I know that it’s been a little while now, but I want to draw your attention back to the World Cup Soccer tournament. But, before I do that, let me share with you that this past Sunday, at St John’s Sutherland, the Senior Minister, Rod Harding, completed a 3-part sermon series that he and I had delivered together to the members and friends of that church. The sermon series entitled, “Church vs. Mission”, finished with the important point that individual Christians necessarily gather together into communities in order to nurture and challenge each other in being ‘in the world, but not of the world’.
Being very close to my heart, this sermon, and the discussion that followed, immediately brought to mind the point that one aspect of being ‘in the world, but not of’ is the biblical idea of a Cultural Mandate. Simply put, this theology promotes Christian cultural engagement and expression in wider society as a way of inspiring society and drawing people towards holiness and righteousness. This theology finds its basis primarily in the first chapter of Genesis: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’ (Gen 1:28)”
I wasn’t really intending this article to be a defence of Cultural Mandate Theology, but I do believe that Christians should be involved in culture.
Anyway, in the midst of the World Cup tournament I came across an instance of when Christians should not have been involved in culture. In fact, if the world roundabout found out who was to blame, they would probably start burning down churches.
You remember those God-awful vuvezelas of the South African fans? I didn’t watch much of the games on television, but when I did I found their sound to be quite … well, “offensive” is probably too strong a word … how about, “not at all pleasing to the ears”! I would really have hated to be present in the stands during those matches. The sound of the vuvuzelas was quite an awful racket.
Now, I have encountered these before, at various other sporting events that I did actually attend, but never in that overwhelming concentration!
During the World Cup, an e-newsletter came across my virtual desk, sent from Ecumenical News International. Here is the news item I read:
South African church takes on rival vuvuzela makers
Johannesburg (ENI). South Africa’s “Shembe church” says that a deal between it and a manufacturer is about to be finalised over the trademark rights to the vuvuzela, a horn whose trumpeting sound has grabbed headlines through its use during the soccer World Cup. The Nazareth Baptist Church of KwaZulu-Natal —known locally as the Shembe church— said it is the confirmed originator of the plastic instrument originally made of animal horn. It is threatening to take other manufacturers to court to stop them making the horn. The church claims its founder Isaiah Shembe was the inventor in 1910 of the trumpet that a plastics factory worker, Neil van Schalkwyk, saw in stands in the 1990s while playing soccer for the Cape Town’s Santos club. In 2001, Van Schalkwyk set up Masincedane Sport, which has since made about 800 000 vuvuzelas – and most recently an earplug kit for soccer fans irritated by the jackhammer-like drone created by the World Cup crowds at the matches in South Africa. [495 words, ENI, 1 July 2010]
Can you imagine?! Not only was it a God-fearing Christian who invented those blasted irritants, but now, 100 years later, his church is fighting for a monopoly on their manufacture. Really, for God’s sake, they should pile them all up and burn them in a ritual sacrifice!
Now, I’m not the only one to notice the ability of the vuvuzela to annoy innocent bystanders. According to a British newspaper, major soccer clubs in the UK are having the so-called “instruments” banned from their stadiums. This is not appropriate cultural engagement. No one is inspired by the vuvuzela. Certainly no one is thinking, “I really wish to worship the God-above-all-gods. Those blowing the vuvuzela in the middle of a game, in which my favourite team is playing, right into my ear, have inspired me to turn my life over to Christ.” Rather, they are probably thinking, “God, forgive me, because I’m going to kill this stinkin’ vuvuzela-blower before someone else gets the chance to do it!”
Life is just too short not to do the will of God! Please, respond with faith to Jesus Christ. But, when you do, think twice about trying to glorify him with the invention of anything that could so easily go viral, in a world gone mad, and ruin a perfectly good game of Cricket … actually, maybe the vuvuzela is a God-send after all.
