Cat Astrophy

I am feeling a bit sad today: Geelong has lost the 2008 grand final after being the best team in the country all year. This is a disappointing end to the season, and is particularly sad for my family and me as we have been Geelong supporters for all of our lives.

Our tribe is in mourning.

This is a truth that Christians need to get, even amongst themselves. Of course there is no satisfaction like the love of God, but in this world there is pain and there are other loyalties. These are not conflicting loyalties, it’s not unchristian to follow the AFL, they’re just not church groups.

Our generation is a tribal generation. Our nation is too. We have always been a people who like to form groups around the things that define us in society: as Australians, it is states of origin (to various degrees) along with Ford vs. Holden, AFL vs. NRL (and the sixteenths within). These are the denominations of the world...not “of the Flesh” per se, (since when did Anglican vs. Roman Catholic be a different form of loyalty?), but of the way we think as men and women on this side of Heaven.

Therefore, my tribe is in mourning. "Sorry Business" ensues now and as a group we will commiserate together before gathering ourselves around our faith and looking to 2009, (as we looked to 1990, 1993, 1995 and 1996 of recent memory), with renewed hope.

I wonder in this specific time whether part of the issue lay with the eighteen on the field. In 2007, a Geelong team won the flag for the first time in 44 years...”we did it for the town”, the players said. Two thousand and eight was going to be different however, this time it was going to be for the boys, “we’re doing it for ourselves”. Has the team lost sight of who they are? Geelong and its football club do not exist for the support of the eighteen men in white and navy hoops: it's the other way around. We as a 150 year old tribe, founded in 1859, allow some to represent us. It was never going to be about the eighteen, it was always about the city, and the fans. If you take the event away from the tribe, the event loses its meaning and the participants lose their focus.

Nevertheless, back to my first point...Christians need to remember that Earth is a tribal place and those coming in to the church still belong to other groups. We are in the world, but not of it, but in the world there are circles and we are still very much a part of those circles...indeed it is where our ministry lays. It is not enough to say “pah but it is only football and as Christians we have a higher calling”. Yes, we do have a higher calling, but not to the exclusion of our friends and to what is important to us. Some do not like football, and that is fair enough, but those people I am sure belong to other tribes, be they other sports, or other interests. Australians are a sporting tribal nation: to minister to Australians is to minister in and within the culture of belongingness: we must not forget that to reach our “unreached” we must be sympathetic to their cries: and we must allow ourselves to feel it when our own tribes are saddened in the fight.

I am a Christian. Not “a Christian first” as there is no comparison between my belonging to Christ alone and to my “other allegiances”. Neither am I “a Cat second” as there is much of higher importance in my life than my sporting tribe: however at one level I am a “Cat”, and my family (to whom I belong more than my team) are Cats too. Today I am sad, and we are sad together, (especially as we are physically separated): I am in genuine need of ministry in a way that “look to the cross” will not fix.

I will get over it, it is only the end of the season and not the end of the world, but maybe I have discovered an insight into how our generation works. Don’t disparage the shared culture of society’s smaller groups...much rides on the fortunes of the men on the field and we must remember as light to the world that we have a duty to weep with those who weep.

For myself I will be at church tomorrow: many will be at Kardinia Park. Perhaps that is where the Church in Geelong needs to be too.