I have played Fantasy Football for quite a few years, but never was I more captivated by it than in the 4th quarter of Monday Night Football this week (Oct 4).
I came home from an elder's meeting at church in the middle of the third quarter, with only my defensive player left on the weekly Fantasy board, Yeremiah Bell from the Miami Dolphins. When I checked in on the Fantasy score, I found that I was trailing my brother David in our family’s league by 4/100ths of a point, 129.78 to 129.74.
You've got to be kidding me!
All I needed was one more assist or tackle from Bell. No problem, right?! Well… between seven minutes to go in the third quarter and three minutes to go in the game, the New England Patriots had only a one three-play series. Miami's offense kept giving the ball away for scores (interceptions and blocked field goal attempts returned for touchdowns), then immediately getting the ball back. Consequently, Miami's defense, and Yeremiah Bell, didn't have a chance to make it back out to the field to earn my last point to put me over the top.
The clock kept ticking. In this life-long sibling rivalry with my older brother, was I going to lose to him by 4/100ths of a point?! COOOMMMEEEE ON!
At 11:15pm, in the silence of our darkened house, I was yelling at the TV over a game featuring two teams that I could care less about, at a player I had never heard of, to make one stinking tackle! I really needed to get to sleep, but the suspense and drama were killin’ me! Finally, with three minutes left in the game, and only one minute away from the start of New England QB Tom Brady “taking a knee” to run out the clock, Yeremiah Bell made a tackle… and my previously undefeated Pollock brother goes down!
YEEESSSSS! I win!
Surely, there has to be something more productive that a “man of the cloth” could be doing with his time than playing Fantasy Football! Perhaps… but I tend to think that Jesus would be a fan of Fantasy Football, if nothing else than the social networking of friends, family, and strangers. After all, Jesus was a first-century trailblazer of meeting people where they were at: A foreign woman at a well. A demon-possessed man in a cemetery. Dining with sinners. Touching the untouchable.
Jesus didn’t hole Himself up in the sanitary ivory towers of the church, He roamed the streets with tax collectors and prostitutes. Because of the company He kept and that He enjoyed eating and drinking, He was even accused of being a “glutton and a drunkard” (Matthew 11:19), when in fact, Jesus cursed those who pretended to be who they weren’t (Matthew 23:27-28).
Shame on Jesus for enjoying the company of the souls He created!
So, if Jesus meets His people where they are at, why wouldn’t He find His people enjoying the togetherness of something as seemingly simple as football. Would He thumb His nose at the foolishness of our gatherings in the same way the Pharisees wished He’d curse the parties of sinners, rather than join them?
Nope… I’m guessing He’d pull up the chair next to me on Monday night, and root for Yeremiah Bell to make the stinking tackle, because that’s where I am… and that’s where He would choose to be.
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