Sermon of the week: A soccer metaphor

(In this 66th installment of the United Press International series of sermons, the Rev. Dr. Johannes Richter, former superintendent -- or regional bishop -- of Leipzig, Germany, reflects theologically on last Sunday's World Cup finals, in which his country lost to Brazil).

This sermon is based on Philippians 3:13b-14)

The images of last Sunday's World Cup finals are still with us. I don't know what was more impressive -- watching the soccer game or the fans.

Some had painted their faces in their national colors. Others had wrapped their bodies in their national flags. They cheered, they sang, they waved their arms rhythmically in the air. They groaned, they screamed. They wept. They laughed.

Meanwhile, 20 players ran after the ball and tried to kick it into a goal where yet another player waited for it. In between, we saw the force of order, the referee, assisted by two others running about on either side of the field.

In the end, the losers' fans were aghast and wept. Jubilation, ecstasy gripped the winners' devotees.

Rare are the events that bring people around the globe together, allowing them to become engrossed with anything as much as with this year's soccer world championship.

Billions sat in front of their TV sets, unfazed by the time difference between their own countries and the venues of the games -- South Korea and Japan. They were feverish, hopeful, ready for redemption by victory, but also prepared to suffer in case of defeat.

Hundreds of thousands filled streets and squares in South Korea and Japan, Brazil, Germany and Turkey. The United States, had in the past eschewed the global soccer mania.

Yet even there people were up at 7 a.m. Sunday morning if they lived on the East Coast -- or even 4 a.m. in the West -- to see the endgame of a tournament where the excellent American team had advanced unexpectedly far -- to the quarter-finals.

What was going on here?

For one thing, we witnessed a magnificent expression of a common cause, a peaceful concentration on an equally peaceful competition, a readiness to identify with something.

People were craving for idols. They strove to be with the victors. They suffered with them as they exerted themselves. They mourned with their players in defeat and rejoiced with them boundlessly when they won.

Let's not ridicule their enthusiasms. If you mourn with a loser, you are actually a very likeable human being. I confess that I, too, enjoyed the games.

Yet we must pose the question: What is it that makes some rejoice and others mourn without inhibition? Obviously, one lot is jubilant over a victory and the other over a defeat.

But whose victory? Whose defeat? Why are some beside themselves when their team wins, why are the others shaken when theirs loses?

Have decisions of global importance been taken here? Have political or economic programs been tested in global trial runs? Has this been about the fate of nations? Have glorious times begun for some, while others have fallen into the darkness of insignificance? It almost seemed that way.

Of course, nobody will take these questions seriously because nobody has made such claims. Nonetheless, one question does remain -- whence this ability to be enthused or to suffer with others?

And what is the focus of these sentiments? Could it be that people have placed their bets on false objects here?

To me, sports illustrate beautifully and impressively the point the apostle Paul is making in today's text. He is fascinated by the message that God has sent humanity his son, Jesus.

He is fascinated by this act as the deepest confirmation of human dignity. It fascinates him that in Christ human hope, human suffering, human joy and human disappointment are being confirmed and given meaning.

And thus Paul speaks like an athlete in a stadium,

"But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ." (Philippians 3:13b-14).

This divine call is more than the trophy a team might earn. It is God's tender to all human beings. To remain with the soccer metaphor: This is what God offers players and spectators alike -- victors, losers and all their fans.

This, then, is God's goal. Through Christ God has turned it into a design for everyone's life.