Laying in my bed this early this morning, thinking about all of these images and trembling with gratitude I said aloud, “They all know You!”  And I am eternally thankful for this God.

[TITLE]  “Hallowed be Thy Game” 

This Sunday a sacred ritual will play out. 

 And the faithful will gather from sea to sea to sea. Congregating on the edges of our couches, eyes glued to our sets, we’ll get caught up in an ecstasy; lost in a glory. And for a few rapturous moments we’ll experience what can only be described as heaven on earth.  

 With glowing hearts we’ll vicariously enter into a larger story; something bigger than ourselves. We’ll clasp our hands in prayer with visions of victory. If only we believe.   On this most hallowed day – God willing – our Canadian Men’s Olympic Hockey Team will go for gold.  And for a brief magical moment hockey will be holy.

 In recent years many have made the connection between spirituality and sport. Some claim that sport is the new religion.  They may not be far off.  Think about it, where will most Canadians experience feelings of transcendence this Sunday, in a third row pew near a stained glass window or in the lower bowl at Canada Hockey Place as Sydney Crosby blasts one home?

 Where will we experience vibrant community, at church or with a group of family and friends at our local pub? Where will we celebrate the gift of our amazing human bodies; our astonishing stick handling capacities, our flying down the boards legs and our world class play-making minds? Where will we most effectively learn how to grind it out and persevere, work through our losses or finish well?

 Surely this Sunday is much more than just a game. This gold medal match is a microcosm of a broader cultural shift from the institution of church to sport; especially here in Canada.  And the all-too-human traits we’re expressing are, in fact, deeply spiritual. Where else do we express this much faith, hope and worship?

 Which makes you wonder, why does this game matter so much?  What’s going on inside of us? What are we searching for?

 When I posed the question to Globe and Mail sports writer Roy MacGregor, he said, “Canadians aren’t known for much, even the things we should be known for. Americans say basketball was invented in Springfield (it was, but BY A CANADIAN). They say the telephone was invented there (it wasn’t — but HERE, BY A CANADIAN). We invented hockey and no one disputes this. We embraced it as our national game and we are one of a few countries where only one game matters above all others, hockey. The Olympics gives us the chance to have the world notice that Canadians truly own this game they invented…  Our specific yearnings and desires are simple… hockey, I believe, allows Canadians to show the world the face Canadians wish the world to see in Canada: resilient, tenacious, teamwork[ing], hardworking, determined, filled with heart, ultimately triumphant — and yet humble in victory (After the wild piling on and cheering, of course).”

 Amen to that. 

 What country wouldn’t want this kind of recognition?  Everyone yearns to be known for who they really are. It’s an innate human desire – and it’s now playing out for scores of countries on Vancouver’s global stage. Where does that desire come from?  Why is it there? 

 When I read MacGregor’s words, they reminded me of God’s foundational calling for humanity, to “be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth…” (Genesis 1:28).  In the Judeo-Christian worldview, it’s understood that a big part of that “filling” involves the creation of culture.  And a big part of culture is sport.  So when Canadians invent a game like hockey, we’re doing a good godly thing; something unique to our cultural, sociological and geographic context.

 When we come up with a cool game like this – conceived in a land of ice – we’re creating something that, in a sense, only we could create.  Hockey is a unique product of Canada’s divine cultural calling (one of its best). 

This game is part of what God created us for, a cultural gift that we made, mastered, and now share with the world.  And it’s a gift that gives us life.

We’re made for that sense of awe we feel when Patrick Marleau threads a tape-to-tape pass to an on the fly Joe Thornton, who then softly feeds the puck to Danny Heatley who one-times it into the top corner.  We’re made for that head shaking sense of disbelief we feel after Roberto Luongo miraculously stonewalls yet another opponent. We’re made for that feeling of pride in knowing that these are our boys, playing our game, in front of the world – in front of God.

 So when we experience the game this Sunday, perhaps we’re doing what we should be doing on a Sunday; honouring God through the celebration of one of his best cultural creations; the game of hockey (courtesy of those Canadians).

Even though I believe it’s true. 

I think God’s revelation through the game might be known in layers.  For one person the game is merely a relevant experience (fun and entertaining)…  for another its more (understood as God’s good gift to humanity- “Thanks for hockey God!”)… and for another it’s even more (this is a experiential foretaste of the union with Christ in heaven)… and for another even more than that (a numinous, real time, sense of the presence of a God who made all things, who is now holding all things, and would whisper through a hockey game that he’s here, by his Spirit present to life – bringing a joyful distraction to our troubles, providing a joy that points to a greater joy, or perhaps  just loving the creational goodness of the game with us).

Everyone’s watching the same game, but they’re all hearing and seeing something different.  From simple revelance all the way to a profound sense of revelation.   God at a very superficial (but still good) level…  God at a very deep (3rd heaven- http://bit.ly/gU1HbJ) level… and all kinds of revelatory layers in between.

This morning I woke up praying about some of the struggles I’ve been processing recently… especially in regard to people not being awake to the powerful truth of God’s active presence in his world.  Why aren’t more people knowing and experiencing you in all things God?  If you could just open their eyes to see.   Open my eyes to see.

 This is the big idea in The Day Metallica Came to Church. 

And it seems that pre-concieved notions are so strong that it remains veiled and  hard to see.  Maybe it’s just a time thing… or perhaps the book wasn’t clear enough on this… I don’t know.  But if you have any ideas on how to bridge this gap let me know.  I am so convinced that this way of knowing and experiencing God needs to get out there.

This morning I was going to write about how how hard it is for me to take a day off and turn off all of my devices for 24 hrs.  Yesterday I realized that the problem has nothing to do with workload, its really about my hyper controlling tendencies.  I am a freak at times.  Most of the time. 

But I’m supposed to be when it comes to my kids right?  To a disabled boy especially right?  Talking to the people at Access Calgary (transit coordinator for those with disabilities) I spoke of a time when Edward had a brush with death with a school bus when he was much younger.  It was winter and he and his siblings were waiting on the sidewalk across the street from our house.  As the bus pulled up I could see beneath it, that Edward has slipped on the sidewalk and appeared to be sliding underneath the slowing bus.  I ran out of my door screaming for the driver to stop.  She did, and Eddy’s toque clad head was snuggly stuck between the bottom metal edge of the bus and the curb.  With a gentle tug I pulled him out.  And he was fine.

So I’m supposed to be a control freak right?  I’m not so sure.  Of course I need to be vigilant.  It’s my calling as a dad.  But I need to also trust that God is even more vigilant, getting care workers to their jobs early some days, filling a city with people who have goodness in their hearts and would surely have helped a disabled boy if they saw him lost in some city parking lot in the middle of winter; a God who stops big yellow school buses just in the nick of time.

I howled.  He then went on to regale me with 10 minutes of stand-up.  Joke after joke after joke (half of them, half decent).   I told him he should do Yuk-Yuks some time.  Then, in a more genuinely seriously tone he said, “I’m not good enough.” 

“But that’s OK.  I can still tell jokes to my friends.  What do you think is better?  I could walk down this street with a big frown on my face every day or I could smile.” 

And then off he went.  He should be getting home just about now.

Reading an article about back country climber Greg Hill’s attempt to climb 2,000,000 vertical feet in one year http://bit.ly/fyeveD made me to wonder about that feeling climbers feel at the top of a mountain.  Alongside the sense of accomplishment, majesty, solitude  and glory, you always hear words that talk about feeling small and insignificant.  Standing on the top of the world, looking out over countless snow capped peaks, its hard not to imagine the feeling.  But why is it a good feeling?  Maybe it’s another one of those things God builds into human beings.  If we’re meant to experience and one day be fully present to an omni-everthing God, then perhaps it should be no surprise that we feel most at home in places that dwarf us.

 The truth of what they knew was embodied; incarnate. 

Which seems to be the way God likes to clothe his truth.  He made a physical world as part of his plan for self-revelation; there are some things that only a mountain, a Chagall or a baby’s face can communicate!  And He made each of us to give expression to his truth by living it out. In the ancient Hebrew world people knew you knew something when they could see it being lived out in real time (no words required!).  And Jesus came in the flesh.

He was the embodiment of perfect tacit knowledge… what he knew was in perfect sync with what he did.  And what he did was filled with implicit beauty and grace; the way his hands moved, the way he just knew what to say, “with such authority”.  And yet he showed us much more than he could ever tell us…

Which makes me wonder if God made all of material reality for one explicit reason; to say more than mere words could ever hold.  Look at a craftsperson’s hands…  its right there.

“The immense [cathedral] began, in 1220-1225, as a set of stone posts and beams that established the Lady Chapel at one end of the future cathedral. The builders had a general idea of the cathedral’s eventual size, but no more.  However the proportions of the beams in the Lady Chapel suggested a larger building’s engineering DNA and were articulated in the big nave and two transepts built from 1225 to about 1250.  From 1250 to 1280, this DNA then generated the cloister, treasury and chapter house; in the chapter house the original geometries, meant for a square structure, were now adapted to an octagon, [and] in the treasury to a six sided vault.  How did the builders achieve this astonishing construction?  There was no single architect; the masons had no blueprints. Rather the gestures with which the building began evolved in principles and were collectively managed over three generations.  Each event in building practice became absorbed in the fabric of instructing  and regulating the next generation.”  p70, The Craftsman, Richard Sennett

I wonder if God builds his human church the same way; revealing his plan, purpose and very self over generations, on a need-to-know basis?  Makes sense.  Since it would take forever for God to complete the fullness of his work.  And a project of this scale would certainly take much more than any individual or individual generation could ever bring to it.

This morning, as he gently grasped my hand and pulled his warm cheek to mine, I realized something about the love that was welling up inside of me.  There’s something about Edward’s weakness that frees me to let it flow.  Its almost as though his need makes me love him more.  Because he can’t do life on his own I feel more compelled to give him the gift of my love… as though love were the ultimate answer to his brokeness.  

As I was feeling that feeling, I knew that God must feel the same thing toward us in all of our brokeness… only in an infinitely greater way.  I am so thankful for this boy.

I like this idea. It helps me go forward in reading God’s truth in songs that weren’t intended to convey God’s truth by their authors. Only with God, the added meaning is not always post production. Surely God is working the front end and middle as well.   (Here’s a video we produced using the song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOxaiYKwG_4 )

faith today review

Before that I was at a packed downtown Knox United church where I’d just witnessed a hundred (mostly) young people gathered near the stage.  Whole hearted choral singing was filling that hallowed hall.  The resonance was deeply moving.

We were all there for Canadian singer Dan Mangan’s concert  http://www.danmanganmusic.com/site/music/ (yeah, the church was only the venue!).  Mangan had just invited people  forward for the closing song and it was so beautiful; this crowd of voices singing in heartfelt communion.  All night long – as we went through the standard concert liturgy - I kept thinking, this is the way church is supposed to be. Smiling people lined up in the cold before the doors even opened.  Palpable energy was flowing though the gathering crowd. People drove through a serious Calgary snow storm to be here.  And the place was packed.  Eight hundred souls I would imagine. 

Why is it not like this on Sunday morning God?  Why will people home?  Why will the bad roads be a problem then? 

Sometimes I dream of what a city wide awake to you would be like God.  Nothing more important than gathering to meet you. The whole day filled with anticipation.  Church being the hottest ticket in town. 

I’ve been reading the book of Isaiah these past few weeks. Lots of omens of judgment so far, interspersed with  prophecies of grace, renewal and freedom. Aren’t we due for one of those grace times soon God? 

The parallels between the way that concert ended and the way things should (will one day) be were hopeful.  An authentic unplugged voice leading the people in heart felt song.  Everyone there because they wanted to be… because there was nowhere else to be…   and everyone was singing. (Quicktime .mov video)