Worship as football

It is becoming clearer to me the more I consider worship the more I realize my metaphor for worship is conflicting to the dominate metaphor at the setting I find myself located. It seems we tend to approach worship as one might approach a the game of football. These are just some thoughts I have so far on this metaphor.

*(To be honest I have never played football and am more than willing to admit my observations of the game are limited. I also know metaphors break down if stretched too far and so I mindful of too much stretching. But here we go.)

Football seems like the ultimate game of control. Each team knows when they are on offense and when they are on defense. Whatever side of the ball you are on, every 40 or so seconds there is another play. Each play, is drawn up and each person has a specific task they must do in order for the play to work. There is little deviation from the play. Even the quarterback is given options of routes which are in a priority dependent upon the factors of the game. Pads are used in football to protect the players from crashing into one another. Although it is dangerous, it is as controlled danger as we might get. In football, there are so many players and back ups for the backups. There are several coaches who specialize in their area from defensive line coach to special teams coach. When a play 'breaks down' it is considered wasted or it is the opportunity for creativity (I am sure you all have seen the plays where there is are 15 laterals done in order to get to win the game. Those are amazingly memorable and fun to watch). Football audiences are involved with the game only if there is momentum (and if you are a fanatic and use body paint, you are considered extreme and a bit odd.)

Perhaps the issue of worship is not only we dominantly view it as the "start" to the detriment of the "culmination" of our week, but also that we approach worship as a football game.

Tomorrow I will put some thoughts down to the question, "What if we approached worship like a soccer game?"

Until then, what do you think thus far?

Is the Kingdom of God a cone...

Circles of containment were and continue to be a remarkable way to live in the world. Violence is contained and localized and therefore seems just, right and normal. The problem is, circles never are able to remove the problem or advance a culture. Because circles are ever ending and repeat, so do cultural circles of containment.

This is where Jesus comes into play. Jesus was not in favor of spirals of violence and he addressed the fallacy of circles of containment - Jesus offers a more excellent way. A third way... Spirals of reduction.

Spirals are a shape which has a starting point and then moves downward to an end point until there is no longer a shape at all. This makes cones unique to spirals (which extend forever) and circles (which never end). Cones come to an end.

The life of Jesus Christ was much like prophets before him in which Jesus attempted to expose spirals and circles. However, as a Christian, I believe Jesus was the first to offer an alternative, a third way. He called it the Kingdom of God. I visually depict this idea as a spiral of reduction.

As an easy example and one common to many even non-Christian people - Jesus' encounter with the woman caught in adultery.

Notice that Jesus had a couple of options to him. He could move toward a spiral of violence and stone the woman as well as go out and find the man and stone him as well. He could move toward a circle of containment and stoned the woman - as the law commands. These were the only perceived options to Jesus at the time, perhaps this is why he squats down and draws in the dirt. So he could buy time to think about another way to respond to this situation.

"Those without sin can cast the first stone."

Jesus calls the people to a spiral of reduction. By pointing people to look at their own lives and get away from blaming the other, each person walks away - beginning with the eldest.

The eldest were the ones who lived with spirals and circles the longest. They were the first to understand there is way culture and thrive or advance with only spirals or circles. The recognize they need another way. They, we, need cones of reduction.

While this has only been a very basic sketch of spirals of violence, circles of containment, and cones of reduction. It is my hope to develop these images to help empower people to read the Bible with tools to understand and apply to their lives and culture.

It is my hope to develop the spiral, circle and cone image not only in terms of violence but also altruism.

*A little hint, in altruistic terms we want spirals and not cones.

Yes, there is another way to live...

While spirals may be instinctual they are by no means the only way to resolve conflict. In fact, one can easily see how spirals of violence are in no way sustainable. The longer the spiral of violence is allowed to persist, the wider the spiral will become, affecting more and more people, pulling them into the violence. Think of it like a fight in a bar. Two people resort to violence over a conflict and in their actions one pushes the other into a bystander who then pushes back only to be then pulled into the fight. Spirals of violence unchecked lead to the entire bar involved in a large act of violence and chaos.

Fortunately humanity began to realize out of fear for their own lives or concern for their village, spirals of violence may not be good. From Moses to Hammurabi, law givers addressed these spirals of violence and introduced the circle.

Circles are a much better solution to the chaos of a violence spiral. Circles keep the violence contained. We encounter circles phrased in ways such as:

• An eye for an eye
• A tooth for a tooth
• The punishment must fit the crime

Circles encourage humanity to not cut off the hand of a person (a permanent consequence) for stealing bread (a temporal object). Rather, we inflict fines or jail time which are both seen as more fitting and more 'humane'.

Over time circles have become the dominate way in which human society deals with conflict. "You hit me, I will hit you back." "You fly a plane into towers, and we will bomb you." "You kill someone in Texas, you might be on the receiving end of a lethal needle."

This is considered by many as 'justice'. Justice is served when the punishment fits the crime.

Madoff destroyed so many lives that in some people's eyes he deserved the sentence. In other people's eyes he should have suffered something far too troubling for this blog post. Regardless where you stand on that, I would be willing to bet your opinion is based upon how you see the punishment fitting the crime. We live in circles, because, we believe, circles are fair and just.

While moving from spirals of violence to circles of containment is a massive jump for the betterment of humanity, circles fail to advance society into reconciliation. Yes, the punishment fits the crime, but what about the violation of trust which must be restored to a victim of rape?Circles can punish the rapist, but they are limited in restoration and reconciliation. Circles are not focused on the victims, and this is their limitation.

Additionally and more importantly, circles need violence in order to continue to exist. For instance, there is a sticker which reads, "why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?" This is exactly what circles need us to do. Circles of containment use violence to say that violence is wrong. Circles of containment place a great deal of emphasis on the "ends" and not the "means" by which we achieve the desired "end".

Circles are also wonderful at keeping the status quo. Many of us would affirm that the punishment fitting the crime is not only just, but down right correct. We then become so blinded by the circles that we do not even entertain the idea that 'justice' might actually have other definitions and expressions. If you are wondering what those other definitions might be, then you can begin to sense the power circles have in the world.

Within many stories throughout time, blindness is a metaphor used to denote the demonic and evil. If you and I are 'blind' to other definitions and other realities to what justice could look like, then perhaps the source of our blindness (circles of containment) are not all they are cracked up to be. In fact Girard argues these cycles/circles of violence are in fact "Satan".

So, if everything we know about what justice is and how to resolve tension causes us to be blind and has been identified as "Satan", there must be another way to live which resolves tension and does not allow for more violence in order to resolve the original violence.