Reflections on the World Cup
Sadly, the world cup is over. As someone who loves soccer, every 4 years, the World Cup has always brought me so much joy. I remember staying up till 2am at my grandmas in 2002 to watch the USA play South Korea. I remember the vuvuzelas (look it up) of South Africa during the 2010 tournament. I remember watching the 2022 final from a hospital room in Puerto Rico the day after my son was born (he made me miss an exciting 3rd place game that year, but I am told I am not supposed to talk about my ‘suffering’ during my wife’s labor…). And this year was the first year I got to share the joy of the world with all 3 of my kids and see the games played on US soil.
Even if you don’t enjoy soccer like I do, there is something beautiful about the world cup - the only tournament that truly crowns a “world champion” (sorry baseball). And I think part of why it is so exciting is that the World Cup exposes many of the longings of our heart as humans.
- We long for Justice. Unless we are biased, we want the ‘best team’ to win. We want referees to manage games correctly, goals to be earned, and cheating to be punished. It is why soccer has incorporated things like VAR, sensors in the ball, semi-auto offsides, and government disciplinary bodies. Yet, despite all of these protocols, we still find injustice prevailing - just ask Norway about the cable, Croatia about the offsides, or Austria about a VAR red card. Not to mention the difference between USA getting a suspension uplifted, while England had a player get an extra game suspension instead.
- We long for Hope. We want to believe something good can happen. We want to believe David can always slay Goliath - that Cape Verde really can beat Argentina or that the USA can win a world cup - but when the dust settles, we seem to find our hopes dashed, the powers-at-be triumphant again, and the USA still trying to figure out how to compete in ‘football.’
- We long for Unity. What better place to see the world come together than around the beautiful game? To join together as one, like the Norwegians rowing in stadiums, up escalators, and all across the United States. Yet, we live in a world that operates much less like Justin Bieber and the muppets singing about love during halftime; and more often in one where you feel like the Spanish players getting choked-out and sucker-punched by Leandro Paredes after the game was over…
Whether you like soccer as I do - or whether you understood any of those illustrations - these are the things our heart longs to see. Yet, in a broken world, these longings go unsatisfied. Even during the World Cup. Because ultimately no good-natured idealism is enough to mask the corruption we find in FIFA, in our country, and even in ourselves. Because of the sin of Genesis 3, and every sin since then, we can look anywhere in the 48 countries in this tournament, or even the 211 countries involved in qualifying, and you will never find justice, hope, or unity. That is because these longings of our heart are never found in a place, but only in a person - and his name is Jesus.
It is only in Jesus that we find true justice - in the one who rights every wrong. Who sees and knows your sin (even without VAR), yet who takes the punishment upon himself such that by his stripes, we are healed.
It is only in Jesus that we find a true hope - hope not in a feeling of victory that lasts 4 years, but hope in a victory we are assured will last eternally. A crown that will never fade, and a kingdom where there will be no more pain or sickness, and where Christ himself will dry every tear from our eyes.
And it is only in Jesus that we find true unity. The one who has torn down the wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile, male and female, ‘us’ and ‘them;’ and who had united us to himself as one people in the Church. A church that looks as diverse as the one we have been reading about in Acts - and one that will continue to grow in diversity until the day we are singing together before the throne with people from every nation and tongue.
It’s true that the World Cup is over, but the world’s longing for Justice, Hope, and Unity continues. And as we come to the book of Acts once again this week - hearing Pastor Michael preach on Acts 13 and Paul’s first recorded sermon - would you join me in praying that we might follow Paul’s example? That we might be a church declaring to the world the Good News of a Savior who answers all of our longings - and proclaiming that He alone can bring a joy that isn’t once every 4 years, but rather a joy that lasts eternally.