Rugby World Cup - winning without try-ing

I'm way too busy at the moment (not by choice) to do much blogging. I thought I might record my thoughts on the cup final, and then realised it had the makings of an editorial for our church magazine. As the deadline was yesterday this meant I could kill two birds with one stone. So here are my thoughts, soon to be distributed far and wide to our congregation and mailing list:

Dear Friends,

As most of you ought to know by now, I am not particularly interested in or well informed about sport. But last night I watched the Rugby World Cup final. England were playing South Africa, and I thought it would be a shame if England won an exciting match with a nail-biting finish and I missed it. As it happened, South Africa won.

Now, you must bear in mind that I am a complete novice when it comes to rugby and therefore what I’m about to say may be entirely missing the point... but I thought the idea of rugby was to score tries by carrying the ball over the opponents base line. (I’m sure there’s a more technical name for it.) So, for me, the one dramatic moment in the match was when an English player made a spectacular run, at the end of which there was a bit of a scuffle, a few quick passes and a try in the far corner. Except it wasn’t a try. After a tense wait reviewing the video tapes the referee decided the player’s foot had touched the chalk side line before the ball went down.

So, if there were no tries, why was the score not nil-nil? Because at apparently random moments during the game the referee awarded a penalty to one side or the other. Each penalty kick, if successful, was worth three points. I realise that penalties are not awarded arbitrarily and that there must have been some infringement of the rules, whether intentional or accidental, but the way it seemed to me was that just because South Africa only did this twice and England did it five times, the match went to South Africa.

I think the commentators viewed the result as a fair one, so I’m not complaining about who won, just the means by which they won. From my uninformed perspective it seems that to win the World Cup you don’t have to score tries. You merely have to stand firm against your opponents and not infringe the rules as often as they do.

This is a philosophy of life often adopted by the church or by individuals within it. Our aim is to resist the enemy by standing firm in our faith and not giving in to temptation, and to avoid breaking the rules – don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery and so on. I’m not suggesting that any of this is bad. We need, in the words of the baptism service, to turn away from evil and all that denies God. One reason for prayers of confession in our services (besides the obvious fact that if we confess our sins God will forgive us) is that we have to be constantly vigilant that inappropriate attitudes and harmful behaviour do not worm their way into our lives. It does us good to examine our lives from time to time and seek God’s help to overcome wrong.

But if that’s all we do then we are missing half the battle. If the best that can be said of us is that “he/she never did anyone any harm”, then we are some way short of God’s hopes for us. We need to be actively engaged in seeking opportunities to do good – to carry the battle into the opponent’s half. As Paul put it in Romans 12:21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” We may not murder, but what do we do to help the victims of violence or war? We may not steal, but how generously to we give? We may not commit adultery, but in what ways do we promote and encourage healthy family relationships?

Jesus once told Peter that he was the rock on which the church would be built, “and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) With the image of a rock in mind, I have often pictured the church as a fortress withstanding the armies of Hell. This is only half the story. The gates of Hades are not symbolic of an attacking force, but a last-ditch defence. Jesus expects his church to go on the offensive and assures us that (unlike the England team) we are well able to break through the enemy’s strongest defence and secure a wonderful victory.