Jesus and the Super Bowl

It is Super Bowl Sunday. In a few hours I will be hosting a Super Bowl party even though I didn't know that the cardinals were from Arizona until today. (For some reason I thought they were from St. Louis. Wrong sport, evidently). The party I am hosting is for the youth group. I expect thirty teenagers to arrive a little before six and not leave until some time around ten. That's a lot of football.

Since I don't care one bit about the outcome of the game; I can't name one single player; and when I was buying decorations, I had to go with generic football green because I don't even know the team colors, one might ask, "Why host a party"? Why not , say, go to the library instead, maybe do some laundry, prepare my taxes, anything more interesting than watching five hours of football. The simple answer is, I was pretty much told to have the party. When i mentioned it to the kids they were excited. Evidently, it is a youth group tradition.

I am having the party because the kids love it. More kids will come to this event than any other this year, aside from a lock-in. Where is Jesus in this event? We will pray before we eat, but only a third, at best, will be paying attention. There will not be any exegesis on the bible nor will there be an evangelism message at half time. (We are doing youth group stupid human tricks at half time. One girl can make her tongue look like a "W", another can twist her arm around like a broken Barbie and I'm sure we will have the Nazi muffin joke ...again, but we laugh at it every time).

What there will be is another step toward community. There will be a step toward kindness and friendship. A step towards acceptance. Jesus didn't just preach to his disciples. He was with them day and night for three years. There isn't a substitute for time spent together. It builds a bond of trust. Incrementally, the kids learn to trust the people who care enough to spend time with them, doing the things that kids want to do, listening to jokes, eating hot dogs and chips, hanging out and watching lousy football.

So I will watch the game and eat the junk food and laugh at the silly jokes not because I love football, not because I even like football, but because I love the kids and it's good to hang out with them.

Go team!

Michelle