Skip to main content

Not a Day for Enjoying Yourself


Well, professional (?) football on a Sunday has at last come to Northern Ireland. And it is a little ironic that the first game would be in the heartland of Protestant East Belfast, with a match between Glentoran and Bangor at the Oval.
Now, I'm a little ambivalent about strict sabbatarianism. Certainly the increased commercialism on Sundays has resulted in pressures on shopworkers to work on Sundays when they would rather be at church or at home with their families. The increasing number of amateur sports clubs running sessions on Sunday mornings has taken a toll on family attendance at church. And if Sunday football exacerbated any of that I would be deeply opposed to it. But I confess (and I appreciate that in some circles this is a serious confession as a minister of the gospel... tho' since I am Methodist, some wouldn't expect anything better of me...) I enjoy watching a game of football or rugby or many other inds of sport on TV on a Sunday afternoon.
But Sunday saw a group of about 50 protesters standing outside the Oval. By all accounts the interaction between protesters and fans was relatively good humoured. My brother had the job of assessing the referee's performance, and as he was going in one of the protesters who knew him shouted:
"I'm surprised at you being here this afternoon."
"Why's that?" replied Robert.
"Because the Sabbath is no day to be enjoying yourself!"
To which my brother replied: "I'll debate that with you at another time, but if you think that going to watch the Glens is enjoyable, you've got a lot to learn!"

The Sabbath is no day to be enjoying yourself... Not the first time I've heard that sadly. We've all heard as nauseam the stories of chained up swings in children's playgrounds, in various council districts run by the Evangelical Taliban... Then a number of years ago a student minister at a local church told the youth group there that it was OK to go for a walk by the sea on a Sunday, so long as they didn't walk along the beach or paddle in the water as they might enjoy that...

According to the Westminister Confession "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever..."
A recent commentator on this statement suggests that we glorify God BY enjoying him, and his gifts to us... Except on Sundays of course...

But one other worrying heckle I heard from one of the protesters... As someone headed through the turnstile they shouted after them:
"You'll be going to Croke Park next! Joining the GAA!"
The implication is that Irish Catholics watch sport on a Sunday, not good Ulster Prods!
So that's it... That's the key reason why we shouldn't watch or play sport on a Sunday. Because not doing that sets us Protestants apart from the Papists!
In the Bible there was another group who defined themselves as set apart from the masses in terms of what they didn't do... Not Protestants, or Papists, but another P...
Pharisees. Most of them were people of integrity, seeking to follow God's laws in the best way they had been taught. But for many it had become a dry following of rules and grace didn't get a look in. In their worldview the law set them apart and they followed it rigorously.

I wonder where Jesus would have been on Sunday? With the protesters decrying people for enjoying themselves and behaving like Catholics? Or standing on the terraces with the Glens fans?
Probably neither... He'd have more sense!
Labels:

Comments

Stu said…
Interesting - enjoyed your Brother's response!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 1:02:00 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more

Living under the Empire... (2) Where is Babylon?

We were driving back from school last week, talking about books that we had been reading and my younger son, Ciaran, asked me "Where is Babylon?" I have to confess that my history is better than my geography, and I said that it no longer exists as an inhabited city, but its ruins were to the north west of the current capital of Iraq, Baghdad. When I checked however, I discovered that it is actually about 50 miles south of Baghdad and the modern town is the administrative centre of the province of Babil... But just as the modern city is but a shadow of the historic capital of 2 ancient empires, first under Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and then the "Neo-Babylonian" empire (under Nebuchadnezzar etc) in the 6th century BCE, so the earthly Babylonian empire/s was/were fleeting in comparison to the enduring metaphorical idea of Babylon. The original Empire under Hammurabi was probably the ultimate origin of some of the early Biblical stories, including the &quo
1 comment
Read more