awakening"We are immersed everyday in secular liturgies which are trying to aim our heart at something quite different than the Kingdom of God. So to walk in to certain spaces is not to just step in to some sort of static, neutral sphere. It's to be immersed in a set of practices and a system that is primed at creating in me, forming in me habits that get me directed at something other than the Kingdom of
God...
"How many of you watched the Super Bowl? The Super Bowl, I'm convinced, is one of the most intentional, powerful liturgical performances in the world...Why do we have fighter jets fly over every football game?"
Last fall, my wife and I went to a football game and with incredible timing, just as the crowd of about 80,000 sang, "...and the home of the brave" a formation of jets buzzed the field to the crowd's delight. My heart broke, tears welled up in my eyes, I wasn't sure I even wanted to stay for the game. Why in the hell are we pumping our fists for an object that delivers death to people that we'll never meet halfway around the world? The absurdity of a crowd actually cheering for a fighter jet is so over-the-top that I'm truly unable to describe it. How is this entertainment? Consider the jet's day job.
If only we could juxtapose the expressions and cheers of a football crowd as we "ooh" and "ahh" at the jets performing what amounts to a parlor trick for the sake of promoting nationalism with the expressions and shrieks of a crowd with the absolute misfortune of witnessing the jets do what it is they were actually created to do. I wish the next time jets fly over a football game the jumbotron would feature a montage of dead men and women, orphaned children and Creation in utter ruin.
Why are we cheering for this?
