Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Back in the days of depression the mighty Babe Ruth was asked to take a salary cut for the first time in his career.

He didn't go for it, but insisted on his customary $80,000 contract.

"But Babe," protested an official of the Yankee Ball Club, "These are trying times.

That's more money than Hoover got last year for being president of the United States."

"I know," persisted Babe, "But I had a better year than Hoover."

And indeed he did, and many sportsmen have better years than the president.

We have come to the age of the affluent athlete.

The ancient Greeks and Romans loved sports, but they could never imagine an athlete who was wealthier than the Emperor.

The reason this is the case today is because people are wild about sports, and they are willing to pay to be involved.

The American people spend more on sports each year than is spent for national defense.

Anything this big is bound to come under criticism.

Many feel that we are over doing it, and we are giving sports to big a role in our culture.

Too much time and energy are being given to sports, and this keeps people from doing more important things.

Before we look at the positive side we must admit that sports can become an idol, and many outstanding Christian athletes have given testimony to this fact in their own experience.

Millions are more enamored of the sermon on the mound than by the Sermon on the Mount.

One of the great empires in the history of baseball was Bill Klem.

He said, "Baseball is more to me than the greatest game in the world!

It is a religion."

He was not alone, for one writer said he was amazed that the sick were not being brought to home plate to be healed during the World Series.

Sports and religion have this in common-they both spawn fanatics.

In 1969 the referee awarded a late penalty to El Salvador in their World Cup football match against their neighbor Honduras.

El Salvador won the match.

When news of the results spread riots broke out in both capitals as fans refought the match in the streets by beating up the opposition supporters.

As a direct result war broke out between the two neighbors, and before it ended 2,000 soldiers were killed.

Both nations suffered serious food shortages.

This was a case of idolatry, for "idolatry is investing undue significance, even reverence and adoration, in temporal objects and pursuits."

When a sport becomes a matter of life and death it is idolatry and not merely a game.

Sydney Harris says, Karl Marx made a mistake in his famous saying that, "Religion is the opium of the people," for the fact is, sports are the opium of the people.

Sportianity has captured the hearts and zeal that Christianity once had.

Sports draw the biggest crowds, and players are the best known, highest paid personalities in our culture.

Sydney Harris wrote, "Sport is as necessary, as useful, as nourishing to humans as any other natural activity-but it is no longer a natural activity; in its cancerous form, it has displaced religion, dislodged citizenship and even further dislocated communication between the sexes."

People can become fanatics about sports.

They are like the Yankee fan who complained, "What a day.

I lost my job, my wife ran away with a salesman, and the Yankees lost to the Senators.

Imagine that-leading by 3 in the 8th and they blew it."

The negatives are real, and no doubt many a wife lives in frustration because her husband appears to have more interest in one kind of game or another than in her.

On the other hand, there are those Christians who see sports as a golden opportunity.

The Fellowship Of Christian Athletes is making a tremendous impact on the whole world of sports.

Best selling books are available with their Christian testimonies by famous sportsmen.

Several films have been produced sharing the fruits of being a Christian athlete.

One high school youth in North Carolina went to a conference where some of the great athletes were speaking, and when he came back he gave this testimony-"I went to this conference to see my gods in the athletic world.

When I got there I heard my gods talking about their God, and before the week was over, their God became my God." Hero worship of sportsmen has been going on ever since Heracles started the Olympics in 776 B.C. Modern Christians have discovered that hero worship can lead to worship of the hero's Hero and Savior if the hero points the way.

And the only way he can get to be a hero is to do his best until he is a great athlete and a winner.

Men with this conviction loves sports, and they feel it worth all the time and energy they give to it.

Sports have even been used for missions, and Ken Anderson, founder of Ken Anderson Films traveled with the Venture For Victory basketball team all through Asia drawing great crowds.

At every half time they gave their testimony and saw numerous decisions.

Rev. A. D. Obot, head of the youth movement in Nigeria said, "In my country we find preaching and athletics, when combined, provide a wonderful way to turn people to Christ."

Because sports are a major part of life for many people, Christians have sought for ways to have an impact in this world of sports.

Campus crusade has its Athletes In Action.

Baseball Chapel Inc. sponsors Sunday services for major league teams.

The Institute for Athletic Perfection seeks to get athlete's into a stable local church setting with their family.

Pro-Athlete's Outreach seeks to use the pro's to influence young people.

These are just a few of the outstanding ministries through sports.

There are numerous men and women in the sports world who are dedicated Christians, and who use their time, money, and talent to teach the Word of God, and spread the good news.

But what does the Bible have to say about sports?

In the Old Testament there is almost nothing said about athletic events and skills.

It was an honor for a Jew to be a swift runner, and to be skillful with the bow, spear, and sling, but not for athletics, but for war.

The Jews always preferred the arts and the wisdom of the mind rather than the feats performed by the body.

The Jews were disgusted with the Greek Greeks and their gymnasiums, and all their emphasis on the body.

The Saducees like the gymnasium, but the Pharisees did not.

Jews were divided concerning the value of sports, and the result was Jews did not begin to excel in sports until the late 18th century.

It all began with the great Jewish boxer Daniel Mendoza who was called the father of the art of boxing.

He opened up a school to teach Jewish youth how to box.

In the 1920's the all Jewish soccer team were unchallenged world champions.

Then in the 70's the most famous sportsman in the world was the Jew Mark Spitz with 7 gold medals from the Olympics in Munich.

Jews have worked hard to overcome the image that they are too intellectual.

The fact remains, however, that there is little in the Old Testament that refers to sports.

When we come to the New Testament it is a different story.

Much of the New Testament was written to Greek Christians who had grown up in the Greek culture where sports and the gym had been a part of their way of life.

Paul was a Roman citizen, and he must have enjoyed the athletic games of his day, for he uses them often to illustrate the Christian life.

He refers to racing, boxing, and wrestling, and applies them to the Christian experience.

Paul's favorite sport was obviously racing, for he uses this to illustrate most often.

Racing was the most common of the ancient events, and would capture the attention of the most people.

Paul's own personal testimony was put into athletic terms in Phil 3:13-14.

"...forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

The Christian life is a race, and like a disappointed coach he wrote to the Galatians and asked in Gal.

5:7, "You were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth?"

Paul knew a winning athlete had to obey rules or he would run in vain.

He wrote to his young son in the faith, and said in II Tim.

2:5, "An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules."

If you break a rule in the Olympics you can lose your gold medal, or miss your chance to get one.

Babe Ruth made some of the most spectacular plays in baseball.

One of them goes down in history as a first, and probably the last.

The bases were loaded and Babe came to bat.

He hit a high drive into deep right field.

The Dodgers on first and second hesitated to see if it would be caught.

Meanwhile Babe came charging right past the man on first with his head down.

His illegal passing electrified his friend on first, and paralyzed the one on second.

All three players reached third base at the same time.

Two of them, of course, were put out to retire the side.

No matter how good you are, you have to play by the rules or lose.

Paul was a spiritual coach who wanted his team to stop being sinners, and start being winners.

He knew they had to give to the Christian life all an athlete gives to be a winner.

Listen to his pep talk to his team in Corinth.

In I Cor.

9:24-27 we read, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize?

So run that you may obtain it.

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.

They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.