Football Fans and the Kingdom of God

'The kingdom of God is like...' This is a phrase that Jesus used several times to try and help his disciples understand different aspects of the kingdom of God. Would Jesus ever say, 'The kingdom of God is like a football fan'?

For the genuine football fan I think there are similarities. You might immediately think of things like loyalty, worship, community, sense of belonging. But for the true football fan there is always hope. The football season, depending on which division you are interested in, has come or is coming to a close. And no matter how things turned out this season there is always the hope of something better next year. And even mid season - unless you are one of those who support Man. Utd. or Chelsea only because they win things - you keep hoping, you keep supporting because today could be the day your season turns around.

Five years ago Exeter City were relegated from the football league into the then GM Vauxhall Conference. Even if they'd been relegated again I would still support them because they are my team - and there is that 'eternal' hope that they will do better. Last season Exeter reached the playoff final at Wembley which they lost - meaning they stayed in the Conference - and as we left the stadium the sentiment was very much - 'well there's always next season'. And indeed there was - for yesterday saw Exeter back at Wembley, this time to win, and gain promotion back into the football league. Now we're only four seasons away from winning the Premiership.

As those who follow Jesus, Christians should bring hope into the world. When we trust in God - the God who created the universe out of nothing and the God who raised Jesus from the dead - we believe that things don't have to be and won't always be as they are now, because God can bring change, God can breath new life into hopeless situations. And God wants to do that through us, here and now.

The Mystery is Revealed

Do you like a good mystery? Whether it is an Agatha Christie, CSI or an old fashioned jigsaw puzzle - many people like solving puzzles. Our trip through Ephesians brings us this week to 3:1-13, in which Paul talks about a mystery. In the New Testament a mystery is not something we struggle to work out or find out or solve. A mystery is something that is only known because it has been revealed by God.

If we were left to our own devices to come up with our own religion, without any previous knowledge of the Bible, how many people would come up with the concept of grace? I would hazard a guess at none. The idea that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less... The idea that God would give all He had because of His love for us - even when we were His enemies... And here in Ephesians one of the consequences of that grace is that previous enemies - Jew and Gentile - are now heirs together, members together and sharers together - they are 'one in Christ'. In Galatians Paul tells us that existing hierarchies no longer apply: Jew/Gentile, male/female, slave/free.

But this is an understanding that we come to through the revelation of God. God's Word is the Bible, and therefore if we are seeking to live as a disciple of Jesus we need to be reading the Bible because God's ways are so different to the world's ways. You won't pick up God's values on Eastenders or in The Sun. You'll find them in the Bible.