year isn’t enough…but it can be a good start.
This was no religious event, evangelical, prophetic extravaganza. Just ABBA’S KIDS…sitting and talking. Sure we can assume it was about HIM….but don’t pigeon hole it….don’t restrict it in any way. Just accept the idea that ABBA don’t need us forcing anything down anyone else’s throat. About time we learned it. None of us like it when people try to do it to us. So when you see it happening around you, stop it before eternal damage is done. Be a ”son that serves” ABBA. and discern that which is GOD’S. selah old dog