Any England fan feels pretty sick at the moment after being knocked out of Euro 2004 in the way we were … again! How can history repeat itself so accurately again. Well, we are out and I want to ask is there any spiritual significance in all the hype we have seen of the past few months?
Yesterday, in the places I went, people seemed unusualy quiet and disappointed. Could this be all down to the football? Well, maybe, but I wonder if the feelings just go a little deeper than that.
While I was watching the game on Thursday, a group of teenagers walked past my window on their way to ‘the banks’. They were all kitted out in England shirts and the girls had ‘Rooney’ written on their backs … but they were not watching the game! They had their drinks and were off to do what teenagers do. They did not seem interested in the match, but they had bought into the hype and had all the gear. Like wise I have seen people driving cars around with England flags who I know well and previously have shown no interest in football at all.
What is that all about? Have we experienced something weird going on in England over these last few weeks?
I find myself wondering if the people of this country want to believe in something or someone so much that what we have experienced is a kind of Messiah type thing. Rooney was portrayed as the person that was going to save our reputations, our football team, give us a ‘feel good’ experience, put us all back on the world map again, but at the end of it all, people have had to admit the unthinkable; he is another fallible human like the rest of us.
Could it be that this is an expression of the great spiritual need that there is in this country at the moment? I guess people would not admit it, but I think this could be an indication of a real personal desire to believe in something or someone that is real.
The Shiny Headed Prophet 
Some great thoughts here! – although if Rooney is the long awaited footballing messiah he’s gonna have to resurrect his career fairly soon after his injury, otherwise he’ll lose our nation’s imagination! The depression that followed England’s exit does indicate that we are searchers of something greater than ourselves. We are all so susceptible to pinning our hopes on the ‘next thing’ whether it be England, Rooney, Henman, etc. We want to live meaningful lives and attach ourselves to our hero’s stories. I guess the challenge of living our faith in these times is in weaving together our story with God’s overall Story. Andyandyandshona.blogs.com
(I can’t believe I’m joining in a football discussion:))but, one guy set up a site that simply said Join Me and thousands did! There was nothing to join, no activities, no group, nothing. The fact that thoussands joined simply because they saw the words Join do appear to indicate a deep desire to belong to something, to be able to identify with a common group, a mutuality. Sad though in a way that so many joined something offering so little. Maybe a sign of a deep unmet need.Lucy
yeah it is sad, and yeah it is interesting. I just had a scarey thought! If people are so desperate to join something that they will join ‘nothing’ to belong … where the heck are we going wrong in getting people to join ‘church’?
Not 100% sure, but a few suggestions.I find the church irrelevant too, and I think it’s because it doesn’t seem to address real issues and concerns in my life. It answers questions I never even ask, and does things that have no bearing whatsoever on my everyday experience, such as hi-tech worship services, camps, ladies meetings and so on. The church seems remote from life. I’m sure I’m not the only one to feel the way I do, so maybe it is a factor for others too.I think there is an important difference between making disciples and making converts. The church tends to make a lot of converts because it does a lot of quick preaching and praying and doesn’t really get alongside people where they are at, and work with them to develop their relationship with God.The disciple/convert distinction explains a lot of the fallout of new christians in my opinion.And I think that many will see through the efforts to make church relevant by changing the surface appearances as being shallow and irrelevant, exactly the opposite of what the church intends. Lucy
LucyI entirely agree. I think I wrote elsewhere on emerging chrch info that to achieve relevance we need to be in community making relationships.I also agree on the discipleship thing – again that is all down to relationship which I think means people willing to spend theit time and lives with others to make disciples … not just christians!