2010 - 07: Oh No! Not the World Cup!

As I sit here writing this article, the Football World Cup is just three days from its opening match! Last night I watched as the estimated 25,000 English supporters flooded into South Africa. They blew their horns and waved flags of Saint George. One fan, as he was interviewed, was even dressed asSaint George in a simulated suit of armour. Others wore their England football team shirts with pride, while many more smiled through their painted faces. The cost of supporting the England team will run to several thousands of pounds for each fan who has made the journey.

 As I watched the antics of the supporters my mind went back to a Saturday afternoon in Cardiff when I was a young lad. It was in the days when Cardiff City were in the old First Division of the Football League.  (Yes, I really am that old!) The crowds were flowing up Sloper Road like a river of humanity. The road was so tightly packed that sometimes my feet, as a little boy, hardly touched the ground. All around me were grown men wearing their blue and white scarves, sporting blue and white rosettes and whirling large rattles. All these grown men were going to scream and shout, cheer and curse at twenty two other grown men, dressed in shorts, who would be running about trying to kick an inflated bladder, encased in leather, into a net attached to three pieces of wood.

As we flowed up Sloper Road we passed a respectably dressed man, standing in a small recess. He was telling people the Good News of the Gospel: that God so loved the world that whosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. As I passed him, the rosette-wearing, scarf-bedecked, rattle-waving City fan next to me broke off from chanting “City! City!” to call out to the street preacher, “Ruddy fanatic!”

We often have an inverted sense of priorities! The recent tragic events in Cumbria act as a reality check. It is not fanatical to tell others about the love of God expressed in Christ’s death on Calvary. It is not fanatical to tell people that they can find peace and joy and hope and everlasting life in following Jesus. Dare I say it – it is far more important than following England in the World Cup (especially for a Welshman!).

Pastor Stan Vart