England: Football vs Religion

Park Lane 25th November 2007

Religion suffered a major set back on Wednesday when the English priests at the Great London Temple were defeated by the priests from a country called Croatia.

For many years we have assumed that our religion was the best in the world - in fact we have always boasted that it was we who taught religion to the rest of the world Now most of the world knows our religion better than we do and they practice it better and with more sincerity.
The court of elders have sent the high priest into exile and now they are looking for somebody new who will lead a great revival and make our religion strong again. Everyone will believe again - and our temple in London really will be known as the greatest in the world. Priests from all over the world will come again to learn our rituals and listed to our sacred stories.

But who can lead us back to the promised land? Are there no priests of our own religion who can take on the broad shouldered coat of the high priest and stand before all the people and be praised by them for his wisdom and learning?

People say now that the priests themselves are not sincere. They expect the people to make sacrifices but they make none themselves. They take the offerings of the rich without any prayers of thanksgiving. Nor do they come out to meet the people anymore but stay within the walls of the temples they belong to. They have no loyalty and move from one temple to another and never belong to the community they are supposed to serve. They are no longer seen on the streets. They do not speak to the young people but surround themselves with admirers who are rich have little knowledge of the religion.

We are a people without hope and we are no longer invited to the meetings and gatherings of the great religious masters. The world we thought we were the masters off now mocks us. Who will lead us back to the times we remember so well? Who will make our great temple shine with gold again? Who will lead us away from this desolation?

You can tell I am upset about the football. We were on holiday in a different time zone when the match was played and had to wake up at 4 am to watch it on tv. At breakfast all the waiters sympathised with us and keep saying it was sad that England would not be at the European cup finals. They liked to watch England play.

The waiter who cleared our table after dinner amazed us by reciting all the names of the Bolton Wanderers team and saying he was a fan - though he had never been to England in his life.

I was so impressed with the people who lived there. They haven't much in material terms - but they do have an attitude to life which is so different from our European way.

Their spirituality is a living thing. They pay homage to their gods through every day actions They put out symbolic offerings every day. They live as if they are in touch with their gods - as if a standard of politeness and friendliness is expected of them. Their old religions has carried easily into their changing world.

Football is a religion in this country of ours and it is interesting to compare it with the sort of church religion we are used to. When religions do become like football then they are unlikely to survive.

Religions just as football have to adapt and change as the world changes. Nothing can stay the same for ever - not even religion. A friend of mine who is a Roman Catholic priest was speaking at an interfaith meeting we attended. The meeting was about the role of women in religion - and discussion had moved on to talk about women priests and one day women bishops.

My friend is actually a very liberal minded man but his argument for the catholic church was that in changing times - rapidly changing times as we are experiencing now, what his church offered was consistency. It offered identity that did not change. It offered certainty of belief when everywhere else was in a state of flux and meltdown.

In one sense I agreed with him - about the certainty and consistency - but I also noted that the catholic faith has changed too - but not to the extent that ours has.

When religion is in a state of flux - it seems to disintegrate in two directions - one is liberal to the extent that the religious practices and beliefs disappear altogether and no one believes anything any more. In the other direction, people try to recreate the past that has been left behind. They try to hang on to the past as a way of avoiding the present.
Strong fundamentalist groups emerge who want to live by values that belong to a bygone era.

There is a yearning for consistency and certainty but it is also a rejection of the present - and the present is really where life has to be lived.

Some would say that we are living now in a space that is morally corrupt rather than financially corrupt. It is not a moral corruptness in terms of attitudes to sex, family and home - but a moral corruptness in attitudes generally - about values of right and wrong, about respect for old age and respect for childhood, respect for property. I suppose it is about respect for people - as people - as spiritual beings - rather than as people who are just factors in a socio economic group that can be advertised at and sold to. People seen only as purchasers of goods and users of services.

What we really want is a religious belief that is good for the age we live in - the here and now but still connects us with the tradition and history of the past. We are struggling in this country to find that balance.
Even the religion of our past did not offer us what we wanted. It controlled our behaviour but it did not inspire us spiritually. Christianity brought people up on the fear of hell and the threat of punishment for not believing the doctrine of the church.

The world moved on - knowledge, science, reason - and really it left the old church dogmas behind. The christianity of old does not fit into the modern world. We cannot make it nor can we hold the world back to make it fit the christianity of history.

But as Karen Armstrong writes in her book - the History of God, the human being is basically a spiritual person. In the book she also asserts that the early religion of Israel did evolve from age to age - the concept of God changed according to the fortunes and history of the Hebrew people. They coexisted with other religions. They found new meanings and interpretations for the religion as their circumstances changed. Consequently their religion was always relevant to their life.

It has not been so with Christianity. Yet as spiritual people we need religion in our lives. We need the comfort of a religious practice that is meaningful and supportive. We need to ask ourselves just what does provide us with our spiritual comfort - Has the God of the past changed shape - but we haven’t noticed?

In an age of moral corruption, what will inspire the hidden spirituality within to give new values and new standards - new meaning to lives that feel lost in a world of little value?

Religious practice needs to move on and be suitable for the age of today. The religion we have has had enough set backs - look at how some of our congregations are already failing. We all need to ask the question - ‘What today fulfils our spiritual needs?’ How is our god meaningful in our in our daily living? How do we honour our god? How do we connect with the spiritual universe to make life better and understandable. How do we find the god of today’s world in today's world?’
If the old religion does not fit, let’s not be afraid to make one that does. Sweep away the old that does not fit and start our religious quest again!

Amen