Throughout my pastoral ministry, I’ve preached to people who were still reeling from or reveling in Saturday night’s game. A church I served in Montana served two communities. It was interesting to watch people from both communities worship together after rooting against each other at Saturday night’s high school basketball game! I once preached the morning after our local high school lost the state championship basketball game in overtime the night before. Four of the players were part of our church family. Two of them actually made it to our worship services the next day! Everyone was still stunned by the loss. I wonder how many people really heard the sermon that Sunday.

At other times, people are ready to dash home (or to the stadium) after Sunday’s service to watch their beloved team play. I’m now in Chicagoland where people root for the Bears, the Bulls, and the Cubs. Last Sunday, several Bears’ fans wore their Urlacher jerseys to our worship services! For the uninitiated, Brian Urlacher is the middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears NFL team. It reminded me of the time my dad was a guest preacher at a church near Green Bay, Wisconsin. The pastor told him, “You can preach as long as you want. But right at noon everyone will get up and leave whether you’re done or not because the Packers are in town today!”

As a preacher, I don’t begrudge sports. I’m a sports nut myself. I even leverage the sports craze by using a moderate amount of sports illustrations. But the most important thing I do as a preacher is to help listeners focus on “the bigger game.”

Eric Miller’s recent Christianity Today article on “Why We Love Football” (September 2007 issue) offers some great insight for preachers. His emphasis parallels the emphasis of my blog post last week on “The Weight of Glory” by C. S. Lewis. In his next-to-last paragraph, Miller writes: “At its best, sport may lead us more fully into an experience of health, an experience of community, play, joy – all good gifts of the Creator. But this happens only if it is enfolded within a grander, richer, participation in life, in which another set of rites and symbols and songs takes us more deeply into gratitude and grace, sourced in the Creator and centered on the Cross.”

My challenge as a preacher is to help my congregation keep sports in its proper place. At its best, it’s a gift of God which can teach us a lot about life and provide community building opportunities. In fact, I’m going to organize a tailgate party at a local college football game next month as a strategy for building community. But at its worst, sports can become an idol. My job is to present the Word in a way that people treasure Christ more than the Packers, the Yankees, or the Lakers.

Oh yes, my other challenge is to keep my congregation from running me out of town! God, in His irony and humor, placed me – a life-long St. Louis Cardinals fan – right in the middle of Chicago Cub territory!