As far as I remember last night I watch my first Super Bowl game ever from beginning to end.  Why, you may ask?  Well, it was because I wasn’t in church.  Instead, our family went to some friends home, ate a great meal and enjoyed each other’s company while watching the yellow team and red team kick a pigskin ball around all evening.  Thinking about it now, I’m not even sure who won the game.  But I do know this.  Reports say that 97 million people watched this game.  NBC was paid 3 million dollars for each 30 second advertisement spot which added up to over 200 million.  Wal-mart and other retailers must have made thousands selling Super Bowl snacks and drinks.  And, thousands of church pews must have sat empty while 97 million were kneeling down to the god of sports and entertainment.  I wonder how many of these 97 million call themselves “Christ like” (Christian)?  There are probably several.  Do I think they are wrong if they missed church to watch a football game?  I’ll answer that question by asking this one, “Is the Lord our God a jealous God?”

 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

(Exo 20:2-6)

By the way, our church was completely empty last night.  There wasn’t one person at our church when the super bowl started.  Of course, there never is on Sunday evenings.  You see yesterday, like every other Sunday, we were at church all day.  We have Sunday school, morning services, a lunch fellowship and then afternoon services at 1:30 p.m.  Yesterday, we concluded our day at 3 p.m. with over an hour of singing praises to our Lord.  I’ve been told that our church has kept this schedule on Sunday’s since the “horse and buggy days.”  I love spending all day at church with my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I love sharing a meal and fellowshipping with the church.  I love focusing upon Christ all day and then coming home to rest in the evenings.  What usually happens is after coming home on Sunday afternoon our family will usually take a nap or just rest for an hour or two.  Then we will get up and many times go visiting.  Sometimes, we’ll invite people over and play games.  Sometimes we go to someone’s home and have coffee and cake.  Sometimes we’ll go visit someone who is lonely or sick.  Sometime’s we’ll go to other church services.  But regardless what we do, the day is always a day of worship, rest and enjoyment.  We look forward to Sunday.  In fact, it’s my favorite day of the week.  Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been true.  I’ve spent many Sunday’s exhausted, rushing to church, hurrying to grab some lunch, speeding back to the church for some meeting and the evening worship only to get home after dark, eating a late dinner and falling into bed worn out.  I don’t believe this is how God intended for us to spend the day worshiping Him.  Of course, in spite of the church schedule our attitudes play a huge role in regards to the Lord’s Day.  Once I came to realize that the day is not about me, me, me but all about Him, Him, Him the Lord’s Day took on a whole new meaning.  Having the schedule that our church does only helps to keep Christ preeminent on Sunday.

So back to Super Bowl Lord’s Day, it seems rather like an oxymoron.   But, many things in this world has become such.  Christian, where is your heart?  What are your eyes fixed upon?  Where is your affection placed?  Who do you serve?  To answer that question you must look at how you live, what you spend your time doing and how you spend your money.  Wouldn’t it be something if 97 million Christian people gave one dollar for the kingdom, gave one hour serving others, gave one day over to prayer and fasting for our country, gave one afternoon to witness to a lost neighbor or even spent one Super Bowl Sunday at church worshipping the One and Only True God of Heaven and Earth?  Now, that would be a super day!