The gospel of the Celtics
Last week I attended my first-ever NBA game (thanks Jim Gibson!) and watched the Celtics beat the hapless Nets. Here are a few random thoughts about what I saw and experienced:
- I enjoyed the game. It wasn’t superb play from either team, but actually being there helped me to appreciate the size of these guys and their enormous physical skills. God made those bodies with their incredible abilities to jump, run, dodge, pass, catch, stop, swerve, and dunk. Even when the owners and proprietors of those bodies don’t realize where they got the skill, God is the one who gave it. So he gets glory from an incredible display of physical ability like an NBA game.
- I went into the game thinking: ‘What is the connection between this event and the gospel? Where is the gospel in the TD Garden?’ I don’t have any great answers to those questions. In fact, what struck me was how difficult it is in this world – the world of professional athletics -– to think about, appreciate, and treasure the gospel. The gospel is about broken and needy people, but going to an NBA game can easily be about admiring, adulating, and exalting the players on the court. The gospel is about a longing for the world to come and a sense that the present life requires Jesus in order to have any lasting meaning. But the thrust of the evening was that what was really important was the Celtics – their history, their present, their future. In fact, I think there is an actively-cultivated ‘gospel of the Celtics.’ Before the game there was a stirring video about the history of the Celtics and their glorious past and present. The movie soundtrack conveyed an epic feel that said: ‘This team is worth investing your hopes, your dreams in. Their glorious, storied past. Their bright future. This team is worth giving your heart to.’ There is the potential for an alternative gospel here.
- Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying the gospel has nothing to do with professional athletics. I know it can and does. Going to the game increased my admiration for those professional athletes who are able to maintain a sense of what is truly important and a lifestyle that is above reproach. Looking around the stadium and the court, it takes no imagination to realize that temptations (to promiscuity, to arrogant pride, among other things) must be rife for these young men who are suddenly thrust onto a national stage in front of an adoring public.
- I realized afresh the principles of the free market economy! A small Coke (and I mean small) cost $3.75. You can get a twelve-pack of Coke elsewhere for less than that price. But the food and drink stands were nevertheless doing a roaring business.
- What I really wasn’t expecting, and what most surprised me, was the difference between watching a basketball game on television (which I’ve done many times) and actually being at the game (which I had never experienced before). Watching the game on television, it is about the basketball. Watching the game live, it is about the experience. The basketball is only one part of the experience. In addition to the basketball there are the flashing lights, the energy of the crowd, the mascot shooting free t-shirts up to the upper rows with his air gun, the cheerleaders doing dance routines, the little kids playing a game on the court during halftime, the loud music, the images being projected constantly throughout the arena (always changing, always flashing, never static), the interviews with fans at every timeout, the voice of the announcer leading cheers of ‘Defense!’ In short, this is an EVENT. There must be a producer somewhere who is orchestrating this fan experience. And that producer must believe that the entertainment can never stop – he must believe the fans would get bored without a flashing light or a loud sound or a t-shirt give-away. He must believe that basketball alone is not enough to draw fans to the TD Garden. And maybe he is right. With the improvements in technology (amazing camera coverage from the networks, big plasma television sets at home), why would someone pay big bucks to leave the comfort of their home and venture into the cold night to see the game live? Whatever the reason for this non-stop entertainment above and beyond the actual basketball game, it strikes me that this is really quite remarkable. American crowds are so entertainment-driven, entertainment-hungry and entertainment-crazed that watching a game of basketball is not diversion enough! We require diversion from our diversion. We need to have not just the game, but the flashing lights, the sounds, the interviews, the cheerleaders, the give-aways, the moving, flickering images. I am aware that this is not all of recent vintage – there have been gimmicks to increase attendance at professional athletic events for many years. But the sheer volume of sensory overload seems perhaps like a more recent development. We (the crowd) were whipped up into an absolute frenzy. I must say that I enjoyed the experience – I’m not simply denigrating or dismissing it. But it seems to suggest something about how entertainment-oriented and entertainment-hungry we have become as a culture.
- The best thing about the game was hanging out with a good friend and Christian brother and enjoying it together. Christian community doesn’t mean just Bible studies together. It means some NBA games, too!
Posted by Stephen Witmer on Feb 8, 02:47 PM