Covenant Presbyterian Church

Today is "Super Sunday." The reason, of course, is the annual Super Bowl, the single-most important athletic event of the year. Only the Greek and Roman games of antiquity equal it in pageantry, public interest, and profitability. The Super Bowl is not without its impact on the church. Many congregations have chosen not to hold the traditional Sunday evening service tonight, not so much in deference to the game as in recognition that attendance will be gutted. Others choose to take advantage of the fact that the game is on most people’s minds and will develop the morning sermon around athletic metaphors and host Super Bowl parties to encourage attendance. Neither response is biblical. Both indicate the church’s capitulation to secularism and sadly indicate our unbelief in God’s word as the standard of a devout and holy life and as prescribing the proper methodology for engaging our culture.

Our culture is enamored with games. Professional and college sports dominate the daily lives of many. Sports-gambling is a five-billion dollar a year industry. An individual or culture whose life revolves around games, whose emotional state is dictated by the success or failure of a favorite team, has embarked upon an immature flight from reality. Such a person or culture either cannot deal with reality or, what is worse, equates reality with fun and frivolity. This mindset has contributed more than anything else to the popularity of "reality" television programs. Fantasy must reflect life - graphically, if possible - because the individual’s life has become largely devoid of meaning. Ancient Rome’s gladiatorial spectacles were successful in Rome for this very reason, and they were a leading way whereby the Roman authorities sought to placate and amuse the masses, whose attention was diverted from the tyrannous noose being slowly tightened around their collective necks. The depravity and brutality of the games are their most obvious features; their political usefulness is often overlooked. By keeping the masses distracted from the numerous problems plaguing Roman society, the emperors retained a free hand to rule without disruption from the narcissistic masses. The best way to aid a culture to overcome this kind of thinking is not by placating it or deriving Christian metaphors from it. Separation from evil, proclamation of the meaningfulness of a mature life in submission to Jesus Christ, and exposure of the bankruptcy of secularist diversions are the only acceptable responses to events like the Super Bowl.

Sadly, the church has adopted the "Super Bowl" mentality. Life should resemble a game as closely as possible. It should be fun. Worship services reflect this mentality, as the maturity, solemnity, and sense of the holy that characterized better days have given way to worship services that resemble a circus. The great attraction of the mega-church, seeker friendly service, and charismatic assemblies is the appealing combination of mesmerizing entertainment and frothy teaching. We must remain firmly persuaded, however, that the devil cannot be conquered by fun. Our culture cannot be transformed by appealing to the fleeting pleasure afforded by emotionalism. Like unbridled sensuality and drugs, they leave the worshipper in a worse state. They train his heart to equate excitement with the presence of God and emotional stimulation with progress in holiness. They avoid the most important thing in life - to know and walk with God through Jesus Christ according to the Scriptures.

In addition to this mentality, the church has institutionalized Sabbath breaking by yielding to the pressure to orient this particular Sunday around the Super Bowl kick-off. It is a fact that Sunday evening attendance is already abysmal in many churches. Families often forget that the best way to train their children to make full use of the Lord’s Day is to have them in service as often as possible. Instead, we have embraced the error that two services on Sunday are too difficult for them and will spoil their interest in God. On the contrary, holiness is a principle that must be habituated by disciplined adherence to the things of the Lord. A love for worship and preaching are spiritual appetites that are developed through exposure and use. Super Sunday, therefore, in that many believers choose to skip the evening service in order to huddle around the television, is evidence of the low view of the Lord’s Day and loss of interest in worship and the preaching of the Word. This trio of atrocities has combined to emasculate and impoverish Christianity in the West.

Should you watch the Super Bowl today? No. Tape the game if you must and watch it later. Regardless of your personal motives, to orient even one Lord’s Day evening around this event is to adopt the mindset of our pagan culture. The issue is one of personal, familial, and cultural allegiance to Christ. The Super Bowl represents three fundamental features of our unbelieving culture: a denial of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, replacement of his day with man’s day, and a flight from the responsibility of seeking to bring every area of life under his Lordship. The believer must remember that today is super, but only because Jesus Christ reigns at the right hand of the Father.