Sermon - The Sacred Space of Football

“The Sacred Space of Football”

            Whether you are a sports fan or not, you probably know by now that today is the Super Bowl.  There is so much hype around this day, from parties, to products, to the half time show, to – oh yeah, the teams that are actually playing.  Advertisers have grabbed this game by the horns and spend their budgets marketing their products. 

            I am not a big tv sports fan, but I absolutely love being at the game.  There is just something in the air when you attend a sporting event, there is energy, excitement, enthusiasm, it is what anthropologists call:  collective effervescents.  When a crowd of people gather together they behave differently than they do on their own.  They get caught up in this energy of the greater whole.  Sometimes this can be a positive thing and sometimes it can be negative, that whole concept of peer pressure.  What ever it is, true sports fanatics consider this experience as sacred and holy. 

            Today, I want to examine the sacred space of football as a metaphor to how we can carve out sacred space in our own lives.  In just about any sport, there is the sacred space of what is in and out of bounds.  For football, there is a playing field of one hundred yards laid out in a rectangular grid with white lines every ten yards down to the end zone.  And then the game is divided into the sacred time of four fifteen minute quarters.  Now, anyone who has ever watched a football game, you know that the game lasts longer than an hour.  Those fifteen minutes have their own time within their own space of the game. 

One also has to learn the language of the game:  downs, blitz, field goal range.  And then there are the rules.  So, as the players move down the field, one play at a time, one down at a time, trying to make ten yards within four downs, the clock starts and stops and the referees make calls as to whether or not the players stayed within the rules of the game and within the boundaries of the field.  The game could not be without its rules and boundaries and regulations.  It is riddles with sacred time and space. 

            In the book:  The Godbearing Life:  Ron Foster writes:  “At my house growing up, first base was the spindly birch tree that adorned our front lawn.  A Frisbee became second base, and third base was the corner of a garden bed marked by a coil hose.  The fourth square of our front walkway served as home plate.  The grassy area on the other side of the street was the outfield wall, and the US mailbox on the corner was our build-in foul pole.  This area was sacred space for our endless rounds of neighborhood pick-up games of whiffle ball. 

            Our front yard had nothing particularly sacred about it.  In fact, it bore only the vaguest resemblance to Camden Yards or Yankee Stadium with their manicured outfields and precision-marked baselines.  The players framed the field using ordinary stuff – a tree, a Frisbee, a hose, a mailbox, to set apart the space for special purposes.  So it is with the sacred spaces of our lives that refresh our souls.” 

            We have sacred space all around us.  We mark and define ordinary things and set them aside for special purposes.  Sacred space, how do we mark those areas in our spiritual lives?  We do it so well with our games, using very well marked or not so well marked playing fields.  How do you define the sacred space in your own life?

For many, Sacred space, is mark by a church building: we set aside this space, the sanctuary, for worship and prayer.  Within this space we have specific items that we use for sacred purposes: a baptism font, a communion table, a pulpit.  And we even have rules about who can do what within this sacred space and during this sacred time. 

Today is communion Sunday, and within this space, set aside for God’s purpose, we have rules for how this sacrament is prepared and served.  We celebrate this sacrament on the first Sunday of the month.  It is prepared by our deacons, blessed and broken by the pastor, served by our elders.  We have set aside ordinary bread and juice for God’s special purpose and invite all to participate in this spiritual feast.  This is all just ordinary stuff, but because we have set it aside for God’s holy purpose it is sacred because it is a part of this sacred time. 

Sacred Space, let the energy of the Holy Spirit be upon you.  While we may not be cheering for a touchdown, we sure can cheer that together we are God’s team, strengthen through the prayers of each other and feed and nourished by the gift of communion.  

            Sacred space manifests itself throughout the Old and New Testaments as the people of God journey with God through the wilderness and then formally build the Temple.  Sacred space is a burial site and a well, it is a mountain top and a town.  In the New Testament, in the life of Jesus, we learn that the sacred space of God’s work is not limited to a specific location.   God establishes boundaries through the Ten Commandments.  Ways to live within this sacred life we live dedicated to our creator. 

            What space in your life do you consider sacred?  For some it is going away from the ordinary, setting aside intentional time to encounter God can create sacred space.  That is why people of faith love retreat centers:  Camp Johnsonburg or Stoneypoint, Montreat or Kirkridge.  Getting out of the clutter of the everyday and being present to God in silence can be so sacred.  We  need sacred space to renew us, re-energize us, refresh us to go back out into the world to do the work of the everyday and to do the work of God. 

            Where do you find your sacred space?  Is it here in this place?  Or do you have a place within the everyday of your life?  Do you have an intentional place where you are comfortable praying to God?  Growing up, I had a place back in the woods where I would just go and sit.  That was my sacred space.  For others, it is their garden, or the beach, or the view from a mountain top.  Where do you find God, and more importantly where do you find the place  for the renewal of your soul?