WARNING: This is one of those theological post I warned you about, so work with me here!
God created the world – and all things in the world – to be a medium-transparent of His infinite beauty. Our interaction with “things” of the world was originally to be an interaction with the God who made it. To understand creation in this way is to see and experience “all things” as a gift. Alexander Schmemann eloquently surmises, “All that exist is God’s gift to man, and it exist to make God known to man, to make man’s life communion with God.” At the end of that “6th day”, God looked and saw that everything he made was “good”, and thus he blessed it. In creating and blessing it he makes it a sign and means of “presence and wisdom, love and revelation”. Furthermore in blessing it, he invites us to “taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Both humans and animals (also, plants) must eat to live. “But what the unique position of man in the universe is that he alone is to bless God for the food and the life he receives from him.” In stating this, Schmemann suggest that we are the only creatures that are to respond to God’s blessing of creation with a blessing. Another way to say this is that we are to offer back to God what he has offered us. What’s important here for us to grasp is that this not a one time thing, that is, a simple pray before everything we do (which is not worst idea). Rather this offering back is a “way of life” – it’s our fundamental “act”, our vocation as human beings. It is an openness, a lived transparency before God in each and every moment, a response of love, you might say. Schmemann contends, “So the natural (and not “supernatural”) reaction of man, to whom God gave a blessed and sanctified world, is to bless God in return, to thank Him, to the see the world as God sees it and – in this act of gratitude and adoration – to know, name and posses the world. Man stands at the center of the world and unifies it in his act of blessing God, of both receiving the world from God and offering it to God, and by fulfilling the world with this eucharist (thanksgiving offering back) he transforms his life, the one that he receives from the world, into life in God, into communion with God.” The athlete makes this thanksgiving offer back to God for the gifts (sport, talent, desire, etc…) by seeking to become the best they can be – using and maximizing these gifts. In so doing, that is, in making this offering back through the “activity itself” the athlete is caught up into life with God.
So what happened, why is this so difficult to do or experience? Simply stated, we make the “things” of the earth an “end” in themselves rather than a means to communion with God. We seek to satisfy our innate longings for God with created things. For the athlete, we get caught up with the hype, winning, fame, glory and fan-fair of game, but this is not what satisfies, or game’s original intent. This is sharply illustrated in Garden, where man seeks to satisfy his “hunger” with the one thing that was not offered to him to do so, the forbidden fruit. Whatever it was it represented “the image of the world loved for itself, and eating it is the image of life understood as an end itself”, states Schmemann. Ultimately, we have that tendency to confuse, even distort, the good gifts of God. Rather than utilize them in their original intention, that is, as gifts given as means to our communion with God; we make them “ends” in themselves. The foolishness in all this is that in and of themselves they cannot satisfy our longings. It is like being thirsty and trying to drink a glass of dirt in order to quench that thirst. What was once intended to be a medium-transparent is now become opaque.
Take heart God has not left us in this state, but in and through Jesus Christ makes a way for us to live into God’s original intent in relation to world and God. Jesus never treated the gifts of God as ends in themselves but as transparent means in his communion with the Father. He continuously offered back to God that which was offered Him and in so doing lived fully into communion with God. Jesus’ offering makes our offering possible. No doubt, there is much to be said about this work of Christ, but most important to us at this point is that there is the real possibility because of Jesus’ offering that you and I can live into God’s original intention for us. Namely, offering back to God what he has given to us, and in so doing, living into the Divine life.
Theological Aside: One of the traditional biblical ways of thinking about our vocations as human beings is in the categories of prophet, priest and king. Above highlights the “priestly” aspect of what it means to be a human – an offering back. The “kingly” aspect is also alluded to in the call to “rule” and “care” for creation (Gen 1.28). The prophetic aspect is not as explicit in our discussion but lingers in the background as the notion of “witness”.
John,
I’m reminded of Brother Lawrence’s writings on ” the practice of the presence of God”. If the medium-transparent for the monks could be anything as simple as a bowl of soup on the stove-top, a garden under the hoe, or a chore done in service to one’s brothers, then sports should be an approach to the divine as well. Br. Lawrence’s point was that we need to remember the presence of God at every juncture and in the midst of every activity, no matter how menial. I’m glad you’re drawing attention to the attitude with which we approach sports.
The difference for many people, I think, is they see service to others as innately worthwhile, and sports as indulgent or aimless. But the New Testament and the church fathers tell us otherwise- that we are “to give thanks always” and “whatever (we) do in thought, word, or deed, do all to the glory of God”. Sports can be devotional like chores. I think the reason why people tend to be wary about sports’ innate worth is it is easy to turn the game into an idol, whereas few people are tempted to make idols out of a broom or soup bowl.